Category: Relaxation

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Somerset House – My birthday celebrations

Although for some people, January is dreary, sluggish and a time to stay indoors, it’s not like that for me as I celebrate my birthday on the 9th. As a child this time of year was like one long party. The Christmas holidays rolled into January and before I had had a chance to play with all of my toys it was my birthday! Well, yesterday was a wonderful day and as such, I thought I would share some elements of it with you. 

 

After a hearty breakfast (which was cooked for me) I went to visit my mum, who after all, gave me my birthday. Having filled up with tea and receiving my gifts I went on my way to Somerset House. I always think of it as a place where the records of births, deaths and marriages are kept, but in fact, the public records which used to be held here were dispersed to different offices to the 1970’s. Somerset House is now a cultural and arts centre, open to the public with lots for everyone to enjoy. 

View of The Thames from Somerset House

 

I didn’t go and see the Dior exhibition, although it looked very good through the window. 

 

 Through the entrance hall which is beautifully grand, is the Michelin-starred restaurant Tom’s Kitchen. I had a look around inside and it was exquisitely decorated with old maps of The Thames on the walls. It didn’t look stuffy or overly formal either. I walked through to the ice-rink which has been a winter feature since 2000.

 

Hidden down a corridor was the famous staircase ‘The Nelson Stair’ which was rebuilt in the 1950’s after suffering war damage.

Messing about

View of the ceiling from the stairs

A photo of my ticket to The Courtauld Gallery – Lucas Cranach’s Adam and Eve (detail)

The main part of my trip was to visit the Courtauld Gallery. Although I enjoy exhibitions I think I get sensory overload and end up with a headache if I try to see too much on one day. I much prefer smaller galleries or to visit them more than once and just see them a bit at a time if possible. So for me the size of this gallery is perfect. It contains many personal collections and the paintings and exhibits are displayed in themed galleries. I didn’t take any photos inside, so I have shown you a picture of my ticket, featuring Cranach’s Adam and Eve(painted 1526).

I can’t explain the feelings I had when I was standing so close to such masterpieces that I have poured over for years in books. I could see ever crack in the oil and imagined how many owners had had possession of such a painting over the years. I particularly loved the Creation and Fall of Man by Mariotto Albertinelli in the Renaissance Gallery and spent half an hour looking at the paintings in that first room. Maybe that’s why I usually feel so tired after I visit an art gallery!

The Ice Rink in full romantic evening splendour

Later in the evening I had a delicious dinner in Soho’s Lexington Street. What a a fabulous birthday! Here’s to a happy and healthy 2011 🙂

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Christmas celebrations

Happy New year to you all and welcome to my first blog post of 2011! I had a wonderfully relaxing Christmas: a well deserved rest to end a very busy and productive year. I enjoyed the company of loved ones, was treated to gourmet meals and had some lovely days and evenings out.

Out on Christmas morning

The owl at the top of the tree

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The Hawk Wood, Epping Forest

It has been my first visit to Epping Forest in months, mainly because I haven’t made time for it and partially as it has been rather cold and icy of late. As always there was the very thin mix of families out for the afternoon, walkers with their dogs and a couple of joggers. I was pleased to see a whole contingent of elderly walkers enjoying the afternoon’s splendour. It felt fabulous being outside as I have kept myself rather cooped up and have been feeling stifled by the central heating. I’m not actually a natural outdoorsy-person, so I have to plan for and arrange walks like this. Here are some photos I took today.

This ancient wood stretches for 12 miles between Forest Gate and Epping

In 1882 Queen Victoria declared it ‘The People’s Forest’

 

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The London Philharmonic Orchestra at The Royal Festival Hall

I absolutely adore London. I am so grateful to have grown up here with all of the diversity of cultures, food and endless opportunities. I am still amazed whenever I take a trip into town (at least once a week) and I always find something new which I haven’t experienced before.

Last night I was lucky enough to see the London Philharmonic Orchestra at The Royal Festival Hall for the second time. I managed to take one sneaky photo (as photography during the performance is not permitted) – this one was taken before it started, I might add.

I was seated behind the orchestra, facing the conductor

As someone who loves live music and concerts of any kind, this was no exception. I am not a connoisseur of classical music by any stretch of the imagination, but I can still appreciate genius when I hear it. If you have not experienced such an event, and you have the possibility to do so, I would say try it at least once. The tickets range from £9.00 to £55.00 – mine was one of the cheapest seats, but I still had a fabulous view of the whole orchestra and I was able to see all of the faces of the musicians and the conductor, which definitely added to the experience. The orchestra played Beethoven’s 4th and Mahler’s 1st symphonies.

The Royal Festival Hall’s principal conductor Vladimir Jurowski

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Dreaming of a White Christmas?

I woke up the other day to find the world covered in a rather thin and threadbare blanket of snow. I was at first disappointed, as I still get that feeling of wonder and excitement when I see the snow for the first time; although soon I was relieved as I had to drive to work as school was still open. Here are some of the magical times I enjoyed in the snow last year.

Denham Village, Buckinghamshire

Tobogganing in Goettingen, Germany

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Rodrigo y Gabriela Concert, Shepherd’s Bush Empire

 Here are some photos from an amazing concert I went to a few weeks ago. If you know Rodrigo and Gabriela, or have watched them on YouTube, you will have an idea of how incredibly talented these musicians are. This was the second time I had seen them (the first was at The Roundhouse in 2007) and even though I have watched lots of video clips – it was surprise to watch Gabriela’s unique guitar playing style again. Watch them performing Hanuman from their new album 11:11 here. It was also beautiful how respectful the crowd were when they played their slower, more classical-style songs. Usually for a concert, you could hear a pin drop at those points. I loved the speeches the two of them made between the songs, and the fact that rather than playing at Wembley Arena for one night, they chose to play 5 nights at The Shepherd’s Bush Empire instead, even though this meant 5 lots of bills! And this paid off – the intimacy of the venue (as I have said about small venues before) just brought it alive even more!

Rodrigo and Gabriela say goodnight

 

In full flow

 

 

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Autumn sunshine and alarm clocks

I’ve been neglecting my blog  for a while, so sorry about that. It feels as though there are so many situations or conversations that I am part of every day where NLP comes up, and that in essence is what I want to talk about in my journal. I can’t blog fast enough for the number of ideas buzzing around my head!

When I was a teenager, one of my favourite lyrics to quote was ‘I’ve got sunshine on a cloudy day’ (Smokey Robinson) but as I have got older, I find that I need a bit more help keeping that sunshine in me when outside it’s grey and cold. To help me with waking up in the mornings (one of my daily challenges) I have finally invested in a ‘dawn simulator’ clock, which gradually gets brighter and brighter until your choice of wake-up time, thus waking you up in a more natural and gentle way. The very word ‘alarm’ says it all for me, so I will test out my new toy and let you know how I get on.

There’s nothing like sunshine to lift the spirits, and my recent weekend in Barcelona did the trick. It was a welcome break, where I lapped up the last blast of autumn sun rays.

 

View from Montjuic, Barcelona

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Highgate Cemetery – Weekend walks

I feel so privileged to live in such an amazing city. London night-life is varied and abundant, but it is easy to spend a small fortune on entertainment and so I have been trying to be more creative with my days and evenings out. Two weeks ago I visited Highgate Cemetery. It was my second visit and I still haven’t been on the tour of the West Cemetery, which I hope to go on next time. I found the East Cemetery peaceful, beautiful and very photogenic. It reminded me of the other Victorian cemetery I’ve been to, the Glasgow Necropolis.

 

There are many famous interments at the cemetery including Karl Marx and his family. This is a great afternoon outing, which will leave you with change from a fiver!

 The grave of Karl Marx, Highgate Cemetery