Good to be home

We’ve been in London for a couple of days.  I always enjoy a day out and staying overnight means that there’s more of a chance to catch up with Edward, to enjoy a relaxed meal (or two) and so on.  But this last week, we’ve each had other reasons for catching the early train to spend time in the city on different days and unusually, we hadn’t managed to coordinate ourselves very well.

We both caught the 0905 train on Thursday though, because that evening, Tra was giving a recital at Pushkin House, a rather interesting venue in Bloomsbury.  Not only that, but my hero was giving a pre-concert talk about his own hero, Joachim Raff.  No pressure then, but every reason for a relaxed, easy afternoon pottering around beforehand.

Every reason, too, for a decent lunch at Nopi.  We sat downstairs with a good view of the kitchen, surveying the stocks on the shelves alongside the table.  Fascinating ingredients and an enviable larder on which to call.  We chose well – the middle eastern flavours served tapas style suits me perfectly.  I am easily intimidated by a huge plateful of food and get easily bored when ploughing my way through a large bowlful of pasta, say.  So, a few choice and rather intriguing flavours kept us well entertained for a couple of hours and the friendly atmosphere was great.  What did we eat?  Well, three dishes each:

• Valdeón cheesecake, pickled beetroot, thyme honey..
• French beans, smoked wheat, tahini lemon dressing, mint..
• Spiced gurnard wrapped in banana leaf, pineapple sambal..
• Seared organic prawns, feta, fennel, Pernod..
• Pork belly, caramelised Nashi pear, grape mustard jus..
• Confit press duck, burnt miso butterscotch, pickled mixed mushrooms..

Yummy, n’est-ce pas?

Tra’s recital was superb; an evening full of warmth and the most wonderful music eloquently put into context by you-know-who beforehand.  Tra’s playing is sublime, her interpretation and the way she communicates her enthusiasm for these rarely performed works is remarkable.  I could have danced listened all night!

A rainy Friday wasn’t quite what we’d planned, but we had things to do.  A brisk walk via Selfridges and Blink, a mooch along Marylebone High Street with a quick stop in Eileen Fisher and a longer linger in Daunts, before meeting Edward for lunch in our favourite Orrery.

Yes, food does tend to feature large, doesn’t it?

We enjoyed another delicious lunch, accompanied by the usual easy conversation with Edward, who always delights and entertains us in a way which inspires the greatest parental pride.  Thankfully, he didn’t have to return to his office that afternoon, so he went off to the London Library to do some research and we planned to stop by Heals, to look at bedside tables, so we went our separate ways on Marylebone Road and we jumped on a bus to Warren Street.

Things were not flowing freely in that area, however.  High-Vis jackets were much in evidence and a police cordon was in place around the top of Tottenham Court Road.  It seemed as though there was “an incident” in progress and we soon learned that a visit to Heals was going to be quite out of the question.  Not wanting to linger in a potentially threatening area, we changed our plans and headed towards Charing Cross Road and Foyles, thinking that a bookshop is never a bad place to spend a rainy afternoon!

But whilst we enjoyed a cup of tea in the Portrait Cafe in Trafalgar Square, the clouds parted and the sun came out.  Too late for us – we were headed back to collect our bags from the hotel and make our way back to Paddington by this time, but there were certainly plenty of people around to enjoy it.

For me, though, it had been enough.  I was ready to return home, to leave the hustle and bustle of the city behind and to spend a quiet weekend in the peace and quiet of Gloucestershire.

At home!

Three artists

Chaplin, Gormley and Mendelssohn. 

Hot on the heels of our cultural day out in Bristol, we were heading north to spend the weekend with our friends in Lytham St Annes.  But we’d already booked tickets for our favourite concert of the season in Symphony Hall – the one where a classic silent movie is shown.  So on Friday night, we stayed in Birmingham.

The programme this year included a short Charlie Chaplin film, One AM, followed by the full length movie, City Lights.  Before this main programme, however, we were treated to the four winning films in a Silent Movie animation competition run by Birmingham City Council recently – what a bonus!

We’re not particular Chaplin fans and really, we’d been hoping that they’d show a Valentino film this year, or something similar.  Having said that, the whole experience is so terrific, we’d go to see anything, really.

Anyway, we settled down to watch as the orchestra struck up the music and within seconds, we were laughing.  Quite how Charlie Chaplin does (did) it, I have no idea – it really would be remarkable to create such a visual feast today, using all the technological trickery we have available.  But knowing how these films were created, we could only sit back, gasp with amazement at his skill, laugh until our sides hurt and occasionally hold our breaths as some tragic scene unfolded.

As ever, Symphony Hall was well filled for the evening with people of all ages who sat so quietly throughout, we’d have heard a pin drop.

Wonderful.

Antony Gormley was the next artist to feature in our weekend, in the form of his “Another Place”, on Crosby seashore.  I’ve wanted to see the hundred figures which are placed standing and looking out to sea, for some time and this seemed a great opportunity to visit them.

Except, we hadn’t thought to check the tide times!

Actually, it didn’t matter too much.  It was an easy place to park, to get out our coats and hats and enjoy a little bracing sea air.

It was very windy though, and from time to time my hero got an unexpected shower as a larger than average wave crashed against the sea wall.

As we walked, the figures became more visible, partly due to the changing tide, partly because at this end of the promenade, they seem to be set a little higher, or perhaps in shallower water.

By the time we’d walked back to the car, enjoyed a hot drink from the burger van parked along the way and read the paper a while, the tide had turned enough to see some complete figures at the other end of the beach.  We didn’t have the time or the inclination to walk back up there however and will simply have to return here.

And what of the third artist, Mendelssohn?  Well, our friend Olga was singing in a performance of Elijah on Saturday evening and we were very pleased to go along and support her.  It brought our little cultural break to a grand finale!

Not as much as I’d hoped

We thought we’d celebrate the first day since goodness-knows-when, that neither of us had anything in our diaries and there was no builder or decorator expected here, to go to Bristol to visit the Eric Ravilious exhibition.  I’d read a report here and was keen to see these pictures first hand.  My hero was perhaps a little less enthusiastic but is always amenable to a reasonable suggestion, so off we went.

The Damien Hirst “Charity” installation on the front of the building is a real conversation piece, isn’t it?  His studio is not so far from here and I was driving past one day when this huge figure was being moved out of the workshop and into a large truck.  Of course, we had no idea what it was at that point, but soon recognised it when it turned up somewhere or other in an exhibition shortly afterwards.

Anyway, what of the Ravilious exhibition?  Well, sad to say, we were both underwhelmed.  Whether my reaction was affected by the luscious prints of Peter Reddick in the gallery preceding “Going Modern/Being British” it’s hard to say.  Certainly, that lovely airy space filled with the most glorious woodblock prints was in stark contrast to the dark and rather dreary atmosphere of the gallery where the Ravilious paintings were shown. Perhaps I’ve seen too many reproductions of the watercolours used as illustrations in books?  I don’t know. But for some reason or other, neither of us reacted as positively as we’d anticipated and I left feeling rather more equivocal about his work than I had when I began.

Not at all the usual outcome of a gallery visit!

Never mind.  We enjoyed being out and about, somehow managing to walk uphill on the way to the gallery and then again returning to the car park – how? 

I made a book

I get occasional emails from Jessica Sprague, because I’ve done one or two of her online classes and rather enjoyed them.  One of the recent emails was about a new series of lessons about working with a Silhouette or Craft Robo, as it used to be called.

I received my machine as a birthday present in 2010 and love working with it.  But I’ve never really explored its full potential, I’ll admit.  Still, the email about the class came as I was busy with other things and I forgot all about it.

Last week, however, a new email arrived, about a “next steps” class and this time, I thought I’d go for it. Reading the class notes though, I was reminded of my own failings – you know, the bit about “wanting to do everything perfectly and preferably in the next five minutes”.  Maybe I’d better do Class One before diving into Class Two?

As it turns out, I’m glad I did.  I scooted through it pretty quickly, since I was actually familiar with most of the functions and the processes.  But not only did I learn one or two tricks, I also increased my confidence about getting the machine to do exactly as I wished, to place the designs correctly on the page and to avoid some of the nasty surprises that have characterised some of my efforts.

The final project, bringing together all the processes we’ve learned during the class, was a book.  OK, perhaps I didn’t really need another little book of familiar photographs and suchlike, but it was a useful way to collate all those samples and rather satisfying to create.

In particular, I was pleased with the concertina spine, created using a piece of card cut and scored using the Silhouette.  Though I’ve made similarly constructed books before, I was glad of the precision the machine brought to the process and even though the end result is only 99% precise (user error?) the completed book is quite pleasing.

Rather than cross post my photo of the day, get a different look at the finished book here

The days fly

I wonder how many blog posts begin with some reference to the fact that it’s been a while?

Easter was lovely.  Edward was home and we spent the weekend relaxing and enjoying his company.

We had an 87th birthday to celebrate, too.

On Tuesday, I drove south and met with colleagues to prepare for a workshop on Wednesday.

And lest you think that I always travel in Mandarin Oriental style, I offer this photograph of the Exeter M5 Travelodge.

We went out to dinner, though.

Michael Caines restaurant at Abode, by the cathedral was delightful!

The ladies in Exeter the following day were delightful too – and great fun to work with. 

Back at home yesterday, we celebrated 32 years since we plighted our troth.

It was a beautiful day and yes, just a little windy!

Yes, the years fly, too.