Is It Still Culture If I Sleep Through The Second Act?

My best friend has been trying to get me to go to the Proms with him for years. It had become a long-standing joke that when he asked if I wanted to go, I’d say that I was busy. For the whole summer.  This year, I caved.

So we went to the proms on Monday 15th August and it was themed ballet music, which generally, I love… but there’s something about listening to music which just doesn’t suit me.  I fidget, I yearn to move… for me, music is for dancing, not to sit and listen to… and my backside also gets incredibly numb…

So while the music was lovely and the orchestra was wonderful, I will not be going to the proms again any time soon…  next summer?  Sorry – busy!

Inception at Parliament House Gardens

Where better to force my best friend to watch Inception for the first time than Parliament House Gardens?  Nomad Cinema were showing it and it seemed like a fantastic idea… picnic, film, Houses of Parliament…  The weather was good, the setting was lovely, the picnic… well, picnics are always enjoyable.  The only criticism would be that being that close to the road means that you get traffic noise over the dialogue at times, which isn’t great if you’ve never seen the film before and need to know what’s going on.  However, those moments weren’t too frequent and we had a good time.  I’d recommend it – just make sure you take a big sweater and a blanket to sit on…

Picnic Concert at Kenwood House

So, the boyfriend, the best friend and I decided to go to a picnic concert at Kenwood House – Music from the Movies.  Firstly, Kenwood House is not the easiest place to reach, so leave lots of time to get there.  There are buses from tube stations but for some reason, we went across Hampstead Heath.  It was a long old trek but once we got there, people were intent on throwing free things at us and our Carluccio’s picnic soon made us forget the walk.

The atmosphere was very laid-back and relaxed and the grounds weren’t too crowded.  We never felt like we were crowded by other picnickers but enjoyed the conviviality of all the people in the vicinity.  Rob got himself a cow print blanket to keep himself warm, which he is very proud of now and if you don’t fancy getting a blanket, take a big warm sweater or coat as the temperature really drops when the sun sets.

The grounds were divided into deckchairs and a general picnic area and some people did sit in the deckchair area but we stayed in the picnic area and lounged our way through the concert.

The orchestra were fantastic and we had a fabulous evening.  We would definitely go again but we will not be trekking across Hampstead Heath at midnight again in future…

Cooking at Carluccio’s

I didn’t know that Carluccio’s did cooking classes but I was in my local branch on Sunday for lunch and noticed a bunch of classes written up on the mirrors and it turns out that these are a regular event and are done at different Carluccio’s restaurants.  Well, who am I to turn down a class on pasta-making at Carluccio’s?

So I turned up this morning and was asked if I wanted a coffee while I waited.  I was taken through to the rear of Carluccio’s, where I have enjoyed many a fabulous lasagne… and the tables were arranged into a number of cooking stations.  First, a lovely Italian lady named Valentina talked to us about pasta and different ways to make it and a brief overview of how we would be making it today.  We were then taken to our cooking stations and introduced to the chef, Malcolm, who took us through the pasta-making experience and between him and Valentina, they managed to save me from myself… phew!

I have to say, I had no idea that making your own pasta could be so much fun!  It’s a little time-consuming but very tasty and I made tortelloni, ravioli and tagliatelle.  It’s a lot of fun to make filled pasta and it’s important to get all the air out of the little parcels, otherwise it just gets flooded with water.  It’s also important to have a big pasta pot to give the pasta room to move as it’s cooking.

The tortelloni was mixed with a sage butter sauce when it was cooked and god it smelt good and tasted even better.  We had lunch together and ate our efforts and then had dessert from the menu and were given goodie bags to take home, which included a couple of pasta cutters, a voucher for Carluccio’s and a Carluccio’s apron, which the boyfriend will be very jealous of when he sees it.

I popped into some local cooking shops to investigate the pasta machines but they were fairly expensive and found that procook was doing a sale, so bought one online instead.

So, yes, I plan to make my own pasta – probably on weekends.  It’s important to leave the dough for at least 20 minutes and preferably for 24 hours in the fridge, wrapped in cling film.  It’s probably not an after-work thing but it really is so much fun to make filled pasta, that I will doubtless do it myself.  Valentina and Malcolm were lovely to learn from and Valentina’s passion for food was wonderful and contagious.  They’re very interested to hear your thoughts about the class and what you’d like to learn next and are planning a series of seasonal classes, including a possible petit fours class at Christmas time.

So, if you don’t already make your own pasta, I highly recommend it and who better to learn from than Carluccio’s?

 

I Love #Regenttweet

I’m not the biggest fan of shopping unless it’s online and there are no crowds to drive me nuts.  Christmas shopping for me, involves a strategic combination of online shopping and Westfield.  I’ve avoided Oxford Street like the plague in recent years and although I love reliving my childhood in Hamleys, I just haven’t managed to force myself down Regent Street in a while, apart from the odd foray into Lush.

However, Regenttweet has converted me.  Who knew shopping could be such fun??  Run in collaboration with London Girl Geek Dinners, it involved a day of shopping, meeting other women who have fun shopping and talking about tech, receiving freebies from some lovely generous shops and a couple of interesting talks from Olivia Solon from wired.co.uk and Apple.

My day started at Base Camp – the gorgeous Swarovski Crystallized lounge, where we registered and received our vouchers for the day and were given a lovely Swarovski necklace!  I met some lovely ladies, then headed out onto Regent Street.  Curious about the Bose demo, I went to investigate and was slightly disappointed to be subjected to a surround sound system demo… until it was revealed that it wasn’t a surround sound system demo at all!    It was a demo for VideoWave – the flat screen TV with integrated surround sound that projects the sound arround you with astonishing clarity.  I loved it – I want one!  I was utterly in lust… and don’t even get me started on the remote control.  I know it’s a silly thing to get excited about but it’s as lickable and user friendly as an Apple product.  As if that wasn’t enough, Bose were lovely enough to give us a free sat nav for attending their demo.  Talk about cherry on the top…

A quick hop over to TM Lewin for a voucher and some knots and then into Hawes & Curtis for some breakfast champagne and free cufflinks.  The staff were all lovely and then over to the Apple store for a talk by Olivia Solon about how science and technology is influencing fashion.  It was really interesting but there were a lot of things I would never wear!  This was followed by a talk by Apple on Augmented Reality apps.  Wikitude was interesting and Street Museum got a mention.

Then back out onto Regent Street for more shopping fun…  I headed straight into the Ferrari store to play with the Hasselblad cameras.  An entry level one costs £9000 and the Ferrari limited edition one is even more expensive but there are only 499 produced.  As someone who’s recently become interested in photography, I loved playing with the cameras and was fascinated to learn about Hasselblad’s use in space!

Well, after that bout of creativity, it was on to Oliver Sweeney to design my own shoes on their iPad app.  They only do men’s shoes at present but are expecting a women’s line in the autumn.  I can’t say I have a lot of interest in men’s shoes but the app was so much fun to use and had such an intuitive interface that I had a lot of fun with it and even proudly sent the design to my boyfriend.

Feeling ever so please with myself, it was on to The Organic Pharmacy to try their new blue nail varnish, which is a lovely pale blue shade.  Then over to the REN counter in Liberty for some skincare goodies.  No rest for the wicked meant a visit to Godiva for a chocolate-dipped strawberry and bar of strawberry chocolate.  Uniqlo was closed for refurbishment but kindly included their gift of a t-shirt in our welcome packs and by that time, it was time for lunch at Tibits.  The food was so delicious that it didn’t even register straight away that it’s a vegetarian restaurant.  The location is perfect – just behind Regent Street – it feels like it’s a million miles away and gives you a chance to really relax away from the hubbub of the shopping and tourists.  The traditional cheesecake must be tried!

For me, it was back to Base Camp to relax but many of the girls had a lot more stamina than me!  It was a fabulously fun event and Sister PR did a fantastic job organising it!  I hope to be lucky enough to attend again next year!  Thanks for a great event, lots of generous gifts and the opportunity to meet lots of friendly, like-minded women…

The Great Thing About London…

…or one of the great things about London, is that there’s just no opportunity to get bored!  There is always something to do.  There are always new friends to make.  There’s always something to complain about, to rave about, to talk about.  London is a bubbling sea of opportunity.

My mom hates London.  She avoids coming into town as much as possible.  She has lived in London in the past and is happily esconced in her converted sweet shop in Surrey.  I tried Surrey for a bit and maybe one day I’ll move back but right now, I love London.

There are so many things I want to do this summer:

Gorilla Circus – fabulous outdoor trapeze lessons.  I did some lessons with them last year and silks and lyra too.  I hear they’ve added tightrope lessons to their repertoire.  The great thing is, the people who run it are absolutely fantastic.  I want to go again.  When the weather’s better…

Great Gorilla Run – do I want to do this or not?  I did it a couple of years ago (in fact, I started a new job by dropping my new manager an email saying that my gorilla suit might be delivered to the office and it was just because of the gorilla run – awesome first impression… *sigh*) and am tempted to do it again.  It’s a lot of fun although it’s ridiculously hot work running in a gorilla suit.  Last time, my best friend did a whole King Kong theme complete with Empire State Building, aeroplanes and Sindy doll…

Cockroach Tour – following my previous post, I am definitely going to do this one!

Tango Al Fresco – outdoor tango in Regent’s Park?  Count me in!  You may or may not see me dancing but I’ll be there with picnic basket in hand – so long as the weather cheers up!

Proms – bah – it’s been a long-running joke that my best friend would try and get me to go to the proms every year and every year, I would say I was busy…  I finally caved, so will be going this year…

Heartbreak Gallery – I want to get my timing right so I actually catch a Vettriano collection

Ealing Blues Festival – blues for the princely sum of £4!

Prohibition Party – I’ve never been to one and have no idea if they’re my thing but I’d love to go and find out…

Dr Sketchy – I can’t draw for toffee but I went to a Dr Sketchy and had so much fun in spite of my very limited abilities in the drawing department!  Good atmosphere and I’d definitely go again…

Car Wash – hrmmm… not somewhere I’d go to regularly but it’s fun with the right crowd…  I have very odd memories of my friend chasing jungle-themed women whilst dressed as a zebra man…

Secret Cinema – not such a secret but they’re great at turning a film into a whole movie experience.  I saw Watchmen with them and it was a looooooot of fun.  The chairs weren’t very comfortable though!

Ok – that’s enough for now – I’ll get round to doing them and adding other things I want to do at a later date…

 

A Cockroach’s Point of View

My boyfriend was somewhat worried on the phone last night, when I asked him what he thought about the Science Museum’s cockroach tour.

“I don’t have to dress up as a cockroach, do I?” he asked anxiously.

“I don’t know – I just think it looks like fun!” I replied.  And to me, it does.  I know his soul curdles at the anxiety that I might want us to scuttle around the Science Museum in giant cockroach outfits.  He fears my playfulness and my love of fancy dress and he’s desperately hoping that a cockroach costume just won’t appeal.  And it doesn’t.  Not exactly.

Ok, there’s a part of me that completely loves the idea of people dressing up as cockroaches in public.  I can’t see how it can give you a cockroach’s point of view but it sure looks hilarious.  And life is far too short to worry about what people think of you.  The more sensible part of me thinks it would be a better idea to drag my thirteen year old cousin along and make her dress up as a cockroach while I take photos.

Either way, there’s obviously something very wrong with me…  but that comes as no surprise to those who know me…

 

Update: the boyfriend says we can go!  He’s not as scared of dressing up and scuttling around as I thought he would be!