Tea tasting, toe tapping and book reading in London!

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I know I’m always saying that London offers the most amazing range of experiences, often just on your doorstep and this week’s blog shows that my last 7 days have been no exception. I’ve picked just 3 highlights: tea tasting, book readings and a bit of jazzy fun.

First tea tasting. In Notting Hill a man called Pei Wang has set up the ground floor of his house as a calm refuge to taste and learn about tea. He is absolutely charming and a group of 4 us tried out his Saturday morning one hour tasting event, which is free – amazing! He’s so enthusiastic that it lasted rather more than an hour and we tried 3 lovely new teas, my favourite being Dong Ding Oolong so I bought a whole packet to enjoy at home. He explains all about the teas you taste and can answer any question you may have about the ceremony itself and the teas’ properties including even the right sort of water to use. His knowledge is endless and we learned so much about what seems such a simple drink when you bung a tea bag into a mug! Here it is about taking your time and savouring the tea and choosing one for its taste but also being aware of the benefits that different teas bring to your health.

In his Chaya Teahouse you can have afternoon tea or try one of his tea appreciation classes or master classes (with great good) and I guarantee you will feel a million miles away from the hurly burly of your busy life after an hour or so in this tranquil hideaway. I could even manage a trip to the madness of Oxford Street afterwards without too much angst!

Look up Pei Wang at http://www.teanamu.com/. The photos show Pei himself, pouring my tea into delicate cups, his house and the tea tasting table set up for us.

Friday night was World Book Night in Trafalgar Square and I went down to find out what it was all about. The square was all lit up with a large stage set up so we gathered waiting to see what would happen. World Book Night is a major event to encourage more reading and on the next day the organisers were galvanising a huge number of volunteers to give away a million books to get people started! The Friday event was a great part of this celebration of reading as a whole host of top authors and famous folk were reading a small piece from a favourite book and it was captivating. Reading ranged from their own books to Dickens to a piece about a bad hangover, read by our very own Mayor Boris Johnson! I also saw: Alan Bennett, Rupert Everett, DBC Pierre, Sarah Waters, Andrea Levy, Mark Haddon……. all hosted by Graham Norton and here are photos of some of them and the square. It’s in the diary for next year already and I want more – it was such a treat to hear such great readings on a dry but chilly March night surrounded by fellow book fans.

And finally, the toe tapping! Kensington Roof Gardens was the swanky venue for a great jazz night starring Rebecca Poole. The Roof Gardens are just that, being a huge outdoor space on the top of a former department store with Spanish, English and Monet style sections (most famous for their flamingos who were not to be seen on a chilly night) and luckily a large marquee section too so we were indoors. I know Rebecca and she is great fun to go and see with her warm personality, husky jazz voice and great range of songs – her own compositions and covers. We even had a quick twirl together at the end of one song when she joined in the dancing on the floor! I’ve seen her many times and she just gets better and better so keep an eye open for her next show….

 

Bye for now,

Sue

ttp://itsyourlondon.co.uk/

How to chose the right theatre show in London

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Something a bit different from my blog this week as I’m always being asked about theatre in London. There are so many shows on all the time in the West End and off West End, how can you chose the right one for you? Tickets are not cheap and you want to make sure that if you can only see one show that it really is the best. So, here are some handy headings to help you work through your choice and ideas about what’s on at the moment:

 

1. Star vehicles
Major high profile movie stars love the tread the boards in London and we’ve seen Jude Law, Gillian Anderson, Ralph Fiennes, Daniel Radcliffe, Ewan McGregor, Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellan (together!) and, going back a bit further – Nicole Kidman, Matt Damon and John Malkovitch, to name but a few. We often have the pleasure of seeing Kevin Spacey as he is the Artistic Director of the Old Vic Theatre where he stars and directs. So you can usually find a show with a big name or two if that’s what you are after. Right now you can catch Kiera Knightley and Elizabeth Moss in The Children’s Hour at the Comedy Theatre and about to open is Sienna Miller in Flare Path at the Theatre Royal. Matthew Fox is also about to open. So much to see!
2. Musicals
This one is straightforward and the London stage is full of good musicals. Your main choice will be around long running favourites such as Phantom of the Opera, the Lion King, Chicago. Priscilla Queen of the Desert and Billy Elliott or some newer kids on the block such as Legally Blonde or The Wizard of Oz and Love Never Dies (also know as Phantom part 2!). Musicals tend to be on for long runs so are often easier to book in advance if you are planning a visit but they are very popular so book as early as if you can!
3. Hot tickets.
There is always a buzz about new openings or the hot favourite in town. At the moment it’s Frankenstein at the National Theatre directed by Danny Boyle, starring Jonny Lee Miller and Benedict Cumberbatch who alternate the two lead roles each night! Tough to get tickets for but worth the effort. Hot tickets are usually for short runs so grab them fast and keep you eyes on the press for the next big thing.
4. Classics
There is always some Shakespeare to be found in London and really worth going to the Globe in the summer to see these performed in authentic surroundings. But other theatres offer the Bard and at the moment we have Twelfth Night at the National Theatre directed by Peter Hall and starring his daughter Rebecca. Classics can include Ibsen, Chekov, Wilde and Coward and currently we have Blithe Spirit (Coward) in preview. Always worth checking the National Theatre for ‘proper’ plays, serious and extremely high quality.
5. Off West End
There is a rich source of great theatre outside of the West End. Try these for interesting new plays and stars in the making as well as established actors. These theatres tend to have quite short runs but it is well worth checking them out and the best venues are: The Donmar (a personal favourite), The Almeida, The Bush Theatre (very small), The Lyric, Soho Theatre and the Young Vic.
For information on any of these shows or venues or to find listings try:
And of course some photos… Priscilla, The National Theatre, The Donmar and The Globe


Bye for now.

Sue

Banquets, Minis and being very fashionable!

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A busy and varied week in London, as always! I’ve picked 3 highlights to tell you about – a medieval banquet, a Mini tour and a fashion show which was part of London Fashion Week.

First up we have the Medieval Banquet which is an evening extravaganza just by the Tower of London. You go into a vaulted underground cellar and are offered a range of period costumes to dress up in (especially good for kids of all ages!) You get a meal (soup, a cold meats plate, chicken with potatoes and veg and then a fruit pie) and unlimited wine/beer while the cheery, costumed and charming staff entertain you. Sitting in your section of the room you enjoy the dancing, singing, acrobatics, sword fights, magic tricks and much more When all this finishes much more modern music takes over and you can have a good old dance. A fun night out, probably best for groups but we had fun as a two, it’s a bit different, a bit silly and you just have to join in!
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Small Car Big City are all about the Minis – the cars, not the very short skirts in case you think we are onto the fashion already! Rob and Oli met at an interview for a job neither of them wanted and over a consoling beer found they were both nuts on Minis and the company was born. They do tours of London in their beautifully restored Minis – see photo. We had Rob who is a real London lover and has tons of great stories to entertain his passengers as he nips around the streets of London with confident ease and the Mini lets him sneak through the tiniest gaps. We managed to see so much in our hour and I’d really recommend taking one of their tours if you are 1,2 or 3 people, we were 3 and we all fitted in just fine. (http://www.smallcarbigcity.com/). It’s great fun and lots of tourists stop to take pictures of you as you whiz past. We saw a new sculpture by Lorenza Quinn on Park Lane which fitted the car theme, called Vroom Vroom (!) – this time a Fiat 500 and a huge arm which you can see in the photo. We finished in Maida Vale and dropped into Gordon Ramsay’s gastropub, The Warrington, and sampled the grand decor and the amazing ploughman’s lunch.

London Fashion Week 2011 is with us and I was lucky enough to be given a ticket for an up and coming pair of British Designers who work under the name of Jena Theo. London Fashion Week is when all the top designers and fashionistas from all round the world descend on London and parade around looking gorgeous! The show I went to was a proper loud, laser enhanced catwalk show with more photographers than I’ve seen for a long time. The clothes were remarkably wearable for one of these events with good mixtures of denim and leather on good tailoring. The crowd were of course fascinating and we particularly loved the shoes in the photo which is not a trick, they really don’t have heels! The other photos show you the room and the models with their dramatic striped eye make up. All this at 11 in the morning!

Bye for now,
Sue

I’ve been to the top of the world!

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There’s been a bit of a gap since my last post due to a trip to Dubai for some winter warmth. Not too much to do there (compared with many cities) but the buildings are amazing and here are a few photos of the Burjs – Burj Al Arab with its beautiful shape sitting out on its own island and Burj Khalifa which is the tallest building in the world and amazingly elegant. We took the world’s fastest lift to the world’s highest viewing platform and managed to get close enough to the edge to take a picture of Dubai by night but it was a challenge to the stomach and the photos may not be a sharp as I would have wanted! Back in London it was a bit grey in comparison but there was the Destinations Travel Show at Earls Court to visit and immerse myself in a sea of tempting holidays, photos and salespeople. Just before I went to Dubai I visited the Adventure Travel Show, which is smaller but also good fun, so I’m now fully stocked with brochures and have a lengthy wish list. The travel shows are always at this time of year and in just a few hours you can travel the world – virtually- and often taste the world through great food and drink samples as well as winning some prizes. I won a small beautiful black bear from Quebec thanks to Experience Holidays (photos on request!) The big safari trucks are a dominating sight so here’s a photo, along with a Canadian tepee and some amazing vegetable crafting! I love London but there are great places to be visited out there too….

One rather lovely restaurant visit to tell you all about – Gauthier Soho. I’d been there several years ago when the building housed Richard Corrigan’s restaurant but since then Alexis Gauthier has moved into this Regency townhouse with his superb cooking and we had a wonderful lunch. Sounds expensive? Go for the set lunch at £18 for 2 courses and you get all kinds of extra nibbles and great chocolates with coffee. Here’s the grand entrance which is so discrete that you have to ring the bell to be let in. Treat yourself while this amazing lunch offer is still there… Bye for now.

Amazing art fair and secret Jewish London

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There are two big highlights this week which I wanted to tell you about and I have lots of photos of each. One was the massive London Art Fair which lots of new stuff but some very big names too. The other was a walk around Jewish London which was fascinating.

Our walk started at Tower Hill on a damp, somewhat chilly Sunday morning but the two and a half hours with Ruth our excellent guide sped past. I had been invited on this walking tour by Context Travel who use very well qualified guides for small groups. (http://www.contexttravel.com/). There were 4 of us so plenty of time to ask lots of questions and as we had so much to get through Ruth kindly gave us extra time on our tour (and some Jewish sweets at the end which was really kind). We saw the site of the first synagogue after the Jews returned to the UK (after earlier banishment), where they used to live (the simply named Jewry Street) and signs describing the care given to new poor arrivals. We entered the Bevis Marks synagogue which has the record of the holding prayers for the longest uninterrupted period of time in Europe since its opening in 1701 and we had a talk about the history of this grand yet simply decorated building which was built and furnished by quakers with their starkly uncomfortable and original benches!
We walked around the City and Shoreditch area learning about the Jewish life for those reaching London and how they were looked after by various organisation and saw plaques and buildings including a soup kitchen for the ‘Jewish poor’ . In the unlikeliest of places, the Christian church by Spitalfields market we saw plaques to the Christians who looked after the Jews and sought to convert them! One talked of the work for the ‘welfare of God’s ancient people’ with hebrew inscriptions in a Christian church – most unexpected. I’ve missed out loads of things we saw including the moving sculpture to the kindertransport in Liverpool Street (trying to squeeze this one in!) but hopefully you’ll see that there is plenty to see and learn about on London walks.

The photos are – , blue plaque to the organisation who helped the poor Jewish immigrants, the stone marking William Willson’s work, the soup kitchen (now posh flats)Bevis Marks entrance, the site of the first but now destroyed synagogue and the Jewry Street sign.

 

As a complete contrast the rather posh indoor event that is the the London Art Fair offers an amazing range of work and some truly fabulous stuff including big household names as well as the less know – as yet! The prices were mostly outside of our means in the main hall as they were in the 1os of thousands of pounds but there was work by Warhol, Hirst and Emin so this is hardly surprising. The photos tell you more than words so they are: an amazing drawer set made of porcelain; Grayson Perry’s Walthamstow tapestry with the stages of life woven with hundreds of brand names and figures; a wonderful stone head; amazing rubber green feet; Andy Warhol’s Mao head; Elizabeth Frink’s head sculpture; and, Damien Hirst’s butterfly wall. There was so much more in the 3 levels of galleries and stand and we needed a good couple of hours just to get an overview.

 

That’s all for this week so hope you enjoyed it. Looking forward to next week’s….
Bye for now,
Sue
itsyourlondon.co.uk

Learning in London and the river by night

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On this week’s list we have: lunch at the Royal Opera House; a new art course: a blogger meet up; and, the river by night

 

You may think the Royal Opera House is the sort of place you need several hundred pounds and a much sought after ticket to get into. Not the case! At lunchtime you can stroll in and go to the Amphitheatre restaurant on the top floor and have a lovely and not too pricey a lunch. It was all calm when we were there and the mushroom risotto with rocket comes highly recommended. The Opera House runs tours so you can see behind the scenes and we decided that we’d do one of those soon as I’m sure they are fascinating. Apart from the good food, you get to see inside the main areas of this wonderful building, as this photo shows.

 

Lunch was a just the warm up event for the start of our art course. We’ve signed up for 10 weeks on Contemporary Art which is a fabulous course involving visit about 3 small commercial galleries each week to view and discuss the art on show. So, no classroom work at all! We get to visit a whole range of new galleries with a friendly, knowledgeable tutor and it costs just £136 pounds. Week one saw us at 3 new venues around Picadilly: Spruth Magers who are home to Cindy Sherman’s new photographic murals; Marlborough Fine Art home to Cathie Pilkington striking sculptures made from a wide range of materials; and, John Martin Gallery showing a range of work with some potentially purchasable work (funds permitting of course!). It was mostly new work to me and new galleries so a great start to the course. I’ll take some photos next week as we head out to the East End.

London Bloggers Group held one of its regular meet-ups this week which was a great chance to chat to some rather more established excellent bloggers and try to pick up some tips over a free glass of wine – great stuff! Leaving the venue on the River Thames I took the time to admire the wonderful sight of the river and the river banks by night and here are a small selection of photos for you to share in this – and what a view!

Must be off – lots to do. Bye for now.
Sue
http://itsyourlondon.co.uk/
Twitter @itsyourlondon

2011 here we go….

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Here’s hoping 2011 is a great year for you all, for me and for London! I spent new year in Dartmouth, Devon which I highly recommend tho’ I was very jealous to read that the massive Thames fireworks were rated higher than the Sydney ones which are always considered the best NYE ones in the world – well done London!

 

So what’s been happening so far this year? Well… ballet, mass knitting (yes!), a brilliant new perspective on St Paul’s cathedral, and seeing Jean Cocteau in Leicester Square (yes! -again)

Let’s start with St Paul’s as there are some cracking photos. A new shopping centre has opened up just next to this great church called One New Change and they have a roof top viewing terrace as well as a glass lift. You can see St Paul’s from a whole lot of new angles and admire more of its beauty and grandeur. The glass lift rushes you up to the 6th floor and is not for those who quake at the thought of heights but the views on the way up (see photo) and when you get there are amazing. St Paul’s is one of London’s great iconic sights and it’s good to see if from a different angle. Jamie Oliver’s new restaurant Barbarcoa is ideally placed for views but it was so sunny this weekend that they had to pull the blinds down to save lunchers from the dazzle! One New Change is on Cheapside and Cheap was another word for market so I guess a shopping centre carries on that medieval tradition for the area and was designed by Jean Nouvel who created the 2010 Serpentine Gallery outdoor installation – busy man. You can also see one photo of the Shard – soon to be the tallest building in Europe I hear and it’s growing really fast now.

 

 

The ballet we were lucky enough to get tickets for was a sell out performance of Cinderella by Matthew Bourne at Sadler’s Wells. It was reset in the Second World War with contemporary dress, a Prokoviev score, which was itself written during the Second World War, and was performed by Sadler’s Wells own resident company New Adventures. The sets were evocative of the blitz and featured the bombed out Cafe de Paris for the famous ball (as in ‘you shall go to the ball Cinderella’). Here Cinderella wore the most sparkling dress and shoes possible and danced until midnight with her RAF pilot as the Prince. The haunting sound effects gave us sirens, bombs and songs evocative of the era. Some found that it was not involving enough but I loved the imagination and vision but agreed that some of the story lines were a bit confusing for example strange hospital scenes when the step mother tries to kill Cinderella – strange indeed..

 

So, what’s this about knitting? There is a group called Stitch London although they used to be called Stitch and Bitch – what a great name! Groups of people gather and knit and chat, which seems a cheery idea to me. The event I went to was their 5th birthday held in the Royal Festival Hall and as we wondered around looking for the group we suddenly saw a huge gang of people all chatting loudly while clicking away with the needles. We settled in and got knitting – well I didn’t as I hadn’t tried since about age 8 so was lucky that Laura had kindly agreed to show me how. Have a look at us both busily knitting, my piece being rather smaller than all the others! They have smaller events all the time all over London and there was a great friendly atmosphere between regulars but they were very welcoming to new comers too. More at http://www.stitchldn.com/

Lastly, what’s Jean Cocteau doing in Leicester Square? Well, in 1959 he spent 3 weeks making beautiful murals for the Notre Dame de France church in Leicester Place. The church was almost completely destroyed by a Second World War bomb (bit of a theme for this blogpost) and was rebuilt in the 1950s including a commission for a set of murals by Jean Cocteau which are simple and elegant. I don’t usually take pictures in churches so here’s a link instead: www.shadyoldlady.com/location.php?loc=123 (their own site http://www.notredamechurch.co.uk/ isn’t working right now) One sad sight was the number of people sleeping in the pews, the church being a warm dry place for those who sadly have to sleep rough, especially in this cold winter. At least Notre Dame lets them in.

Bye for now
Sue

http://itsyourlondon.co.uk/

@itsyourlondon

‘Twas the last blog before Christmas…

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Nearly the end of the year and this is the last blog before Christmas, and depending on how the travelling goes next week, it could be the last of the year. England has had more snow than it can cope with on the roads, railways and at our airports which has been very sad for people trying to get home to be with friends and family for the festive period. I’m off to Kent first and then to Dartmouth for New Year so fingers crossed I get to both…. And I hope you get to where you want to be as well.

The last weeks of 2010 have been snow dominated which is really surprising for this time of year s we don’t usually get this much snow until February and it’s been colder than for many decades – global warning eh! London had a couple of major ‘dumps’ as they are called tho’ it seems an odd word to me. So of course here are a set of photos from my locality including the biggest bus queue in London where at least 12 number 52s were stuck due to the smallest hill – poor show! See if you can spot the snowman…

Some of the best exhibitions are the small ones and I visited the Courtauld Gallery to see the Cezanne’s Card Players series. He painted several of the same group in similar positions showing his appreciation of the peasants and their lives. It was wonderful and just this single room of paintings gave me a much deeper understanding of Cezanne. The Courtauld Gallery is a small gem which is packed full of great works and only £6 to get in!It is known for the its collection of impressionist and post impressionist masterpieces, thanks to the collector Samuel Courtauld It is the front part, the entrance gate, of the Somerset House complex which houses an ice rink at this time of year in its beautiful courtyard. I dropped in during a snow storm and it was good to see that this did not deter the brave skaters.

 

It’s panto season so we booked into our local Notting Hill version of Sleeping Beauty which gave us the usual chaotic good fun show at the Tabernacle. It has plenty of improvisation (for which we mean – somewhat under-rehearsed!) and some great in-jokes and splendid acting from the tiniest of kids. We boo’d we hissed and chanted ‘behind you’ with the best of them and finished the show with full rendition of Slade’s ‘So here it is, merry Christmas’…. Very festive!
That’s all for this year except to wish you all a very merry Christmas and a great 2011.

 

Bye for now,
Sue

Winter Wonderland and festive lights

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Winter Wonderland is the annual huge outdoor festival which has a funfair, ice rink and German market all rolled into one with a mini railway, hundreds of food stalls and a giant snowman thrown in. It’s great and was absolutely full of families having a wonderful time. We couldn’t face the fast, swirly and vertically dropping fair rides but were deafened by the screams to know just what a lucky escape we’d had! London looks beautiful at this time of year will all the Christmas lights in the streets and shop windows. I’ve posted in a few photos which show you the classic approach of Fortnum and Mason’s where they have recreated some of the old masters. Carnaby Street is up to its usual high standard and the capture a great sense of fun which some other areas miss and this year they have a space man and planet theme – no idea why but it looks great! So here’s a whole bunch of photos so you can feel you are here…..

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A good week for lovely lunches with a long session at Bar Boulud (from Daniel Boulud) in the Mandarin Oriental, Knightsbridge where the star was the pot of freshly cooked mini Madeleines, ah, simple pleasures…. Another recommendation is Seven Park Place by William Drabble, part of the St James Hotel where the star was the lobster tortellini.
We have more snow on the way but I hope to have plenty to report next week.

 

Bye for now,
Sue

Russia won the World Cup and sent us their weather!

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There was a huge build up of excitement ahead of the announcement of which city would win the prize to host the 2018 World Cup. Ahead of the moment of pulling the card out of the envelope, we dared to dream it could be London and I went down to City Hall to see it all happen surrounded by excitable England fans. We stood in the Siberian temperature and the falling snow with the jolly mascot and the wonderful David Ginola – as a Spurs fan it was good to see him again, reminding us what a great player he was and what a fabulously handsome man he was and still is! We waited and waited with all eyes on the big screen and Seb Blatter and then came the horrible disappointment of losing out but good luck to Russia even tho’ we wish we’d won instead.

 

The build up to Christmas is in full swing and one of our local Notting Hill squares, Norfolk Square, set up a Christmas market and opened this event up with carol singers and a visit (rather early for those who are expecting him on Christmas Eve!) from Father Christmas. It was such a bitterly cold night that I was so impressed by the carol singers and players as they had such good spirits and fine voice, as did the Father Christmas. More Christmas fun at our local shopping centre, Whiteleys which has a wonderful tree to delight visiting children who are greeted by jolly elves and hopefully good presents for well behaved children!

 

 

 

We had a snowfall in the centre of London which is very unusual at this time of year. A couple of inches made the city a beautiful festive scene and the photo attached is shows my garden with the unusual sight of snow and a single remaining pink rose.

 

 

Bye for now,

 

Sue