11 Tuesday Aug 2015
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And just after I told you all to go there too! Sorry. Bad timing.
National Gallery staff strike shuts down most exhibitions | Art and design | The Guardian.
10 Monday Aug 2015
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For God’s sake, let us sit upon the ground
And tell sad stories of the death of kings
Richard II
And you can do just that at the Globe theatre – for the princely sum of a fiver. Groundlings pay just £5 to see a play at the Globe so if you have a strong constitution and can take whatever weather old Blighty throws at you, it’s the way to go.
Tickets for seats – lets actually call them what they are – “the MOST uncomfortable wooden benches you don’t really sit on, you perch on, and all your blood runs down to your toes til you feel sick and giddy and overwhelmed with vertigo” – cost quite a bit more, upwards to £50 depending on how close your level is to the stage.
Currently Richard II is playing at the Globe and it’s very good. There’s actually lots of humour and I thoroughly recommend it if you have the time. Also playing (but I haven’t seen) are Much Ado About Nothing and As You Like It – two of my faves playing through til September but not on every day. Tickets go quick, so do book – their online site works well. The Globe is really easy to get to – it’s a lovely walk along the Thames from Waterloo Station. Try to get there an hour at least before hand to have a pint at the pub next door before the play.
Make sure you rent a cushion for £2 and you can rent a “seat back” if you’re on a middle pew and don’t have the back of the section, or the front balustrade, to lean on for a change in position. Also note, if it’s a hot day – the back rows of the seated sections catch and hold a lot of the heat and it gets muggy – very muggy. So bring in a bottle of water. There is an intermission – make the most of it to stretch your legs.
Photos are allowed before and after a performance, but obviously not during.
Treading the boards at Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre
The Globe is one of those magic places to make a pilgrimage to. A play here is quite something – it’s performance to its very core. It would be hard to find actors playing more up to the crowd than in this arena, and of course the history, the restoration of the building itself and the playwright who’s name it bears all draw a crowd for good reason.
09 Sunday Aug 2015
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If you get a near it – and you will because it’s so central – take the time to go into the National Gallery at the top of Trafalgar Square. It’s free and it has PLENTY of seating right in front of some of the most celebrated paintings OF ALL TIME!!!! Feel free to read that again in Kanye’s voice.
Even if art isn’t your “thing”, you will know what these paintings are and by whom. You will. Trust me. You will have heard of these artists – because they’ve been referred to in modern culture so many times – THAT’S how very good they were.
My main man Van Gogh is here – but not his Starry Nights which is my favourite (not only because of the Doctor Who episode with that magnificent speech by Bill Nighy that was superb!) but his Two Crabs which is my second favourite work of his. His Sunflowers is also here – more well known than his other paintings and certainly the focus of the tat in the gift shop. But for mine, Two Crabs is glorious. The colours get me every time. He painted this the year before he took his own life.
Van Gogh – Two Crabs and Sunflowers
Works by Degas are here – his beautiful dancers.
Degas – Ballet Dancers
Monet and Manet – side by side even so you can get the differences straight 🙂 Renior, Dürer, Constable, Talouse-Lautrec, Gauguin, Cezanne…honestly. This is the who’s who of the age AND it’s only one section of the gallery.
While away an hour or two. Sit and sketch from some of the very best. Have a coffee in the cafe and come back for another few hours. It truly is a magnificent place – even the ground you walk on is beautiful.
The stairwell landing mural.
09 Sunday Aug 2015
This article explains the first half of my holiday. A noisy brain, internal rules about what I “should do” instead of what I needed to do. I particularly like the point on rest not just being physical – and slthough difficult, stopping the mental, spiritual and emotional angst/business is necessary.
I intend to be more mindful of my negative inner talk and reverse it for the second half of my time away.
The Underappreciation of Rest in Today’s Society.
04 Tuesday Aug 2015
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free, london, Photography, the London series, tourist, travel, UK, views
If claiming the high ground is important to you – or you find some perspective helpful – the Sky Garden might be for you. There are plenty of places that will charge you for seeing London from their dizzying height – but the Sky Garden does it for free.
The Sky Garden is at the top of the building affectionately known as the Cheese Grator. It’s on Fenchurch Street near Monument Tube but it’s an easy 10 minute walk from Bank Tube (and a few others).
You need to book your free ticket on their website – Sky Garden website – and give them all the details for security and a bag search airport-style on arrival. I didn’t have my water or apple/snacks confiscated so I don’t think they are too strict.
There is a small walkway on the south side (that’s the Thames side) open to the outside, though the staff monitor the wind speed and will close it if it gets dangerous. There are some lovely fern garden beds to walk and sit amongst that are constantly sprayed with mist to ensure the humidity and moisture stay constant.
There is a reasonably priced cafe – the coffee wasn’t too bad for London! – but if you go up late in the afternoon, the cocktails are a little pricey.
There are also some more pricey restaurant options up on alternate levels – but as you’ll see in the photos – these are set back from the main windows of the building. Check their website if that is more your style. 
There are other options to get high in London – but they will all cost you something. The Shard is considered the best – 69 floors up and £25. You can go for a spin on the London Eye (£20 plus) or the Emirates Air Line back from Greenwich will set you back around £5 one way. You can climb Primrose Hill just off Regents Park or Parliament Hill in Hampstead Heath – they are free excepting a little sweat. But then they are miles away and will give you a view of the city skyline, not a view down to the winding Thames.
Happy travels.
26 Tuesday May 2015
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Step one. Dream of where to go.
Step two. Save like a mad woman.
Step three. Deliberate on which planner to plan trip in. Hum. Hah. Try a few different sorts out. Gather supplies. Create templates. Try them out. Tweak them. Try again. Bin them. Google and Pinterest and Facebook planner groups. Drool and rub hands together.
Step four. Shop for cute accessories to go with possible planner options.
It’s not just me is it?
06 Friday Dec 2013
27 April 1997 – South Africa’s Freedom Day – and 3 years since Mandela had won the Presidency. A small group of us travelling overland through Africa took the day trip out to Robben Island. A bus met us at the jetty and we drove around the island first. We went to the quarry where the prisoners dug a schoolroom and taught each other to read. A quick stop at the old car painted with a welcome message to the All Blacks rugby team. Past the house Robert Subukwe was kept in by an act of parliament – 6 years longer than his sentence.
And then to the prison to get out and walk. The island had been handed over to the Department of Arts, Culture, Science and Technology and they had invited back prisoners to work as guides. Our group was guided around by Lionel – who had served 7 years here as a prisoner.
In flicking through my journal from that day, he had so many stories to tell us. About their punishments for “offences”, having to pay for study, receiving one censored letter every 6 months and so on. He took us to Mandela’s cell – and we all took turns looking into the smallest of spaces – trying to imagine it holding for so long the man who was now President.
Robben Island 1997
D Section.
One room where the prisoners spent their time talking. This is the place Lionel got emotional. He said the wardens had made a mistake by allowing them to be together – that the government should have split them up.
He said that it was in this room where they put their ideals into practice. In D Section – with prisoners from different backgrounds/political ideologies/races/education levels and so on – was where they learnt tolerance and their humanity could shine through. In this room they lived a micro-version of what they all hoped and dreamed for outside the prison walls.
Strange, isn’t it? The place the government sent Mandela to punish and break him, was the place where he triumphed.
D Section
27 Tuesday Aug 2013
Stamen’s website allows you to type in a place and it renders a map of it in watercolour. Fantastic for scrapbooks of travel, framed on your home’s “Wall of Life”, or part of your travel journal all marked up with where you have been – or want to go!
Go here – http://maps.stamen.com
This is Brisbane.
Map tiles by Stamen Design, under CC BY 3.0. Data by OpenStreetMap, under CC BY SA.
23 Monday Apr 2012
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I need to do something organised or everything else “gets in the way”. The things I’d love to spend my time doing come last – I let them fall to the side. My inherited sense of conscience, duty, work ethic, whatever. Either way, I blame my parents :). Time to spend a little time on doing what I WANT to do. Who’s in?
02 Monday Apr 2012
02 Monday Apr 2012
09 Thursday Feb 2012
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My day dreams are getting wistful. It’s time to travel again…
laurenetrim 