tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-72126217617180748742024-02-20T08:48:05.529+00:00Kate MorrisA novelist writes about life. Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14967282294766601919noreply@blogger.comBlogger127125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7212621761718074874.post-44364330759433062602018-10-11T11:28:00.002+01:002018-10-31T15:22:37.403+00:00Is It Just Me Or Are Fad Diets a Waste of Time and Money?<br />
I had lunch with a friend the other day. While I tucked into a substantial salad she sipped a sad black tea and boasted that she had lost 9lbs on the <span style="color: red;"><a href="https://www.cambridgeweightplan.com/">Cambridge Diet,</a> </span>sticking to protein drinks - it sounded as though she was eating less than my small dog.<br />
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A fifth of British women are permanently dieting and many resort to ‘Fad’ diets, which work well in the short term, but when they finish most people regain the weight within six months.<br />
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I stopped fad dieting about two years ago, but I still am fascinated by the number of diets out there, including the<span style="color: red;"> <span style="color: #f1c232;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cotton_ball_diet">Cotton Ball Diet</a> </span></span><span style="color: yellow;">–</span> the trick is to survive on cotton wool dipped in juice to make you feel full. Extreme or what? All these diets work in the short term, but the downfall is that they can ruin your natural metabolism. The body will get used to the extremely low caloric intake and eventually the speed of the metabolism slows down.<br />
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Unbelievably I was on the low carb<span style="color: yellow;"> <a href="http://www.dukandiet.co.uk/"><span style="color: yellow;">Dukan Diet</span></a> </span>for 12 months and survived on expensive slithers of steak and prawns. I suffered bad breath and constipation but lost 5 kilos. However, every time I swapped the grilled steak for a Sunday roast, I put on a kilo or two so never dared progress to the maintenance diet. After a year I gave up completely, mostly out of boredom, and slowly the pounds piled back.<br />
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I tried the<span style="color: yellow;"> <a href="https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/howto/guide/what-52-diet"><span style="color: yellow;">5/2 Fast diet</span></a> </span> (you can eat normally for five days out of seven and ‘fast’ on 500 calories a day on the remaining two non-consecutive days) a few summers ago and discovered that it’s very hard to function normally on 500 calories a day. I survived on miso soup and diet coke, which seems unbelievable now. I know there are benefits to fasting, and particularly as we get older, but I think a monitored fast would be a better idea. Being allowed to scrabble around to find 500 calories seems too wayward an idea and it’s ongoing, weekly, rather than a fast that has a beginning and an end. A friend on the same diet told me she was so ravenous, “she could eat her children”. Yes quite, I really did relate.<br />
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I am now mostly vegetarian and so it would be almost impossible to do the <span style="color: yellow;">Dukan</span> very easily, but I have to say I’m searching around for something, I’m not sure what? I do need to lose a few pounds and can feel my resolve slipping quite fast. Anyone tried the <a href="https://www.webmd.com/diet/a-z/lemonade-master-cleanse-diet">Lemonade</a> or the <a href="https://dadamo.com/txt/index.pl?0000">Blood Type Diet</a>?<br />
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I have been a novelist and <a href="http://www.katemorris.co.uk/journalism.html">journalist</a> all my working life, with some success –columns in The Times, Tatler and Easy Living, and<a href="http://www.katemorris.co.uk/books.html"> three novels </a>published – but with my children now at secondary school and more time to spare, I need another hook to add to my monthly earnings. During the last few years I have grown my <a href="https://twitter.com/KateMorris1">Twitter</a>, <a href="https://www.instagram.com/katemorris2/">Instagram</a> and <a href="https://www.facebook.com/kate.morris2">Facebook </a>platforms and idly thought about managing platforms for others.</div>
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I offered my services to a local gift shop who were not going far on Instagram, but soon realised I had no clue how do manage platforms professionally. I kept hearing about <a href="https://digitalmums.com/">Digital Mums</a>, (they are very good at getting themselves in front of their target audience) and finally made the decision to bombard a kind woman in admissions with loads of questions. I chose the programme partner course, which is open to people with a background in journalism or marketing, because I was drawn to the challenge of being set to work with a client straight away.</div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Ekwy and her Girls</td></tr>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjsmwIrrfQGTT4VhfIg3VPpeeNLhRObKgbxpZIxXPNa9Fa9p6BLkDRzmTUdT4ZHOj521VuGHyOJ111mejAS0jeNCmuVd8toInQtZklBjuXmI8BsdtSU5nu3KkXJu5Sa5y3xkvJgMbQNzlfy/s1600/Monika+Papaya+Review.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="800" data-original-width="800" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjsmwIrrfQGTT4VhfIg3VPpeeNLhRObKgbxpZIxXPNa9Fa9p6BLkDRzmTUdT4ZHOj521VuGHyOJ111mejAS0jeNCmuVd8toInQtZklBjuXmI8BsdtSU5nu3KkXJu5Sa5y3xkvJgMbQNzlfy/s320/Monika+Papaya+Review.png" width="320" /></a><br />
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When I discovered who my programme partner was, I panicked and rang Digital Mums, to say that my PP's business was way out of my comfort zone - botanical products specifically for Black hair. I worried that I had no knowledge how to care for black hair. I was offered another client, but I decided I was, in fact, more in tune with <a href="https://twitter.com/EquiBotanics">Equi Botanics. </a> I liked the idea that the products are #natural #crueltyfree and #vegan and that they are for women who are transitioning from weaves and wigs to keeping their hair natural. The political message interested me, it seemed outrageous that black women’s natural hair, was sometimes frowned upon in the work place or at school as being too messy and not conforming to white people’s standards. There were a few bumps at first, as we tried to understand where we were respectively coming from - as a white woman I got a few things wrong at first - but I began to feel passionate about the products and respect the founder, Ekwy enormously.</div>
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We were focusing on Brand Awareness, but the products had not yet launched, and that proved quite challenging. We had to work towards a competition and when we realised that products were not going to be ready as prizes, Ekwy agreed to make up ten bottles in her kitchen. I then literally forced her to film the procedure so that we could use it on Facebook and Twitter. She was very reluctant at first, but bravely went ahead. The short film was a huge success in terms of reach and engagement. </div>
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I have always worked at home, so that was easy, but it was more difficult to embrace the business world with tools like Excel, spread sheets, figures and analytics that the course demands, (I have never been good at maths). Also at times, it seemed that every waking hour was taken up managing Equi Botanics’ campaign, and there were weeks when it all seemed exhausting and I had some sleepless nights worrying that it was all going to come crashing down.</div>
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I think when I finally chose a scheduling tool (I don’t think it was a co incidence that all my cohort chose the same one – Buffer – as I think we wanted to help each other along) and learnt how to use it, that I relaxed a little and decided that maybe it was all going to be all right. I don’t think the course would have been possible without the other four women in our cohort. Although I have still not met them face-to-face, without their support on What’s App and Google hangouts, where we could moan and support each other, it would have been very difficult.</div>
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I was exceptionally pleased when the first Facebook Live of Ekwy and her children discussing their hair journeys, did fantastically well on Facebook, with a little help from a Facebook Ad boost. I was also thrilled when three key influencers on Twitter Retweeted our competition post after I sent them a Direct Message on Twitter.</div>
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I have just handed in my final report to Digital Mums and it's now August and I am about to go away. I want to find clients in the beauty or health industry, and I am also interested in supporting authors with their book campaigns, actors, musicians, film and theatre releases. At this stage though I am open to everything that comes my way. Bring it ON!</div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14967282294766601919noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7212621761718074874.post-16167930943465334732017-03-28T12:11:00.001+01:002017-03-30T11:25:41.476+01:00Ava our Rescue Dog from CyprusIt's been a while since I last wrote a blog post, and during that time, I have become a woman who lives and sleeps and walks with a dog. My daughter campaigned for several years (about six) to get a dog and we finally succumbed last August when we saw Ava's photo on the Instagram account of Cyprus Dogs, an arm of the #<a href="http://www.wildatheartfoundation.org/">Wildatheartfoundation</a>. I had looked for a rescue dog, filled with the mantra, "Adopt Don't Shop" Belle was 12 at the time; she turns 13 this week - a teenager - wish me luck. Our 15-year-old son was adamant that he would never walk the dog and made that clear before we even got her. Ava was two months old when we first saw her cute little puppy face on the Rescue Dog Instagram Account, and four months when she came to us. We had to fight off the competition to be her owner, as lots of people fell for her charms.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgwwbzXETd8iKqDZSE6bRIEIPVobluXxahN1B8YUb7CE19-gXu9dpyQj71nCGC3STSTfHeW3UXciHgT21q8-o7yRzsT59MV95H31HAlouZaOmEWnKK1MGptuiRnDf0KPQf1XZM-PjdYkUUN/s1600/IMG_4408.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgwwbzXETd8iKqDZSE6bRIEIPVobluXxahN1B8YUb7CE19-gXu9dpyQj71nCGC3STSTfHeW3UXciHgT21q8-o7yRzsT59MV95H31HAlouZaOmEWnKK1MGptuiRnDf0KPQf1XZM-PjdYkUUN/s320/IMG_4408.jpg" width="240" /></a>As she grew older our daughter had become increasingly desperate about the business of owning a dog.There were weeks when she would ask for a dog on a daily basis, the sense of urgency getting stronger. At one point, she claimed that her childhood would be ruined without a dog. A dog? I had always been a cat person. We have two cats, one large and tabby-like and one small and dark who came from #Batterseadogshome. I worried about how a dog would fit into our lives? (I still haven't figured out exactly what will happen when we go away)I knew as we all knew that I would become the leader of the pack, the picker upper of dog poo, the one who walks twice a day, even though my daughter, promised passionately that she would be the one to be the official dog-walker. She is here in the photograph hugging Ava and she has set up an Instagram Account called #Avathelittledog.<script type="text/javascript">
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I am surrounded by dog people: I have friends who are besotted with their dogs, and treat them like partners. My Dad keeps about four or five dogs, and they sleep in a 'boot room' and sometimes I worry that they are cold. I used to feel sorry for the owners who scooped up dog poo whenever they went for a walk, but no longer. I am no longer scornful when I see perfectly sane adult throwing a ball for their dog over and over again. I am now that woman who throws a rubber ball about twenty times while walking in the park. </div>
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It's the people you meet who are so entertaining. The other dog owners. Of course you only know the names of their dogs initially, but soon you find out who they are. There are gilders, and musicians, and actors and set designers, yoga teachers and magazine website editors, all people I have met and talked to in my local park. I have watched Ava turn from a very shy puppy into a happy and confident dog. I have walked all through the winter and felt better for forcing myself outside. </div>
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I love our dog, passionately. I have become one of those people, those crazy dog people!<br />
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14967282294766601919noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7212621761718074874.post-21008535383001919232016-03-07T11:33:00.000+00:002016-03-07T11:33:28.103+00:00Going Grey Or Not? That Is The Question.<br />
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Marvellous Mary Beard is <a href="http://www.radiotimes.com/news/2016-03-03/mary-"><span class="s1">courageous</span></a> for keeping her hair white particularly as she is in the public eye. I don't object to her full white head of hair, but if I was her stylist (not that she would ever agree to a stylist) I would ask her to cut it. I am obsessed with the white and grey hairs along my parting, which are gathering pace. I ignore it for a few days/weeks until the idea of it begins to loom larger than life. It gets to a point when I am talking to people and I'm wondering if they are noticing it; I become more and more conscious of the shadow of wiry white hair on the top of my head and wonder if that is it all they can see when they look at me? I say this knowing that most people won't notice too much, but there was a childish man at a party a few weeks ago, who mentioned "the white streak," on my head. (He also calls me "Keith" instead of Kate, going far back to some kind of in joke when he thought I looked like a man in a photograph - as you can see, he's quite a wind-up.)<br />
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I used to attend to the diminishing colour in my hair every few months, but I have noticed recently that the white/grey is sprouting more aggressively. When it becomes too obvious, I have a desperate need to cover it up, whether it’s by dashing to the hairdresser, using spay colour, Wow powder (see you tube video below) or Daniel Field dye at home. My wiry white and grey hairs appear around my parting. The bold white hairs look messy and let’s face it, ageing. I wonder what do other women do? As their hair becomes whiter more quickly do the majority dye it or accept it? I'm sure it must get to a point when it becomes overwhelming. Do dark-haired women use lighter streaks to make the white blend more easily? Do they become blond? How does it work? Do they dye once a week? Surely it would become too expensive to rush to the hairdresser every 10 days or so.<br />
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What do you all do? Please give me some tips!<br />
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I will be looking at women in the street (for research) just as I used to when I became pregnant (when suddenly pregnant women were everywhere) or when I had my first child and noticed all the women pushing prams or carrying babies - they too were ubiquitous, now not so much. Recently I have clapped internally when I see older women celebrated and becoming more vital and respected. Why should the older woman be invisible? There is a new <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2015/10/20/grey-model-agency-london_n_8331984.html"><span class="s1">model agency </span></a> for women over 35 and documentaries featuring fashion-conscious women. There are <a href="http://www.adweek.com/news/advertising-branding/why-older-women-are-new-it-girls-fashion-163871"><span class="s1">stylish women over 70 </span></a> becoming faces of fashion houses - Joan Didion at Celine for example and there is the wonderful<a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/14/books/review/alive-alive-oh-by-diana-athill.html"><span class="s1"> Diana Athill,</span></a> aged 98 and still writing memoirs of her life, giving talks and being interesting. There are plenty of other examples I just don’t have the time to gather them all together.<br />
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I was dying my hair at the weekend when my children (age 14 and 11) asked me why. I did not really give them a satisfactory reply. My son said that if all us women got together and stopped dyeing our hair than none of would have to. I think that if we are to celebrate becoming older, and making the concept less shameful perhaps we <i>should</i> stop dying our hair and botoxing our wrinkles. It should be called the grey haired revolution. But I don’t want to jump first and that is why I admire Mary Beard. Maybe it is just because we have access to botox and fillers and dye that we do remain "youthful" and therefore "vital" and "visible." Sad but true. I noticed when I went to hear the great iconic feminist Gloria Steinham talk the other night, she was still beautiful and vibrant at 83. Her hair was coloured and there were rumours that she had had "work done." If she is a feminist and dyes her hair and lifts her face, then maybe its not so bad after all. That is what I will tell my kids when they next ask me. I will say: for the moment, women have a job to remain visible in society and if grey doesn't look youthful on them, dyeing is the way to go.</div>
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<b>Inviting Guests Over:</b><br />
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When I’m feeling robust, having friends over for dinner seems like such a good plan, but sometimes even the idea of giving a dinner can make me feel weak. Who to ask? What to eat? I love finding a dish I can prepare before (hate the stress of actually cooking while guests are milling around watching.) My husband is braver; he doesn’t mind sizzling some Red Snapper as the guests are sipping their cocktails. Often, to avoid the cooking anxiety, we find a recipe that works and use it for the next twelve months. We must have presented the same dish to our favourite friends at least two or three times, but hopefully they haven’t noticed or cared.<br />
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Once the decision has been made to actually have a dinner, it is time to invite the guests. It is virtually impossible to secure an unattached available man for a single girlfriend. We have one single man friend who has been rolled out several times a year for the last few years, but no match yet. The last time I invited five girlfriends together for dinner at my house, it took at least twenty emails over four days to find a mutually good date and once found and typed into diaries, it had to be cancelled and renegotiated, as one of the girls discovered she wouldn't even be in London on the original date.<br />
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<b>Stress Points/Preparing</b><br />
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Shopping for the dinner in my experience takes more than one excursion (inevitably something will have been forgotten: the vital herb, the sparkling water or the mustard) Or we have to go and buy something for the person who rings up a few hours before to say they can’t eat meat/wheat/gluten/pulses. One woman (a friend of my husband’s) emailed to say she had become a vegan and couldn't even eat honey. We had to remake the salad dressing.<br />
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Next we have to push all the surplus mess into the coat cupboard and dump the rest on our bed and plump up the sofa cushions. There is always somebody who arrives exactly on time, just as we are shouting at the children or the cat has thrown up a hair-ball.<br />
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Once the guests have accepted, things can still go wrong: The couple you really wanted suddenly have to dropout. Then it’s too late to ask anyone else. Or worse, the girlfriend you really wanted to see is now ill, but she’s going to send her husband anyway.<br />
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<b>The Men Who Only Talk About Themselves:</b><br />
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There are times that I’ve been invited to dinner and found myself sitting next to a man who’s more than happy to answer questions about his life, his job, and his career, but doesn’t reciprocate by finding out anything about me. This is boring, ill mannered, arrogant and socially inept. Women don’t do this or at least not in my experience. The last time this happened was at a buffet style dinner. The man in question talked about the time he was studying in France. I heard about his difficulties at work and his son’s new school. We went on chatting about his life. And on. I waited for him to enquire about mine, but that never happened. I made my excuses and slipped away. <br />
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<b>The Rude Host</b><br />
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Once we went to dinner with a girlfriend and her banker husband. As the mint tea was being served, he yawned, looked at his watch and announced to the assembled guests that he was going to bed as he had to get up early. It was ten fifteen. He then turned to his wife and demanded that she should come too. It seemed awkward and odd to stay in the shiny kitchen without our hosts and after ten minutes we all left.<br />
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<b>The Cooking Bore</b><br />
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I dread the cooking bore. There are a couple of men we know who fancy themselves as a bit of a Heston or Jamie. One perfectly nice divorced man used to ask us over for 8pm. By nine we would wonder what was happening about the food, and at nine thirty, after enquiring politely about what we were going to eat, he would start cooking. We would stand around with glasses of wine, watching him beat and marinate the steak. We would be salivating, starving and drunk by the time the food was served at ten thirty, and ready for bed. We tried turning up half an hour later the next time, but that just meant dinner was served at eleven.<br />
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<b>Getting Out of The House</b><br />
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The thing about going out to dinner mid-week is that I am usually tired before we’ve left the house. My normal ideal is to eat with the children at six o clock, have a bath at six thirty, and pajamas on by seven. So when we are invited out to dinner and it’s time to get ready, I momentarily feel exhausted. How am I going to cope with eating so late? Drinking? Toying with chocolate pudding that I know will keep me up? And who will I be sitting next to? That man who only talks about himself? What am I going to wear? How much makeup do I have to slap on to camouflage the grey bags under my eyes? Mostly my fears are unfounded. Once I’m there it’s all fantastic and fun and we leave feeling warm and glowing and happy. It's only the morning after that the one glass of wine and the chocolate pudding and the fact that I've been unable to sleep till two, that the slump hits.<br />
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<b>The Couple Who Leave Early</b><br />
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In fact hosting a dinner party is more of a risk. Things could be going really well until the couple who have a “teenage babysitter leaving at eleven,” stand up and announce that <br />
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they have to go. When the kids were young, I was guilty of saying this exact same thing. Knowing you’d be up at six meant you really had to go to bed by midnight, or life the next day would not be worth living. But the problem is that when someone leaves prematurely, the party potentially breaks up. Then you are faced with a deluge of dirty dishes and the inevitable hangover. But when you’ve cooked something delicious, the wine is just right, the friends get on, everybody has laughed, it’s late but not too late, the pile of plates just remind you of what a good time you all had.<br />
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14967282294766601919noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7212621761718074874.post-44459555432214183672015-06-02T16:36:00.000+01:002015-06-02T16:49:49.757+01:00Escape the City - The Park Club <br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEihNe4QRDOrj3qbqlflPR0Gg4CJnKfW9F3Eg1NHPpZ6BNFNZGX6_bqo-_pG45OHFXR4lS_Gjq2TCjiAR-fbbGJIQpDYbTk6K5LIXq2wCS9aPrNkpgPpa2uwyOWDKSicuI5oERn6p2ku5kAH/s1600/P-Club-3-Dome.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="90" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEihNe4QRDOrj3qbqlflPR0Gg4CJnKfW9F3Eg1NHPpZ6BNFNZGX6_bqo-_pG45OHFXR4lS_Gjq2TCjiAR-fbbGJIQpDYbTk6K5LIXq2wCS9aPrNkpgPpa2uwyOWDKSicuI5oERn6p2ku5kAH/s320/P-Club-3-Dome.jpg" width="320" /></a>My local health Club, <a href="http://www.theparkclub.co.uk/">The Park Club</a> in Acton has been open for 15 years. None of us who go there regularly with our children can imagine life without it. If that sounds spoilt and reminiscent of FIRST WORLD problem in a first world country please stay with me. What I am trying to say is that life would not be so colourful and manageable without it. It's an oasis in the City, a break from the sirens, crowds, and pollution. I had been thinking about joining when the club first opened, but the crunch came when I took my toddler daugther (she's now 11) swimming in my local West London Park. She didn't have a swimsuit to paddle in the shallow concrete pool so she stripped off to her pants and tee-shirt. Half an hour later, a park policeman arrived, ordered her to put her clothes on, and arrested a shady man who was hiding behind a tree.<br />
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From then on we went swimming at the Park Club, mostly in the outdoor pool. It's a saviour for those of us who have miniature outdoor spaces. We could potentially squeeze in a 10' trampoline, (which my daughter desperately wants) into our 'garden' but that's all it could fit. My son once insisted on installing a football goal in our diminutive patio, and the kids were literally standing in one flower bed to kick the ball two metres into the net which rested precarioulsy against the fence on the other side. The goal lasted a few weeks before it collapsed. Both sets of neighbours were justly relieved that footballs were no longer being lobbed over our trellis into their superior, patios, bedecked not with goals or trampolines, but ferns, and potted plants.<br />
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My children have spent hours at the Club playing football, tennis, cricket, making dens and eating supper with friends. I have spent many mornings working in the bar with my co-writer, or sunning myself on the terrace. I practice Pilates andYoga there, and have just been told by a physiotherapist to use a crosstrainer to help my weak knee. The gym and I have never really got on that well, but I am glad to have some kind of incentive to get there.<br />
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The Club already already seems huge with a massive outdoor swimming pool and 27 acres of land (the only problem being that children literally disappear in the grounds and its not always possible to leave when you want to) But there are plans to make it even bigger. It has submitted a Planning Application to increase the size by %35 and install new studios, a hydrotherapy pool, steam baths, upgraded restaurants, a new top floor with natural light and a 50 metre pool. Bring it on.<br />
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The last time we had a friend
to stay in London, was about 14 years ago, when we lived in a small terraced house in Sheperds
Bush with one bouncing boy baby and a thin stray cat. Our son is now a
teenager, and the day after his recent 14<sup>th</sup> birthday, he un-friended
me from Facebook, glued himself to his mobile and began to grunt. Marie (who
came to stay with us all those years ago) lives in Paris and is an exact replica of Julia Roberts. She ostensibly was staying for a night, then revealed she was depressed and installed herself in our small
spare room for a week. She spent a great deal of time in bed, so didn’t need
much entertaining. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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We didn’t move far. We now live
in a 3-storey-house, across the road from where we used to live. We have two
children. We have a large office space that we share, a dining room, and a small garden, but no definitely
no spare bedroom. A girlfriend was going to stay recently, after a late night,
changed her mind when she realised she would have to sleep in my daughter’s
single bed, while my daughter squashed between me and my husband in our room
upstairs. Just as well. We would have had to search far and wide for a clean
towel and sheet. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<a href="http://www.breconbeaconsparksociety.org/wp-content/themes/newawake2/lib/scripts/thumb.php?src=http://www.breconbeaconsparksociety.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/slide3.jpg&w=980&h=420&zc=1&q=100" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://www.breconbeaconsparksociety.org/wp-content/themes/newawake2/lib/scripts/thumb.php?src=http://www.breconbeaconsparksociety.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/slide3.jpg&w=980&h=420&zc=1&q=100" height="137" width="320" /></a></div>
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Before we were married, we
rented a house in the Brecon Beacons for a year and for several weekends in a
row we had people to stay. It seemed
like such a fun idea! The sun was out; the view was stunning. We had a lovely spare
bedroom and lots of walks on our doorstep. We even bought a visitors book. We would entertain them well, in lieu of the
fact that they had driven over the Severn Bridge to get to us. We cooked lavish
dinners and full English breakfasts with a choice of tea. We arranged walks to
the pub, friends over for drinks. We changed sheets and washed towels. Picked
flowers for their rooms. It began to feel like a B and B. It was utterly exhausting.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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I am all for the idea of
catching up “properly” with friends which is what all my country friends say
about having friends to stay, but I am just as happy to have a spontaneous
coffee or a walk in the park in the City. Another thing country folk say is ‘it’s
only an hour from London, you must come for lunch.’ I’ve learnt to add a third to the journey time
at least! <o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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<br /></div>
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<!--EndFragment--><script type="text/javascript">
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} catch(err) {}</script>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14967282294766601919noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7212621761718074874.post-81319202802358788392014-12-15T16:32:00.000+00:002014-12-15T16:39:31.308+00:00There's a fire on Christmas Eve! Evacuate. Memories of a Childhood Christmas.<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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Although I
grew up in London, my childhood Christmases were usually spent at our house in Berkshire. The house was on a farm, which we rented from a local landowner and in the winter there were cows mooching around in shit in a depressing pen. In the summer, we would play under the weeping willow
tree in the garden and always, without fail, whatever the season, we would act out Cinderella and
make the adults watch it over and over again. My friend Pandora would be Cinderella and I would be the handsome Prince. I didn't mind the role, in fact I was a tomboy and enjoyed it. My only downfall was once being asked to be the 'stick' in a dramatisation of Pooh-sticks.<br />
<br />
My grandmother (who usually joined us at Christmas) was like a fairy
godmother from a children’s story; we all loved her because she was able to do
magic. We would
choose somewhere to find a little trinket, then she would shut her eyes and say
some weird and wonderful words and miraculously we would run off to our chosen
site and the prize would be there (I
still don’t know how she did it)<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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On
Christmas Eve, we would leave milk for the reindeers and a glass of whisky and
some biscuits for Father Christmas in front of the fire. The next day we woke extremely
early of course, to delve into our stockings. There are lots of Christmas Day photographs
of me looking shattered, with huge grey bags under my eyes. In one set of photos, aged about seven, I look particularly
haggard, like a tiny junkie. That year, the grownups had forgotten to put the fireguard in
front of the fire as they staggered to bed on Christmas Eve, and the embers must
gone awry, because in the middle of the night, my slightly ditzy aunt woke up my grandmother
and said she smelt smoke. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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We were
woken up by the adults and evacuated outside and told to look up to the sky to
see if we could see Father Christmas arriving. It was thrilling and exciting to
be outside in the middle of the night on Christmas Eve. The fire turned out to
be manageable, no fire engines arrived and we all went back to bed. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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The next day,
Christmas carried on as usual, the only reminder of what had happened the night
before was the singed fire surround. We pulled crackers, opened presents, told terrible jokes, dug out silver trinkets from the Christmas pudding, put on silly hats, watched television, played with
our new presents and then felt depressed when it all came to an end.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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When I
think about Christmas, I still think
about escaping somehow, getting out of the city, and away from real life. Certainly in London, there is far too much traffic over the festive period. London feels blocked and overwhelmed, exactly like I feel. Thank God for online shopping. Christmas is like a fiction anyway, an overblown day of abundance: too much
food, too many presents, too many good choices on TV, too many hours being in the company
of certain members of our families whom we never see the rest of the year, There is a sudden visit to Church, a flurry of carols and hopefully some reflection. I'd like to think Christmas was about giving, sharing, forgiving, reflecting and reunions as well as presents, parties and champagne.<br />
<br />
I like
the idea of being away in a cottage with a roaring fire and a windswept beach. There would be endless games of scrabble, a
few good carols, a short walk into the garden to collect some logs, a long walk
along a beach to good pub. Yes bring me a country Christmas every time or failing that a Caribbean or a mountain Christmas will do.<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: 18pt;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgT5nknSi0T53QvA-CrpTUMpZ0sTmtrKUpGjLZoBmaL1NKvJIBYt29oVwTUBVnQI3zuUssk8yuZgU_PFlY6EiaDa32vZUmem9O_DPf89IWr-fdpAeih6H_pxeJCbs7vs69fRDYqeJiE509F/s1600/4185056004_0d5a7238ae_z.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgT5nknSi0T53QvA-CrpTUMpZ0sTmtrKUpGjLZoBmaL1NKvJIBYt29oVwTUBVnQI3zuUssk8yuZgU_PFlY6EiaDa32vZUmem9O_DPf89IWr-fdpAeih6H_pxeJCbs7vs69fRDYqeJiE509F/s1600/4185056004_0d5a7238ae_z.jpg" height="190" width="320" /></a></span></div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<span style="font-size: 18pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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I was recently asked to give some recommendations for where to eat and be merry in West London for an American Website. Below is my very personal and slightly abridged guide, maybe a bit biased to the area around where I live in Sheperds Bush, but not completely so. There are links added, but not to absolutely everything, as my arm got tired. Hope it inspires those of you coming to London for some Christmas Cheer! </div>
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<span style="font-family: Hoefler Text;">Where is West London?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Hoefler Text;">West London loosely stretches from Kensington to Ealing; its vibrant mix of inhabitants includes the very rich and the disadvantaged poor. It boasts green conservation areas juxtaposed with urban spaces; boutique shopping and Westfield, the largest Mall in Europe. European bankers and Russians set up home in Holland Park and Notting Hill alongside Jamaicans and Afro Caribbean’s - long-term residents, who orchestrate the annual Notting Hill Carnival in August. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Hoefler Text;">What would you do in West London if you wanted to be elegant and have fun?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Hoefler Text;">I would have lunch at the<a href="https://www.blogger.com/"><span id="goog_529511630"></span> River Café,<span id="goog_529511631"></span></a> the elegant Italian restaurant on the River Thames. I would then go shopping at the independent clothes shops, <a href="https://www.blogger.com/"><span id="goog_1383710597"></span>The Cross<span id="goog_1383710598"></span></a> near Holland Park and <a href="https://www.blogger.com/"><span id="goog_740521666"></span>The Jacksons<span id="goog_740521667"></span></a> in Notting Hill, followed by a massage and a facial at T<a href="http://www.theparkclub.co.uk/">he Park Club in Acton.</a> I would relax afterwards in their 27 acres of grounds with a cup of tea. In the evening I would book a sofa at the Electric Cinema and snuggle with my husband and get food delivered to me from the Electric Diner next door.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Hoefler Text;">Five Places to Visit in West London</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Hoefler Text;">1. Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew also known as Kew Gardens is one of the most famous gardens in the world, with a vast range of rare and beautiful plants, a bamboo garden, Victorian glass houses, 14,000 trees and much more. I love to walk there and just take it all in.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Hoefler Text;">2.Portobello Market in Notting hill The big antique day is Saturday but Friday is also good if you want to avoid the crowds. Don’t forget to include the Golborne Road too, which also boasts food stalls, junk and antiques for sale, as well as Portuguese cafes selling custard cakes and coffee.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Hoefler Text;">3. A Walk in Kensington Gardens, visiting the Serpentine Art Gallery (free entry) and then The Orangery for tea. The Serpentine always has interesting modern art exhibitions and the Orangery is just a beautiful place to sit.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Hoefler Text;">4. Leighton House Museum is the former home of the Victorian artist Frederic, Lord Leighton, and it contains a collection of paintings and sculpture by Leighton and his contemporaries. One of the best rooms in the house is the amazing Arab Hall with its golden dome, interesting mosaics and walls lined with Islamic tiles. It would be worth visiting Holland Park afterwards.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Hoefler Text;">5. A jaunt down the river from Hammersmith Bridge to Chiswick House is one of my favourite walks in London. It’s easy to imagine what the city must have been like 200 years ago and the route passes beautiful houses, a few pubs and St Nicholas Church where the artist, Hogarth was buried. While looking at the river landscape, it’s easy to forget that you are minutes away from a huge loud metropolis. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Hoefler Text;">Best new Restaurant in West London</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Hoefler Text;"><a href="http://www.bushhalldining.co.uk/">Bush Hall Dining Room</a> voted favourite restaurant in Sheperds Bush by Time Out readers. The cocktails are great here.</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiL7eL4uMWn7COWXMqwJwibWdCdK2npZ8YUSbnxpmLVRqOTQyg8oaX9QgEc1KP-iHhq18EKa7kIFy3eiWdE42c3AnzhCArHBz-OaNBCIqd5oVU_C88DHb0QmhQoawODQSLx-rFuKq1Sk6XH/s1600/BUSH_HALL_DINING_431.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiL7eL4uMWn7COWXMqwJwibWdCdK2npZ8YUSbnxpmLVRqOTQyg8oaX9QgEc1KP-iHhq18EKa7kIFy3eiWdE42c3AnzhCArHBz-OaNBCIqd5oVU_C88DHb0QmhQoawODQSLx-rFuKq1Sk6XH/s1600/BUSH_HALL_DINING_431.jpeg" height="213" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Hoefler Text;">Favourite Restaurants in West London</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Hoefler Text;">¬Persian food at <a href="https://www.blogger.com/"><span id="goog_1187065364"></span>Sufi <span id="goog_1187065365"></span></a>in Shepherds Bush. This is a unpretentious and cheap, local restaurant. The grilled chicken or lamb and rice are delicious. Also the home-made flat bread.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Hoefler Text;">English Tapas at <a href="https://www.blogger.com/"><span id="goog_265565533"></span>The Shed<span id="goog_265565534"></span></a> in Kensington – little plates of dishes like pork scratchings with apple jam and hake rillettes with dill and marmalade. Although it’s not the most comfortable seating, it’s a really interesting and delicious dining experience.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Hoefler Text;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/"><span id="goog_915904372"></span>The Anglesea Arms<span id="goog_915904373"></span></a> near Hammersmith is a cosy local pub with a roaring fire. Order a pint of prawns at the bar or sit down in the restaurant to order seasonal food. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Hoefler Text;">Good Shopping?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Hoefler Text;">Turnham Green High Street and Chiswick High Street, where there is a good mix of good quality independent food shops, health stores, furniture shops and cafes, including The Old Cinema, a treasure trove of furniture and interesting antiques.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Hoefler Text;">Askew Road, in Shepherds Bush is great for inexpensive local shopping. There is a wonderful butcher, <a href="https://www.blogger.com/"><span id="goog_452451785"></span>The Ginger Pig <span id="goog_452451786"></span></a>that sells Deli goods, organic vegetables, homemade jams and chutneys and extremely good quality meat and Max Inc. an interesting mid-century furniture shop with fair prices. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Hoefler Text;"><a href="http://uk.westfield.com/london/">Westfield,</a> near the Shepherds Bush roundabout is the largest shopping mall in Europe, and it’s worth a visit, just to experience the sheer size and variety of shops. There is a pop-up skating ring here in the winter and lots of free and fun happenings. There are also a huge variety of restaurants and cafes.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Hoefler Text;"><span style="font-size: 21px;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEim0uih0_vMSmoi2Utqh4ndYjwTWvS-LjqK6RGOanpaU7qWi0fZPzFmZWjNb2_cBSXWJtMXjOIfEbubqzDatiqlhzuXhW_snYOXyXPYWIUc7lgR36kHIVHnymosG5DUC64UkIehHs5ZG-X0/s1600/paul_higgs_brochure_25-06-14_0150.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEim0uih0_vMSmoi2Utqh4ndYjwTWvS-LjqK6RGOanpaU7qWi0fZPzFmZWjNb2_cBSXWJtMXjOIfEbubqzDatiqlhzuXhW_snYOXyXPYWIUc7lgR36kHIVHnymosG5DUC64UkIehHs5ZG-X0/s1600/paul_higgs_brochure_25-06-14_0150.jpeg" height="213" width="320" /></a></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Hoefler Text;">The clothes, jewellery, furniture, flower stall and shoe shops around Ledbury Road in Notting hill are worth visiting. <a href="http://www.ilovegorgeous.co.uk/">I Love Gorgeous</a> is an independent children’s shop for girls, selling beautiful dresses with an edge – a perfect gift for a godchild, a niece or a daughter. Anya Hindmarch for bags and Ottolenghi the deli are amongst the array of other independent shops.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Hoefler Text;">What to do in the Evening?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Hoefler Text;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/"><span id="goog_932529749"></span>The Bush Theatre <span id="goog_932529750"></span></a> showcases new writers and it’s a small intimate theatre which make this an exciting and affordable evening.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Hoefler Text;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/"><span id="goog_1637578344"></span>The Bush Hall<span id="goog_1637578345"></span></a> for original live indie music in a Victorian, music hall setting. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Hoefler Text;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/"><span id="goog_2093597556"></span>The Riverside Studios <span id="goog_2093597557"></span></a>for movies, theatre, eating and drinking</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Hoefler Text;">Chiswick House Gardens and Café </span></div>
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<!--EndFragment--><script type="text/javascript">
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We do try baking. We follow the exact ingredients for a recipe, weighing out the butter and flour, but there NEVER seems to be enough mixture to make 12 perfect cupcakes. The last time we tried there was just enough for nine and our sugar icing was thin and sweet; we must learn how to do the butter version. Is that even what it’s called? Or I should just double the ingredients that the recipe calls for. Something has to change.<br />
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I was one of three mothers who recently sold cakes at the Year 6 school cake sale. Our blue-iced cakes seemed at best small, compared to the one’s the French mother had made that rose like small mountains with generous dollops of buttercream. One man scoffed at our blue offerings: “50 pence for<i> those</i>”<br />
“The money is for the school,” I replied tersely.<br />
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Craft is another thing. I remember when the children were small and all they wanted to do was make huge glittery messes with dollops of glue. I would hover over them as the table became amassed with sticky patches and glitter and would try to mask my rising sense of irritation and boredom. I am not like my sister who can make origami birds out of bits of paper or my friend Emily, who can pick up a stick and paint a tiny Union Jack on it, instantaneously creating a work of art.<br />
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But I am good at listening, laughing, hugging, massaging and cheering them on. So that’s something I suppose, although my friend Emily can do all that as well as baking and crafting. Don’t get me started on gardening: I am not like my friend Shirel, who says, gardening gives her a sense of spiritual purpose. I am the type who buys a ready-made window box and hopes for the best.<br />
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Would love to know how other families live too...and would welcome comments.<br />
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The poll below shows how an average family live, (this poll was taken in 2011)<br />
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AVERAGE UK FAMILY - UNOFFICIAL CENSUS<br />
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Get up: 6.57am<br />
Car: Silver Ford Focus<br />
Number of cars: 1.5<br />
House: Semi-detached on a main street<br />
Holiday: 2 x 10 days in the UK<br />
Evening meals together: 3 per week at 5.50pm<br />
Weekly shop: £76.02<br />
Weekly alcohol bill: £12<br />
Entertainment i.e. DVD's: £15<br />
Best entertainment: Watching TV<br />
Favourite TV show: Dr Who<br />
Time spent watching TV: 9 hours per day<br />
Nights out with friends: 2 per month<br />
Nights out as a couple: 'Every few months'<br />
Big family outing: Once a month<br />
Get home from work: 5.15pm<br />
Go to bed: 10.39pm<br />
Arguments: 1.6 per week<br />
Savings: £3,280<br />
Mortgage: 53% have a mortgage and have paid off 32 per cent<br />
Cash in wallet/purse: £10.31<br />
Neighbours: Two that we speak to<br />
Exercise: Two and half times a week<br />
Home improvements: £559 in the last year<br />
Wider family: Once a week gathering<br />
Quality time together: Two hours per week<br />
Breakfast : Eats breakfast twice a week as a family<br />
Laundry: 5.3 loads per week<br />
Chores: 4 hours and 24 minutes every week - mum does the majority<br />
Happiness: 80 per cent class themselves as 'happy'<br />
Wellbeing: 70 per cent claim they are 'normal'<br />
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My daughter (like almost every other girl in the western world) has succumbed to the loom bracelet craze, so we were delighted to be sent <a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00GGALYF8">The Rainbow Refill Pack</a> a superior version of the ones on the current market. The Rainbow Loom, a plastic device for turning small rubber bands into jewellery, has sold more than three million units worldwide and the majority of the best-selling toys on Amazon UK are either looms or loom-related. Rainbow Loom was invented in 2011 by Cheong Choon Ng, a Malaysian-born former seatbelt technology developer from Michigan, who noticed his daughters weaving elastic bands over their fingers to make bracelets. Ng tried it but his own fingers were too big, so he built himself a "loom" - a technology known to the clothing trade since at least the 15th Century - using pins and a wooden slab. </div>
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Ng developed a plastic version and set up a business manufacturing them, investing $10,000. He got a toyshop to stock his product and, after it sold out within a few hours, other stores took an interest. It spread from there and looms and bands can now be seen in schools and homes around the UK and US. I wonder if he patented the idea? We saw them for sale this summer in the rural Adeche in France at every market we went to. 1 Euro for each packet and they were everywhere. My ten year old daughter has made at least fifty bracelets since the craze begun and has made several for me. The difference with these bands (invented by a mother) is they are smoother, tougher and don't smell toxic. I found that all the previous bracelets she made for me broke within 24 hours. The rainbow refill pack above comes with 5400 bands in 18 different colours including neon, glitter, solid and glow in the dark variations. Compatible with all loom kits and you can buy it on Amazon.</div>
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Long before I was married and became a mother, I was invited to join four writers and two photographers who were travelling to Yemen. I barely knew where Yemen was, but it sounded exotic and enticing, and I soon discovered that it lies between the Red and Arabian Seas. It was November, 1996, and as the date of departure grew closer, I learnt more, and became excited about seeing the mud tower houses in the desert, the stone dwellings in the mountains, and the conical clay huts in the Tihama.<br />
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We were lucky to travel to the Yemen when we did. The latest news from The Foreign and Commonwealth Office advise against all travel to Yemen and strongly urges British nationals to leave. They warn that there is a high threat from terrorism throughout Yemen and specific methods of attack are evolving and increasing in sophistication. Not only did we not experience any hostility or threat, but we were treated very well.<br />
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I packed long skirts and scarfs to cover my head and flew to San’a, the capital of the Yemen. The old walled city has been occupied for over 2,500 years and is a world heritage Unesco site. The first morning, I strolled outside to find medieval tower houses rising like sculpted cakes and the decorative window surrounds dripping like white icing. The men – (many of whom strode around hand in hand) wore red and white check turbans, sarongs and swashbuckling jambiyas (ceremonial daggers worn at the waist). The city was bleakly devoid of women and the couple that we eventually came across, were veiled head to foot in black. In the souk we passed a mad man, shackled at the wrists and ankles, shuffling through the juice bars and fruit and vegetable displays with a haunted, wild, expression.<br />
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One of the group, a photographer, (who was later to become my husband) beckoned me down some stairs toward the frenzied sound of drumming, into a dark cellar lit by bare, swinging light bulbs. Men squatted on the floor, cheeks bulging with qat, dealing the narcotic leaf, to men who lined up to buy it.<br />
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Later that evening, we met Tim Mackintosh Smith, the writer and Arabist, who has lived in the Yemen for more than thirty years, in the summit of a mediaeval tower. He was wearing a long flowing gown, chewing qat and sporting a huge beard. He offered us black tea with cardamom, and we chatted over the haunting backdrop of the Call to Prayer, from one of minarets nearby. He was working on what would become Yemen: Travels in Dictionary Land, which won the Thomas Cook/Daily Telegraph Travel Book Award in 1998.<br />
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The following day we set off in a Toyota Landcruiser driven by a man called Hussain. He had weary brown eyes and owned an English/Arabic phrase book, with quaint phrases and illustrations and answered ‘no problem no problem’ to our every request. We were all charmed by him immediately. We were heading for the Hadhramaut, which extends from the coast to the Arabian Sea to the southern deserts. When we reached Ma’rib, 120 miles East of Sana’a, Hussain led us to a restaurant, where tribal men had laid down their AK47 rifles to eat grilled chicken, garlic beans and flat bread. There were no women in the café, although a female beggar sat on the doorstep collecting leftovers. Later that day we visited old Ma’rib, an almost deserted mud town set high on a hill. I wrote in my diary: “dark eerie windows in the baked towers look like the eyes of Antony Gormley sculptures. An unveiled peasant woman dressed in red scavenges among the decaying houses for firewood and a three legged donkey lies exhausted in the road.”<br />
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On the third day we embarked on a journey to cross “the empty quarter” a desert, covering 250,000 square miles of southern Arabia. Wilfred Thesiger, the legendary explorer of Arabia, described it as 'a bitter, desiccated land that knows nothing of gentleness or ease ... a cruel land that can cast a spell which no temperate clime can match'. We bumped across the dunes, driven by an angry young Bedouin in a white turban and another man who sat cradling his machine gun on his lap. After a long, hot dusty drive we eventually reached the ancient town of Shabwa, built from granite volcanic rock, where the derelict houses are sculpted against a backdrop of black mountains. Later that day, we passed Shibam, a sixteenth century walled town, which guidebooks call ‘the Manhattan of the Desert.” From a distance the medieval mud skyscrapers are truly staggering to behold, magnificent and beautiful. Located at an important caravan halt on the spice and incense route across the Southern Arabian plateau, the city of dwellings up to seven storeys high are developed on a fortified, rectangular grid plan of streets and squares. We left Shibam as long shadows played on the ribbed sand of the dunes.<br />
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By day 4 we had reached Tarim, a dusty, desert town where men were playing lazy games of dominoes and chess. There were no ceremonial daggers around their waists and the pace of life seemed gentle. Goats, chicken and donkeys wandered through the souk and unlike Sana’a, not many of the men were chewing qat; it is not grown in the region.<br />
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On the long drive to Mukhalla a troop of baboons were squatting on the lunar landscape. We stopped at an ancient mountain village where men were making bricks, and one of our group, Annabel, bought some honey that the Yemenis claimed was an aphrodisiac. The port town of Mukhalla was filthy and pungent and the men wore Westernized jackets. It was nothing like Freya Stark’s description of 1935, “Tall houses every shade of white and grey… a naked crowd with brilliant loincloths and turbans.” We spent a day at the beach, mesmerized by a large school of dolphins.<br />
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Back in Sana’a, we were invited to Hussain’s house for lunch, one of the highlights of the trip. We removed our shoes at the front door, and then sat on the carpeted floor lined with hard cushions and bolsters. We were served fenugreek stew and doughy bits of bread dipped in a herby soup with chives, and brought in by a dutiful smiling son. Hussain’s daughters, wife and mother remained firmly out of sight, but we caught glimpses of them when we said goodbye, before Hussan’s wife hastily covered her face.<br />
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It was a long, winding drive to Ta’izz, high up in the mountains – a cosmopolitan town with lots of cafes and shops, where many of the women were unveiled. We visited the Ashrafiya Mosque, a white building at the top of the old town built with minimalist-style arches and tall narrow walkways that kept it cool.<br />
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Towards the end of our trip we reached Al-Khawkha, once an important coffee exporting port and the biggest fishing village on the southern coast of the Red Sea. In better times it is touted as a tourist resort. We saw beautiful, unveiled women wearing long, patterned dresses, walking freely through sandy palm groves. Walking by the coast, we passed colourful fishing boats and saw flamingoes, sea eagles and sandpipers. <br />
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The next day we visited Zabid, one of the oldest towns in the Yemen, and on the Unesco World Heritage List after Shibam and San’a. It was the capital of Yemen from the 13th to the 15th century and a center of the Arab and Muslim world due in large part to its University of Zabid. In 2000, Zabid was listed on the list of world heritage sites in danger, due to a state of poor upkeep and conservation. Sadly when we visited it was in a state of disrepair. <br />
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The last couple of days in the Yemen, we drove back to San’a along the dried up Wadi Sari. We saw weaverbird nests, girls carrying firewood on their heads, and boys selling bananas. The mountain houses were made of coloured patterned stones and the temperature dropped as we reached Thilla, situated above a sloping basin of terraced fields where we ate our last lunch. At the end of a magical journey it was as though we had visited several different countries within one, mediaeval cities, desert towns, coastal resorts, and mountainous regions. It was a deeply romantic and memorable journey, and one that I will never forget.<br />
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<i>This is dedicated to the talented writer and editor, Annabel Freyburg, one of my companions on this trip, who sadly died on the 8th December, 2013.</i><br />
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Huge congratulations to my local health club: <a href="http://www.theparkclub.co.uk/">The Park Club in Acton.</a> They have won the Tatler Award for Best Family Club! Here is what <i>Tatler </i>had to say:<br />
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<i>If Shepherd's Bush is the new Notting Hill (which it is), the Park Club is the new Hurlingham. It's extremely family- friendly, with loads of land (27 acres!) - members drive from all over London for a great slice of the outdoors. And kids rule - there are holiday and tennis clubs and all manner of tantrum-avoiding activities. If you can see past all the pyjama-clad smalls (exercised, showered, fed, doing their prep in the café before being shipped home to bed), you will spot a lot of very glamorous people.</i></div>
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<i>Monthly membership, from £213 (joining fee, £150). At East Acton Lane, W3 (theparkclub.co.uk; 020 8743 4321)</i>.</div>
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Read more at <a href="http://www.tatler.com/news/articles/june/the-tatler-gym-awards-2014-part-three#olHOVmZ0o2bYPdKS.99">http://www.tatler.com/news/articles/june/the-tatler-gym-awards-2014-part-three#olHOVmZ0o2bYPdKS.99</a></div>
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The Park Club is much less stuffy and conventional than Hurlingham, and the HUGE difference is that there is NOT a fifteen year waiting list, in fact, there is NO waiting list - new members are courted and very much welcome. I would totally agree though, that the Park Club is superb for families, and it's true that young children practically live here after school: doing their prep, eating their kid-friendly suppers, showering, and being whisked home to bed. It is where huge numbers of local school children (both posh-state and private) meet after school to just hang out and play - think private park with indoor and outdoor swimming pools, ping pong, football, cricket, tennis, plus endless tennis and swimming lessons, a playground, sandpit, bouncy trampoling thing, and lots of space to run. My ten year old daughter plays tennis there or just plays football with the boys, or hangs out in the computer room, she likes to swim too and will always find someone to do something with.<br />
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I go for pilates, yoga and swimming and sometimes even<i> I </i>work, eat and shower there too.</div>
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We love it. Bring it on!</div>
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THE MOVIE CAN'T BE WATCHED ON A FULL SCREEN<br />
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A big thank you though to Morrisons and Britmums. Our Bank Holiday lunch was superb: Roasted peppers cooked in the oven with tiny tomatoes, peas, feta and lentil salad, lamb chops marinated in garlic and herbs and plain rice. I calculate that the cost per head was approximately, £2.50. </div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14967282294766601919noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7212621761718074874.post-53419957315497986862014-05-06T11:18:00.000+01:002014-05-06T11:24:43.823+01:00My PhobiaThere is no problem driving around the city in my Audi Estate car, ferrying children, taking myself to the gym, or doing the school run. My consumption of alcohol is nominal, so I am also the allocated driver after any social occasion in the evening, as my husband likes to drink when we are out. I have no fear of traffic and can barge, push and cut in, along with the most seasoned city drivers – I have been driving for 25 years. I am able to navigate the biggest, scariest, roundabouts with no problem at all, park in a hurry, and wheedle through traffic. Occasionally, at night, on the Westway (a dual carriage way that bends from Marylebone to the A40) I can be a little frozen with nerves driving at 40 or 50 mph on what I think of as a conveyor belt and not having the best eyesight in dark conditions, but generally, driving in the city poses no problems for me.<br />
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My fear around driving kicks in on a motorway. I am apparently a sufferer of DAD (Driving Anxiety Disorder) and have a phobia of driving in these conditions. There is no Latin word for this kind of phobia but the nearest is hodophobia (fear of travelling). A hypnotist I went to see said that fear of driving on the motorway and fear of flying are the two most common reasons, people come to see him, so there is some comfort that I am not alone. The sheer speed of the cars hurtling along the motorway terrifies and exhausts me. The combination of fear and concentration needed for me to drive in these conditions, means that if I do drive on the motorway, I can only keep going for about an hour. I feel trapped and fear the fear of anxiety, or having a panic attack and hate the fact that there is no escape.<br />
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I haven’t driven on my own on the motorway for many years. I forced myself to drive in France last year, as we had driven from London and it would have been absurd to allow my husband drive all that way, but I certainly didn’t enjoy the experience and was very tense throughout. I can’t remember now, what it was like to drive in a carefree way, without worrying about crashing and dying. I don’t remember the problem when I was a single woman, but as soon as I was in a long-term relationship and out of the habit of driving on the motorway, the terror suffocated me. The first time it occurred our young children were in the back of the car and suddenly, the thought that we could crash seemed very real, and imminent. I got palpitations, sweaty hands and was short of breath – the symptoms of a panic attack. I slowed down from about 70mph to 30mph and eventually came to a stop on the layby. My husband had to take over at the wheel. I was conscious that my actions were frightening for the children, but there was nothing I could do about it. I’m not sure what would have happened if I had been on my own.<br />
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The speed and pace of the cars on the motorway always feels so relentless and my fear is that either my car will spin out of control and we will crash and die, or that I will tire of driving and won’t be able to stop, which makes me panic. When my husband is driving, I often wonder what would happen if he suddenly had a heart attack, or if the wheel burst, or another driver spun out of control. The apprehension and terror about driving is partly borne out by evidence: It seems to me that every time we drive somewhere on the motorway, we witness an accident. A hypnotist, who was trying to cure me of my phobia, told me that I was looking for accidents, but I don’t think so. He also told me that driving was relatively safe, and asked me why I’d like to get off the motorway, once I’d started to drive, surely he said, you would want to get off when it was time to get off. However after about half an hour I want to stop. That is why driving in the city works for me, there are frequent reasons to stop or slow, down and catch your breath. I don’t like the sensation of being trapped not only in the car, but on the road, hurtling along in a piece of metal. I feel vulnerable, the sensation of going fast for so long doesn’t seem natural, although it once did. My hypnotist told me to breath in and breathe out calmly saying, I am in Control, and sometimes that works a bit, but the fact that it has been proved both in the UK and the US that travelling on the highway or motorway is safer than travelling on ordinary roads does not inspire me.<br />
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I had a car accident when I was sixteen, and no doubt this is the source of my fear. We were not driving on a motorway, but on a small road in Nassau in the Bahamas. We had left a club, and I had climbed into a car with a teenage boy. He drove through a stop sign and a taxi crashed into the side of the car, where I was sitting in the back. The impact of the crash, broke my femur and I was in hospital for three months, while the bone failed to heal. It was a very long time before I could walk again. The more reasonable part of me knows the boy was obviously an inexperienced driver and had been drinking, but I am also hyper-aware that there may be other drivers out there who are inexperienced or have been drinking, although in the UK, it is prohibitively expensive for a young person to get insured to drive, but maybe that just means that a rich drunk, teenager would maybe crash into me rather than a poor drunk one.<br />
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I am envious of my friends who have so much more independence than me, it is not a good feeling to rely on other people to get me from A to B. I also had a three hour course by a company that helps nervous drivers. I was able to drive with the instructor on a stretch of motorway, but still it has not helped me overcome my fear, I still can't bear the idea of going on my own or for driving long distances. I know I need to practice driving on the motorway more often to help overcome my fear. I know this, and yet I don’t. I often wonder what would happen in an emergency, if I really needed to drive down the motorway on my own. I suspect that I would be able to do it, albeit slowly! Or would I?<br />
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
I am on the set of <a href="http://www.whatsontv.co.uk/law-and-order-uk/episodes/safe-from-harm?fb_action_ids=10152328063104108&fb_action_types=og.likes&fb_source=aggregation&fb_aggregation_id=288381481237582">Law and Order </a>watching my 12-year-old-son rehearse a scene with a crowd of crew and actors including Bradley
Walsh and Ben Bailey-Smith who star as the two detectives. This is my son’s
first paid job and I am his chaperone, earning a fifth of what he is. My flat
fee for the morning is £95. The money has gone to his head and he’s offered to
buy us a “mansion” when he grows up and gets to Hollywood. I feel as though I am at his mercy and that he
has a strange new power over me. He is the undisputed star, and me and his
father are merely the facilitators – the ones who get him to castings, or help
him learn lines. He is an A-lister and we
are nobody’s. When he goes to his agent’s Christmas Party, he is the one who is
taken around and introduced to all the other performers (he is at the same
agency as Eddie Izzard, Rowan Atkinson and Dylan Moran) while me or his Dad
linger around on the sidelines hoping someone will talk to us. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
We never aspired to have a child
actor as a son. When he was nine some proactive parents persuaded Olly Murs,
Davina Mccall, and Oritze from JLS to come and judge the school talent contest.
Our son won first prize, with a satirical stand up comedy routine he wrote
about his family. The laughs were at our expense of course.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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The first prize was an acting agent
and we were somewhat taken aback, horrified actually. We did not envisage our
child being a professional actor. His days were already filled with schoolwork,
football and piano. Jude was determined that acting was his new vocation, and harassed
us for a year. We eventually gave in and went to visit our first prize and
discovered that she wanted us to pay to have his photograph in Spotlight - a
mere £95. We went home and did nothing. She did nothing either and so we parted
ways. I was relieved. Perhaps that would be the end of it. <o:p></o:p></div>
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He continued to harangue us though.
Every few weeks he would ask us if we had found him another agent; and I would answer
that it’s hard to ‘find an agent.’ They
have to see you act in something. They need to love you, and want to work with
you. I asked advice from a casting agent acquaintance and she tried to put me
off by saying having a child actor in the family was problematic – all the auditions
you have to take them to, schlepping across town in rush hour. I relayed the information to my son, but he
was more determined than ever.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<br /></div>
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When he eventually ended up at PBJ
Management, his brand new agent sat down one afternoon and explained that there
would be many reasons he may not win a part – it could be as minor as having
the wrong colour hair, or that he didn't look enough like the “parents” who had
already been cast. Luckily he’s small for his age as most casting agents want a
boy who looks younger than his years. He’s been put up for parts that
occasionally I’ve had to veto because the content of the script seems too
alarming or dark (think sexual predators or murder most horrid). He recently
auditioned for a lead part in an American action film that if he actually won, would
been reallocating to New Zealand for six months filming. Whenever I ask, ‘what
if he actually he gets the part? Because that would mean turning our life
upside down, his agent always replies, “we’ll cross that bridge when we get to
it.” <o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
Law and Order was about his tenth audition.
An actress on the set told me that an actor will get about one job in every
thirty auditions. The competition is vicious. At the various castings I have
met extremely dedicated parents. Fathers who home school their children, especially
so that they can get them to the castings and have time to learn their scenes
without the constraints of a school day; children who are at full time stage
school and do extra dancing and acting at the weekends.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
Scenes are sent home one or two days
before an audition and children are expected to know about three off by heart. Castings
are usually in central London, at the end of a long, busy day. We have twice
been called to the BBC in Elstree, (The first time we went, we walked from the
station two miles up the road to the wrong BBC studios). There is unlikely to
be any feedback on the child’s performance, and if there is a call back the
child will have to go again, and do the same scene again, only this time in
front of the producer and director. Not every child would be able to deal with
the rejection, but my son is fairly sanguine about it, and my feeling is that
it is good preparation for the real world.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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The day of the shoot for Law and
Order he is treated like a Prince. He has a bedroom in the house, with an en-suite
bathroom where he can chill out between scenes. There are snacks delivered to
the room from the studios (about a mile away) when he is hungry. He asks for several different snacks, which
are driven over by a man whose job it is to drive us around. He collected us at
6.00 a.m and explained that on TV productions
such as this, it’s only the lead and child actors who are chauffeured to the
set, everyone else travels on public transport and only the stars and my son (because
he is a child) get an en-suite bathroom. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<br /></div>
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When it comes to the actual scenes,
I watch on a monitor in the kitchen. There is no sound, but he does look like a
nervous, guilty boy, trying to defend his mother as he is supposed to while
being questioned by the police. I see him mouthing the words on the screen. He
appears to be on the verge of tears and he is doing exactly what is says in the
script – twitching his hands. For a shy boy like my son who often feels he’s
“shrinking away” at school because of is height, learning lines, auditioning in
front of strangers and finally acting real scenes has given him an enormous
boost of confidence and some welcome extra pocket money. I am a convert and glad he enjoys is career
but still wondering what will happen if we have to relocate to New Zealand.<o:p></o:p><br />
<br />
Law and Order (episode 2) tonight at 9pm on ITV</div>
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<br /></div>
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<br /></div>
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<br /></div>
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<br /></div>
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} catch(err) {}</script>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14967282294766601919noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7212621761718074874.post-18300535874131978432014-03-14T14:18:00.000+00:002014-03-15T09:47:49.346+00:00Review of Labor Day starring Kate Winslet and Josh Brolin<br />
Labor Day, released in the UK on the 21st of March, is a movie based on the novel by Joyce Maynard and reduced both me and my girlfriend to tears. Directed by Jason Reitman, (the director of Juno, which I loved) It's the story of a doomed love affair between a convict (Josh Brolin as Frank Chambers) on the run, and a depressed, sensitive, quivering wreck of a single mother, Adele Wheeler played by Winslet. (We were both impressed that to convey the 'depressed mother,' Winslet appears at the beginning of the movie, with matted hair and scarcely any makeup). It's set In 1987, in rural America. Adele has been moping since her husband left her and lives with her 13-year-old son, Henry (Gattlin Griffith) who brings her coffee in the mornings and helps her put the car into gear when they leave the house - its what's known as a co-dependent relationship! While they are doing their monthly shopping trip (Adele is agrophobic) a bloody man approaches Henry and persuades or mildly forces him to introduce him to his mother and then he forces her to give him a lift. The man is revealed to be Frank Chambers, a convict who is wanted by the police after jumping from the second floor of a hospital where he was sent to have his appendix out.<br />
<br />
Bronlin first appears with a goatee, (which he apparently persuaded the producers he had to have to make him look more menacing) the point is though, that not once, did I think he was menacing or that he would do the mother and child any harm. He ties up Winslet, to look as though he's kidnapping her, but with pointedly suggestive shots of Winslet's ankle, as he's tying her, you know that he's already lusting after her, and they will inevitably fall in love. The audience are given more and more signposts incase we don't get what's going on - a repetivtive ominous drum beat whenever we are meant to think that Frank could be re-caught and huge flashing signs about the burgeoning relationship between him and Winslet - close-ups of their sweaty bodies and a cliched scene of them all making a pie together, thrusting their hands together in a bowl of butter and flour. My friend said it took her, "a very long time to engage with the characters and that she didn't believe they could fall in love so quickly." I was taken in by their love affair though; Adele had been alone for years, and needed the huge physical presence of a man like Bronlin who wanted to take care of her, to knock her out of her mood and there was also the fact that he had been wrongly imprisoned for years and without the love of a good woman.<br />
<br />
Through flashbacks, it is revealed that Frank is a Vietnam veteran who returned home and married his pregnant girlfriend, Mandy (Maika Monroe), who soon gave birth. A year after the baby's birth, Frank and Mandy had a fight, where she unintentionally revealed that he isn't the baby's father. During the fight, he accidentally pushed her against a radiator, resulting in her death. Simultaneously, the baby drowned and Frank was sent to jail for Mandy's murder.<br />
<br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.youtube.com/embed/QOQL3Xi8dPE?feature=player_embedded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div>
By the end of the film, I was hooked, really hoping that they would be able to run away together and start a new life. When that didn't happen, most of the people in the screening were crying and still crying when in the last few minutes when they are reunited many years later (I don't want to give too much away here, but perhaps I already have). The performances from the three lead characters are excellent. We both wished their had been more scenes between Henry and his step-brother, very funny indeed, perfectly catching that awkward teen phase, when parents are SO annoying. I award 3 stars out of 5.<br />
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Luckily, soon afterwards, I joined the <a href="http://www.theparkclub.co.uk/">Park Club in Acton</a> and not only benefitted from getting fit after the birth of my first baby, but discovered Anya at the health spa, who is the woman I go to for facials and pedicures and the occasional massage. Part of my routine at the Park Club also includes regular Pilates with Louise and more recently dynamic yoga with Karen. The sessions are part of my week, written in stone in my diary, and I couldn't do without them. The Askew Road is unrecognisable too now, with the opening of The Eagle (gastro pub) The Ginger Pig Butcher, Lavelli Bakery, two supermarkets a vintage clothes shop and a mid century furniture shop.<br />
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The area is improving and then last year with much fanfare and a day of free mini mani/pedi/facials for members, the <a href="http://www.theparkclubmedispa.co.uk/">Medispa</a> at the Park Club opened. The director is Dr Bela Horvath, a true professional, who is adamant that he only uses the best and safest products and takes the job of analysing your face very seriously. It is a real bonus to have all these treatments available only a few minutes away. If I could afford to, I would probably try every treatment on offer and there are a few to choose from including Botox, dermal fillers, dermal roller, mesotherapy, PRGF twilight therapy skin peels and hair removal. <br />
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It was hard to choose what to have for my first treatment, but in the end Dr Bela suggested that I try a bit of cheek contouring, which would hopefully make my face that little bit more youthful. (Believe me I need any help I can get!) The treatment took about forty minutes, and started with Dr Bela gazing at me intently and then chalking some lines on my face that would guide him when he inserted the cannula under my skin. He used Juvederm Voluma, but he explained that different products are used for different parts of the face. The micro-cannula is a newer and much safer method compared to needles. When he inserted the cannula one side of my face, it was relatively pain free, but on the other there was some pain, despite the tiny bit of anaesthetic. After two weeks of some sensitivity to the area, it settled down and I can see a fresher version of myself. The only problem is that now I want to go back and have everything possible done! <br />
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To make an appointment call 020 8743 1900 or visit the website to see the January offers.<br />
020 8743 1900<br />
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<span style="font-family: "Lucida Bright";">In
my mind Cornwall equals summer holidays: Beaches, sun and sandy picnics, seaweed, rock-pools and Daphne de Maurier. Teenagers
partying in Rock and the Port Eliot Festival. So a post-Christmas Cornwall break was not a plan that I had formed or thought about, until I saw an inviting three-bedroomed house for rent in Port Isaac, North Cornwall, right above the harbour. It looked idyllic.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Lucida Bright";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjyZkJ9q9LpGhKTDOx8WOJQMinAAxMZEgHb8xDoswb4YiVTbAsgh98xdHtU3yU-BCRh2Zyb34y9YvH8mWLVqHDTMxrR2Qo9WCcC24tNkIFSATGQ3PT_ecisOw31wKnmlqY62ijHcTRCWeu_/s1600/IMG_3631.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjyZkJ9q9LpGhKTDOx8WOJQMinAAxMZEgHb8xDoswb4YiVTbAsgh98xdHtU3yU-BCRh2Zyb34y9YvH8mWLVqHDTMxrR2Qo9WCcC24tNkIFSATGQ3PT_ecisOw31wKnmlqY62ijHcTRCWeu_/s1600/IMG_3631.jpg" height="200" width="150" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Mount Pleasant</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPYVA26DMhlbsU69rAoK8_rUeszoK116TogKbkELjGK-RXLf0KgYJcnfZDq4i0ag3H8dZvffWJRBSDk6O8XKdZr7aJ5lVJKHGrz4lSTuqbW8eKyriSKw6izpDICIUIPrivttgkgxeqzkpE/s1600/IMG_3576.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPYVA26DMhlbsU69rAoK8_rUeszoK116TogKbkELjGK-RXLf0KgYJcnfZDq4i0ag3H8dZvffWJRBSDk6O8XKdZr7aJ5lVJKHGrz4lSTuqbW8eKyriSKw6izpDICIUIPrivttgkgxeqzkpE/s1600/IMG_3576.jpg" height="200" width="150" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">View from the twin Room</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "Lucida Bright";">Port
Isaac is a charming, fishing village where Marin Clunes films Doc Martin and out of season, it is lively, but not crowded. Our house is called <a href="http://www.classic.co.uk/holiday-cottage/desc-2602.html">Mount Pleasant</a> which we rented through Classic Cottages. On our first morning, we
wake up to </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Lucida Bright';">the sounds of seagulls and the sea and </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Lucida Bright';">an incredible view - sunlight on the cliffs, waves laping on
the beach, fishermen preparing to take a boat out. My husband is delighted to discover a good coffee shop and a fabulous fishmongers selling fresh oysters, mussels and all kinds of fish, less than five minutes walk from the house, but my tip would be to avoid the cornish pasties.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Lucida Bright";">We
are lucky enough to have almost perfect weather. On our first day, we hire bikes in Wadebridge and cycle </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Lucida Bright';">along the old railway line, The Camel Way, </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Lucida Bright';">five miles to Padstow, which the children love, as they don't particularly like going for walks. When we arrive we stumble upon the queue at <a href="http://www.rickstein.com/Steins-Fish-and-Chips.html">Rick Stein’s café</a> and join it. The grilled
mackerel and chips are delicious, my husband enjoys his cod and chips and it all seems even better after our bike ride. We waddle off to one of several ice cream shops in Padstow and the children tank up on huge sticky icecreams. Rick Stein has a food empire in
Padstow, although apparently he lives mostly in Australia! When we pop into his
deli on the way back to the bikes, I am not amused to find a loaf of bread selling for £7. The second time
we went to Padstow to meet some friends, we had to queue at the fish and chips for 45 minutes,
but still somehow it was worth it. The man I was queueing next to, told me that in
August you can’t even get into the car parks in Padstow! I dread to think how long you would have to wait for a table during the peak summer months. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Lucida Bright";">The
children went flowriding twice at the <a href="http://www.retallackresort.co.uk/flow-rider.php">Retallack Resort </a> (about a half hour drive from Port Isaac) which they loved – basically you learn to surf on a kind of giant wave machine, an ingenious idea. They enjoyed it despite
freezing their buts off and having to wear over-sized wetsuits that were wet and cold when they put them on (NB Retallack, equip yourself with more wetsuits). On New Years Eve we gazed at the short but sweet firework display over the harbour and wished each other a Happy New Year, while swigging champagne that had been left for us in the fridge! <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQzVIaDIN4rUtLH9ZgRMxwqXchQoPAs-zKDItg5ZMUkOrlQiROPFw2E0XMMlS_vTM3qGUddJkbtNdSfpQLHPYtSVyPLFiYTxQIb0co3XdCA4gfCDE7Hzs9CeJQE9P7kTjvAXf6Arzw6KmU/s1600/IMG_3665.jpg" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQzVIaDIN4rUtLH9ZgRMxwqXchQoPAs-zKDItg5ZMUkOrlQiROPFw2E0XMMlS_vTM3qGUddJkbtNdSfpQLHPYtSVyPLFiYTxQIb0co3XdCA4gfCDE7Hzs9CeJQE9P7kTjvAXf6Arzw6KmU/s1600/IMG_3665.jpg" height="200" width="150" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: "Lucida Bright";">We
walked along cliffs, glanced at rainbows, ate in numerous pubs, played scrabble, read and ate some
more. We walked along the beach at Polzeath, where brave surfers were out on their boards despite the cold. We did a challenging walk along the cliffs from Port Isaac to Port Quinn on a beautiful afternoon. I came home, rested, fat and happy to have spent time with my family, as usually we go on holiday with friends. Happy 2014!<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: "Lucida Bright";"></span>To book Mount Pleasant (from £456 for the week) or other coastal and country cottages <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">call<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>01326 555 555<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>or visit<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="http://www.classic.co.uk/" style="color: blue; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: underline;"><span style="color: windowtext;">www.classic.co.uk</span></a><b>. </b></span></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Lucida Bright";"></span></div>
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} catch(err) {}</script>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14967282294766601919noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7212621761718074874.post-37975077432260457492013-10-25T14:44:00.003+01:002013-10-25T14:44:45.652+01:00Bush Hall Dining RoomsI will admit straight away that four friends are involved in the <a href="http://www.bushhalldining.co.uk/">Bush Hall Dining Rooms</a>, a new stylish and friendly restaurant (it opened a few months ago) right next door to the Bush Hall music venue. I would go there anyway, as it's local to me, and a welcome addition to the mosque and middle eastern food shops along Uxbridge Road. It has a great atmosphere, and delicious food and is neither too big and noisy or too small and intensely intimate. They are offering a great half term deal, which you could use if you were shopping at Westfield, or traipsing around Holland Park, or on your way to the Bush Theatre or the Lyric in Hammersmith. Or you could just go.<br />
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Here is what Charlotte - my friend and wife of the talented chef - Tim, says:</div>
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Just to let you know that Bush Hall Dining Rooms will be offering their delicious milkshakes FREE this half term to any children that have lunch or supper in the restaurant! Together with the fixed price lunch menu (£7.50 for 1 course and £10 for 2) and the new £5.50 2 course kids menu it’s a great half term treat if you fancy a day off cooking or meeting up with school friends!</div>
<div>
Call them on 020 8749 0731 to book or just pop in on your way down the Uxbridge Road.</div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14967282294766601919noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7212621761718074874.post-41376088827570380812013-09-24T12:17:00.000+01:002013-09-24T12:18:35.678+01:00How To Academy (Shameless Self Promotion)The <a href="http://www.howtoacademy.com/">How to Academy</a> is offering a plethora of interesting courses from How to Make A Movie in a weekend, to how to Build a Bike in a morning to writing <a href="http://www.howtoacademy.com/writing/write-modern-novels-for-modern-women-378">Modern Novels for Modern Wo</a>men, a course taught by ME! It's scheduled to take place on the 16th and 17th November at The Telegraph buildings in London and should be fun and informative.<br />
<br />
If you want to write but are not quite sure how to start or finish then this course could be for you. Or perhaps you just need some help and encouragement. It's lonely writing at your desk, so it could be a good place to meet fellow writers and after the course continue to support each other in the long process of writing a novel.<br />
<br />
I am currently on (what feels like a millionth) rewrite of my novel, <i>Same As You.</i> I've had notes from an editor, and am now attempting to incorporate some of her advice into the book, which is about estranged identical twins.<br />
<br />
It took me all summer just to digest her notes, (as she has suggested some substantial changes) and I've already been working on the book for about two years! All part of the process which can be so hard, but so enjoyable and fulfilling too.<br />
<br />
<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14967282294766601919noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7212621761718074874.post-79959303992017486792013-09-11T16:17:00.001+01:002013-09-11T16:17:08.323+01:00I HATE bicyclists in LondonI am aware that I may sound like a grumpy old woman (which I probably am) but I have been meaning to rant about the subject of bicycles in London for ages. I am aware that what I am going to say is probably quite contentious, particularly as Boris has been banging on about needing more bicycles in London for a long time now. But in my opinion bicycles and cars don't mix in the urban jungle. I very nearly knocked down a man on a bike who was absolutely oblivious to the outside world recently. Not only did he have a small child on his handlebars who was not wearing a helmet, but he was also wearing head phones, and didn't even notice that I nearly collided with him. Combination (Earphones/child on handlebars = Disaster. What an idiot. And this is not the first time I have seen father's (yes it's usually father who ride with their small children on the handlebars) and not the first time I have witnessed people on bicycles without helmets or wearing headphones. I was nearly swerved into a lout who was attempting to ride a bike while holding two beer cans, one in each hand and when I screeched to a halt to avoid knocking him over, he stuck his finger up and swore at me. <div>
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Bicycle riders can't see what is going on behind them, so they need their ears and yet they listen to music. MAD. They also swerve into lanes without looking, go through red lights, meander this way and that. I HATE THEM. Why aren't there more arrests for dangerous bicycle riding?<div>
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Of course there are skilful and careful bikers out there too, but it's the dangerous, careless, ones that get noticed. I don't think we need bicycles in London, and if we do, we should one car-free day a week, in which bicyclists can use their bikes, but that's it.<br /><div>
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I have to come clean and admit that about ten or fifteen years ago, I actually did knock a man off his bike. I was turning left in a car, and just didn't look as he biked up my inside. He was OK, thank God, but it could have been worse. It was obviously my fault for not looking properly, but people on bikes,should take more CARE and be more AWARE, and not act as though they are KINGS of the road. I have heard countless other stories of people opening car doors and knocking people off bikes.</div>
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Let me explain that I did once take a bicycling safety course and after completing the course, concluded that I still didn't feel safe enough to venture out of my own hood, into dense traffic. Perhaps all cyclists should be made to take a test. Not joking by the way. I am serious.</div>
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The picture below is of me and the two children a couple of years ago, biking along the canal from W12 to Camden. No danger of cars completely safe and fun. Sorry to sound smug.<br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14967282294766601919noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7212621761718074874.post-65211055843871959632013-08-07T10:24:00.000+01:002013-08-07T10:24:25.306+01:00The Holidays
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When the school holidays arrive, I am ready. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I’ve had enough of early rising, shouting and
stressing, running up and down stairs looking for PE shorts that have gone astray
and a clean school tie. No more making cream cheese and cucumber sandwiches for
my daughter’s packed lunch at 730 in the morning, and peeling carrots that she
will never eat.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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Yes the holidays. Hurray! Lots of lazy mornings, al fresco
dining, harmonious children, card games, cafes, craft, long walks, museum
visits, a bout of baking.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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In London before we go away, the reality is somewhat more
mundane – the oven is broken, the cards are lost, it’s pouring with rain and my
son only half enjoyed the visit to the Pompeii exhibition at the British
Museum. My daughter is doing holiday sports, which means many more cream cheese
and cucumber sandwiches, more peeling of carrots and dashing around looking for
things. This morning for example we desperately dried her washed-but-not-dried sports
shorts with a hair dryer as time was ticking away. She demands to know when the
real holidays will begin (ie trip to the South of France). <o:p></o:p></div>
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I am aware that this era will not last and in a few years, they
will be off doing their own thing in the holidays. Soon they won’t want to
spend time with us preferring the company of their peers. It would be great to
focus on this fact now, when I’m nagging my son to get off the x-box/computer/screen
and shouting at my daughter to hurry up. This too shall pass and I will be left
looking at my thumb nails nostalgically remembering the magical few days we recently
spent in North Wales, where the children and their friend made a short film called,
“Jessica Almost Blond” which included lots of running up hills and shooting
each other, set against the back drop of the most stunning landscape. They
edited it, added music and further dialogue. I loved hiking along coastal paths
holding their still-small hands. Even the downpour of torrential rain on the
last night was exciting. Who needs an oven?<o:p></o:p></div>
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