The Dogs

On Saturday we went to watch the greyhound racing at Wimbledon Stadium. It was like being in a Blur photo shoot, everything looked exactly as I had imagined from the colours of the stadium to the crowd of people gathered and when the sun went down it looked even better - surely all greyhound racing should take place at night, preferably wrapped up in a scarf on a cold evening. We had a blast and the evening just flew by. Astonishingly we even won back all of our money.

Foxy Floating Cinema

On Friday evening we went to the Floating Cinema at Three Mills to watch The Fantastic Mr Fox. Luckily the weather held out and we had a really lovely evening, the highlight of which was seeing the Bean, Boggis, Bunce and Mr Fox maquettes.

Gin, Pool and Rainbows

A glass of gin and a game of pool and the brightest rainbow I've ever seen at the Earl Ferrers

Peacocks and Paintings

Last week we went to the Cult of Beauty exhibition at the V&A. Walter Hamilton first wrote of the Aesthetes in his book The Aesthetic Movement in England and the exhibition attempts to piece together the people that made up this period. Given that it stretches over 40 years, is more of an ideal than a movement and revolves around largely unconnected people, it is not strange that this is the first major Aesthete exhibition.

As we visited during the penultimate weekend of the exhibition the five rooms were almost overbearingly crowded but it really added to the feeling of claustrophobic and dense opulence. The rooms are dark, mostly decorated in rich tertiary colours and corridors lead up to rooms within rooms; like voyeurs we were able to look through peepholes into a life size replica of Dante Gabriel Rossetti's bedroom and step into the cylindrical panoramic Peacock Room.

Here peacock feathers represent art for arts sake, the display of feathers fanned out are seen as a type of beautiful abandon and their iridescent colours recall jewels and the exotic. As such peacock feathers feature heavily throughout the exhibition from wall projections, to Liberty prints and large peacock friezes.

My favourite pieces were the James McNeill Whistler Nocturnes showing the everyday smoggy view of industrialised London through the beautiful shrouds of night, Aubrey Beardsley’s illustrations, heavily influenced by Japanese art and parodying the decadence of the age and Christopher Dresser’s silver teapot which looks surprisingly modern alongside the rest of the display.

Penarth

A few minutes across from Cardiff Bay is the Victorian seaside town of Penarth.  There's something comforting about old seaside towns that have somehow survived the changing of time.  The tide was out when we arrived and the wet sand was full of etched hearts.  We visited on a Sunday afternoon with the idea of eating dinner by the sea but absolutely everything was closed except The Fig Tree where we sat on the roof terrace watching the tide coming in.

Cardiff Castle

Last weekend we spent a couple of day in Cardiff.  Our first stop was Cardiff Castle.

Coast

I don't remember the ocean being quite so blue as this.

Wimbledon Washout

But even when it rains Wimbledon is fun.

That's A Bingo

Masquerading as a Gala Bingo hall in Tooting is Britain's only Grade 1 listed cinema, The Granada. I've walked past this place hundreds of time, little knowing that behind the grand old Art Deco exterior lay a mock ornamental cathedral, hall of mirrors and enough seats for 3000 people. I wish I'd brought a proper camera now.



While there we signed up for a game of bingo. You'd think it would be easy but they just go straight into the game without any warning so we missed out a ton of numbers and our laughing was met with a stern telling off from the caller! We soon shut up and paid attention when we realised the next game was for £10,000. Neither of us won anything but at one point I was one little 18 away from a full house.

18, you failed me.

Favourite Places: The Enlightenment Room

On those days when I'm at a bit of a loss and in need of some ideas I love nothing better than walking around the Enlightenment Room at the British Museum. It's such a great place to think.

It's the first big room on the right as you walk in through the main entrance and it's beautiful; the room displays a vast array of objects documenting the way collectors grouped things, seemingly unrelated objects are placed together based on characteristics like size, shape or colour. When I walk around and look at the curiosity cabinets, the collections of things - coins, shells, rocks - and the floor to ceiling book cases, I want to be a part of it, to go out and explore and most of all to be awed by the world.

Imagine seeing the world for the first time.

Another Day, Another Field

A couple of weeks ago, dressed in our prettiest countryside clothes and with our mobiles tucked out of sight we set out on the thirteen mile walk from Yalding to Sevenoaks in Kent. The more we tried not to look like London girls the more obvious it got that we were. In the end I thought ‘sod it’ and pretended I was living in The Railway Children. We were followed by two large cows, assumed to be lost by an old pipe smoking man, shared a road with deer, found a beautiful bluebell wood, walked through apple orchards and graveyards, picnicked on a village green, got stopped in our tracks by a group of sheep and then got drenched in a freakishly unexpected thunderstorm. And that’s where the novelty ended, mobiles were turned back on and a cab was called to swiftly ferry us back to the train station.

I particularly loved the old church with the large white lightning bolt shaped cracks running down the side. We stopped off here for a wander around and found wood pigeons and doves nesting nearby.



Slightly off topic but I like the bad cutting on this photo and all the springtime colours

Southbank

We had a really lovely day at the Southbank last Monday. This summer it is dripping in seaside nostalgia with old ice cream vans, beach hut galleries and a huge sand pit. It was an unusually windy day – skirts and hats went flying, the rows of paper aeroplanes near the Jubilee Bridge looked like they were about to blow away from their wires. We stopped off at the balcony bar in the Royal Festival Hall for spicyspicyspicy ginger beers and in the evening saw Frankenstein at the National Theatre. Excellent times.

Saturday

Saturday was dim sum and cupcakes at the Drunken Monkey in Shoreditch followed by beers at the always great Strongroom and a dance at the worst club with the best dancefloor in London The Electricity Showrooms.

Budapest Snaps

A few snapshots of Budapest memories – finding numerous love tokens around the city, getting an upgrade to a six bed apartment even though there was just two of us, realising the decay up close, an uphill trek just for a photo of Matthias church, getting caught in a motorcycle rally, finding all the antique shops closed, resting up outside Budapest castle.