It’s been really foggy for a couple of days. Lot’s of flights have been cancelled and people inconvienced. I quite like it, it feels very English – a proper pea-souper. It makes the street and shop lights take on different tones against the mist and this poor old battered bollard on my walk from the station looked unusually bright against it.
Sunday the first of November was cottage pie day. I always call it shepherds pie, but I think technically it has to be lamb to be a shepherds pie. Anyway, we made a huge pie and did nothing all day but eat it and chill out in front of the tv watching series 5 of Downton Abbey. Bliss.
This week we had multiple celebrations. Madge and I have been married 10 years. 10 years! A whole fucking decade.
It’s been a blur of cocktails and business and hotels and motorbikes and fun and laughter and worry and togetherness. The fun and laughter and togetherness always outweighed the worry. Motorbikes will always be fast and business will always be business. In the end. There’s more to it, there always is…but that remains between me and him.
We’ve come out of it still in love and still friends with his kids. The two things that mattered. I literally couldn’t have asked for more. I take my marriage model from my parents, and as they have reached 46 years, I still have some way to go.
Also, this week, it was His Birthday. When someone says to you, ‘I don’t want anything’ it’s impossible to know what to get him for his Birthday. So, instead of presents, we did some stuff. Low key, lovely stuff.
Last week we went on the most amazing ‘multi dimensional dining experience’ – the Chambers of Flavour, run by Gingerline.
I was really looking forward to it, even though the whole premise of the concept is secrecy, so I didn’t know what to expect. I’d been told it was ‘Secret Cinema for dining’, and looked at the website, which doesn’t give much away!
So, once the booking is made, you have to wait until 4pm on the day of the booking to find out where the venue is. You know it is going to be somewhere on the Overground, but that’s it. At 4pm the text arrived and we were told where to head, and to be there for 5.30pm.
On arrival we were given a welcome drink and our entrance tickets and waited for our turn to go through.
Because the whole concept relies on secrecy I can’t say anything about the experience itself, other than the fact is was amazing. An absolutely fantastic night out, with good food and great company. I have not laughed so much in ages and the minute I came out I wanted to do it again!
If you can get tickets for this or any of the Gingerline events do – I’d definitely go again.
As you know, I love a hotel, me, so was excited about the two we had booked for our stay in Barcelona.
We were only there for 6 days, but the first hotel, The Ohla, didn’t have availability for the whole week, so we took the opportunity to try two different locations while we were there.
It’s been 9 months since I had a holiday, so I was really looking forward to it. That’s way to long to leave it and I shan’t make that mistake next year! As well as a holiday this was also my Birthday present, so I was doubly excited.
We got an early flight on the Monday morning and were in Barcelona in time for lunch. Our first hotel, The Ohla was in a great location in the Bario Gothic, with lots of sidestreets full of interesting shops and restaurants, and just across the road from the Palau de la Musica. You didn’t have to walk far to eat or shop, which was perfect.
We were too early to check in but the hotel offered us drinks or lunch on the terrace and a welcome glass of cava. We opted for coffee on the roof terrace, to catch our breath and decide where to go for lunch. Our week had started!
The hotel was lovely, very modern (hidden behind a neoclassical facade) and with great service. There is a cocktail bar on the ground floor and a lovely roof terrace with a pool and bar – which is where we spent most of our time. Just the view across the Barcelona rooftops was wonderful and it was great to be able to go out for dinner and come back and have a nightcap up there. The rooms were a really good size, with lovely decor. We’d booked the ‘Design Delux’ room, which had a massive glass shower in the middle of the room. Definitely not one to book if you are shy about showering in public!
The room was overlooking Via Laietana and included free WiFi, TV, iPod dock, minibar and free bottled water, along with good quality bath products. We had breakfast included in the price, and the choice and range was great – you could get cooked food along with a great selection of continental breakfast fare.
We didn’t eat in the hotel other than than breakfast, but we did use the consierge service to book a couple of restuarants and the recommendations were very good. La Gavina on the harbour was a highlight!
All too quickly it was time for us to move on to the next location – but I would definitely go back to The Ohla if I were in Barcelona again.
On Sunday it was my Nan’s 90th Birthday.
Since being released from hospital back in June, she has settled into her new home at a residential care centre. My Mum and Aunt viewed the home ahead of Nan going there and were very pleasantly surprised at how nice and welcoming it is. I think you expect the worst – a dreary, sad place – but where Nan is seems to be the opposite. The staff are nice and there’s always an activity or something going on.
Adjusting to leaving her own house and living in the care home was not easy, and at first she was very upset and disorientated. However, as time has gone on, she has become more settled and happier than I have seen her in years. Apparently she can stay here for 12 weeks or so, but it would be a terrible shame for her to have to move again. If only she could stay here for her last years.
With round the clock company and care, she has thrived. In no small part I suspect, due to eating three meals a day and taking her tablets regularly. And just having people around her.
We all went to see her and had a small Birthday party, with sandwiches and cake, and spent some time in the garden. It was lovely.
Mum and Nan
A few weeks ago I realized that I’d have a full day and evening to myself on 2 August, when @madgie was cycling the Prudential 100 Ride London.
Rather than waste the day, I decided to investigate the possibility of a spa day at a local-ish hotel. The thought of a hotel seemed more luxurious, even if it didn’t include an overnight stay.
The Alexander House Hotel came up on a few searches and following a recommendation by Twitter pal @lastwaltz, the decision was made.
I booked a package, which included two treatments and a two-course lunch. And I couldn’t resist booking another treatment when I arrived on the day. Well, my toes were looking sooo sad and unloved!
So on Sunday I arrived promptly for my 9am start time – I didn’t want to waste a minute of pampering. I was pretty excited about the day ahead, though less about the treatments and more because I’ve never really done anything like this before – just take myself off for a massive treat on my own.
Once I’d checked in I got my spa menu. The spa is in a separate part to the main hotel and has its own garden. I had 6 hours of spa stretching ahead of me, though with almost 3 hours of treatments it felt like a nice balance. Just in case the whole doing nothing thing got a bit too much.
Yeah. Doing nothing. That’s a bit odd isn’t it? Anyone who has a busy life (who doesn’t) probably craves time to do nothing, as I do. Yet when faced with it it was almost a little overwhelming. So I just got stuck in, starting off with a swim and whirlpool, which was basically bath temperature, so that was nice and relaxing. The pool area is really quite dark, and I knew it was a beautiful day outside so I headed outside to see if there were any outdoor water options.
Bingo! In the spa garden was a lovely hot tub and sauna cabin. The sun was shining and there wasn’t a soul around. I took full advantage and sat in the hot tub reading magazines. It’s ages since I read something that wasn’t on a screen! Once I was in danger of turning into a prune I dried off and laid on a lounger for a while. I kept thinking ‘I should be doing something’ and that stupid list making to-do bot in my head kept dreaming me up things to think about. But a cup of herbal tea and some more lying down in the relaxation room definitely helped.
My first treatment was a full body massage, followed by a pedicure and then lunch. The food was delicious – soup, followed by lamb. Then more relaxing and it was time for my facial. I love a facial, and this one didn’t disappoint. By this time I was clearly relaxed, as I had a little snooze in the middle of it. I do hope I didn’t snore!
It was a bit weird and also very lovely spending time alone. As an only child I don’t mind my own company, but I am out of the habit of keeping it. It reminded me that every now and again you need to time out and have a rest – and spend some quality time with yourself. I didn’t quite manage to leave my phone in my bag, so I need to work on that one, but my excuse was I was checking in on Madge’s progress on the 100 mile cycle!
We stayed in London on Wednesday night and decided to try Foxlow in St John Street. I didn’t know anything about it other than its owned by the same people that own Hawksmoor, and was attracted by the fact they serve cocktails!
We had a quick drink at the bar (disappointingly stand-up only) while we waited for a table and were soon seated at a high bench, which felt a bit bar-like, so that was good.
The restaurant feels really comfortable, with a bustle-y atomosphere and an open kitchen, bare wood tables and white tiles. It was busy and pretty lively and there was a lot on the menu to tempt us.
I chose the beef short-rib, with a side of oh-so-bad-it’s-good macaroni cheese and @madgie had fried chicken with chicken salt fries. The fries were astonishingly good – apparently the chicken ‘salt’ is crushed chicken skin. All washed down with a few Cosmopolitans. Somewhere to go if you want something substantial to eat – though you have to order all side dishes separately.
I’d go back, though wouldn’t necessarily rush and if you drink cocktails all night it can get a bit pricey. It’s such a shame I don’t drink beer ☺
Almost a year ago, West London teenager Alice gross went missing. Alice was a student at my friend Ollie’s Forecast Academy, a Saturday performing arts school.
A while back in the Spring, over dinner and drinks, Ollie told me that he was planning on producing a West End gala in memory of Alice. I remember thinking ‘that sounds like an amazing idea’, but the scale of the ambition didn’t really sink in.
Fast forward three months. Three months of intensive planning, organising and hard work, and on 21 July we were staging ‘a unique charity gala evening of live performance in memory of Alice Gross and in aid of Alice’s Youth Music Memorial Fund’ at The Ambassadors Theatre in London. A proper theatre, in London’s Glittering West End – eek!
A few weeks before I had offered to help, unsure really what use I could be, but knowing I wanted to offer what I could. I’ve done a fair bit of event management, I organise stuff for a living, I’ve timed a two-championship winning race team with a cool head and spent 7 years in the music/video industry. I wasn’t sure what, if any of this was relevant, but I knew I wanted to help and support.
So that’s how I ended up Stage Manager on the night!
We put together a small crew. Small, considering the task ahead, at least. Luckily the core of the crew work together usually, so we didn’t all have to get to know eachother and our strange ways 🙂
We had a production meeting the night before the show and armed with clipboards, passess and running orders, we did a full page-turn and chatted through the artists and performances. With 17 separate performances, plus two speeches, there was a lot of sheer logistics in getting acts on and off stage, especially with The Ambassadors having such a small backstage and dressing room/green room area.
After a fortifying breakfast on Tuesday morning, we assembled at the stage door at 11.45 ready for load in. The first point we could get into the theatre was 12pm, and that was the first time we got to see what we were faced with. The Ambassador’s is a lovely, small, intimate theatre, and is currently home to the London performance of STOMP. This meant that we were working around the STOMP set and around their backstage set up, and the area behind the stage was extremely small.
We had several areas ‘in play’ at the same time – the backstage area, 3 dressing rooms, a green room at the top of 3 flights of stairs and some space in the cafe area of a theatre down the road. Somehow we had to organise a flow-through of artists to ensure that we could get the acts in the theatre, on the stage and off again like clockwork. And bearing in mind some of the acts had up to 20 people in them and completely different sound and set up requirements. We knew it wasn’t going to be easy.
Luckily we had radios and headsets (and a very well organised production running order). Without them we’d never have been able to co-ordinate getting everyone where they should be at the right time. Or randomly bark at eachother or still issue instructions for cable ties when someone was half a mile away in the hardware shop!
Once the sound guys had set up we were able to start the first soundchecks. The set up was complicated, due to the number of acts involved and the different requirements. We soon realised that clearing down the set for the dance act ZooNation part way through the first half didn’t make sense, and we needed to move the running order to make sure they closed that half. This caused a bit of confusion during the actual performance but we styled it out!
The sound checks took ages and we very nearly ran out of time. The fact we were still on stage at 7.15 with curtain up at 7.30 was a bit hairy, but somehow we were ready to start when we should. We were on a very tight schedule and couldn’t afford to run late.
It was terrifying giving the instruction to the theatre to dim the lights and curtain up. The guys from the theatre were lovely and so helpful and saw me through the opening bit, but after that we were pretty much on our own and our compere for the evening Eddie was on stage. Paul and I, who were backstage, quickly got into a rhythm, and thankfully Eddie was amazingly good at filling the gaps when we had technical hitches or when an artist wasn’t quite where they should be on time. Madge and Rupert were helping out with people flow and stage changeovers, and Mel and Lauren were looking after our wonderful artists in the 3 locations we had. Chris was filming, Jody was directing, Mark was PR’ing and Ollie was rightly out front, enjoying the performance.
The backstage area was roasting – and obviously very dark. There wasn’t enough room and we were a bit ‘stuttery’ in some parts with some of the technical stuff. It was stressful and it was emotional, but none of that mattered. We got every artist on stage, and they all wowed the audience. We were 10 tickets off a full-house on the night and everyone seemed to be having a great time. Most importantly, we were doing something for a great cause and for our production crew, we had delivered a show that 12 hours earlier none of us had really known how it would go.
A second career in event production awaits us 🙂 After quite a long rest…