Sunday 1st July’s Grateful List

Posted on July 7, 2018 by admin

Today I am grateful that all our children are on the way to join us.

David and I spent the day at Greenwich awaiting their arrival.

We saw the Cutty Sark which is a Britishclipper ship. It was built on the River Clyde in 1869 for the Jock Willis Shipping Line, she was one of the last tea clippers to be built and one of the fastest, coming at the end of a long period of design development, which halted as sailing ships gave way to steam propulsion. It is now a museum ship.

After looking over the Cutty Sark we climbed the hill up to the Royal Observatory and learnt all about The Meridian Line. The meridian line in Greenwich represents the Prime Meridian of the world, Longitude Zero (0° 0′ 0″). Every place on the Earth is measured in terms of its angle east or west from this line.

Since 1884, the Prime Meridian has served as the reference point for Greenwich Mean Time (GMT).

The line runs across the courtyard of the Royal Observatory and was adopted by international agreement to the irritation of the French who continued to use the Paris meridian. From www.royalparks.org.au

It was actually really interesting learning about time and navigation.

When we came back to London we met our children. It is very special to be all together again.

Until next time

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Saturday 30th June’s Grateful List

Posted on July 7, 2018 by admin

Today I am grateful for art, beautiful shopping destinations and music.

Today David and I went to the Saatchi Gallery. The Saatchi Gallery aims to provide an innovative forum for contemporary art, presenting work by largely unseen young artists or by international artists whose work has been rarely or never exhibited in the UK. Again it was modern art that challenged but I did not find beautiful. Luckily the gallery is very close to Sloane Square. Sloane Square is a beautiful shopping destination that has a fantastic selection of high-end stores. We had lunch very close to the Saatchi Gallery in a very pretty square. We managed to sit at an outdoor table in a family run restaurant where all the patrons were regulars. It was wonderful – families fighting and families making up and delicious food.

After lunch we went to the musical 42nd Street.

I absolutely loved this production. The music, the dancing, the costumes, and all the cast were amazing.

We finished our evening have dinner at Margot. It was a perfect end to a perfect day.

Until next time

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Friday’s Grateful List

Posted on July 7, 2018 by admin

Today I am grateful to be blogging again.

I lost a beautiful blog that I wrote a week ago. It was purely user error but I was so upset because it had taken so long to write I stopped blogging for a week. The replacement blog post I wrote yesterday wasn’t nearly as lovely as the original I had written a week ago. As a result I am a week behind. I will try and catch up in the next few days.

So today I am grateful for blogging again and for the stuff we did on Friday July 29th. Last Friday we had a much quieter day. We started the day by dropping into the half price ticket booth in Leicester Square. We bought tickets to 42nd Street. We were so excited to get cheap tickets we stopped for a Champagne.

Although the place we stopped is a bistro that has a number of locations throughout Britain the Champagne and cheese that was served was delicious. I had done some research and had discovered it was a bistro that came highly recommended by a number of websites. David and I had a beautiful glass of Champagne and a plate of French soft and hard cheese. If you need to stop and replenish I would highly recommend this quirky little bistro called Champagne+Fromage close to Covent Garden.

In the evening we went to Skygarden.

The Sky Garden has been designed to create an open and vibrant place of leisure, offering a rare chance to experience London from a different viewpoint. Entry to the Sky Garden is free. I couldn’t get us free tickets so I booked dinner in one of the restaurants at Skygarden called Fenchurch 37. Our dinner was delicious and we had a fabulous view.

Until next time

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Thursday’s Grateful List

Posted on July 6, 2018 by admin

Today I am grateful for our day spent in Nottinghill and the Caulthard Gallery in Somerset House.

David and I started our day having brunch in a delightful cafe called Farm Girl. It was quirky and delicious. They even knew my puppies were Boston Terriers!

We then wandered around Nottinghill and down Portobello Road.

After our morning of wandering we investigated another gallery called The Courtauld Gallery. It is famous for its iconic Impressionist and Post-Impressionist masterpieces, as well as numerous other important paintings and works of art from the Renaissance through to the 20th century.  Its research based temporary exhibitions are small in scale, and designed to offer both pleasure to the eye and stimulation for the mind. The artwork in this gallery was beautiful. David and I have definitely decided our favourite artists are those from the Impressionist and Post Impressionist era. These artists include Monet, Manet, Degas and Cezanne.

The Courtyard of Somerset House where The Caulthard Gallery was housed.

In the evening we ventured out to a beautiful restaurant called Amaya in the heart of Belgravia. Belgravia is close to the Green spaces of Hyde Park and Buckingham Palace Gardens, the upscale streets of Belgravia are defined by elegant townhouse residences, foreign embassies and posh hotels. Traditional pubs, fine-dining restaurants and independent shops can be found on the streets north of Buckingham Palace Road. Bordering Belgravia, Chelsea’s Sloane Square and Knightsbridge attract the well-heeled for luxury shopping. We definitely knew were in this area by the number of Rolls Royces parked outside the restaurant. The food and ambience of this restaurant was divine. Very well travelled friends of ours recommended this place and it lived up to expectation. Although a very upmarket restaurant we felt like we were being served by members of a large family and we felt very welcomed by them all. We chose the tasting menu which included this very delicious desert.

My very handsome date for the evening.

Until next time

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Wednesday’s Grateful List

Posted on July 3, 2018 by admin

Today I am grateful that David and I explored some little villages in the Cotswolds, Blenheim Palace and the area where Downton Abbey was filmed.

What a wonderful day. We did an Evans Evans Bus Trip . Somebody else did the driving, thinking and planning for our day. If you come to London I would recommend a Day trip like this. It was very relaxing and informative.

Blenheim Palace is home to the 12th Duke of Marlborough and his family, is the birth place of Winston Churchill and is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The gardens and roses were truly spectacular.

The little village in the Cotswolds we visited were lovely. We visited Arlington Row in Bibury and Bourton-on-the-Water on the Water.

I knew we were doing a trip out to this area before we arrived in London. I had never watched an episode of Downton Abbey. I managed to watch the whole first season on the plane trip here. I am now hooked! This is the church from the series.

Our guide for the day was very informative and lovely. We had a very gentle and enjoyable day.

Until next time

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Monday and Tuesday’s Grateful List.

Posted on June 29, 2018 by admin

Today I am grateful to Leigh Passfield. Leigh told me about Highgrove Garden. Highgrove is the private residence of TRH The Prince of Wales and The Duchess of Cornwall, near Tetbury in Gloucestershire. Since 1980 when the Prince of Wales first arrived at Highgrove, His Royal Highness has devoted much energy to transforming the gardens around the house, which are renowned as some of the most inspiring and innovative in the United Kingdom.

David hired a car and we drove out to Tetbury. I am so grateful for Goggle Maps! We got to our destination with no fighting. A good start to the day. Highgrove is not on the map anywhere so we had emailed instructions about how to get there. They included go to the end of the brick wall and turn right into the unmarked lane way. I felt like we were in a Mission Impossible movie!

The gardens were beautiful and I cannot share how they looked because we had to leave our phones and camera in the car. This was the beautiful box our tickets arrived in a number of weeks ago.

Tuesday we spent visiting Connaught Village, The Serpentine Gallery and The Victoria and Albert Museum and I had my first celebrity sighting. I spoke to Geoffrey Rush in the Serpentine Gallery. He looked wild and a little bit mad.

We had a lovely lunch at Albasto and ate Empanadas. We were sitting next to a place called Saint Aymes which is a gorgeous chocolate shop. A photo shoot was going on –

These girls looked so beautiful.

In the evening we had dinner at The Ivy in London before going to see our first London Show – Bat Out of Hell.

Photo courtesy of sbnn.co.uk .

We sat at the bar at the Ivy. The food was beautiful and fresh and delicious. The service was exemplary and it was efficient and friendly. Bat out of Hell was fabulous music in a very groovy theatre called The Dominion Theatre. The story line of Bat Out of Hell was about Strat, the young leader of the rebellious gang “The Lost” who falls in love with Raven, the beautiful daughter of the tyrannical ruler of post – apocalyptic Obsidian. It was a fabulous rock opera!

https://youtu.be/–w_UMJYgMQ

Until next time

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Sunday’s Grateful List.

Posted on June 26, 2018 by admin

Today I am grateful for Markets and tennis.

David and I went to the Columbia Markets this morning. I am so thrilled that David was happy to accompany me at 8am on a Sunday morning to flower markets. They were beautiful. I felt like I was in My Fair Lady. I wish I could share with you the people, the accents and the smells. I absolutely loved our morning.

We then wandered through Brick Lane and Spitalfields Markets both in the Shoreditch area of London. I again loved the people, the smells and the eclectic number of accents. All our senses were tantalized. This area has an amazing amount of street art. I find this sort of art so incredibly fabulous and it is modern art that I love.

Lunch was Sunday Roast in an English pub. We were surrounded by Londoners all watching London play Panama in the World Cup.

After lunch we made our way to Queens Tennis Club. We were lucky enough to get tickets to the final of the Fever Tree Champoinship. Dokovich was playing Cilic. It was a wonderful match !

Until next time

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Saturday’s Grateful List.

Posted on June 26, 2018 by admin

Today I am grateful for a day filled with art, music,sunshine, oysters and Champagne.

This morning we started our day by walking from our London accommodation along the Thames, over the Millenium Bridge to The Tate Modern Gallery.

The Tate Modern is filled with art that I didn’t like. Although I didn’t like it I was definitely challenged, and it has made me consider what I think about art.

Art is defined as

The expression or application of human creative skill and imagination, typically in a visual form such as painting or sculpture, producing works to be appreciated primarily for their beauty or emotional power.

I much prefer to look at art that is beautiful. The art at the Tate Modern was ugly and disturbing. The only pieces I liked were some photographs. Not only did I like the photographs but I liked the didactic that went with them.

I am always interested in how to let the light shine into our lives.

Although I didn’t like the art much I did like the spaces in the building. The building was Bankside Power Station and was converted into a gallery in 1996. The huge machinery was removed and the building was stripped back to its original steel structure and brickwork. The turbine hall became a dramatic entrance and display area and the boiler house became the galleries.

After the Gallery we walked along The Thames and saw more beautiful art than was in the gallery.

We finished up at Covent Garden. It was a perfect morning to sit in the sunshine and listen to fantastic buskers having lunch.

I loved the shops and ambience of Covent Garden and the buskers were amazing.

We then wandered to the iconic shopping destination Harrods. The food hall at Harrods is incredible. We ate again late in the afternoon and had Champagne and Oysters!

Our day finished with Taylor Swift at Wembley Stadium. The added bonus was Robbie Williams came on stage and sang Angels.

What an incredible day!

Until next time

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Friday’s Grateful List.

Posted on June 24, 2018 by admin

This morning I am grateful that we are in London safely.

We are spending three weeks in London sightseeing. David and I are here for the first week and then all our children join us next week.

I am always grateful when the plane lands safely at our destination.

Our first day in London we spent wandering. It is so nice to be in one place for three weeks and have no pressure to be busy.

I am so grateful to have started my day with a walk/run. My goal for this holiday is to run non stop for 20mins. Well I managed my goal on my first day! I am not quite sure how to readjust my goal for the remainder of the holiday……Do I aim to run faster for 20 mins or do I aim for 30mins non stop running? Any advice from runners would be very much appreciated. I am a very slow runner and I am very keen to avoid injury – I have had plantar fasciitis in the past.

After coming home for breakfast David and I ventured out to Oxford and Bond St. We then wandered through Carnaby where we stopped for lunch.

After lunch we investigated the National Portrait Gallery. I have to compare it with our Australian Portrait Gallery because ours is so much better! Our Gallery is filled with faces that we all know and love like Jack Thompson and Quentin Bryce. The London Portrait Gallery is filled with lots of old unfamiliar faces like The Tudors.

Photo courtesy of artfund.com

My favourite Portrait was Elton John.

Photo courtesy of standard.com.uk

After visiting the Portrait Gallery David and I wandered around the Borough Markets before coming home for an early night.

Until next time

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Monday’s Grateful List – Today I am grateful for working as a support person at Quest for Life

Posted on June 4, 2018 by admin

I am grateful for the week I spent as a support person at a Quest for Life retreat.

The Quest for Life Grounds A Beautiful Arrangement made by one of the Participants

The name of the Retreat was called Healing Your Life. This program was for people who have faced one of life’s Ds – diagnosis, divorce, death, depression or disaster. All 22 participants were dealing with different challenges. These included physical abuse, sexual abuse, chronic illness, grief, PTSD, cancer and bankruptcy and marriage breakdown. The group was very diverse and they were all looking for a more peaceful and joyful way to live their lives.

I was very grateful to be part of the team. All the participants lived at the retreat for five days and were provided beautiful food, restful accommodation and support from the two senior facilitators, a senior support person and a junior support person ( me).

I was very grateful for the opportunity to watch the change that happened to all the participants of the retreat. The process that happened at Quest was not about changing the person. It was about changing the person’s perspective and helping them to regain a sense of control over their lives.

Petrea identified in her book Quest for Life that on her retreats participants don’t often talk about their cancer, chronic pain or whatever has brought them to the retreat. More often they talk about the areas of their lives that aren’t working well or are causing them pain. The difficult times the participants have experienced or are experiencing, force them to change the way they experience life. The spirit with which these people live their life becomes what is important not the length of their life. This was definitely the magic that I witnessed.

The process of the retreat seemed to be what was instrumental in the participants transformation. They were away from their normal routine, they were allowed to rest, they were nurtured by the non – judgemental nature of the facilitators, they were given beautiful , nutritious food and clean filtered water and they were given numerous tools to use in their lives. These tools included the role of meditation, living mindfully, taking charge of their thoughts and feelings, practical strategies to communicate better, learning to respond rather than react, and managing their lives more skilfully. All the skills that the participants learnt allowed them to produce new habits by developing new neural pathways in the brain.

Dan Siegel explains that it is possible to Change your Brain :

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i4tR5Ebc4Mw

And this is what changing your brain looks like:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8NA_o1jOjsQ

I believe that the participants all started to produce new neural pathways and thus changed their brains. This was done because they all the information that they were presented was seen with their eyes, heard through their ears and felt in their bodies. I was grateful to not only witness these changes but these changes happened to me also.

I am so grateful to have been able to witness the joy that came into these people’s lives in a week. All the participants were so courageous. They participated in the retreat, they shared their stories and they committed to living their lives more joyfully.

Until next time

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