As it is the last weekend of March, we adjusted the clocks last night. We are now back to GMT+1, which is 'daylight saving time'. Practically it means for our South African followers that the time difference is back to one hour. For the European followers it makes no difference as they changed at the same time.
We now have our travel plans for the next month:
On 4 April we take the overnight ferry from Harwich to Hoek van Holland. On 5 April we fetch 'Onbekommerd' from the winter storage in Alkmaar, we can't wait!
On 25 April we fly back to London for Lyn's naturalisation ceremony on the 26th. On 1 May we apply for her Dutch passport. That should take around 2 weeks to arrive, so we will get back to Holland around 15 May. We will then live on Onbekommerd until end September.
Off for a walk now, from Buckingham Palace to Little Venice and then on to Camden. That is two sections of the Jubilee Greenway. Benjamin Britten's War Requiem in the Royal Festival Hall on the South Bank tonight. Busy busy....
This is "Onbekommerd"!
Sunday, March 25, 2012
Saturday, March 24, 2012
Spring and Music
We have referred in a few previous posts that 'spring is in the air', but it now seems to have seriously struck! The weather the last few days has been fantastic and we had another look in Kew Gardens. A few weeks ago there were quite a lot of crocusses and very few daffodils, but now the daffodils are out in 'full force' as are the magnolias and even some hyacinths.
Also the Central London parks are especially beautiful this time of the year. Where in Kew Gardens the displays are quite 'natural' (although generally planted and not 'wild', as far as the spring flowers are concerned), the displays in St James' park and Hyde Park are a bit more formal:
Way back in August, we booked tickets for a concert in the Royal Albert Hall. The Chinese pianist Lang Lang has been performing the 5 Beethoven piano concertos this week and last night was the final performance, the 5th 'Emperor' concerto. The Philharmonia orchestra accompanied him, and also performed the 'King Stephen' overture and the 4th symphony in an all Beethoven programme. Lang Lang was excellent as was the orchestra, so we had a most enjoyable evening. We took the opportunity of taking a tour of the Royal Albert Hall before the concert. It is an enormous (and iconic) building in South Kensington, opened in 1871. The acoustics were originally woeful, but after addition of a number of 'acoustic elements' (actually they look like over a hundred of inverted mushrooms hung from the dome), it has improved substantially. The tour even took us to the Royal Box, the Royal reception area and the Royal withdrawing room (where the Queen entertains her guests when she attends events here). It was interesting to see that a photograph of the event where she hosted Nelson Mandela has a place of honour across from the Royal Box (and is mentioned extensively by the tour guide)!
The Hall seats over 5000 people (plus about 500 standing places in the 'galleries' at the top). Although we were quite high up, we had a very good view of the stage and could look right onto the soloist's hands, which for Lyn, as an amateur pianist, is important.
Also the Central London parks are especially beautiful this time of the year. Where in Kew Gardens the displays are quite 'natural' (although generally planted and not 'wild', as far as the spring flowers are concerned), the displays in St James' park and Hyde Park are a bit more formal:
Way back in August, we booked tickets for a concert in the Royal Albert Hall. The Chinese pianist Lang Lang has been performing the 5 Beethoven piano concertos this week and last night was the final performance, the 5th 'Emperor' concerto. The Philharmonia orchestra accompanied him, and also performed the 'King Stephen' overture and the 4th symphony in an all Beethoven programme. Lang Lang was excellent as was the orchestra, so we had a most enjoyable evening. We took the opportunity of taking a tour of the Royal Albert Hall before the concert. It is an enormous (and iconic) building in South Kensington, opened in 1871. The acoustics were originally woeful, but after addition of a number of 'acoustic elements' (actually they look like over a hundred of inverted mushrooms hung from the dome), it has improved substantially. The tour even took us to the Royal Box, the Royal reception area and the Royal withdrawing room (where the Queen entertains her guests when she attends events here). It was interesting to see that a photograph of the event where she hosted Nelson Mandela has a place of honour across from the Royal Box (and is mentioned extensively by the tour guide)!
The Hall seats over 5000 people (plus about 500 standing places in the 'galleries' at the top). Although we were quite high up, we had a very good view of the stage and could look right onto the soloist's hands, which for Lyn, as an amateur pianist, is important.
Late addition:
Not only the flora shows new life, the fauna plays it's part too!
Tuesday, March 20, 2012
We live in the Olympic city!
It's only 130 days until the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games, which of course are in London this year. The Olympic Park, where most of the facilities, including the Olympic Stadium, are is in East London and as we live in the Southwest, we had not seen any of it yet.
Today we made amends and set off, with Gwilym and Janine, to Bromley-by-Bow, from where there is a guided walk past the Olympic Park every day. The walk is interesting, with lots of detail on the history of the area and of the Olympic Games in London; it is the third time that the Games are being held here, after 1908 and 1948.
Although there is no access to the Park itself (it is a high security zone), you get very close and can clearly see the main stadium, the swimming, diving and water polo facilities and other stuff a bit further away. Although the Park has officially been handed over by the developers to the organising committee (within budget and on time!), there is still quite a bit of finishing off work in progress, so it still looks quite a bit like a building site.
Close by is also a big and brand new shopping centre (Westfield) and the John Lewis store there has a nice viewing platform on the third floor from where you also have a nice view of the site.
Here are some pictures:
Today we made amends and set off, with Gwilym and Janine, to Bromley-by-Bow, from where there is a guided walk past the Olympic Park every day. The walk is interesting, with lots of detail on the history of the area and of the Olympic Games in London; it is the third time that the Games are being held here, after 1908 and 1948.
Although there is no access to the Park itself (it is a high security zone), you get very close and can clearly see the main stadium, the swimming, diving and water polo facilities and other stuff a bit further away. Although the Park has officially been handed over by the developers to the organising committee (within budget and on time!), there is still quite a bit of finishing off work in progress, so it still looks quite a bit like a building site.
Close by is also a big and brand new shopping centre (Westfield) and the John Lewis store there has a nice viewing platform on the third floor from where you also have a nice view of the site.
Here are some pictures:
Stadium
Aquatic centre as seen from the DLR train
Water polo
Thursday, March 15, 2012
Museum and Musical
We have been thinking of what we still wanted to do here in London before we go to 'Onbekommerd' in less than 3 weeks time.
One of the museums we had not visited yet was the 'Victoria and Albert' museum, better know as the V&A. This museum, focussing on (mainly) British Art and Design, dates from the World Fair in 1851, it was originally known as the South Kensington Museum. Like many of these museums (think of the British Museum, the National Gallery, the Natural History Musem and the Science Museum), it is all rather overwhelming and you really need to choose one or two galleries and look at those carefully. The building, with a nice central courtyard, also dates from the mid 19th century. The central frieze mentions the 'First Exhibition of the Works of Industry of all Nations', including those Nations (not really all, in today's terms) and the date:
Afterwards we picked Sean up from his office and (after a quick and light meal) went to do another outstanding item: see a West End show. We had together decided to see Billy Elliot at the Victoria Palace theatre. It was a fantastic production, from a performance (acting, dancing and singing), from a production and from a content (the struggle of the miners during the strike and the struggle of Billy, wanting to dance instead of box) point of view. We certainly left on a high!
There is still more to come. Next week we have tickets to see and hear Lang Lang play Beethoven's 5th piano concerto at the Royal Albert Hall!
One of the museums we had not visited yet was the 'Victoria and Albert' museum, better know as the V&A. This museum, focussing on (mainly) British Art and Design, dates from the World Fair in 1851, it was originally known as the South Kensington Museum. Like many of these museums (think of the British Museum, the National Gallery, the Natural History Musem and the Science Museum), it is all rather overwhelming and you really need to choose one or two galleries and look at those carefully. The building, with a nice central courtyard, also dates from the mid 19th century. The central frieze mentions the 'First Exhibition of the Works of Industry of all Nations', including those Nations (not really all, in today's terms) and the date:
Afterwards we picked Sean up from his office and (after a quick and light meal) went to do another outstanding item: see a West End show. We had together decided to see Billy Elliot at the Victoria Palace theatre. It was a fantastic production, from a performance (acting, dancing and singing), from a production and from a content (the struggle of the miners during the strike and the struggle of Billy, wanting to dance instead of box) point of view. We certainly left on a high!
There is still more to come. Next week we have tickets to see and hear Lang Lang play Beethoven's 5th piano concerto at the Royal Albert Hall!
Sunday, March 11, 2012
Sean's new bike
Sean has decided to join the 'cycle to work' scheme, in which you can basically buy a bike with pre-tax money. The government has this scheme to encourage people cycling to work. The deal is that 90% of your commuting travel must be on the bike concerned. As Sean does not enjoy using tube or train in rush hour, he now has this bike (on which he came to lunch today).
Saturday, March 10, 2012
Another bit of the Capital Ring and our first boat trip of the season!
Today we decided to do the Richmond to Osterley Lock part of the Capital Ring walk. It's a fairly short part, which starts at Richmond Lock, follows the Thames downstream past two landmark pubs, the Town Warf and the London Apprentice, past Syon House and then from Brentford Lock following the Grand Union Canal to Osterley Lock. As it was low tide (and the Thames below Richmond is fully tidal with a more than 4m tidal difference), the river was quite 'empty' at some places, like here near Brentford:
When we arrived at Osterley, we noticed that there was a boat in the lock! As real 'boaties', we immediately went to investigate. Of course one gets talking in such a case and the friendly skipper invited us for a short trip to the next lock, which we happily accepted. So that was our first boating trip for the year. In 4 weeks time we plan to be on 'Onbekommerd' and start our six months boating spell ourselves. The skipper of this canal boat (not really a 'narrowboat' as it was 60 ft long but 10ft wide), lives permanently on it!
Going up the 'Grand Union Canal'
After turning the boat around at the next lock, the skipper (and his crew) went into the local pub. We walked back to Osterley and took the underground back to Kew to watch two six nations Rugby matches on TV.
When we arrived at Osterley, we noticed that there was a boat in the lock! As real 'boaties', we immediately went to investigate. Of course one gets talking in such a case and the friendly skipper invited us for a short trip to the next lock, which we happily accepted. So that was our first boating trip for the year. In 4 weeks time we plan to be on 'Onbekommerd' and start our six months boating spell ourselves. The skipper of this canal boat (not really a 'narrowboat' as it was 60 ft long but 10ft wide), lives permanently on it!
Going up the 'Grand Union Canal'
After turning the boat around at the next lock, the skipper (and his crew) went into the local pub. We walked back to Osterley and took the underground back to Kew to watch two six nations Rugby matches on TV.
Thursday, March 8, 2012
The Library at Senate House and Amadigi at Wigmore Hall
As many of you may know, Lyn is in her element when there are lots of textbooks around her (that's why there is a whole library being collected here for transport to Onbekommerd in 4 weeks' time...). So when on Monday we learned that - as a member of the British Psychology Society - she can get 'reference membership' to the library of the University of London at Senate House, there was great excitement. The next day we were off by tube to Russell Square and Lyn signed up and disappeared bewteen the books. She tells me it is an excellent library. I went to the Britsh Museum, which is right next door to Senate House.
Last night, we went to see Amadigi, an opera by Handel in Wigmore Hall. Now neither of us had ever seen a Handel Opera. Or been to Wigmore Hall. The title role was sung by Christopher Ainslie, the youngest son of our dear friends Don and Mascha from Cape Town.
It was absolutely spellbinding! A fantastic production on the tiny stage of the Wigmore Hall, which was really built for chamber music and recitals. As there was no room for elaborate sets, it was done virtually without props and with no costume effects to speak of, but the performance, including the acting was so good that one got completely drawn in. Of course the English surtitles of the Italian libretto helped a lot in this. Another first for us was to see and hear a 'Theorbo', an enormous Lute (which sort of visually dominated the part of the stage where the orchestra sat). The 'theorbist' was blind, so it was also the first time I saw someone read a music score in Braille...
We are so priviliged to have access to all of this, living here in London!
(by clicking on all the links I am inserting, there is a lot more to learn..!)
Last night, we went to see Amadigi, an opera by Handel in Wigmore Hall. Now neither of us had ever seen a Handel Opera. Or been to Wigmore Hall. The title role was sung by Christopher Ainslie, the youngest son of our dear friends Don and Mascha from Cape Town.
It was absolutely spellbinding! A fantastic production on the tiny stage of the Wigmore Hall, which was really built for chamber music and recitals. As there was no room for elaborate sets, it was done virtually without props and with no costume effects to speak of, but the performance, including the acting was so good that one got completely drawn in. Of course the English surtitles of the Italian libretto helped a lot in this. Another first for us was to see and hear a 'Theorbo', an enormous Lute (which sort of visually dominated the part of the stage where the orchestra sat). The 'theorbist' was blind, so it was also the first time I saw someone read a music score in Braille...
We are so priviliged to have access to all of this, living here in London!
(by clicking on all the links I am inserting, there is a lot more to learn..!)
Thursday, March 1, 2012
DUTCH!
We just got the news that the Royal Decree (Koninklijk Besluit) confirming Lyn's naturalisation has been signed!
The procedure is that one has to attend a Naturalisation Ceremony (at the Embassy here in London) and then one is a Dutch citizen retrospectively from the date the KB was signed.
The next ceremony is next week (7 March), but unfortunately it is full! The next one is probably around mid May. We will go and get Onbekommerd from the winter storage in the first week of April and then come back for the ceremony.
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