One Summers Eve.....Chelsea Physic Garden

Ok after coming back from Australia, I remained a bit out of it, just kind of gradually getting used to being around myself again, and then my friends. Weird but was kind of enjoying nights in after work, sitting on the deck reading the paper and weirdly enough doing the ironing.

Well, odder things have happened I am sure. Anyway, enough was enough, a week and a half with amazing English summer weather I had to do something and it had to be outdoors. Walking to work and home was not enough, I love the view from Chelsea bridge, but hey there can be too much of a good thing...is that possible!!

Anyway, so I did a Google, firstly on Buckingham Palace (oh dear a whole other story and blog, to come I assure you) and found that the Chelsea Physic (pronounced like the beginning of Physician) Gardens was open till late on Wednesday nights in July and August. Well it happened to be a Wednesday and July, I had no other plans. So what the heck, I went to check out the oldest Botanic Gardens in Europe...1600's.

It was very cool, and amazingly warm. It has banana plants that fruit in winter, so yes, its actually quite warm in that tidy little space in Chelsea, right near Embankment and the famous Gordon Ramsey restaurant (I walked past it on my way to collect my dinner from the most poshest Tesco's I have ever been in, location wise).

It was gorgeous and I just did a wander around, taking in the smells and the beautiful colours. I had an audio guide and found out about the gardens, the original curator being Mr Sloane (aka Sloane Square) himself, about the oldest olive tree, bees and how London has lots of them, the male and female Ginkgo trees, ferns, and best of all the Mandrakes (yes just like in Harry Potter apparently they scream and you will die - old wives tales - if you pull them out of the ground and hear them do so) which were hiding underground, as they do!! It was gorgeous, god I love an English summer.

Some pictures below - Enjoy!

Chesire Garden Wedding

Another visit to Stockport, my third or fourth actually (Matt comes down here most of the time, aren't I lucky) saw me at a friend of the familys wedding. The wedding of Gemma and Gareth. Matt's family used to go on family holidays to France with the Rodgers family (Gemma is the 2nd youngest sister). So lucky Matt, his sister and 4 other girls. His sister tells me theres lots of photos of torture there, and I cannot wait to see them!

Summer weddings are just lovely, and this one was no exception. The church was the small family church and after a short jovial (I have never seen a minister so young and not giving everyone a sermon!) wedding we headed back to their parents house, just around the corner. After lots of photos and much throwing of confetti of course, of which I still have a handful in my bag, care of Matt's niece Tilly.

The garden was gorgeous with a stepped garden, marquee, small dance floor and a massive great tree that must have been about 300 years old setting the scene. The brides brother in-law was the chef, her sisters were the bridesmaids and all their children participated too.

The food, a never ending buffet, was amazing; duck spring rolls, wee pots of bangers & mash, salmon bagels, roast beef, strawberries and cream, lemon tart, chocolate tart, fruit shaslicks, a chocolate cup cake wedding cake and at 10pm that night we had hot chips..mmmmmmmmmmmmmmm..... AND we left just as the fireworks started...but you could hear them all down the street, and see them so we still saw them in the end.

It was a lovely day, and I finally go to wear my new dress...good thing there are more weddings to come!
Matt & I at the Church, yes the Bride was late..
Matt's Sister Cathy, her hubby Steve and Tilly
The stunning garden
Matt stealing all the cakes
The actual cake, the yummiest cup cakes ever...
Matt wearing Tilly's Koala ears
Well what can you say...ehhhee

Summer Rocks!

So the sun does know how to shine in London, sure beats last years Summer. Oh sorry we didn't have Summer last year!! Doh.

Just a couple of photos from today actually, I had lunch with my friend Katy in St James Park about 2 minutes from my work and it was glorious and sunny. Then later that evening after a much, much needed massage (thanks Yvey) I popped by on my way home to say hi to Pam and Stu on a boat on the Thames (permanently moored) to enjoy the sunset. Very pretty....now off to bed, to get much needed sleep.

A wake up call...from Jamie Oliver

Its late, I should be in bed. I sat up tonight watching The Golden Compass with my parents, and found it not any less entertaining than the last time I watched it and it was far more entertaining than another episode of Cold Case could ever be.

Following that we three scared ourselves into vowing to eat healthily for the rest of our lives. Why? Well that damn, though he is kinda cute in a weirdo dorky way....oh where was I...ah yes. Jamie Oliver hosted a special documentary, or was it mockumentary (mocking us) about us greedy, salt/sugar loving, Westerners and our totally atrocious eating habits and how we are slowly seasoning ourselves to our deaths. We are are fattening our livers to the point that we are slowly, squeezing our lungs around our hearts and making fois gras out of our own livers. Tasty...I think not.

We try to justify it with, "its just one slice of white bread", "Macca's once a week won't hurt", but seriously add it up on a day to day basis. Just the little things, a biscuit here (salada or sweet), a chocolate bar there, an extra bit of sugar in your tea, added salt and you have yourself your own ticking timebomb. Oh..... you think you might be skinny despite eating all the crap (don't kid yourself it really is crap), well you can be skinny and have lots of fat around your organs, its hidden its dangerous and IT WILL KILL YOU.

Anyway, enough now, probably preaching to the converted as I am sure all the people I know eat well - or do you!!! Assess, it won't hurt.

Mum and Dad

Me with my Mum and Dad

Lisa's Super Mum

Thank you to all my lovely friends for all your well wishes, hugs and kisses to my wonderful Mum. She is doing really well, surprising us, doctors, family and friends with her swift recovery. Mum is a trooper, the bravest person I know, is very positive about her experience and I love her very much.

Here are just a couple of photos of her with just some of her get well flowers.

She's in there.....see her peeking out...
There she is...my Mum

Adelaide Visit in Pictures

Unusually for me I was not running around taking photos AKA David Bailey (a famous UK photographer...) this trip, but I did get a few and well here they are.
Oliver being silly
Oliver...again
Oliver, Anne and Renee, shopping....1 2 3 wheeeeee...
Dinner with my Santos girlfriends, Jenni, Avril, Rebecca and Megan (all I must say very lovely Yummy Mummy's)
Mary (Anne's Best Mate) and her adorable Spaniel - Ruby
My Nana with Dad and his sister Anne

Grease & Sleeping Beauty

I am still remaining sort of in touch with my goals to become a more cultured bunny, and in the last couple of months, my endeavours have however been somewhat slack.

Grease, was the word with all the finance girls from Work Directions and a damn good excuse to catch up for dinner and a show, especially since I had only left there ...oh about a week prior...and they missed me so terribly, by that stage.

I had built up quite high expectations of this musical, though I am not sure why since I was never a massive fan (sorry shock horror to so many who are) of the movie. That and no one can replace Koala Blue girl herself, Olivia and Mr. Now weirdo flying Scientologist Johnno Travolta as the key stars. All the music was there, the Pink ladies were as sassy as, the roaring T-Birds got motors reving, the costumes and set were perfectly fitting....but....

Sadly, even a highly publicised television show (Grease is the word) to recruit the stars could not produce the musically gifted talent required to reproduce Grease to its movie glory. It's odd to think, of musicals going from movies, or that could just be me given that it worked well for the Sound of Music. I personally am hanging out for Sing along Mamma Mia, Abba baby, yeah. (Oh and Grease was definitely not a singalong...which would have disappointed a few people too.)

Danny (Danny Bayne) and Sandy (Susan McFadden) were not convincing to me, though the boy could dance, and at first I though Sandys lack of ability to fill out the notes was just my un-musical ears, but Shawna agreed with me. Sandy just didn't have the voice for the songs and it was only in "Your the one that I want" she really came out strutting her stuff. Sadly, that was the last song, so by then we were snoring.

It was good, light entertainment, and I loved the encore of We go together - that and it was a great girls night out!

The English National Ballet were performing The Sleeping Beauty and after vowing to see more Ballet after loving, The Nutcracker at Christmas time - I finally went again with Sophie in May.

We had booked quite a way in advance for the show at the Royal Opera House in Covent Garden and we had prime front row dress circle tickets. At 90 quid a pop they were not cheap seats and we were not up dusting the cobwebs with the people standing at the top of the 3rd balcony that is for sure.

The Opera House itself is just gorgeous, originally built in 1732, a fire saw it rebuilt and opened by George IV in 1809 with Macbeth, alas another fire destroyed it completely and the current opera house is the one rebuilt in 1858 specifically for Ballet and Opera, obviously. I have no photos as we were not allowed to take any, which is standard.

Now before I begin, this was on the Monday night following the May Bank holiday and I was exhausted; so as much as I wanted to allow my eyes to lap up the beautiful costumes, incredible dancing (I have never seen so much point work) and the amazing set; my eyelids at some points just refused to open (just some points...I certainly did not actually sleep at any point!!).

It was slightly torturous, as it was truely beautiful, the dancers just floated like feathers and with the classic music, the fairy tale literally just swam before our eyes, it was like a magic story book opening up with the characters bursting to life right there just for us. We both had a lovely time with bubbly at the intermission, sigh...I now cannot wait for the next one...

Stay tuned for more Culture by Lisa....I plan to see Dirty Dancing, Chicago, and La Boheme before the year is out!

In hiding, In Adelaide

I know I have not been particularly adept at keeping this up to date more recently, well just a few reasons. I am in Adelaide enjoying family time, especially with my mum who has just had major surgery, thus ruling out London activities and holidays for I must say the best reason in the world.

Number two I am loved up, so all my time is devoted to the boy....sigh, and I can hear all you saying "oh please....", from here, oh yes I can!! The girls understand, I caught up with the Santos girls last night and the had the philosophy that no news is good news, and yes it sure was.

Anyway I promise I am working on updates of recent past holidays and will send them through, soonish, pending motivation and procrastination. Seems I am the best procrastinator in the world, though I do try and I believe it was a New Years resolution not to be.

Also looking forward to the arrival of Heathers baby, and sad that Fred has broken his mummy's laptop....crazy kids!

Back here soon....

PS in the middle of planning manic, crazy and super exciting trip to New York for my birthday - yippee, start spreading the news.............!

A beautiful country....

Photos taken through the dodgy two layer dirty plane windows, does not guarantee that one will be taking pictures worthy of being prized National Geographic shots.

However, such beautiful clouds and masses of glorious Australian countryside seen from great heights, it seems to me, cannot be captured any other way, but they still make beautiful pictures to me and that is all that counts - enjoy!

Flying over the south of Adelaide, lush and green
View of Adelaide in April this year...just a tad brown
This is my favourite, the low cloud in Sydney's Blue Mountains at sunrise on Sunday morning
These just looked so comfy, and if you look closely you can see two layers of clouds
Sunset whilst somewhere over Europe after flying out of London...sigh...