Visiting Minehead in Somerset

One of the best things about my job is the opportunity it offers for travelling.  I've been lucky enough to visit all the major cities in Europe and many places beyond.  In someways, though, I think that the places I enjoy the most are the tiny, off-the-radar spots which I wouldn't think of going to under normal circumstances.

Last weekend, I was working in Minehead on the Somerset coast.

I'll admit, I wasn't holding out much hope.  The name itself, 'Minehead' conjured up images of depressed ex-mining towns with pollution, decay and feral youths.

Well, I'm pleased to report, I was wrong.  Minehead's lovely.

The weather was a typical English spring - grey and slightly misty.  I know that a lot of people wouldn't like this but I think it makes everything romantic and intimate.

Minehead's a small town.  It only took me about 20 minutes to walk along the beach to the hill in the picture.

The beach was full of interesting finds.

There was a lot of driftwood.  According to Wikipedia, these are the remains of an ancient submerged forest.

The tide went out a very long way, about half a mile.

There was some pretty little cottages towards the harbour.

I loved this little church.  The building adjoining it to the left was a pub.  I guess it's a case of sinning and repenting without having to walk too far.

The harbour.

There was a small nod to the gaudiness of an English seaside resort...

but generally the town was pretty and quiet.  Worth a visit, in my books.

Phew!

It's been very busy since New Year.  I've been working but most exciting of all, my wonderful boyfriend is moving in with me so we've been moving his stuff, etc.

On the down side it means that I haven't had much time for blogging.

I'll leave you with this picture I took in St. James's Park last summer...

What is love?

Graffiti.  Glasgow, autumn 2011

In Bruges, with lots of chocolate but no sign of Colin Farrell

The first stop on the trip that I mentioned here was Bruges, in Belgium.  


Bruges gets a bad press as a boring, provincial town. During the film 'In Bruges' Colin Farrell says to Ray Winstone, 'If I had grown up on a farm, and was retarded, Bruges might impress me. But I didn't, so it doesn't.'  Harsh, I feel.  I thought it was a charming, pretty little town. 


We saw beautiful medieval architecture

and sweet little homes

There were rather endearing examples of mistranslation or misunderstanding of English.  This was a posh gentleman's outfitters. We could only assume that they were thinking of horse and carriage here. 

Maybe 'Bras' means something else in Flemish but it amused us in a puerile way.  It was a restaurant.

There was unexpected humour in staid public places

You have to look carefully at this but there are two sculptural figures on that balcony.  They look like a couple who've just had an argument.

and quirky sculpture in private places.  I think this was meant to be a teradactyl. 

We ate the most delicious Flemish stew here.

and marveled at the amount of chocolate shops everywhere.  

As far as I'm concerned, a town that has a shop selling real artisanial chocolate around practically every corner can't be boring.  We found a wonderful little shop - Chocolaterie de Burg, Marleen Maenhout Burg 15, 8000 Bruges, (it doesn't have a website) - that sold the strangest and most wonderful flavours of chocolate I've ever come across;

• coriander chocolate (didn't work)
• rose & black pepper (worked)
• wild mint (didn't work)
• basil (worked)
• and all the standard flavours, praline, chilli, vanilla etc. which were lovely.

After a hard days eating chocolate, sightseeing, we needed to sit down with a hot drink.  The Boyfriend spotted Koets 27b, a beautiful tea & dining room way off the very well beaten tourist trail.  I loved it as soon as I walked in. Decor-wise, it combined rustic with refined.  It was a converted coach house with a conservatory that overlooked an old walled garden.  The only thing I didn't like was the fact that the toilets were up a very steep flight of stairs - practically a ladder.  I wouldn't like to negotiate them after a drink or two.

There were 52 varieties of tea on the menu.  I had wood flavour which tasted of raspberries.  Nice but not woody.

All in all, I loved Bruges and I'd thoroughly recommend it for an weekend away.

Those lazy, hazy, crazy days of summer...

I know - I said I'd be back and I wasn't.  I'm sorry, life just got in the way.  


It's been a wonderful summer.  Falling in love; lazy afternoons in the park; blue skies; flowers; long walks; being adopted by a local cat; gallery openings; Farnborough Air Show; discovering a crazy new band; the Grace Kelly exhibition at the V&A; rediscovering the joy of reading a book as opposed to surfing the internet.


Here is my summer...

This is one of the dresses Grace Kelly wore in 'Rear Window'.

Image courtesy of http://skirmishofwit.typepad.com

Young British Artists exhibition at the Saatchi Gallery

A Lancaster bomber accompanied by two Spitfires

I hope your summer's been as beautiful as mine.

Summer glow

Summer has finally arrived here in Britain.  After such a long, cold winter it's a real relief waking up to blue sunny skies with the promise of a long lazy day in the park to look forward to.


The advent of summer does bring with it certain perils, not least of which is the thought of baring one's pasty white winter body in light summery clothes.  This year I decided to be clever and prepare and bought myself a bottle of Dove Summer Glow.

Image courtesy of lunch.com

The bottle promises moisturiser with a hint of self tanning agents gradually builds a light tan.  Naively I thought that this was just a matter of applying it like a regular moisturiser and within a week I'd have a Jennifer Aniston-esque natural looking tan. 

Ha! Wrong!

Somehow I've ended up looking like a cross between an inverse tiger, (orange and white as opposed to orange and black, geddit?) and well, frankly bizarre.   

Here's a picture to show you what I mean.

That 'shadow' between my fingers is no shadow...  The 'moisturiser/tanning agent' has ended up between my fingers and stained them a bright orange!  It really does make me look like I have webbed fingers.

There's also a very definite line up the back of my leg.  I have no idea how that happened because I certainly apply it evenly all over.

Before you ask, yes, I did all the things they advise before tanning - exfoliating, moisturising...

I'm now frantically scrubbing myself trying to get rid of my fetching mottled orange appearance.

If anyone has any hints or tips or how to use this damn stuff, I'd be interested to find out what they are.  I've had a lot of compliments on how 'healthy' I'm looking, ( I just try to hide my webbed hands and not stand in direct sunlight so as not to highlight my inverse tiger look, ha, ha) so I'd like to know how to use this properly.

If you know how to apply it and want to take the plunge, you can buy it in the UK here.  I couldn't seem to find anywhere that sold it in the US.

Thank you!

It was with great excitement that I got home from work on Friday to find a package from the lovely Ines of All I am - a redhead waiting for me.  I'd won samples of Puredistance in a giveaway on her blog and she'd very kindly sent them along with loads of other perfume samples to try.  The last time I won anything, I was about 11 and I won a book token at school for creative writing, so it was very exciting to receive this.  I can't wait to try them. xx


Here's a picture of spring daffodils I took about a month ago by way of thank you.

Things are happening...

Apologies for the unexpected break in blogging.  Things have been moving at a rather unexpected pace chez moi.  


The most exciting thing is, I'm actually getting some work in!  On Sunday I'm going to be making my first horror film. And no, I will not, as some of my friends have suggested, be the subject of said film.  I will be employed on the technical side.  It's only for one day but I'm very excited. I'll let you know how it goes.


So celebrate such great news, I'd like to share a photo I took some days ago.  It's nothing to do with work or films or horror, it was a sign outside a sandwich shop that made me laugh.

   

The Renaissance Ball at the V&A

I adore the V&A Museum here in London.  It's everything a museum should be - it has fascinating, intelligently curated collections; it makes an effort to attract people right across the social spectrum; it has free admission, (always amazes the tourists, that one!) and it's open 7 days a week.

On the last Friday of every month the museum has a themed, late night event.  The theme always coincides with an ongoing exhibition or collection at the Museum.  Last Friday the museum held a Renaissance Ball to celebrate the opening of it's awe inspiring Medieval and Renaissance Galleries.  I love the V&A Lates so I dragged my lovely friends T.D., J.C and J.C.'s boyfriend along.  

Wow, what an incredible evening!  I was wearing a nice pair of black trousers and a blue jumper but next to these amazing people, I was horribly underdressed.

These are some of the guests...

At first I assumed that this bloke was a performer but it turned out that he was just a regular guy.  He told me that the hat was his own and that it was an 18th century guardsman's hat.  I love the fact that I share the planet with a man who has an 18th century guardsman's hat amongst his going out clothes.

This child was enchanting.  She was telling her mother off here because she was worried she'd miss the puppet show.

Naturally, there was a bar.

The whole museum is open on these evenings so that people can go and view all the collections.  You used to be able to take a glass of wine with you and walk around the museum but sadly they've stopped that.

As you wander around the place, you come across events like this puppet show.

Towards the end of the evening the DJ started playing waltzes - it thrills me just to write that sentence - and the whole crowd started waltzing.  All very 'Eyes Wide Shut'.  I did take some photos but they weren't very good because I was quite drunk by that stage.