Holland Park

I can't help but feel that those who think of Instagram as some sort of evil have either used it or seen it used in the wrong way. While some people may indeed be there for the competition of likes and followers, others like myself use it as a wonderful platform for sharing and discovering. Much of my summer To Do list has come from places I've seen in other people's Instagram pictures because, believe it or not, there are lots of people out there who seek beauty too!

Today I've been a little deeper into Notting Hill than before. A favourite place of mine when the sun is shining, turns out it has plenty to offer even when it's not.

I think Holland Park is the furthest West I've ever been on the Central Line (I know, my life is terribly exciting)! I can initially thank Paddington Bear's Guide to London (a surprisingly fantastic book for adults, not just children) for making me aware of the park's existence. As soon as I saw it had peacocks, I knew I had to go! My interest was then furthered by another recent book purchase, Quiet London by Siobhan Wall (which alongside Instagram has also formed much of my To Do list) as it told me of the Kyoto Garden within the park; a peaceful haven with Koi. Totally sold!

Having only seen photographs in each book showing small parts of the park, I'm not entirely sure what I was expecting but needless to say, it was far beyond my expectation!

Initially met by glorious exotic plants in the 'Sun Trap Garden', I wandered up steps and into woodland before stumbling upon a rather more formal English garden full to the brim with Marigolds and Sunflowers. It was here I encountered my first peacock as I sat on a bench reading my book (huge deal; the New Year's resolution has not been going well). Unfortunately the poor peacock was being terrorised by a small child but until this point I had been absolutely revelling in the peace (all except for the sound of bird calls vs. passing sirens; you're always quickly reminded of where you are in London, even when you do find these surreal spots) of the garden.

A Hippo Banquet - Mary Kingsley (one of Penguin's Little Black Books)

When the gentle breeze started to get a bit cool, I wandered on to see what else there was to discover. In my true fashion, I 'discovered' the café where I popped in for a mint tea. This time it was to take away and it kept my fingers warm until I finally found the Kyoto Garden. 

Despite being more aware of what to expect here, it was still a shock as I stepped up to its entrance. I think it was just on a much bigger scale than I thought it would be! I sat on another bench half way around the central pond to drink my tea, giggle with a mother and daughter enjoying a picnic with a hoard of pigeons and squirrels and even a peacock with a penchant for nuts, and to marvel at the hairdos that yuppie parents had subjected their yuppie children to. 

When my tea was finished, I continued around the pond, stopping for a while at the bridge over the water, transfixed by the fish. Somehow I then found my way out of the park the way I had come in and continued my wanderings on to St Luke's Mews somewhere off Portobello Road.

The prettiest row of houses I have ever seen in London, I simply stood agog, trying my hardest not to feel deep envy towards the people (or even the cat who came to make friends) living inside.

As I walked back to Notting Hill Gate and the tube, Portobello Road looked almost unrecognisable without the rows of antique stalls. Of course, I stopped off at Gelato Mio where I treated myself to an illy coffee and some writing time.

Another beautiful day and so much inner peace and stillness. Now writing this up in the garden. This is what happiness feels like.

Self-indulgence

Another day of brilliant sunshine leaves me feeling incredibly happy because I'm pretty certain Spring has finally sprung! The Easter holidays have been ever so kind in terms of an ideal balance between beautiful weather and duller days. I say an ideal balance because as much as I'd love sunshine every day, those dull days are good for doing the dull things when staying inside is required. There is nothing worse than being stuck inside on a sunny day!

Last week saw the first full day of sunshine in a long time. Feeling overly-energised, I headed out with the intention of making the most of it.

Apart from my birthday plans, one definite plan over Easter was to go back to yoga. Having loved it in the summer, I've felt sad to be away from it for so long so hoped that Easter would provide the perfect opportunity to make my return. Having worn my trusty Matalan leggings and 'PE' t-shirt for sessions in the summer, I did feel that proper clothes were in order to really motivate me (of course shopping is always the answer!) so I ventured into Wandsworth for a spot of shopping!

Hugely distracted by H&M where I made several totally necessary purchases (NONE OF WHICH WERE BLACK), I finally made my way to Sports Direct in search of some good value leggings and sports bras. I always feel a little (ok, very) odd in sports shops, and I do feel like the assistants see me and wonder if I'm lost. As a general rule, the idea of anything remotely resembling exercise absolutely terrifies me, and I feel like people in sports shops can smell my fear.

Needless to say the sight of deoderant marks all over seemingly every item I wanted to try meant my visit was very short. Not at all familiar with the area I wasn't entirely sure how to actually leave Wandsworth, but I hoped that a bus to Putney wouldn't be too hard to come by. Pretty impressed by the ease with which I located the necessary bus stop, I was on my way!

Whenever I pass through Putney and Putney Bridge on the District line, I do conclude that if for some reason I was forced to live south of the river, Putney would be the place for me (I understand that Putney Bridge isn't actually south of the river, but it's still far down in my eyes). Though having only seen it from above, I wasn't at all sure what to expect from the highstreet. Of course it was sweet! And Sports Direct here provided me with just what I needed (a pretty horrific changing room experience though. It was literally a box!) so in no time at all I was on my merry way home.

Sun shining, Notting Hill on the line, I had to take a detour. Notting Hill is definitely one of my favourite places to stroll around on a sunny day. Houses that are already incredibly beautiful are even more so in sunlight, and when the market isn't on, it's not at all busy either so a very pleasant place to be!

I thoroughly enjoyed aimless wandering before finally finding myself in an Italian ice-cream café serving Illy coffee which I adore! I first had Illy when I was on tour with the Kings Lynn Festival Chorus in Italy; sweet memories. It's so yummy and always transports me right back. Hard to tear myself away, but my tummy told me it was time for home and I felt satisfied that I'd made the most of the day!

I first went to yoga over the summer at a fancy studio in Seven Dials; Yotopia. They had an amazing selection of teachers and classes, so while I'd signed up to the introductory offer I tried it all; from bikram to ashtanga to vinyasa to ballet sculpt & stretch (which was my favourite by far. It was like living all my childhood dreams in one class)! However with a fancy studio comes fancy prices and as I neither live nor work particularly close to Seven Dials, I decided I couldn't justify the cost.

With time since the summer flying by, I've then not found another place to go since. I was determined therefore to use Easter as the opportune moment to return. Having found a studio in a good work-home-friendly location, I bought another introductory offer so I could have some lessons over the holiday.

The studio in question, Stretch London, has two studios in ideal locations; Columbia Road and Broadway Market. I figured the Columbia Road studio is a slightly shorter walking distance from work so that's where I decided to try!

I'm still very much a beginner, so I'm not about to start writing about yoga in any amount of detail, but I do enjoy it very much so I hope this time to keep it up. I'm sure if I keep going I'll have plenty of embarrassing moments and a good dose of rave reviews to write about; so far I'm loving the studio and the teachers! Just in case I do have any time off like before, I've got a little notebook in which I've written poses so I can do some at home on the mat I bought on a New Year whim about 5 years ago (actually turns out it's a really nice mat; cheers TK Maxx)! It's probably something to do with the fact that it's the Easter holidays, but I am feeling incredibly energised at the moment, and lighter in all sorts of ways! I am also one of these people that loves a bit of muscle ache, so re-awakening some I think I'd forgotten I even had has been incredibly satisfying!

In addition to the health benefits of yoga, Columbia Road itself is one of my favourite streets in London and it's been nice to see it on quieter days when there are no hoards and I can actually see small (or actually in terms of the enormous mosaic I'd never noticed before, not at all small) details along the way. I'd love to be able to live in East London one day (and no, I am not a hipster. I appreciate the buildings and the green spaces)!

Definitely been partaking in plenty of self-indulgence this holiday. 

May it continue for the final few days!

Playing tour guide

So much packed into this weekend that I had to list it all before I began writing to ensure that no unintentional gaps were left. Have had yet another ‘relaxing’ weekend, where an awful lot of energy was used in between the occasional moment of calm and quiet sitting in sunshine.

GLORIOUS weather this weekend made for very pleasant venturing conditions indeed. I spent my days playing tour guide to a Mancunian visitor, for whom I was extremely grateful as otherwise I fear I may have spent more of my weekend cooped up inside over a laptop and piles of paper, pretending the sunshine wasn’t really there. As it was, I embraced it instead, and have come out at the other end feeling so glad that I did (although I’m not entirely sure that my feet and legs would agree with me, could they speak).

On Saturday, we covered what felt like 50 miles walking between Notting Hill and Southbank, taking rather a roundabout route to say the least. Dreams of sunshine on the pretty coloured houses and strolling along quiet, idyllic streets (some maybe even cobbled) put me in the mood for Notting Hill, and it did not disappoint. Of course, somehow I do always forget the existence of Portobello Road Market (not so quiet at all), and although the initial throng of people causes me great horror, I soon fall into the slow pace of a browsing customer once antiques reach my gaze. Lunch found at the end of the market where the food stands are very cleverly placed, I was then also enticed by a stall selling mushrooms. Just mushrooms, nothing else. I never knew I was so excited by mushrooms until this moment, but of course I had to buy a selection, so I did (and cooked some up for tea in the evening, delicious if I do say so myself)!

From Notting Hill we decided (or, maybe it was the royal ‘we’) that food would be best consumed in a green space. Of course, we could all follow in the footsteps of Hugh Grant and Julia Roberts and have a whoops-a-daisy moment into a private garden, but we thought we’d be a little more common and head for a public park. So off we went to Kensington Gardens, where we were greeted by a distinct lack of deckchairs (I’m hoping they will appear in April?) and an abundance of dog walkers whose dogs were far more engaged by squirrels than the pleading calls of their owners’. Shoes off, sunshine in full force, it was a more than pleasant pit stop.  

Many times before I have been deceived by the London Tube map in terms of how close things are to each other when they appear to be so far apart (I hark back, in particular, to those days when a good friend and I used to make the tube journey (where we had to change, by the way) from Liverpool Street to Shoreditch for Spitalfields Market. I cringe.), so I tend to make more of an effort to walk between places now instead. I do wonder though, whether now I am deceived in the opposite way, where places that according to the map should be within a stone’s throw are in fact more like a marathon apart. So we walked, aimlessly, along the river from the Albert Bridge (which I never even knew existed before, but which is really rather beautiful so I’m extremely glad to have crossed it), through Battersea Park (another location I’ve wanted to pay homage to), past Battersea Power Station, alongside Westminster, all the way to the Southbank where we finally rested for a well-earned cup of tea while dusk set in.

After such a beautiful Saturday, Sunday did not get off to the best start. This morning I:

1.       Melted a hole in my favourite top (we have been here since October, this was literally the first time the iron and ironing board had been used. They will not be seeing the light of day again in a hot hurry!)

2.       Couldn’t decide what to wear for such warm weather

3.       Had unhappy hair

4.       Feared that wearing makeup when my body hasn’t seen the sunshine in such a long time made me look rather orange in contrast to my pale arms

5.       Remembered that the Jubilee Line was part-closed where we needed to be

6.       Got to the line that was open so we could use, only to discover that it was suspended until further notice

7.       Narrowly missed the bus we needed instead, resulting in a 30 minute wait for the next one

8.       Received a text to alert me of beach trips being made by my nearest and dearest at home (icing on the cake?)

Please don’t judge me for what is about to follow, I was miserable. As one might imagine, I was not in the best mood at the start of the day following on from all of these little disasters (little they may have been, but when there were so many of them, it was hard not to let them take effect)! Anyone who knows me knows that the best way to alleviate my slumps is to feed me. So feed me I did. In McDonalds. At half 11 in the morning. Sitting by the river with a pretty stunning view of The Shard made it all feel much more acceptable though (we won’t worry about the disapproving glances from passersby).

As we sat munching on happy food (not a Happy Meal, just food to make me happy... don’t even ask what I had!), I suddenly noticed that The Monument was nearby. Now, after Saturday’s mammoth walking spree, my legs were definitely screaming at me at this moment, but I chose to ignore them, and we took to the steps. The last time I was up The Monument was when I was a child, and I still have the certificate to prove it (I’m now the proud owner of two, check me out)! My memory was a little hazy of what it’s like at the top, so I was somewhat dubious about making the trek with older, less agile legs, but it was definitely worth it; I do love a view!

After our visit to The Monument, we carried on ambling along the river. I’ve seen lots of great photos of City Hall recently with Tower Bridge in the back, and I wanted to see it for myself, so that was where we headed (a much shorter distance indeed!), again taking detours here and there for me to assume my role as tour guide and point out all the tourist attractions. The day certainly turned right around from such a disastrous morning, and remarkably we even stumbled across a small section of the river where you could get down onto the sand; with closed eyes, the sound of the waves lapping the shore and the cackle of seagulls was plenty to transport us straight to the coast! Boats with gardens (like, actual fully grown trees!) at Butler’s Wharf, amusement caused by tourists assuming the position for photos by the Tower of London and Tower Bridge, a quick visit to the Design Museum shop, and food and entertainment by the London Eye. Thank you London!