Friday, 19 August 2016

The (Great) British round-up

I returned to my home town in South West London about a month and a half ago, with an aim to enjoy it as much as possible before beginning with my Beschouwend internship in Roermond in September. Combining this with administrative work for the master, and practical preparations for working with ECGs, blood work, and my first progress test in Dutch, I have been kept fairly busy and my blog has languished a little. I decided to put together a sort of highlight-reel of the last few weeks (omitting things which have already received their own posts), before its time to crack on with more studious activities back in the Netherlands.


London

I was lucky enough to have a few days overlapping with my visit back to my sisters visit home, as she is also reading medicine meaning that in the past it has proved difficult for us to find time to spend together. Along with our mum we spent an afternoon walking along Richmond riverside, finishing at the Petersham Nurseries, which housed a gorgeous garden cafe spread over several greenhouses.
Richmond Bridge
Richmond riverside
greenhouse teahouse 
family in the greenhouse
super soft at Twickenham riverside

The Cathedrals Express passing through Hounslow station
Also in my first week back in London I visited Mayfield lavender field with my mum - I added a couple of pictures of the lavender to one of the parts of my short story - which was pretty and made us both (unsurprisingly) pretty relaxed (on the hot summers day it felt a little like swimming in a cup of warm lavender tea).
Mum selfie
lunch
fields 

Falmouth

One of my closest friends had just graduated with a bachelor of science in zoology at the University of Exeter (Falmouth campus), so we went to her house for a week to get a bit of studying done by the beach - and tick off a few of the things she'd always wanted to do there but had never found the time for.

Falmouth beach
possibly the fanciest dinner I have ever eaten (I didn't even know what
 half of the ingredients were in any of the 3 courses)
with these 2 cuties for graduation!
look out point
Falmouth highstreet
home BBQ & ECG notes
Pendennis Castle
breaking the camera with sick poses
On our penultimate day in Cornwall we took a drive out to the beautiful sleepy town of St Ives, where I was overwhelmingly happy to be able to buy a print of a painting which I have loved as long as I can remember (my parents have a copy which hangs in their house in London, and this was the first time I have seen a print outside of the States), and enjoy a few hours on the beach.  On the last day we discovered what is now my favourite pub - the Pandora Inn which sits on a pontoon in a calm part of the river. We enjoyed some local ciders until dark, before heading back to London together the following morning. 
St Ives
just literally a really huge banana we bought
Pub on a pontoon
Pandora Inn 
Cornish raddler

London (II)

Back in London for a few more days before heading off again, I was thrilled to hear there was an opening of a new exhibit at my favourite museum - the Natural History museum in South Kensington. Part of the specimen archives have been made public to promote conservationism, it was exciting to see them, and it was very informative. 

The Natural History Museum 
Dippy the Diplodocus
Red Zone
Specimen archives
Animals in jars
My friend's recent acquisition of a car following just recently passing her driving test (hooray!) meant that we were able to make a few excursions to Bushy park for running trips, ending in thankfully few disasters involving getting lost, traipsing through stinging nettles, and getting chased by deer.
Bushy park
sunny park

With an aim to sewing one of Tilly and the Buttons new patterns, I spent a day with my mum looking around the fabric shops of Goldhawk road. I bought some high quality viscose, and we had a lot of fun touching all of the fuzzy fabrics which seemed to be more prevalent than you'd except for dress-making shops.
fabric!
silks
I am Zim Bo (Zimbabwean state of mind)
3rd time trying to spell 'remnants' was still not the charm


Nottingham

I spent the following week with one of the most awesome people I know, my sister, in Nottingham, at her 'house of medics'. Her boyfriend also came to stay that weekend, but before he arrived we managed to fit in time for a catch-up lunch at a trendy vegan cafe in the centre of town (The Alley Cafe), and a few study sessions at her university library.
mmm spicy tempeh
At the weekend with the new addition of my sister's giant-human-of-a-boyfriend (6ft5!) we packed some food and headed to Batman's house (Wollaton hall) for a picnic. Despite the fact we didn't go inside, and there was a slightly disappointing lack of Dark Knight memorabilia (not even a cut out in a window!), the food was delicious and the surrounding gardens were lovely so we had a great afternoon.

picnic fooooods
Oh deer
team at the lake
Wollaton Hall 

In the following days we rounded up a film afternoon (Now you see me, Antz, Alfie, & Shawshank redemption) by going to see Finding Dory at the adorable Savoy theatre (which was hilarious if a little emotional), went for a night out at a local club, and ate a fantastic meal at Annie's Burger Shack - which offers absolutely any of its food (including 32 different types of specialty burgers!) in vegetarian or vegan form!
terrible pre-drinks-panorama  
sister sister (and we will leave the photos of that night, at that)
post-night out brunch
brunch is the best meal of the day
following up food with more food at Annie's 
vegan chocolate milkshake
vegan Hawaiian burger: burger, mayonnaise, grilled pineapple ring, melted cheese, 'bacon strips'
(+ curly fries) - according to trip adviser this was regarded as the
best vegan burger of all time, and I have to agree!
My sister's Johnny Vegas burger: burger with bacon, toffee apple butter, grilled black pudding, sweet chilli paste, mini Guinness jelly doughnut (also + curly fries for obvious reasons)
Having eaten far far more than we should have, in a poor attempt to exercise a little we had a look around a small park nearby before I headed back to the coach station to go back to London - where I planned to not eat anything again for a very long time.


London (III)

Down to my very last few days in London, I had a couple of last big outings planned: seeing the fashion rules exhibit at Kensington Palace with my mum and another friend, having a (birthday) breakfast with my aunt at Westfield shopping centre, and a trip to see the other exhibits at the Tate Modern with a visiting friend from Kent.

Although fashion is not really a major interest of mine, the exhibit at Kensington Palace was lovely, and I learned a great deal about Princess Diana. I hadn't realised how much thought and planning goes into the appearance of what monarchs wear, apparently quite a lot is read into the colours and designs and how they show understanding of other nation's culture, and the current events for the time!
Kensington Palace
An embroidered French dress which took 3 years and a team of women to finish
Diana wallpaper
Dresses of Princess Anne
*A brief disclaimer* having arrived at Hampton Court Palace a little too late a few weeks ago, my mum and I had just missed out on the opportunity to dress up that all the other visitors had had. Feeling a little left out being the only people walking around the grounds in normal present day peasant clothes, I'd said that if there were any opportunities to dress up at Kensington Palace then I'd be sure to take them.
I put on this replica gentleman's jacket in front of a room full of people
waiting for a tour to begin. It was warm
Although when I put this on there was no one else in the room, while I was in the process of trying to get out of the unnecessarily complicated skirt (in my own unnecessarily complicated skirt with which it had become tangled) a family with children came in who asked to wear it after me...
I went with my mum to Westfield shopping centre (because its the centre point of where we live, funnily not because any of us needed to buy anything) to meet her sister for breakfast on the morning of my birthday. We ate at one of my favourite cafes, Le Pain Quotidien, and had a massive breakfast of a whole host of different things, as well as a pot of fresh mint tea and a slice of pear and chocolate birthday tart.
breakfast
pear and chocolate
When visiting the Georgie O'Keeffe exhibit a few weeks ago, another exhibit had caught my eye which I returned to see with a good friend from University while he was staying with me in London. I love the Tate gallery, and was pleased for another opportunity to check out the new switch building. We saw the Mona Hatoum exhibit which was nice, but I was particularly impressed by the Bhupen Khakhar exhibit - an Indian artist I had not heard of before.
Ai Weiwei at the Tate Modern
Mona Hatoum
Duchamp's fountain
The artist Bhupen Khakhar could not be anymore dissimilar to me, however I found his work to be so moving that it offered an actual insight to the things that he had been through, it has been said before that it's possible to get lost in his paintings. His work depicts the struggles of coming out as gay in a community it where it is frowned upon, struggling with feeling he is trapped in a place he can not leave, and battling illnesses which severely impact his quality of life (cataracts, and later prostate cancer).
"You can't please all" - painting based on one of Aesop's fables 
"You are not allowed to smile during this season which lasts for ten months of the year. If you are sensible then try to look as grumpy as possible. The English people appreciate sulk." - Khakhar on the English
"Safety is a word you should all hate. In education, in marriage, in journey, in job, in neighbourhood, on a picnic - anywhere we definitely need safety. The safety of people and places we already know well. Who are familiar to us. The moment you are with strangers, whether on a train, or in the street, or in a classroom, you become uneasy. Uncomfortable." - Khakhar on getting out of your comfort zone. 
out over London from the viewing gallery, showing the original Tate power station building, the walkie talkie,
 the Shard, and others over towards Canary Warf
Fountains and love flags at the Southbank centre, by the London eye 
Hooray friend selfie!
I managed to squeeze in a few more running sessions through Hounslow heath (only a 20 minute walk away from my house, a lot closer than Bushy park!), taking my audible account (to listen to Girl on a Train) as well as my mum and dog who walked at their own pace before we met up (after I'd done a few laps) at the end.
reunited with Sookie!!! 
poster informing about wildlife, and warning to watch out for Britain's
 only venomous snake (the adder)
 
stormy skies and wild flowers
On my last full day in London, I had an operation to remove my 3rd, and seemingly most problematic, wisdom tooth. This was bound to be a joyous occasion after the last one took several hours and resulted in over a weeks worth of hilariously swollen face (for which the immense pain was not sufficient to protect me from perilous mockery). Luckily this op took only a little over an hour and was less traumatic than I'd expected, so still swollen and bruised but much less than the last time. 

This concluded my weeks in England before beginning the masters, and I thoroughly enjoyed every day (with the obvious exception of the last). It was time to head back to Maastricht to move on to my now criminally long to-do list, although hopefully I will still have time for at least a few fun things to post about! I managed to complete a lot of projects I'd be wanting to do for a while during my time at home, so there will be a few posts about those finished objects in the near future as well. 

The upcoming months promise to be busy, intense, and undoubtedly stressful - but infinitely exciting. Until Christmas, London, cheers!
Me and my swollen face got the front seat on the coach back - woohoo!

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