Low lights

in

Haha! Love that the title of my last post applies to both spring and me. I don’t know what it’s been like where you are, but here in the UK we’ve had an abnormally cold and wet spring, with the occasional warm day to confuse us even more. So these pictures from March actually still feel relevant. One Tuesday evening I met with my old magazine crew (not pictured - my old boss) at the Holy Tavern pub in Clerkenwell.

I’m not sure if they’ve always done this, but this winter they had “Candlelit Tuesdays”, as a lot of pubs have done (to deal with the insanely expensive energy bills).

It makes it incredibly cosy, and gives you a bit of a flavour of what hanging out in pubs pre-electricity might have been like. This particular pub is faux-Georgian, in a real Georgian building from 1720, but re-decorated in a Georgian style.

Of course we ate better than they would’ve in those days.

Even though some of us might have fitted in table manner-wise.

A and I used to sit next to each other at work some 20 odd years ago, (when we were kids basically) and we’d always make each other laugh, occasionally singing (more often than not this) and dancing, but on the hush. A knew the whole Janet Jackson Rhythm Nation dance routine, and I would answer with my Michael Jackson face in the Thriller video, when the camera pans round to show him having turned into a zombie, with the following shoulder shrug, sideways hip thrust and claw hands (starting at 0:44). I need to see her do that routine again, for old times sake. I’ve had the (not) joy of having a frozen shoulder since December, so I feel jealous of anyone able to to a shoulder shrug right now.

We’re off to Amsterdam again in a couple of weeks time, and that trip has been my dangling carrot this whole winter. It always felt a long way away, and now we’re in the middle of May, and almost there.

When we met up a couple of days ago D was still wearing the same hat. So come on spring, make your mind up, and don’t pass on your moodiness to summer this year. That would just be too mean.

Tea for three and three for tea

in

Celebrated my 46th birthday in August, and Mr Famapa had booked afternoon tea at Sketch as a surprise. We went there for my 40th as well, and the David Shrigley art on the wall has changed since then. I watched a live Art Fund webinar on Art and Humour the other night, and he was one of the panelists. I really like how his brain works.

There were so many birthday gatherings in there, so I guess some live music elevated the atmosphere. I don’t often find myself in a place where there’s say, a bar pianist, or like here a little string trio, but when I do I feel really awkward. Do you? The sight of patrons just continuing with their eating, drinking and conversations, as if the musicians aren’t there tenses me up, and how no one claps when they’ve finished. But then, as a musician, especially with the crappy two years we’ve had, I’d assume you’d be very happy to be out playing again, even if the all the mfs in the room don’t acknowledge you, haha. Anyway, we stuffed ourselves full, and I love any foods that come in small portions and that you can switch up flavour wise as you wish. I also like that you can order more of anything that you especially like. I think Oomoo managed to eat the most, he being a growing lad and all.

The atmosphere was more enjoyable than on previous visits, as it felt like people were genuinely pleased about being able to go somewhere for a treat again. Less selfies, more talking.

This dude found my picture taking quite annoying last summer. I see his point, but he’s seems to be over it now. Phewf.

Shrigley’s stuff isn’t just on the wall, it’s also on the table, and if you have cash to burn you can buy it.

Too steep for me though. Haha - get it? Steep? Tea joke.

The staff are really nice in here and not snooty at all. And I love the interior (by India Mahdavi) and am glad that it’s still there. I think there was talk of it changing a while back, but I think the proprietors realised that you shouldn’t kill off such a popular design too hastily. At least this is a good design that happens to be Instagrammable, rather than an interior that’s been put together solely for the purpose of people posting from there (neon? check. plastic flowers? check. mirrors? check. pastel colours? check.). Gosh, I sound like a very grumpy lady today… No idea why, but piss off if you don’t like it. JOKE JOKE

The cloakroom on the way out. I like it a lot.

You know, I’ve never paid attention to the actual building before, but it’s very clearly Georgian with the fanlight window above the entrance (and the exterior of course!). I’d love to see the face of whoever owned it back then, seeing what’s happened to it since. Speaking of which, I looked up our house on the census from 1921 the other day, and there was a family of three living here then, but all the age of what we will be this year (50/47/13). How crazy is that?! Charles Carter worked as a bank cashier and Kate Carter’s occupation is down as “Home Duties”, and they had a daughter called Jean. They also had a live-in servant at that point which is such a strange concept, but much more common in the old days. I’m assuming the help slept in the study, where I am now, in the smallest room of the house? They would’ve just lived through a pandemic too, which is another crazy coincidence. I also checked out the 1911 census, and they lived here then too, but without the servant. I would love to know what the house looked like then. There’s a brilliant BBC series, A House Through Time, that finds out about all the tenants who’ve lived in a particular house, and then gives their lives a historical context. You can watch the latest series here (another programme I watched when I had Covid). It’s such a brilliant idea, and fascinating too. I wonder if the Carters, a hundred years ago, also celebrated birthdays with afternoon tea. I’d like to think they did.

It's a Kew, Kew summer

in

Quite soon after the school summer holidays started, me and Oomoo went with friends to Kew Gardens. I’m guessing it won’t be long before he’ll pass on the offer of going there though. We’re almost exactly a year away from him turning into to a teenager (gasp), and I’m sure he’ll rather do something less walk-y by then. But then he might surprise me. Let’s hope so.

There’s still enough interesting stuff there for an almost 12 year old.

Like cool sound installations hanging in trees.

You had to stand underneath the sound domes to hear the amplified recordings of the inner workings of a tree, including the rumble that can be heard under the bark (no, I didn't know there was such a thing either) or the popping sound of water as it travels from the trunk towards the leaves - mixed with music.

We then finally made our way to Queen Charlotte’s Cottage, one of the last places within the gardens that I’ve not yet been to, but sadly it was shut. But L was happy anyway, as you can see here. In fact, maybe she was happy because it was shut… The cottage was used by King George III and Queen Charlotte in the late 1700’s, as a pit stop for a cup of tea and a rest when they went for walks in the grounds of Kew Palace, their summer holiday home. In spring the cottage is surrounded by blue bells and I hope I time it right one year, so I can see it in all its blue glory.

There were also unusual planting installations dotted around the gardens.

Noice.

And one really comfy continuous bench.

Seeing as green is going to fade away in nature’s winter palette, let’s take some in now. Delicately, like this

or layered, like that

or bright and punchy, like here

or curly and swirly, like there.

And I’ll add some nice orange and white too - before I say “Hasta la vista Kew”.

Finally, no visit is complete without a picture like this from the Hive. Standing underneath it I initially couldn’t make out if this was Oomoo or not, but then I noticed the undone shoelace. That’s him alright.

While typing in the post title I had Bananarama going round in my head, so here’s a link to Cruel Summer, from 37 years ago (OMG!). I love how their outfits are so in fashion again (like seriously), and after watching the music video I’ve got a serious girl crush on Siobhan Fahey. How could you not?!