Saturday, April 18, 2015

VISITING OLD HAUNTS

A sunny day in London town tra laaa... Actually, an afternoon. I took this photo as we walked from the National Gallery in Trafalgar Square to Piccadilly and the Royal Academy of Art. When I worked as a temporary secretary during the early years of my marriage, I had a job in this area and so enjoyed it. Yes, I love London!

After soaking up all that art, food for the soul, it was time to take in some food and drink for the body. We took a bus through the theatre district and walked along Neal Street towards Covent Garden. I was fascinated to experience this familiar part anew, as it has changed so much since the days I was a student at the Royal Ballet School and would often go to the Royal Opera House.

This photo shows the stage door. Certainly modernized!



But the facade of the Opera House is still the same. I must confess to feeling a pang of longing to be inside, sitting in the audience watching that wonderful ballerina Natalia Osipova when we passed by!  



Nostalgia can feel like an indulgence, but sometimes it's fun to visit old haunts, don't you think? My next blog entry will reverse my journey, in that I'll be back in Cape Town. See you there!

Monday, April 13, 2015

A Facebook tale (longish post, but I hope worth the read)

Recently I returned from travels, to South Africa in search of story and inspiration for my companion novel to 'Cape Town', tentatively titled 'Dance to Remember'. I'll be blogging about my experiences there, but first I want to tell you about what happened on the way back while I enjoyed a four day stop over in England (rest, recovery, filling the well with visiting London, the National Gallery and the Royal Academy of Art... more to come!




So I imagine many readers share my mixed feelings about Facebook. Every now and then I wonder 'is it worth the bother and besides, I'm suspicious about what's going on behind the screen'. I don't know about you, but my very restricted list of friends are a mixed bunch, some of whom post more personal updates about their doings, outings and thoughts, others who I'd class as more political. i.e. they post about the environment, organic or bio-dynamic farming, or new research about education, etc. This means that some of the posts I'm reading are more light-hearted, some are serious, some enlightening and so on.

A while back I accepted a friend request from a man who'd been a classmate of our elder son during the year we spent in Derbyshire in the late 'Seventies. He now works at Michael House School, so Waldorf education is our common interest. Also, his family took over our beautiful Edwardian house when we left Ilkeston.

Aware that I'd be in England for a couple of days on my way south, he posted how wonderful it would be if we could meet up. I agreed, all the while thinking 'not going to happen', because, after all, time was short. Plus, he'd be in the midlands and I'd be in Forest Row.

Anyhow, on my return journey, I went along with our daughter and son-in-law (http://www. richardianheys.co.uk) to a fiftieth birthday party. Who should I see as I walked into the room but Christopher himself! He'd travelled down with his new wife to attend the celebration.

It's hard to explain how special this was for both of us, but maybe he summed it up when he said, "Seeing you made my day".

Now I wonder, have you experienced anything amazing through a re-connection on Facebook?