UK Archives - Page 2 of 13

London 2012: The Olympic River

August 15, 2012 By Paola 5 Comments

Hey honeys, I’m home!

It’s rather a long time since I blogged here isn’t it? Apologies for the radio silence but we’re just back from three weeks in Europe – two in London for the Olympics and one in the South of France for some sun.

I had all sorts of good intentions of blogging gently along the way but a) always much trickier blogging from an iPad and b) I was having too much fun (such a bad, bad blogueuse). I hope you were following along on Instagram instead.

I was so glad we went back. I was worried that the weather would be crap, it would be impossible to get around, the opening ceremony would be embarrassing and there would be all manner of chaos and craziness.

Instead, and I hope this made its way through your TV screens, London was beautiful as I have never seen it before, festive and glorious with everyone in a jolly, celebratory mood. It was, quite simply, magical.

Let’s go for a little trip upriver and you’ll see what I mean.

We’re starting at Greenwich. Home of the erstwhile Millenium Dome, which has now been reinvented as a massive concert arena, and one of the main Olympic venues. Here’s the view from the new Thames cable car. See that boat at bottom right? We’ll be going on that to wend our way up to the centre of town. Can you see the Gherkin in the distance?

While we’re waiting for the boat we have the perfect opportunity to look more closely at the Dome, and watch the people climbing the new walkway. Wish we’d had time to do this. It looked very fun.

There’s also the chance to watch a parade of tall ships going past – it must have been amazing when all river traffic looked like this.

And we’re off. Spot the tiny Gherkin to the left of the picture.

Getting closer.

This is what we came for. Also loving the newly-opened ‘Shard’.

This was quite literally breathtaking. So beautiful.

Going under the bridge. One of the most wonderful things I’ve ever done in my entire life.

More pics of magical Olympic London tomorrow.

BTW my fancy pants new camera with all its fabulous ISOs and low light photography capabilities died an ignominious death the day before we were due to leave. So all pics are taken on my little Canon Rebel XSi (450D). You could almost hear it straining.

Hanging on the Telephone

June 26, 2012 By Paola 4 Comments

Hot on the heels of London’s Faberge’ Easter Egg Hunt comes Artbox.

You know the drill by now. 85 iconic telephone boxes are decorated by local artists, placed around London and then auctioned off for charity. Yadda, yadda, yadda.

They sure look pretty though.

My faves are the Clash one above and the Twitter one full of birds below. Which is yours? Anyone in London seen these?

And not to be out done, here’s a view of Canoe Island, here in Washington.

Here’s the full Artbox phone box gallery.

The Story of a Cloak

June 7, 2012 By Paola 4 Comments

I didn’t mean to write any more about the Queen’s Jubilee outfits – I’m sure you’re all Jubileed out by now – but we were discussing the cloak the Queen wore at Monday night’s concert in the comments below and it sent me down a delightful little Internet rabbit hole, from which I emerge with these pictures.

Here is the Queen on Monday night wearing a very elegant black wool cloak over her sparkling gold cocktail dress.

It reminded me of the famous Annigoni portrait of the Queen as a young woman wearing the robes of the Order of the Garter.

Here is the portrait in question with the stark dark blue of the robes throwing all the attention on her delicate pale skin (goodness that woman has a flawless complexion) and the wistful expression on her face.

Apparently Annigoni was inspired to paint it this way when he was with the Queen making preparatory sketches for the portrait and she said casually, in French, ‘"You know, when I was a child, I used to spend hours in this room looking out of the windows. I loved watching the people and the cars down there in the Mall. They all seemed so busy. I used to wonder what they were doing and where they were all going, and what they thought about outside the Palace." And as she spoke her face lit up with the exact expression – youthful, almost child-like – which the artist sought.

I then discovered that Cecil Beaton (who had taken her coronation pictures) deliberately tried to recreate the Annigoni magic with this 1968 photographic portrait. He wanted to show the Queen as a person without her jewels, costumes and fancy regalia, and so asked her to wear a simple admiral’s boat cloak, to enormously striking effect. Recognise the cloak?

Finally we have a picture from the infamous Annie Leibovitz photo shoot in 2008, where the Queen was apparently in a rather grumpy mood, even if she didn’t in fact storm out as was rumoured at first.

This was the last picture of the day (Leibovitz was only allotted 25 minutes of the Queen’s time – imagine the stress!) and the Queen, after being pictured in various sumptuous evening gowns, pulled on the simple black cloak once again. The resulting image was then digitally superimposed over a brooding picture of the palace gardens taken the day before.

Yet again it’s enormously arresting, though was famously called ‘vampiric’ by one critic. There are other spectacular photos of the day with the Queen in full rig, but it is in this one, without her tiara, jewellery or furs, where she looks most fearsomely majestic.

One simple cloak. And one fascinating story. Which portrait do you like best?

Queen of Diamonds

June 6, 2012 By Paola 6 Comments

It’s been a long and gruelling Jubilee weekend here on the West Coast, with 5.30 am starts on Sunday and Tuesday, and the consumption of rather too much champagne, Pimms and Prince William’s favourite chocolate fridge cake.

Early yesterday morning I was sitting bleary-eyed on the sofa with the Minx and my friend and fellow monarchist Lilian, being lulled gently back to sleep by one of commentator Huw Edwards’ monotonous monologues when the Queen finally appeared looking radiant and very, very sparkly. Immediately the sofa contingent jerked awake. What was that utterly stunning brooch the Queen was wearing?

It turns out that, when deciding what to wear for the last day of her Diamond Jubilee celebrations, the Queen recalled that she is the proud owner of the nine major diamonds cut from the Cullinan diamond, the world’s largest diamond discovered in South Africa at the turn of the 20th century and presented as a birthday gift to Edward VII (at the risk of sounding churlish, why don’t *I* get gifts like that?)

Inexplicably she declined to wear either the Imperial State Crown, which contains the Cullinan II diamond or sit in her carriage waving her sceptre which contains Cullinan I, the Star of Africa, the second largest cut diamond in the world.

Instead, and obviously as some sort of austerity measure, she made do with wearing the brooch made from the Cullinan III and Cullinan IV diamonds, a mere 94.4 carats and 63.3 carats respectively and conservatively valued at some $120 million.

Wouldn’t you be just terrified parading round the streets of London wearing that? Fortunately we were spared the sight of her Majesty crawling around the floor of St Paul’s on her hands and knees looking for the brooch she’d just dropped under her seat, which is undoubtedly what would have happened if I were Queen.

It is an utterly amazing brooch though, with an almost contemporary appeal in its stark simplicity – these diamonds don’t need any fussy curlicues or smaller stones to enhance them, unlike many of the Queen’s other diamond pieces.

You’d be smiling too if you had that brooch

And I loved how the Queen’s beautiful outfit of palest mint green was designed to show it and her off to the max – the heavy embroidery, crystal beading and contrasting soft chiffon drapery were exquisite and it was so refreshing to see an eighty six year old looking every one of her eighty six years and yet still be stunningly beautiful. The shoes were of course dreadful, but we can’t have everything.

For future reference, just in case you find something similar in your back garden, this is what the uncut Cullinan diamond looked like before it was divided into the 9 smaller cut stones. Apparently it was initially tossed out of the window at the mining company where it was found, because no one believed it was possible to have a gem quality stone of this size.

Buckingham Palace is putting on a display of the Queen’s personal diamond jewellery this summer, including all seven smaller cuts from the Cullinan diamond, and some spectacular tiaras. Full details here.

Great British Fashion Stamps

June 5, 2012 By Paola 3 Comments

I miss British stamps. The Royal Mail puts out some of the most beautiful and best designed commemorative stamps I’ve seen, and the set they produced for the Diamond Jubilee is no exception.

The set of ten stamps celebrates British fashion designers of the last sixty years, including Hardy Amies and Norman Hartnell, who both designed some of the Queen’s most iconic looks when she was younger.

It’s a pretty much spot on collection of great names and clothes, though am I alone in never having heard of Granny Takes A Trip?

Mary Quant has apparently featured on a stamp before, and was thus ruled out of this collection. John Galliano managed to rule himself out for obvious reasons. And I’m wondering why there wasn’t a place for Barbara Hulanicki of Biba.

The gorgeous photos are by Sølve Sundsbø. Stamps are available for purchase here.

Red White Blue

June 2, 2012 By Paola 3 Comments

A world-class energy-efficient illumination system has been installed on Tower Bridge to celebrate the Jubilee and the Olympics and designed to highlight the crazy architecture. All sorts of different colour schemes are planned for the future.

Can’t wait to see this when we get to London this summer!

Tell us what the Jubilee means to you (if anything) below. I’m so excited for this summer in London.

Happy and Glorious

June 2, 2012 By Paola 7 Comments

I am so very sad not to be in London this weekend to take part in the festivities for Queen Elizabeth’s Diamond Jubilee, as she celebrates 60 years on the throne.

Until recently I’d never seen a colour picture of the Queen’s absolutely exquisite coronation gown, embellished all over with symbols of the four British home nations. Designer Sir Norman Hartnell’s sketch is below. Fan Bing Bing eat your heart out!

Few of us Brits can even remember a time when she wasn’t our Head of State – she’s been a fixture in all our lives since we were babies - and I’m sure no British person can even begin to envisage the country without her.

It’s going to be a huge four-day party in the UK, starting tomorrow; partly because we don’t have an annual equivalent of the Fourth of July or Bastille Day and therefore have to grab any opportunity we can to show our national pride and patriotism, and partly I think because most British people are, deep down, very fond of the old girl.

I find it amusing that someone chosen entirely through an accident of birth, (in many ways hereditary monarchy is one of the fairest and most truly random ways of choosing a head of state) so perfectly embodies many of the qualities that British people like to imagine they possess.

Neither flamboyant, showy nor remotely glamorous, like us she can seem reserved, diffident and bit shy on first acquaintance, but underneath seems genuinely warm, honest and friendly and is apparently very witty. We make her do some of the most boring things imaginable but appreciate that she does them stoically, without fuss or grumbling and without seeming to enjoy her enormous wealth and privilege too much. We like that she prefers to spend her vacations under the rains of Scotland rather than cavorting on the nudist beaches of the Mediterranean (I just boggled my own mind there) and feel that it is entirely right, natural and proper that she clearly prefers dogs and horses to people.

Funnily enough, in many ways since moving to America I have come to appreciate the monarchy even more than when I lived back in the UK.

Seems to me that an elected presidency can sometimes be a tricky conundrum for Americans, who have to reconcile their personal feelings for the man (always a man) currently in office with their respect for the office he holds and their belief in the country he represents.

In the UK we have carte blanche to loathe, criticise and disrespect all our politicians equally and without reservation (surely healthy in a democracy) while saving all our patriotism, respect and pride for the little old lady, who with immense good grace and not a whiff of personal scandal, has done everything we’ve asked of her over the last sixty years. I personally wouldn’t have it any other way.

Thank you ma’am and have a fun weekend.

It’s going to be all Jubilee here on the blog over the next four days, in between baking for Jubilee parties and getting up at 5.30 am to watch the festivities.

Brits lucky enough to be on the scene please comment and tell us how things are going and what you’re doing; expat Brits and Commonwealth kids, tell us if and how you’re celebrating; I’m fascinated to hear from everyone what the Queen and this weekend means to you (if anything). Americans, will you be getting up to watch?

Go Fug Your Kitchen: Sophie Conran’s Bayswater Flat

May 10, 2012 By Paola 3 Comments

Sophie Conran is yet another child of British design royalty Sir Terence and his second wife cookery writer Caroline Conran. Sophie is maybe not quite as famous as her brothers Jasper and Sebastian (whose Notting Hill house has already had the honour of featuring in GFYR) but still has serious design chops as the designer behind the Sophie Conran for Portmeirion dinnerware and a newish range of wallpapers for Arthouse among many other food and product collaborations.

Her Bayswater flat is not really interesting enough for a whole Go Fug Your Room, as most of it is blandly inoffensive and seems to have come straight out of the pages of ‘Fuck Your Noguchi Coffee Table’.

Collection of mis-matched white jugs. CHECK.

Collection of mismatched white vases. CHECK.

Saarinen Tulip Chair. CHECK

Arco Lamp AND Arne Jacobsen Series 7 Chairs. CHECK and CHECK.

Saarinen Tulip Chairs and Tulip Table. CHECK and CHECK.

Utterly hideous pink walls. CHECK.

Er, excuse me?

Apparently Ms Conran let her daughter chose the wall colour, an evil which has been compounded by picking out the ornate mouldings in stark white, making the whole thing look like a particularly tasteless wedding cake.

So, in the run up to Mother’s Day, I’d like to ask the delightful mirrormirror commentariat two simple questions. Is this kitchen fugly and should kids ever be allowed to make décor decision not immediately pertaining to their own bedrooms?

poll by twiigs.com

In previous Go Fug Your Room news, around 30% of you liked Adam Levine’s house (and weren’t influenced in any way, shape or form by his cute smile. No sirree). Around 30% of you thought it was fugly and 40% of you were meh on the whole thing.

A Mini Tour of Ely

April 20, 2012 By Paola Leave a Comment

For our final guest post this week, I thought we’d return to the old country. Whenever anyone asks me what I miss most about England, ancient buildings are very high on the list – or more explicitly that humbling feeling of being surrounded by generations of ghosts, which Liz writes about so eloquently below. I’ve been reading Liz’s lovely blog for the longest times – it’s such a comfortable mix of family life, vintage finds, home ideas and unashamed geekery – and I knew she’d be the perfect person to take us round her home town and introduce us to a little city that deserves to be much more widely known. (By the way, that sound you hear is me howling with homesickness.)

Hello, and it's so nice to meet you all! I'm Liz and usually you can find me over at Violet Posy writing about my Home and Family. I'm very excited to be writing as a guest on Paola's blog while she's away. I thought I'd share with you one of my favourite places, the tiny City of Ely, just outside of Cambridge in the UK.

The city which isn't on the usual tourist track, it lies in the middle of what used to be a series of islands. The largest of which was the Isle of Ely. The 'Fen' or large swamp surrounding it, was drained in the seventeenth century making the water logged land, fertile farmland and the Isle finally joined the mainland.

The Cathedral is at the heart of the city and is also known as 'the Ship of the Fens' – you can see it from miles around. It started construction in 1083 under King William I and was finally finished in 1375. It is a stunning piece of architecture and when you enter it you can feel the history surrounding you. One of my favourite things to do, is to sit down in the quiet Cathedral and imagine all the people who came before, you can almost feel them, it's such an atmospheric place.

The Lantern which sits in the middle of the Cathedral, brings in light to the centre. It was handmade in wood in the 1340’s and is beautifully hand painted.

It's hard to believe looking at it's complicated construction that it’s so old. Every Christmas, I sit under it wondering if that's such a good idea to be sitting under something wooden and nearly 700 years old! But it's still standing and I'm sure it will be for another few hundred years.

However the Cathedral is not the only old building in Ely. There are buildings from pretty much every period, Tudor, Georgian, Victorian and they are all beautiful in their own way. You can wander round and see buildings which are still used as homes, workplaces and pubs which are pretty ancient. I often forget that some of the buildings are so old as they are used daily and not museums at all.

Ely is also blessed with some excellent Markets, which are held on Thursdays and Saturday's. The Farmer's Markets and Continental Markets are especially favourites of ours. The range of artisan foods – breads, cheeses and meats are amazing, and the stalls with flowers and plants are outstanding. It's impossible to go to the market without coming home with bags of yummy food and a big bunch of flowers.

Further down the hill is the old Waterside with it's fantastic Antiques Barn where we love to have a good rummage and the beauiful riverside. It's a really lovely to walk next to the river or sit for a while and watch the ducks and swams go by. You can also take a peaceful boat ride along the river to see the sites from the water – generally they also give you a nice cup of tea and a slice of cake on the boat too.

And finally no trip to Ely is complete without a stop at the award winning Peacocks Tearoom. There you can get the most amazing afternoon tea – finger sandwiches, scones with clotted cream and a big old slice of cake with a selection of teas from around the world. It's possibly one of my favourite places to eat in the world, and you won’t need to eat for the rest of the day if you pay it a visit!.

I hope you enjoyed my mini tour and if you’re ever near London or Cambridge pop on a train and come up and visit!

Thanks so much to Liz, to Tina for her wonderful New York insights, to Michele for her awesome photography tips and Sandra for her great tour of Vancouver. Please visit their blogs and show them some comment love, so they’re encouraged to come back and write for us again.

I hope you’ve enjoyed having something a little different on the blog over the last few days, I’ll be back with the same old nonsense on Monday.

WTF Monday: Wenlock and Mandeville

April 17, 2012 By Paola 7 Comments

Only three days late. One day I’ll get good at this ‘blogging to schedule’ malarkey.

So we touched on this in the comments to a recent post, but I thought it was time we properly dealt with London’s Olympic shame.

When it was announced that London had won the Olympics bid, I was looking forward to my home town showing the rest of the world why it is a capital of style, creativity, incredible design and all round fabulosity.

And then the mascots – Wenlock and Mandeville - were unveiled (the logo I can’t bear even to talk about). They are apparently supposed to be one-eyed drops of steel from the construction of the Olympic stadium, with London taxicab lights stuck on the tops of their heads. Of course. As an aside, I can’t find any reference to why Mandeville has apparently peeed his pants.

So, really, aren’t these more scary than attractive? Is anyone going to buy them/collect them? Aren’t they just embarrassingly lame?

I did do a one kid focus group with the Minx and she thought they were ‘cute’, so maybe I’m not the target market here. Though the Minx’s strange taste is already on record.

What do you think? What do your kids think? Are these an embarrassment to London? UK peeps, are the mascots much in evidence in the run-up to the Olympics or is everyone just trying to pretend they don’t exist?

Buy Wenlock and Mandeville here if you must.