Hazelnut Latte

Today we went to see Thor in 3D. It's good we packed our 3D glasses, because otherwise you have to pay for them - they're no longer free. I guess it's a way to protect the environment as you don't throw away things you buy, but at the same time it's another way for the cinema to make more money. I did like the movie, but I was expecting a little bit more. Natalie Portman's portrayal of a smart-woman-scientist wasn't convincing and the special effects were only OK. But it was good fun to see it and only cinema gives you this quality and 3D image, so it's worth to go - even if only for the experience.

Later, we had a lunch outside in the sun. The only good bits of the lunching was the sun, some ingredients in my salad and the fact that I was spending time with the Boyfriend. The place was awful and I swear my foot will never step there again. It was supposed to be a nice French-Italian bistro, but the staff was horrible and the food was overpriced. 

Clock at Trafalgar Square measures time till the Olymic Games 2012 begin in London.

After a short walk we ended up in the same spot as yesterday and I've finished Room by Emma Donoghue sitting on the same bench, where I started it 24 hours before. It was great to lay/sit in the sun and just enjoy free time. The book is great, but I don't want to write a review and spoil it for anyone, so I'll only say - read it - you won't regret it! I also tried Costa's Hazelnut Latte and it's divine. New addiction has found me!

Mesopotamia exhibition at British Museum and Meek's Cutoff

I had to get away today, so when the plans with Dom-dom did not work out, I knew I will go somewhere anyway. I was a little bit sad about Dom-dom to be honest, because I thought we're gonna have a fun day together, but I also understand that she flew in in the middle of Friday night from the work conference. 

I woke up really early and was tired, because I didn't sleep well. I'm stressing out about going home and seeing Mother. Sometimes it terrifies me so much, I am sick. The only way is to focus on something else. So I decided to go to British Museum and explore Mesopotamia's history. I was really hooked after reading some chapters in A Little History of the World and wanted to learn more. There were lots of people in the museum toady - typical for Saturday - but these particular rooms were practically empty. I walked for almost two hours there, read almost every little information card on the displays. I also ate lunch in the museum - I love sitting behind these long tables.

Later, I went to Blackwells and - of course - ended up with few more books. I am pretty excited about Room by Emma Donoghue and Tiger, tiger by Margaux Fragoso. I also went to Superdrug and got an amazing kohl crayon, some mascara and gold eyeliner. 

Because I don't like going to the cinema alone to watch violent and stressful movies, after checking on the website I've chosen to see Meek's Cutoff. The movie is not something you would expect (especially when you see the trailer). It's not typical Western, to my relief, because I detest Westerns. It tells a story of a group of settlers, who travel through the Oregon desert in 1845 and find themselves stranded in harsh conditions. Lost and with no water, they capture the Indian on the way and since then their only chance of survival is to trust the person, who doesn't understand them, just as they don't understand him. Because the scenes are really long and not only on the people, but also on unforgiving nature, I've felt like I was inside the movie. It totally deserves all the star ratings it has.

 

Oranges and Sunshine with some books

I went to the cinema all by myself today. One time when we went to the movies together, Boyfriend didn't particularly like one of the trailers. I could see that it wasn't his type of the movie. I, on the other hand, was very eager to go. Because there's a lower price for the tickets from Monday to Thursday before 5pm, I decided to go today. The movie is called Oranges and Sunshine, has very good reviews in The Times and Time Out. It tells the story of Margaret Humphreys, a social worker from Nottingham, who uncovered one of the most significant social scandals in recent times: the forced migration of children from the United Kingdom. Almost singlehandedly, against overwhelming odds and with little regard for her own well-being, Margaret reunited thousands of families, brought authorities to account and worldwide attention to an extraordinary miscarriage of justice. She discovered a secret that the British government had kept hidden for years: more than 130,000 children in care had been sent abroad to commonwealth countries, mainly Australia. Children as young as four had been told that their parents were dead, and been sent to children's homes on the other side of the world. Many were subjected to appalling abuse. They were promised oranges and sunshine, they got hard labour and life in institutions. There were very people in the auditorium, but after the last scene everyone went silent and there were sniffs during the projection. The saddest thing is that it was completely hushed and only recently British and Australian governments had the decency to apologize.

I had a lovely lunch in at the Soho Square - just like last week. The weather is so perfect, the sun is shining and all the news are screaming that UK is hotter than the Mediterranean! I sat for more than hour with my Pret-a-Manger sandwich (with some mustard - I forgot how mustard tastes!), latte (again, mostly milk than coffee) and Time Out. I scouted few new interesting exhibitions and wrote them down in my little notepad. I was sitting back to the sun and my neck is now sunburnt. 

 

Because it's not in my style to be at Tottenham Court Road and not to go to the bookstores, I went to Blackwell's. They have "3 for 2" offer. Of course I bought three books: Imperial Bedrooms by Bret Easton Ellis, The Slap by Christos Tsiolkas and The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafón. I'm looking forward to read them, they seem mucho interesting!

Sunday on the move

Because we were so tired after clubbing, we woke up really late. But we went out anyway. We had major problems with Boris bikes today and it was a huge disappointment for me. Plus, it kinda ruined our plans, we were supposed to go cycling around Hyde Park, but it has to wait. The weather in London was good today and we left late, so there were no bikes in the docking stations. 

In the end, we had a walk from St John's Wood, through Hyde Park to the Baker Street, where we had Sunday roast (vegetarian, naturally). 

 

 

Then we walked all the way to Marble Arch. Boyfriend had a dessert after lunch - his favourite chocolate fudge cake - and my treat today was Costa coffee. Because I don't like strong coffee, I ordered latte with less coffee and more milk, but what I got was 99% milk. And I sweetened it. Not good. 

We were in a hurry, because we wanted to go to the cinema and see Source Code. The movie is really good, but it left me a little bit paranoid about the terrorist attacks in the tube. When you see the train being blown-up so many times, it sticks with you. It was more than I was expecting and I was really happy about the ending. It's good to be positive and I don't think that it's cheesy. 

I am so tired that I'm going to take my make-up off, brush my teeth and read something in bed. This last three days have been non-stop moving and I am really, really tired. My back hurts (I think I strained it in the gym), my feet ache and all I want is sleep. Tomorrow in the morning is gym time and I'm already dreading the treadmill.

Wallace Collection and Hyde Park on Sunday

One of my favourite museums in London is The Wallace Collection. The Wallace Collection is a national museum in an historic London town house. In 25 galleries are unsurpassed displays of French 18th century painting, furniture and porcelain with superb Old Master paintings and a world class armoury. 

The Wallace Collection is a national museum which displays the wonderful works of art collected in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries by the first four Marquesses of Hertford and Sir Richard Wallace, the son of the 4th Marquess. It was bequeathed to the British nation by Sir Richard's widow, Lady Wallace, in 1897.

Displayed at Hertford House, the main London townhouse of its former owners, the Wallace Collection presents its outstanding collections in a sumptuous but approachable manner which is an essential part of its charm. It is probably best known for its paintings by artists such as Titian, Rembrandt, Hals (The Laughing Cavalier) and Velázquez and for its superb collections of eighteenth-century French paintings, porcelain, furniture and gold boxes, probably the best to be found anywhere outside France. There are also splendid medieval and Renaissance objects, including Limoges enamels, maiolica, glass and bronzes, as well as the finest array of princely arms and armour in Britain, featuring both European and Oriental objects.

unfortunately I am on all the pictures, so I had to crop this one.

It is a real house filled with the antique and beautiful things. It's like moving back in time to late XVIII century Paris and France. The clocks are ticking and playing unique sounds every fifteen or thirty minutes - in every room there's different one! I became familiar with this place after Mother wanted to see one of the Delaroche portraits showing Virgin Mary. Apparently, the model was Izabella Potocka - Polish aristocrat living in Paris during the time when Poland was non-existent. Mother loves her and she read almost every book on her, so it was great to actually see the portrait she was reading about and saw it in the book!

Boyfriend and me cycled to there today from our usual spot - St John's Wood - that's the nearest docking station from us. This time we took a different route and cycled through Regent's Park - there is a footpath available for cyclists too! Then we entered Marylebone High Street and passed by the old AM's flat, where her sister currently lives. It was great to cycle on the Sunday morning - there streets were mostly empty, I think that the time change had something to do with it!

We went out early today, because on 11.30am was a free Public Tour around the place. A very lovely woman told us a little bit of history of the place and we covered few major pieces of exhibition. Now I want to buy a book about Madame de Pompadour - I had no idea she was such a vital person in promoting arts. 

Afterwards, we grabbed a quick lunch - vegetarian Sunday roast - and went to see Limitless. I liked the trailers, I read few reviews and I heard that the movie is on top of the list in the USA. To be honest, I was disappointed. I was expecting something ground-breaking, but it was an action movie. In my opinion, there was no need to focus so much on fights, blood and chopped hands. The idea behind the script was great, but I think the screenplay had been lost somewhere along the way. Unfortunately it's a typical guy movie. 

The weather was so nice and it was barely 3pm when we walked outside, so after quick chat we've chosen to take a stroll in Hyde Park. It was packed. On Speaker's Corner, people listening and just general madness, at The Serpentine (a huge artificial lake in the middle, created for the Queen Caroline in 1730) people were paddling in boats and the birds were just mad with happiness. We walked all the way to the South Kensington and Harrods, then turn left to Green Park. We walked for 3 hours and I could certainly feel it in my legs. But it's great to be so tired.

Fun day cycling with London protests in the background

Today was the perfect Saturday. It was just perfect, despite the fact that there were huge anti-government protests in London, we were in the middle of them and had few encounters with anarchists on the way. I was seriously scared a couple of times, but there was A LOT of police, so that made me feel safe a little bit more. 

1 1/2 house

But the day started with meeting Dom-dom at Finchley Road, walking to St John's Wood (longer walk than I expected!) and enjoying the warm and sunny day. Dom-dom has never cycled in London before, so she was major scared, because our plan was to cycle from St John's Wood to Tottenham Court Road. Of course buying Boris bike pass was not problematic and it took us around 20 minutes (!!!) to buy one for each of us (3 people in total). We didn't know the latest trick in the book aka when you pull the bike from the docking station, press both brakes simultaneously and then pull as hard as you can. Easy. Right.

trying to buy bike pass

In the end, with the little help of a guy who was returning his bike, we went on and cycled all around Regent's Park to the British Museum. We made a little stop there. In the original plan we were going to see The Eagle at Odeon on Tottenham Court Road, but we were so hungry, so the decision was to eat some lunch. 

We spent few ours eating, laughing and joking. Dom-dom had her first encounter with the Nintendo DS  - me and Boyfriend have one each (mine is pink of course), so we played against each other and it was so much fun! I forgot how great Nintendo is - usually I'm going through the gaming phases like playing The Sims, Caesar, etc. and then the circle overlaps. Anyway, Dom-dom now wants to buy Nintendo too, so we're be playing together aka even more fun.

I won

When were were talking, I said that I want to go to the Selfridges today and buy MAC lipsticks. I had my eye on both Lady Gaga ones and also the hottest spring trend - orange! I've found on the MAC website a great colour called Morange and I knew it had to be mine. Dom-dom claims that she also wanted to buy orange lipstick for quite some time, but of course we all know that it was my idea. 

not a good photo, but I will write another posts about the lipsticks and post better pictures.

We went all the way from the Tottenham Court Road to Bond Street. We didn't take the main road (Oxford Street) because of the protest and it was very good idea, because when we were passing Topshop on a parallel road, there was madness - shop closed, paint on the walls, windows smashed. Anarchists had a really good time out there. It was rather shocking to see all these people with banners, shouting and in black hoodies and then enter Selfridges and pass Louis Vuitton, Prada, Marc Jacobs and Chanel. Two completely different worlds.

We bought our lipsticks and parted our ways. Dom-dom went home to get ready for a friend's birthday drinks (I was also invited but didn't want to go) - in the end she was so tired (we can really make people suffer) and went to sleep! Score Dom-dom!

Me and Boyfriend wanted to go to the cinema badly, but when we saw that the earliest movie at the Odeon Marble Arch is in over an hour, we were stuck. Our bike pass was still valid (it lasts £1 for a whole day and then £1 when you use bike for over an hour), so we cycled back to Tottenham Court Road to the Odeon we were originally supposed to go to and see The Eagle. Because there was still a little bit of time and there's a HUGE Paperchase store (aka my heaven - I LOVE stationery!) on the other side of street, I have a new mug and notepads (pictures to come soon). 

The Eagle was better than I expected. I don't want to put spoilers, so I won't write about the essence of the movie, I will only say that it's much more than fighting and blood on the scree. Of course there are battle scenes and nasty usage of the knives etc., but as my usual reaction to this is hiding behind my jacket, I don't remember it after leaving the cinema. It was an interesting movie and I'm glad we went to see it. It gave me a chance to not only salivate over Channing Tatum, but also remind myself about honour and true friendship.

Spring in London's parks and Never Let Me Go

It is our tradition that every year when the daffodils start to bloom, we go to Green Park and St James Park next to Buckingham Palace and just admire the beauty. Daffodils are one of my favourite flowers, even though I'm not usually big fan of yellow. They also smell wonderful and just remind me of new beginnings. We were a little bit disappointed, last year daffodils were literally everywhere, this year - probably due to the long and cold winter - there were only few yellow patches on the grass. 

Green Park

Green Park

St James Park

Japanese wish on a blooming cherry tree - St James Park

St James Park

St James Park

Pelicans - main tourist attraction - St James Park

St James Park

All of the London was today taken by tourists, they were all over the place - the tourist season has officially started. The Queen was today at the Buckingham Palace (there was a flag flying over), but there was no glimpse of her. As usual, we joked that she can check the hour on the Big Ben from her windows.

Big Ben in the background

Buckingham Palace

We took the usual route and walked past the Queen's old stables and guards. I have to finally go and see changing of the guard this year, because I've never seen it - after all these years of living in London! 

I heart horses!

We went for a lunch and it was terrible. We keep coming back to this restaurant near Trafalgar Square, because we're usually always HUNGRY after a walk in a park since it's on the way to the Leicester Square. Today, I ordered vegetarian Thai noodles and they had no taste except chili. I was aware that this dish was given three chili peppers on the menu, but I thought that there's going to be some more flavours! We're so not impressed, that we've vowed not to come back and just go extra mile or two to the same chain, but on the Tottenham Court Road.

Today we decided to go and see Never Let Me Go with Carey Mulligan and Keira Knightley based on a novel by Japanese-born British author Kazuo Ishiguro. I am dying to see Biutiful by Alejandro González Iñárritu and starring Javier Bardem, but the only screening was at 5.30pm. I haven't read the Ishiguro's novel and for now, I don't think I will. The movie was nothing I was expecting. It's very, very sad. As children, Ruth, Kathy and Tommy, spend their childhood at a seemingly idyllic English boarding school. As they grow into young adults, they find that they have to come to terms with the strength of the love they feel for each other, while preparing themselves for the haunting reality that awaits them. And the saddest thing is that they have no choice over their fate - there's only waiting. A movie to remember.

It was still relatively early when we left the cinema, so we decided to go and see exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery - An Englishman in New York: Photographs by Jason Bell. Inspired by some of the 120,000 English men and women living in New York City, Jason Bell has identified and photographed leading British born figures setting the cultural agenda in New York, including Thomas P. Campbell, Director of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, writer Zoë Heller, Sting, Kate Winslet and television pundit and Barney's window dresser Simon Noonan. Jason Bell began this project following a commission on ‘Anglophilia’ for American Vogue. He has lived between New York and London since 2003. I really enjoyed it.

National Portrait Gallery