London Heights - The Monument

Last week saw me continue my exploration of London from a great height. Recently I have been at the top of Heron Tower for breakfast at Duck & Waffle and The Shard for a morning of photography. Friday's jaunt saw me climb the 311 steps of The Monument in the City of London. This is the original London height, built in 1671 & 1677 to commemorate the Great Fire of London and to celebrate the rebuilding of the city.  Designed by Christopher Wren it is built a stones throw from where the Great Fire started in a bakery in Pudding Lane, 160ft to be precise, the exact height of the monument. The fire started on Sunday 2nd September 1666 and raged for 3 days until finally being extinguished on Wednesday 5th September, desolating much of the city.
The climb is up a narrow spiral staircase, fortunately there are little seating nooks sculptured into the walls with circular windows and look outs, which I took advantage of on the 311 step climb. The viewing platform is securely enclosed and has fabulous views across the City of London, Thames and London Bridge.

I have walked past this area so many times over the years and have never visited this historical site. The view both inside and out is so worth the climb, there is so much history steeped in a such a small square in the city and must be one of the cheapest attractions in London offering such a view... £3 per adult, which in London terms is a real bargain.

#Project Life ~ March 2014

Wow a quarter of the way through 2014, where has the time gone?...
March saw some unexpected sunshine which just seemed to lift everyone's spirits. Hedgerows and avenues were awash with glorious yellow daffodils and it feels like winter has finally been put winter to bed for a while.
March also saw take same down time from work allowing for some leisurely breakfasts in my friends garden and getting out and about in London. I also spent time catching up with both friends and family.

 London was explored from a number of heights, taking in a fabulous breakfast at Duck & Waffle and a trip up the incredibly tall Shard building for a spot of photography, both offering fabulous views across the London landscape. London also turned green for a few days in the month to celebrate St Patricks day, including the big yellow store.
Time spent with the family included watching niece & nephew in their 'street dance' show set on stage in a local theatre. They are off to Glasgow later this year to compete in the European Championships which is fabulous. My nephew completed his Bronze Duke of Edinburgh Award and has been excepted into his preferred 6th form school, getting one of the 60 places offered (there was in excess of 600 applications) so I'm a very proud auntie this month!
I also got to spend some time with my Mum during Mothers Day, which was nice and I got my 1st Mother's Day card from the Kits!... so much fun.
March saw the "Slap-less" Selfie overtake Facebook pages with millions being donated to charity. I made sure mine was taken in very good lighting and contributed to an amazing cause. Social Media was big for me in March, some of which I will share with you this weekend on my Social Media Sunday slot. I caught up with my friend Ali on her stay in London for the RNA's over a burger and a beer, where we talked books & life.... it was lovely to catch up. I also grabbed a night at the theatre to see Fatal Attraction... thoughts here.

As well as getting out and about I also managed to catch up with some magazine subscriptions, over a coffee and a very yummy St John's donuts. One of the funniest things I saw during the month was Starbucks epic fail of spelling Teresa.... I have over the months since they launched their named cups seen some fabulous ways of spelling said name, but think this months tops the list ... Siriza was this months interpretation... words fail me!...
I hope March has been as good for you... what have you been up to last month... please leave a link I would love to know.....here's whats planned for April.... pop in over the month if you can.. x

Cats & Cake!

In the last month a fab little cafe has opened in East London and last week I got to spend a couple of hours there with two of my favourite things; Cats & Cake!  Lady Dinahs Cat Emporium is located a stones throw from Brick Lane on the Bethnal Green Road. It is a 2 story cafe, which is a huge cat toy, all spaces have been created with the welfare of the cats in mind. It houses 11 rescue cats, details of all can be found here which are adorable, who spend the day playing in a huge cat house.
Such has been the enthusiasm for this emporium that all slots are fully booked until July.

It's very well organised, with 2 hour slots available for creams teas, savouries and cake. Access to the parlour is through a secure room where the 'kitty' rules are briefed along with hand washing and sanitisation. Food is prepared in a separate area, which ensures that both the welfare of the customers and the cats are met.

My cream tea was lovely, plenty of jam & cream and a tea pot big enough for 2 good cups of tea, great value and lots of fun with the cats.  The cats have lounge posts in the window, where they bask in the sunshine and draw lots of crowds from passers by. its a fun place which looks like its going to be a huge success.
The team are both helpful and knowledgable of both the menu and the cats. It's a fun place which looks like its going to be a huge success.

Fatal Attraction

It may be over a quarter of a decade since Fatal Attraction hit the movie theatres, but in today's society we are still living with the fallout of that film. It created the terminolgy "bunny boiler" which is now a recognised noun in the Oxford Dictionary;
NOUN
• informal
A woman who acts vengefully after having been spurned by her lover
It is one of the most memorable films from the 80's and for a short time put the fear of god into any adulterating male!... Last Friday a theatre audience and myself watched this film bought to life on stage and I'm sure there were many men thinking hard on their travel home!.
I am learning that what most critics don't warm to I actually enjoy. I go to the theatre to be entertained  and this stellar cast certainly do this.
Dan Gallagher is played by Mark Bazeley an established British actor with many film & Tv credits, Dan's wife Beth is played by Sex & the City's own Charlotte - Kristin Davis and Bunny Boiler Alex is played by Natascha McElhone , David Duchovney long suffering ex wife in Californication with direction by Trevor Nunn.

The play mixes an 80's vibe into today's staging, with clever slick scene changes you move between Bar, apartments, NY office and country pile smoothly accompanied by electric blue lighting.  For those not familiar with the movie plot:- "The famous story of obsession and revenge explores how a chance meeting in a bar and a casual encounter quickly becomes a living nightmare for Dan Gallagher, a successful New York lawyer, and his young family. After spending one weekend with the gorgeous Alex Forrest, he assumes he can just walk away, but Alex is a woman who refuses to be ignored. She pursues Dan and his family with terrifying consequences."
Mark & Kristin are both very good, strains of 'Charlotte' coming through in Kristins role of Beth, and Natasha McElhone is outstanding as Alex and takes bunny boiler to another level. The play sticks firmly to the original film (the original ending was changed from feedback from pre-screenings of the movie) including the fated Bunny scene (2 white bunnies are on the cast list for nightly scene steeling scenes!) and a much more subdued ending. This play is thrilling, incredibly well acted, does it measure up to the original film... no, but I don't think anything can match the first view  of that movie, as the element of surprise was heart stopping. This play starts slow, but builds to its climatic conclusion with thrills and gasps...  exactly as the movie did 27 years ago... grab a ticket, its worth it for the trip down memory lane, or to remind your man just what lengths some women will go to if crossed!....

Here is the original film ending ..... 

hell hath no fury like a women scorned!...

• 
  

Life's stories...

I am a firm believer in Fate and sometime it works with us and sometimes against us and it seems this weekend Fate tested my emotions. This weekend I saw the date of the loss of my beloved Gramps's fall adjacent to Mother's Day, a day equally emotional. I grew up with my grandparents and their loss although not so 'gut-wrenching' is still felt every day.

Last week I hooked up with my friend Ali for drinks and a burger as she was in London for the RNA book awards ( Ali is the author Ali Mcnamara) Ali has just started writing her 6th book and as always we end up talking plot lines and stuff.... this lead to me talking about dealing with loss. It's 5 years this weekend since Gramps passed and later this year it will be 10 years since Nan passed. Growing up with both as an instrumental part of my life their loss was hard to deal with, it took me down some very dark paths but also opened up a whole new world to me which probably wouldn't have happened.  My blog evolved from a scrapbooking online forum that I joined shortly after loosing Nan, this became a saviour and my blog became an outlet for life when the outside world was a little hard to deal with. From this I have made and met some fab online friends. One of which is Ali. It also led to me working for the Big Yellow Store on Oxford Street, I took some time out about a year after Nan died to spend more time with Gramps and get my head sorted, Mr Selfridge came knocking just at a time when I need to de-hermitise myself.  So even though this weekend has been emotional, it has also been filled some happy memories, some of which we shared  in a trip to the cemetery with my mum. I will never have the daughter/mother relationship with my mum that others, but we are finding some middle ground and if that's sitting on a bench under a blossom tree at a cemetery sharing a coffee and reminiscing then that's fine by me.

This year I received my first Mother's Day card!.... yes I got one from the Kits!.... bringing a much needed smile to my face this morning...

My Nan always said that your life is like a book, some people are in it for the whole story, some just for a paragraph and others for a chapter, however long they share your life story, be blessed. So thankyou all for sharing this book so far....