You Deserve It!
09 Friday Mar 2012
Posted in Me Time
Category Archives: Me Time
I Found It
30 Monday Jan 2012
Posted in Me Time
I found it (what? see previous post). The National Gallery was just around the corner. I prepared my visit this time, checked their web site and discovered that they run an hour long guided tour daily. So here I am. Waiting like other 50 other people for the guide.
Here he comes. Let’s go [...]
Thank you Michael. It was interesting. Michael, our guide, picked up 4 paintings of different period and commented them. He also provided with a bit of a background about the buildings themselves.
Once the tour was over, I went to see the most modern part of the Gallery with the impressionists and Van gogh, my favourite painting period. Van Goh has the only paintings in which light arrives from behind the scene/main character making it jumping out the painting and coming to you unlike others who use the light to draw your attention to the main character.
Then I went to Byron (I had heard of it in the blog Babyccino but never managed to try to before). Hamburgers good for value, onion rings far less.
I am wondering where I am going next week. Watching Shame? Robert Hockney’s exhibition? Tate Modern? Don’t know yet. Any suggestion?
Me & The Girls
I lied
12 Thursday Jan 2012
Posted in Me Time
I lied!
At our weekly editing meeting at Me. He. and Them, just before Christmas, when discussing whether we had New Year resolutions. I lied.
I proudly announced I did not make New Year resolutions anymore. This is for the weak!
Well, as Me & The Boys, I’m going to become a better women but it’s going to be a bit more selfish. This year I have secretly decided to not be ONLY a mum but to go and discover what London has to offer – and maybe I will be able to impress with my new knowledge!
Last Friday, I wanted to go to the National Gallery and ended up in the National Portrait Gallery – NPG (iPhone problem!). Never mind. I would have to visit this one as well anyway.
After wandering around on the ground floor, trying to download their iPhone application that would not download because it was too big for the line, wondering why there is a photo portrait of Sienna Miller but none of Jude Law, looking for Amy Winehouse’s one in vain, I decided to give my visit a last-minute theme and picked up the Camden Town artist group (out of the NPG’s choice). I went to the first floor (rooms 29 and 31) and had a look around, liked what I saw without exactly knowing why and without being able to understand why there was an art group called Camden Town.
After such an exhausting morning, I went to the café on the 3rd floor. I had a delicious lunch a bit overpriced though but the view over London from there was great. Missed my girls for 1 minute when I had a bite in a candied pecan nut which made me remember of Bonny (don’t ask me why).
Conclusion: I don’t think I have become much more knowledgable but at least I know where the National Portrait Gallery is!
Next time I will better prepare for my visit, look at a map before going and not trust my Iphone. I will look at the museum web site before my visit to make the most out of it. Next time I will be a perfect woman!
Me & The Girls
NYE…the aftermath
02 Monday Jan 2012
Posted in Me Time
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I’m not a fan of New Year’s Eve because I do not like the pressure of having to organise or participate in a big party. The expectations for a perfect evening are too high.
The evening started off fairly promising. The Captain and I were invited to spend New Year’s Eve with some good friends at their country place. However, we arrived to find our hosts exhausted from having hosted a never ending stream of friends and family. Dinner was a half-hearted mishmash of courses (leftovers, I suspect) that was a clear departure from their past culinary efforts. We pretty much ate in silence. What can I say, we were all tired from the holidays.
So the last thing we needed was a trip to the A&E. In an attempt to help put the dishes into the dishwasher, one of the guests cut her finger very badly on a knife blade that was facing up in the cutlery tray. We tried to stem the flow of blood but the cut was pretty bad. So off to the A&E we all went, solidarity in numbers.
And that is where we rang in 2012. How did you spend yours?
Me & Little Miss A
Yesterday’s Brain Puzzle Answer
29 Thursday Dec 2011
Posted in Food For Thought, Me Time
Tags
Congratulations to all you who participated and finished it!
Here is the answer:
| 4 | 5 | 7 | 14 |
| 6 | 13 | 3 | 15 |
| 11 | 12 | 9 | 1 |
| 10 | 2 | 16 | 8 |
Brain Puzzle
28 Wednesday Dec 2011
Posted in Food For Thought, Me Time
Tags
If the last few days/weeks have been full of socialising time and you need a rest – then try this brain puzzle.
It is an arrangement of numbers 1 to 16 inclusive in a square, so that the totals of each of the four rows and four columns and two main diagonals are the ten consecutive numbers 30 to 39 inclusive in some random order. The diagram shows the incomplete ‘magic’ square. Can you complete it?
The answer will be posted tomorrow! Good Luck! Me & The Boys
| 4 | 5 | 7 | 14 |
| 6 | 13 | 3 | |
| 11 | 12 | 9 | |
| 10 |
Music As Therapy – Christmas Edition
22 Thursday Dec 2011
Posted in Me Time
“Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer” – Burl Ives
Growing up, this 1964 stop-motion animation classic was my favourite Christmas special. Before the days of video recording and TiVO, the highlight of Christmas break was watching ”Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer” on television with my family. Hmm, perhaps a stocking stuffer for Little Miss A?
“Les Anges Dans Nos Campagnes” – Cântico natalino da França
“I’m Walking in the Air” – The Snowman
I love the story, the book, the DVD and the music!!! This week-end, we are going to see Snowman at the theatre. I’m expecting so much, I might be disappointed!
Me. He. & Them
Music As Therapy
12 Monday Dec 2011
Posted in Me Time
Thank you to fivegoblogging for tagging us in Mammy Who‘s meme “Music as Therapy”.
Since there are 3 of us at Me.He.& Them, we each chose our favourite song.
“I Melt with You” – Modern English
This song brings me back to my youth, circa 1984. I first heard this song at the impressionable age of 14, during the closing credits of “Valley Girl”, which stars Nicolas Cage as one half of a pair of star crossed lovers from different social backgrounds, overcoming the odds to find love and attend prom together. I loved the movie and I loved the song. It became the first album (cassette, really) that I bought with my very own money; and I played it over and over with my friends after school in my bedroom. We rewound and played the song so much, I’m surprised the ribbon didn’t snap. I still have the cassette – slightly worse for wear – in a box in my old bedroom at my parent’s house. Over the years, the song was upgraded to CD and then iTunes. It even featured at our wedding: “I’ll stop the world and melt with you…”
“Pink Floyd” – Wish you were here
Simple. Beautifully sad. One of the best ballads ever. I wish I was there.
“Those Were the Days” - Mary Hopkin
I’ve always loved this song. I remember the first time I heard it was at the parent’s house. They had it on an old CD (or maybe it was a cassette!), and I just fell in love with it. I just want to get up, dance and sing along whenever I hear this song on the radio, and sometimes I just have to listen to it on you tube over and over again. I think the one we hear on the radio is sung by Dolly Parton but I like this one. Not the original though. It was originally a Russian song, then translated and sung by Gene Raskin and The Limeliters but it’s Mary Hopkin who made this song famous. It was then sung by many others artists in many languages. Enjoy.
Girls Night Out
07 Wednesday Dec 2011
Posted in Me Time
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A few months ago, a mum from Mellow’s class had an amazing idea: she invited us (8 mums) over for dinner at her place. We had a wonderful time, very relaxed and we had time to talk. Really talk, not only about our kids and for longer than the 2 minutes at the school gate. We all felt invigorated and we wanted to do it again. Pronto. Shortly after that, we met up and went to see a girly movie followed by dinner out. I felt like a woman again with quality time for myself. What started as a dinner invitation has now become regular outings that we all look forward to. I’m addicted now.
Me & The Boys
“New York, New York”
28 Monday Nov 2011
Posted in Me Time
Blue Eyes and I love Karaoke. But not just any type of Karaoke: Karaoke box. Imported directly from Japan, this is where you book a private room to suit the size of your party (anywhere from 4 to 15 people) and sing along to your favourite songs with your friends in the comforts of your own room. An extensive song list is available and you simply select the songs you like (Meatloaf! ABBA!) and in the order you like. You only sing in front of your friends and no one else (as is the case at Karaoke bar). You can order food and drink to work up an appetite (or liquid courage!) to belt out your songs. It’s great fun and definitely an original night out. The first time I went to a Karaoke box I admit I was slightly bewildered: all around me my friends were singing and dancing without a care in the world. Are these people crazy?! Fast forward to a couple beers later and I’m belting out Frank Sinatra’s “New York, New York” at the top of my lungs and a Karaoke addict was born. Blue Eyes and I go at least once every 2-3 months, even if it’s just the 2 of us…enough said!
So this past Saturday we gathered a group of friends including Me & Little Miss A and The Captain for a night out at Karaoke Box in Mayfair. With 3 locations in London, Karaoke Box is probably the best value for money. An alternative is Lucky Voice. Booking is absolutely mandatory regardless of venue especially if you want to sing on a weekend after 8:00 pm. The night flew by as we elbowed each other out of the way to queue up our song selections – talk about varying song lists! – and passed the mic around to sing everything from current hits to classic tunes to pure nostalgia. A sure sign of a good night out at Karaoke is when you still have songs queued up on the machine when the host calls time. We were momentary tempted to extend our stay but alas, babysitters (and children!) await us…
And it’s not just for night owls. Children are welcome at Karaoke Box (though not at Lucky Voice, I’m afraid).
Hope to see you in one of the Karaoke boxes soon!
Me & The Girls
