a funny thing happened on the way back from London...

There I was having another mini adventure when I found I was following a car and guess what...? the registration was none other than... BOD! HA HA! If you're read below then you'll understand the significance of those 3 little letters. Made me chuckle as I drove back from the BIG City. London was great today. I drove down to visit the girls and we went to Covent Garden for lunch of sea bass with black and green olive gnocchi, roasted tomatoes and watercress... yum! All of course washed down with a pretty glass of blush pino. You can see I was having fun... Then I had a wander round a very busy Oxford street with the lovely K80. We went back to the apartment via Starbucks and the most amazing confectionary shop. They had cadbury's mint flakes, cherry chocolates and all kinds of popular branded in flavours that I'd never seen before. The north circular was a delight on the way home. They are such aggressive drivers down there. They cut you up, undertake you and would run over you as much as look at you. It was a relief to get back onto the M4 and head west back to fresh air and sanity. See that big black spiddy on the wall of the restaurant...? I caught one just like that when I got home, it was the size of a wopping great saucer!. It can fly now ;-) x

where to start...

A whole month of adventures have happened so there's a fair bit of catching up to do! I was thinking about what I'd choose as the highlight. It has to be 'The Thinker'.. I meet some interesting guys but this guy 'Le Penseur' has to be one of the most powerful images I've ever seen. Created out of both marble and cast in bronze, he depicts a man in sober meditation battling with a powerful internal struggle. The sculpture is nude, as Rodin wanted a heroic figure in the tradition of Michelangelo, to represent intellect as well as poetry. He sits proud on his pedestal in the gardens of the Musee Rodin in Paris. He can be viewed from the road outside and there are over 20 versions of this cast in museums around the world. I have now seen the original - woo hoo!

This guy just impressed me by his sheer size (yep, call me shallow!) he looked like the kinda guy who'd protect me and let's face it, he'd be great at getting rid of those cobwebs! His heart of stone might take a hell of a lot of softening and he's unlikely to keep my toes warm in bed but hey, looking on the bright side, I've got a soft top! I did try to smuggle him out of the gardens of Versailles but sadly, he'd been standing there for so long, he was rooted to the spot!

Shakespeare and ashes...

No one has dates like I do! Sunday evening finds me sitting on a bench beside the river sharing a bottle of wine. No real surprises there I hear you say. Except for the fact that I'm squigged up on the bench between Bod on one end and dead persons flowers on the other end...! Perhaps not the most tactful way to describe them, but true all the same. As I walked over to the bench by the side of the river i could see what appeared to be bunches of flowers in buckets and a large arrangement sitting on the bench. It was only when I got closer that I realised they were a couple of weeks old. I even had to go and look in the river to see if there was a body... no, phew! It's not the kinda subject to be discussing on a first date and anyone who knows me would have whisked me away from there in a flash... but I knew that that wasn't going to happen. And if you think that's surreal, read on because that was only the beginning.

As the clouds gathered above us big rain drops started to fall so we hurried our wine and dashed back to the car park. We were in separate cars so having made the decision to leave mine closer to the venue, we both left to drive the few miles to Slimbridge for the outdoor performance of A Winter's Tale. This is when the heavens opened!. The rain poured and for one fleeting moment I thought I would just keep driving as far away from that place as I could. But I'm much to well mannered for that. I just thought I must be totally, stark staring bonkers to go and sit in a field to watch Shakespeare in such atrocious weather. Sometimes life throws us a challenge and tonight was such a night! Within the hour I was sitting in a field in the pouring rain with a bunch of other people who were obviously totally bonkers. Kindred spirits you could call them ;-)

With my jumper, my coat, my hat, my scarf and umbrella and a bar of Green & Blacks... and Bod, for that's what I'll call him. Just Bod, nice but undeniably doomed from the start... The performance continued through the wind and the rain and although I was seriously questioning my sanity at this point, in a crazy way, you know what, I was really enjoying the play. The cast were amazing and delivered every line as if it were a summer's day. I admired their fortitude, their great spirit and sense of adventure and as the play had to go on, so I decided I was going to sit there right up until the bitter end. 3 hours later.. the sense of relief as I got back into my own car to drive home was without doubt, enormous. I know stuff happens to me and life can seem pretty odd at times, but tonight could only be described as... a real CRACKER!

Paris, the city of romance...

Don't you just love it! Everyone else is taking photos across the Seine, snapping away at all the most famous landmarks of this great city and I looked down and voila... here on the grass below is the most romantic symbol in the world. I don't know where it came from, or even if it was supposed to be there, but I like to think it was there, just so that I could photograph it to show it to you. Often the best things in life are the things other people don't notice. I bet that most of the visitors were so busy scaling the dizzy heights of this oh-so-famous Eiffel structure that they didn't notice what was carved out of the lawns beneath them. Today I looked down and I'm so glad I did. x

Anna Pavlova...

Here's a dance costume which includes real feathers, photographed at the Paris Opera House. A lesser known fact is that she spent her private days at Ivy House in Hampstead, London where she kept a collection of exotic birds and animals - including a pair of pet swans. These were no doubt the inspiration for her remarkable onstage performance. She was perhaps the most famous dancer in the world.

A striking piece of structural art...

Gustave Eiffel was named the 'Magician of Iron' when he created this temporary structure way back in 1889. It was only supposed to stand for 20 years but it's still standing. A symbol of love, peace and hope, I'm sure Gustave would applaud the awesome twinkling light show which happens every evening when darkness falls which quite honestly, keeps his magic alive. I can only marvel at the amazing design skills required to create such stunningly, beautiful curves.

From someone who took an instant dislike to history in her first year of high school, and failed her history exam consistently every year after... I now find the history of such iconic structures fascinating. What bored me to tears then, now enthralls me. Prepare to be enthralled... the design for this gigantic monument was unanimously selected from 700 proposals to symbolise the centennial of French Revolution. Built as the entrance arch to the Paris Exhibition, it's fair to say that the Parisians weren't that fond of it from the start. They considered it to be an eyesore. But in the first year of the exhibition, it's true value as a tourist magnet was realised when it was visited by over 2 million visitors in 1889. With the money rolling in, the tower quickly became a national symbol of France. It is now the most visited paid monument in the world! Well done Eiffel...!

Who could believe that in 1909 it was due to be demolished? The lease on the land it stands on had expired and it was only saved from the bulldozers by the fact that it was being used as a radio transmission antenna. A little known fact is that Eiffel originally planned to build the tower in Barcelona but the spaniards thought it was strange and expensive so turned it down. A year later the design was accepted by the French and the rest as they say, is history... and I love it!
Did you know..? Our Eiffel was a talented chap. His skills as a phenomenal structural engineer were exactly what was required when it came to building the one and only, 'Statue of Liberty.' Designer, Bartholdi, needed someone who could take on the challenge of designing the massive iron pylon on which the lady now stands. Hence the reason why there is a quarter scale bronze model of Lady Liberty standing alongside the Seine, 2km north of the Eiffel tower.

Monet's Garden..

Enchanting.. where else but Monet's Garden...

How do they do this..?

Could there be such a thing as a cone-shaped tree cutter? How do they trim these trees with such precision? Every tree has been trimmed so perfectly, not a twig out of place and every angle lined up perfectly with the tree alongside. I'm left pondering...

The other kiss...

Lost in a moment Rodin captures two lovers in a heavenly kiss. I wonder how many others have stood beside this statue, taken photographs and shared this kiss? How many more will do the same? If you had to be locked inside a moment, I'd say this was a pretty good choice, wouldn't you? x

One thing I've learnt is that...

Mothers are always right, particularly wise ones like mine. So the debate has to be... who is the more glad? In the blue corner is Pollyanna sponsored by my Mom and in the pink corner, Anna of Green Gables sponsored by me! The internet is a wonderful web of words so here's the first bit of glad news... Extract from Anne of Green Gables..

On Wednesday Miss Barry took them to the Exhibition grounds and kept them there all day.
"It was splendid," Anne related to Marilla later on. "I never imagined anything so interesting. I don't really know which department was the most interesting. I think I liked the horses and the flowers and the fancywork best. Josie Pye took first prize for knitted lace. I was real glad she did. And I was glad that I felt glad, for it shows I'm improving, don't you think, Marilla, when I can rejoice in Josie's success? Mr. Harmon Andrews took second prize for Gravenstein apples and Mr. Bell took first prize for a pig. Diana said she thought it was ridiculous for a Sunday-school superintendent to take a prize in pigs, but I don't see why. Do you? She said she would always think of it after this when he was praying so solemnly. Clara Louise MacPherson took a prize for painting, and Mrs. Lynde got first prize for homemade butter and cheese. So Avonlea was pretty well represented, wasn't it?
Pretty GLAD wouldn't you say?

Extract from Pollyanna..

"And so it's hurt that I am, and not sick," she sighed at last. "Well, I'm glad of that."
"G-glad, Pollyanna?" asked her aunt, who was sitting by the bed.
"Yes. I'd so much rather have broken legs like Mr. Pendleton's than life-long-invalids like Mrs. Snow, you know. Broken legs get well, and lifelong-invalids don't." Miss Polly--who had said nothing whatever about broken legs--got suddenly to her feet and walked to the little dressing table across the room. She was picking up one object after another now, and putting each down, in an aimless fashion quite unlike her usual decisiveness. Her face was not aimless-looking at all, however; it was white and drawn. On the bed Pollyanna lay blinking at the dancing band of colors on the ceiling, which came from one of the prisms in the window. "I'm glad it isn't smallpox that ails me, too," she murmured contentedly. "That would be worse than freckles. And I'm glad 'tisn't whooping cough--I've had that, and it's horrid--and I'm glad 'tisn't appendicitis nor measles, 'cause they're catching--measles are, I mean--and they wouldn't let you stay here."
"You seem to--to be glad for a good many things, my dear," faltered Aunt Polly, putting her hand to her throat as if her collar bound. Pollyanna laughed softly.
Pollyanna is so much gladder! In the books, her philosophy of life centers on what she calls "The Glad Game", an optimistic attitude she learned from her father. The game consists of finding something to be glad about in every situation. At the height of her popularity, Pollyanna was known as "The Glad Girl", and Parker Brothers even created The Glad Game, a board game based on the book and character. Whoopie Do!

The blue corner wins and you know what... I'm very glad about that! x

ps the other funny thing is that when I went to find these pollyanna pictures, guess what music started blaring out from a very American deardaisycottage blog site..?! None other than Mom's favourite... Acker Bilk - you rock MOM! x