Mallorca: Looking for Katy T

It is no secret that I have developed quite a love on Mallorca; in my head it is the land of perpetual sunshine - my friend who lives there saw so little rain that as a 3 year old when drops of water fell from the sky he thought the sky was falling down!

Having spent a month in Manchester - infamous for rain - I took a long weekend away. It is like cheating on Autumn, rewinding to spend an extra weekend in Summer. I left the house in a scarf and coat and arrived in Palma sleeveless at 11pm!

Sierra Tramuntana

We had a superb weekend exploring the Sierra Tramuntana in my friends very old family car. Coughing up the hills and threatening to give up on every turn. We visited the picturesque village of Valldemossa that was home to St Catherine Thomas - affectionately known by me as Katy T. We ate Ensaimadas in the sunshine and took photos of gnarly old olive trees. We even drove to Soller for icecreams at the port.

Ensaimadas

En route to dinner with friends we happened upon a parade. And you'll never guess who it was for? Yup, Katy T. Mallorcans love a parade, although this one was far more sedate than the festival of Sant Joan which features beasts running at you with fire-spears and the such! At a friend's house I discovered the joys of Jungle Speed although my reactions were a bit slow by 2 am when we ambled home.

Ice cream at Soller

We spent the next day gently, a nap by the sea; and just like that it was time to wave dear friend goodbye and return to Manchester, which is starting to feel like home.

Beaches are for napping

Moving to Manchester: Behold I am doing a new thing

On the 25th of September I boarded the first train out of Westcliff station with 1 large bag of clothes, my knitting (its essential) and my work laptop. These are the fundamental things one needs to begin a new adventure. Lots of people told me I was crazy. And I'll admit as I left Euston in the dark(!) I thought they might be right.

Holding sleepy eyes open

I am a planner. I love a plan. But just one week before I caught the train my accommodation fell through. Sat sobbing on my friends couch I wondered, 'how on earth can this be the plan?'. But thanks to a mutual acquaintance I secured a bed for 5 nights with a really awesome and adventurous family.

First Impressions
My first impressions of Manchester weren't great. As anyone who has ever walked from Manchester Piccadilly to the centre can testify its not the best introduction to Manchester - now imagine carrying all your dearest possessions along with you and trying not to look like a target whilst consulting google maps. I went to Costa, bought a bacon sandwich and then caught a bus to Horton Road where a friend of a friend was looking for a lodger. I was plied with tea, sunshine and even offered a lift to my next stop: adventurous family in Levenshulme.

Adventurous Family
Let me paint the picture for you. I had not met them in person. We had exchanged a couple of facebook messages. Despite having two under 5's (and a secret third baby on the way) they text me their house alarm code and left their door key in a bright pink welly boot. Adventurous family were seriously cool; they had Orla Kiely style wall-paper in the dining room. When I arrived they were out enjoying a birthday walk for Adventurous Dad. The time had come for me for a nap on their sofa - shoes off naturally. I woke up to two curious girls peeking round the door-frame looking at me.

Adventurous Week
It was an adventurous first week in Manchester. I bought a bus pass and toured the wider city trying to get to grips with the amorphous city. I found the Manchester Craft and Design Centre, I was introduced to Trove cafe - which is like a little slice of Shoreditch in Levenshulme. I visited a church who prophesied over me some words which were so on-point; 'you have come seeking Green Pastures'. I walked adventure girl to school across a golf-course. I had an overpriced haircut - these things happen! And lo, on my 9th day I found the place I would lodge in Sale.

Sale 
Sale is leafy, it is also a long way from my office on public transport. In my first weeks in the flat I was seriously doubting 'the plan' again; an hour and a half on trams each way to work seemed like a long time to travel 6 miles. What I didn't know then was that in a car it would take just 20 minutes (14 in the school holidays) and I would be travelling the opposite way to traffic at both ends of the day. Maybe there was a plan after all.

And what I had not counted on was wonder-housemate (WHM); she really was the unexpected boon of the move. At first glance we didn't have that much in common; our film tastes, and choice of leisure time remain wildly different. But WHM has some really excellent characteristics; she is brave and resilient, she is willing to listen even when she's tired (and an introvert), she is an excellent source of encouragement, toast and wine. WHM is also so generous. I was concerned when I moved in with a live-in landlord they would be really territorial but WHM happily shared the space as equals and was no trouble to have friends over. A real example for having my own lodgers.

WHM in flight

And so it turned out that there was a plan, and friends after all. Moving city is one of the things that has made me feel most alive in life. Like lone-travel++; it wasn't all plain sailing but there was definitely a plan.

Hamburg: Aug 15

As you know, I have been to Hamburg a couple of times with my Dad (see here) and then for a sex trafficking conference (see here). This time I was visiting a childhood friend who moved to Hamburg, and some pretty sweet Viking sites.

The trip began very adventurously with an hour and a half delay on picking up my hire car from the airport. It was my first time hiring a car abroad and I was nervous. The first thing I did was drive the car the wrong way down a dual carriageway. It was a super stressful experience, but I did eventually complete the trip from Bremen to Hamburg. I remain unconvinced that German motorways are all they are cracked up to be for speed; at no point on the holiday did I escape the Summer 'Staue' (queues)!

City Centre Fun
Hamburg being a harbour city there are many opportunities to discover the watery-environs. We hired a row-boat to explore the Alster and did plenty of messing about on the river, or should I say lake. For entertainment there is a great riverside bar on a re-purposed light-ship; we enjoyed a night of jazz music on board the Feuerschiff - at least there was a legitimate reason for the horizon to be moving!

Who left me in charge of an oar?!

Feuerschiff

Beyond Hamburg: Lübeck and Hedeby
One of the advantages of hiring a car is how much easier it is to explore the wider world beyond your immediate town; so I took day-trips from Hamburg to two other places: Lübeck and Hedeby.
Lübeck is a pretty Medieval town which really shone in the summer light. Big city gates, beautiful warehouses, and old winding streets. Lübeck is also famous for marzipan; they have been producing marzipan there since 1806 and there are several shops dedicated to the stuff in the town centre. On the way home the radio played David Gray's Babylon for the nth time!

Salt-store

Old school high street

The Viking trading settlement of Hedeby was founded in the 770's. It was the first town I ever studied whilst at Cambridge. And only 1 and a half hours from Hamburg. I had more driving stress on this journey, this time associated with parking. There were very few places to park; when I did find somewhere to park turned out it was for coaches only - I was driving a Fiat 500!

When I eventually parked safely Haithabu Re-enactment village it did not disappoint. Neither did the boar sausage and mash I had for lunch, very Viking! On the way home I stopped via Gottorf Castle and saw the Nydam clinker-boat in real life. This is something akin to being able to touch the shroud of Tutankhamen in my world!

Hedeby village

Wildboar and veg. Viking diet.

Clinker boat at Hedeby

Bremen
And so on the last morning, I drove my car back to Bremen with plenty of time, and prayed they wouldn't charge me for the wing-mirror paint scratches. Trying to find somewhere to fuel up was quite a challenge in the unknown city; and I felt like Bremen and I already had car-related beef. Having dropped the car off I explored the city in the afternoon. I came across this group of street performers chanting 'eat.work.sleep.repeat' and wearing all black. I was fairly sure these were Christians. I was trying to take a photo and the man in the photo engaged me in conversation. When I told him I was waiting for a flight he said 'perhaps you are waiting for Jesus!' and I prayed he wasn't prophetic!

Bremen town

Waiting for Jesus?

In Search of 'Identity': Grayson Perry.

Last month I went to see Grayson Perry’s ‘Who are you?’ at the National Portrait Gallery, not once, but twice – such is the joy of free museums in London! 

THIS EXHIBITION CLOSES IN 11 DAYS, SEE IT NOW!

Grayson Perry is a transvestite potter who has long been interested in innovative portraiture and the opportunity it provides to explore the disjuncture between the projected and real identity of individuals and groups. As with his work on class identity Perry has accompanied his exhibition with a TV series which you can catch on 4OD.

Perry’s first works to be encountered are a map of his own identity and a massive tapestry looking at British identity. It is in this context, of the individual and the corporate that the rest of the works should be considered.

I’m used to Perry being excellent, but he has really outdone himself this time. Perry uses a variety of mediums – tapestry, pottery, screen printing to explore what it means to be British, male, famous, disabled, a soldier, religious, even human. There is a strong undercurrent of gender discussion in his work, a family with 2 Dads are compared to a ‘conventional family’, the Huhne vase is stamped with penises and yet has been broken and pieced together to depict vulnerability, Alex is undergoing gender reassignment and is depicted in a bronze piece as a warrior.

(Huhne Vase)

One of the most fascinating elements of the exhibition was the way the pieces had been placed. Rylan was amongst the 18^th century authors and gentry, the Irish loyalists were with the officers from WWI and Churchill, Alex depicted as a warrior blowing a shofar and the three soldiers returning from war found themselves keeping company with the old adventurers, and the gay family in the same room as the Royal Family resting at Windsor. Sometimes there’s a faint whiff of humour in the work, the Irish loyalists are created using garish pinks and yellows, riding a horse more akin to a unicorn than a mount! Perry’s use of material can be thought provoking: when depicting a white 20-something single-mum from Kent’s conversion to Islam, he prints it onto a hijab; an article so laden with meaning and emphasis.

(Hijab)

Perry’s work on class proved his aptitude as an ethnographer; but through his recent work on identity Perry has also proved himself an artist. I was thoroughly impressed by the work and the way placement of the exhibition encourages visitors to consider the wider range of works on offer at the National Portrait Gallery.

‘Who Am I?’ closes in just 11 days be sure to catch it before then. As previously mentioned, entry is free.

In Search of: Bambi

Some people go without alcohol for ‘Dry January’, I went without coffee, and blogging. One thing I did a lot of in January was searching. So herewith a series ‘In Search of’ beginning with Bambi.

Sundays are great feasts of leisure in my world. And one of the great benefits of living in Belsize Park is that nothing is that far away. So one Sunday afternoon my bike and I boarded a train and for the princely sum of £1 and a 40 minute train-ride made our way to Richmond Park.

On arrival I was relieved to have brought my bike, the park is a good 10 min uphill cycle, half an hour’s walk through suburbia would have seemed a waste of good energy en route to a park of epic proportions. That said, Richmond town is pretty enough, and they name places after food!

The park itself is a humongous 856 hectares (1427 football pitches) and is the largest of London’s parks, created in 1634 as a deer park for Charles I the park plays host to 630 deer, The Royal Ballet School and enough unique plants to be declared a Site of Specific Scientific Interest.  You can visit the park on foot, bike or in the car. The nice thing about riding the bike is you get wider access to the park (than in a car) but you can still cover large parts of the park fairly quickly.

I enjoyed looking for Bambi, his family and friends. I found his Dad and one of his sisters, but not Bambi himself. When you look at this majestic fellow you would never believe me that I nearly missed a whole herd of his antlered friends, but they really do camouflage very well. I also enjoyed this tree which looked a bit like a deer’s head complete with antlers.

It was a chilly crisp day so I didn’t sit around much. I did find a few snacks (what is an adventure without a good snack!) but was a bit disappointed that the tea rooms were shut. A pasty and a hot chocolate would have to do. Rejuvenated the return journey back to the station seemed terribly easy but then it was all down-hill. I was caught out (twice no less!) by last minute unannounced platform alterations at Richmond, do be aware.

As Sunday afternoons go, that was a good one. Long live Bambi!

Remembering and Representing: Germany Part II

Yes, I've been away, Christmas is coming and I have been crafting some beautiful things. Anyway...

Regular readers will know all about my obsession with Germany, today I even have Wir Sind Helden in the background. You will also know about my love for the British Museum. This Winter they made my dreams come true in producing Germany, Memories of a Nation.

(Memories of a Nation Trailer. Click  here to watch video. Copyright: British Museum)

Different Germanys
The exhibition showcases 600 years of German history starting by illustrating the many different Germanys that have existed over time and the uniqueness of the regions. This section sort of works, it certainly gives good context for newcomers, with quality maps, but the coin display was a bit lifeless and more akin to a bronze age exhibition.

Vorsprung durch technik
Germany's technical prowess is well documented from printing, to the Bauhaus movement, the incredible work in ceramics, the Meissen rhino really is quite impressively large. And its famous people are also well celebrated, both Hans Holbein's Erasmus and Tischbein's Goethe make an appearance, as does Napoleon's hat.

(Meissen Rhino)

New Learnings
Even for a massive Deutschophile there were things to learn. I learned that hidden in the Buchenwald Concentration camp gates was the hidden rebellion of a prisoner in the form of Art Deco script. I learnt the significance of Barlach's Hovering Angel, and the relevance of the face being modelled on the mourning mother and artist, Kathe Kollwitz.

(Buchenwald Gate)

One Nation?
One of the central events commemorated in the exhibition is the anniversary of the fall of the Berlin wall. There is a great chunk of the wall outside the main exhibition space but this its relevance is mainly lost in the grand surroundings of the hall; unlike its counterpart the VW Beetle which holds its own in the glass temple. The more effective image is the protest poster, 'Wir sind ein Volk', indicative of many Germanys coming under one banner. I remain, however, unconvinced of this idea as a reality on the ground.

(Wir Sind Ein Volk)

Come and see the exhibition in real life and tell me what you think! The exhibition is open until 25th January. Or listen to the insightful radio series by Museum Director, Neil MacGregor, taking one object at a time and discussing its role in German history for 15 mins.

Further Reading
I've been to a couple of panels at the British Museum and they have introduced me to Philip Olterman  (amongst others) who writes hilarious tweets and also wrote a great book in 2012, 'Keeping up with the Germans' - both informative and funny, I now finally understand why Germans love 'Dinner for One'; an English farce that I had never heard of!

Remembering and representing: World War I

Every museum worth its salt has a World War I exhibition this Autumn. I’ve almost lost count of the exhibitions I’ve visited.

Imperial War: through an imperial lens

The IWM have just reopened their First World War galleries, when I visited a mere fortnight ago the museum was rammed with grandparents and grandchildren making the most of this new, free, interactive exhibition. For an imperial war museum they’ve done a good job.  Technology has been used to good effect to create interactive games, and a reconstruction of a trench.  Subject wise there was plenty on the war as class conflict, a section dedicated to conscientious objectors, as well as an informative area on the world war beyond Europe particularly in the Middle East. There was some effort to represent the home front, but I felt women were under-represented in the exhibition particularly with reference to activity on the Front – but then I suppose I did buy the book which brought women to my attention at the IWM so maybe its not all bad!

('The Din', Imperial War Museum Gallery)

Upstairs at the IWM they have a collection of paintings from the First World War which cover the gender angle much better – featuring several paintings by women from the conflict as well as several paintings by the Nash brothers.

(Neilson-Gray, Norah 1920, 

The Scottish Women's Hospital : In The Cloister of the Abbaye at Royaumont. Dr. Frances Ivens inspecting a French patient.)

The Passing Bells

Another commemorative TV series on the BBC this Autumn – borrowing its title from Wilfred Owen’s ‘Anthem for Doomed Youth’. TPB jumps a major hurdle to remembrance from the first scene in genuinely representing 3 different nationalities experience; German, English and Polish. The producers have worked hard to show the shared experiences and get some comment on most of the major events –  1914 Christmas peace, the Somme etc. I felt the role of women in TPC was well covered and nothing was over romanticised. That said, unlike Our World War the show is designed to feel like a period piece. War is not glamorised, the character of Derek (Brian Fletcher) is used to mirror some of the questions we are asking today ‘in a hundred years’ time, I wonder what they will make of this?’. You can catch The Passing Bells on iPlayer til Dec 3^rd.

(Enemies side by side. Photo credit: BBC Media Centre)

Burgh House: bringing the war home

To bring the conflict back to a very local scale I visited the free exhibition at Burgh House, Hampstead. Hampstead Heath played host to training troops during the conflict and artists famous from the era – including the Nash brothers and Richard Carline. The exhibition featured a copy of the Vorticist magazine, Blast and an original World War I nurses uniform as well as several photos of people using the hospital and the nearby heath during war-time. The curators had made good use of poetry on the walls to set the scene, and helped to set an international crisis into a local perspective – the personal drawn into stark relief through the smaller objects – a Princess Mary tin, a postcard home. The exhibition is open until 14^th December. They also do great food!

(Troops work out on the Heath)

(The doorstep of Burgh House)