travelswithalice

August 29, 2015

Still a quintessentially cool city

Over drinks last night, Lorna and I planned our long bank holiday weekend. And beyond.

There's the Notting Hill Carnival on Sunday, dinner at Tom and Lorna's Hampstead home on Monday, and a cabaret show on Friday, our last evening in London.

The city offers far too many possibilities and we are spoilt for choice for things to do. There are however two variables: the famously fickle weather and the availability of show tickets.

An English summer can turn from this...

...to this in no time at all...

...which throws our carnival plans somewhat in the dark. I was also hoping to catch a boat race at the Totally Thames festival. And maybe visit a few buildings participating in Open House London. I'm not keen enough to go trudging about in raincoats and wellies though.

Tickets to Black Cat Cabaret are proving scarce. And Stuart is still hard at work trying to get me my birthday present: tickets to Benedict Cumberbatch's Hamlet, the cheapest presently being royally scalped at £700 apiece. Our front row seats at last week's La Bayadère at the Coliseum only cost £50!

Other possibilities include Dr Sketchy's Anti Art Class, a one-act Macbeth, Dear Lupin with James Fox, and Yo Yo Ma at the BBC Proms.

There's a third variable too. Stuart may not be up to doing much of anything as he had minor surgery only the other day. A non-event really as far as the patient is concerned and the only remarkable thing being that the venue turned out to be the hospital where both Princess Diana and Kate Middleton gave birth to their royal babies. I sent this photo to family and friends:

(Stuart was actually just hailing a taxi.)

Labels: London, Notting Hill Carnival, St Mary's Lindo Wing

posted by Alice Dimalanta Jones # August 29, 2015

At the Blue Boar

At the Conrad's Blue Boar, there is a Division Bell, a special accommodation for members of Parliament who happen to be outside the confines of the Houses of Parliament during moments of parliamentary deliberations.

Wikipedia explains:

"The bell is used in the immediate neighbourhood of Palace of Westminster (which houses Parliament) to signal that a division is occurring and that members of the House of Commons or of the House of Lords have eight minutes to get to their chosen Division Lobby to vote for or against the resolution. There are approximately five hundred bells in and around the Palace of Westminster."

The bar has a very British kind of buzz: from the deep- buttoned leather sofas and tweed-covered armchairs to the bottles of malt vinegar stationed at every table.

When Stuart started hiccuping in the middle of lunch, I directed him to take half a spoonful of the malt vinegar, neat, which he did, dubiously. Well, it worked: hiccups disappeared instantly. How's that for a life hack?

Labels: Blue Boar, Conrad St Janes

posted by Alice Dimalanta Jones # August 29, 2015

August 28, 2015

The English countryside

At University of Essex for Stuart's keynote speech at a summer course on big data.

Except for the addition of a garden wing, Wivenhoe House doesn't look much changed from the1816 John Constable portrait that now hangs in Washington DC's National Gallery of Art .

Labels: big data, English countryside, Essex, Wivenhoe House

posted by Alice Dimalanta Jones # August 28, 2015

August 23, 2015

La Bayadère at the London Coliseum

La Bayadère at the English National Opera's London Coliseum.

Led by principal dancer Irina Kolesnikova, this touring production by the St Petersburg Ballet Theatre combines the stars of the Mariinsky Theatre, the Bolshoi Theatre and the St Petersburg Ballet Orchestra.

Having had the good fortune to secure what were probably the last two seats in the house, it would be churlish of me to find fault in the evening's performance. That said, it was disconcerting to see a leg fall out of formation in back of the corps de ballet during a particularly line-sensitive drill.

Oh but principal dancer Kolesnikova was way beyond faultless! It was for me an incredibly awesome experience to witness such exquisite dancing, especially from where I sat at the very edge of the stage. I imagined that I could feel and hear every footfall, every swish of fabric, every movement of air.

I don't have access to the vocabulary of ballet so I struggle to describe the deftness of Kolesnikova's every step, every gesture. The way her foot stroked the floor, as in a caress, when she began to move. The way her toes fixed on the board like they were glued to it right before they lifted weightlessly to whip about and point commandingly at unerringly precise angles. The beautiful long arcs her body traced. The languid grace with which her leaps and turns defied time and gravity.

As my eyes were riveted on the two principal female dancers in the roles of Nikiya and the Rajah's daughter Gamzatti, here danced exquisitely by Ukrainian Natalia Matsak, I fear I hardly noticed the other dancers, including the main male role of Solor played by the Bolshoi's Denis Rodkin.

The lady who sat beside me in the theatre knows her way around the world of ballet; her mother was a dancer. She spoke disparagingly of Rodkin. She said he will never be anything like Nureyev.

At one point, when he was directly in front of us, out of the main action, almost offstage but still dramatically in character, she said, "Look at him, we're probably the only ones who can actually see him...how very Bolshoi of him!"

I defer to her informed appraisal of the evening's performance of the role that served to deify the legendary Rudolf Nureyev.

Labels: Coliseum, La Bayadère, London

posted by Alice Dimalanta Jones # August 23, 2015

A Sunny Sunday in London Town

At Borough Market, a lunch of salad and pasta with shrimps, mussels, clams, and grilled zucchini. Crisp chilled white wine. Panna cotta with wild cherries.

At Tate Modern, too crazy for a brilliant day like this.

The Members Room. The only thing that made perfect sense. The art is outside.

Photogenic London.

Labels: London, Sunday, Tate Modern

posted by Alice Dimalanta Jones # August 23, 2015

August 19, 2015

Happy hour(s)

At Park Hyatt's Mio, Marco offers two non-mixed-drinks-drinkers two of his best mixed drinks: Anna Magnani and Milano Cupcake. Hmmm...back to Pinot Grigio.

At Terrazza Aperol, a spritz and a Bellini.

In Lugano, Pinot Grigio. In Lecco, the local white.

In our room, take-out dinner and a bottle of Brunello.

Labels: Aperol, Il Mercato, milan, Park Hyatt

posted by Alice Dimalanta Jones # August 19, 2015

August 17, 2015

On the train

A few yards from behind the Park Hyatt, there are two elevators. Take the left one for the Metro.

Duomo To Milano Centrale FS

Yellow Line to Comasina

From Centrale FS to Duomo

To Sn Donato

Exit not Via G Mazzini

Duomo, La Scala

To lift

Thru Farmacia

posted by Alice Dimalanta Jones # August 17, 2015

At the Park Hyatt, a changing of the guard

The departure of Lucio Fontana's Testa di Medusa from the Park Hyatt's La Cupola lobby, to be succeeded by Anish Kapoor's big shiny dish, signaled a change of sorts in the hotel's character.

There are no more La Cupola champagne evenings. They have been replaced by afternoon teas. Breakfast has been moved to the bar.

The terrace which used to open onto the entrance to Vittorio Emanuele is now enclosed in a gated wall. The men-in-black who used to patrol the length of the terrace are gone. As are the complimentary tapas served at cocktail time.

And the saddest change of all: no more Marco.

Marco has left the building. Bar & Lounge Manager Marco Fatta has left the Milan Park Hyatt! 😡

Labels: La Cupola bar, Marco Fatta, Park Hyatt

posted by Alice Dimalanta Jones # August 17, 2015

August 16, 2015

Milan

On arrival at the hotel Friday morning, I ate a second breakfast- the first was on the plane- then slept through the afternoon and reemerged only in time for dinner.

In the FT Weekend issue is an article entitled I travel, therefore I am. To do with making one's travels mean something special to oneself; not homogenized by the tyranny of museums and old churches- I'm paraphrasing here.

I've been to the Duomo a few times before, the opera at La Scala, seen the Last Supper, (wouldn't mind seeing it again and the church and the cloister but too difficult, have to join a tour,) hung around the Brera, been to Vittorio Emanuele (we're right next door,) Via Napoleone, the Rinascente and its annex, etc. In short, done the tourist bits.

Today, I had five kinds of cheeses, done several different ways including parmigiana fried into soft hollow pillows, ricotta piped and drizzled with honey, grana padano roughly chopped into crumbly bite size bits, and cloud-like piles of raspadura finely shaved into silky folds.

I had soft unsalted white butter on sticks of toast topped with Spanish anchovies.

Our first night in Milan called for a change from our usual red wine. Marco, the bar manager introduced us to special Park Hyatt cocktails Anna Magnani and Milan Cupcake. Tart, lively, delicious and deadly.

At Al Cantinone we had the house specialty antipasti, the house specialty salad, and the house specialty veal cutlet with risotto. And half a bottle of Pinot Grigio. We needed two tables to fit everything in. Everyone stared as the huge plates arrived. Even the waiter was impressed. Stuart and I were mortified.

Then we sat and read newspapers beneath the beautiful glass dome of the hotel lobby.

We walked a little, shopped a little, and rode a bike.

Labels: Al Cantinone

posted by Alice Dimalanta Jones # August 16, 2015

August 04, 2015

Into the bowels of Hong Kong airport

When Hong Kong's Grand Hyatt decided to renovate the Grand Club, I asked to buy two of my favorite chairs to take home with me to Manila. They stored the chairs for me while Stuart figured out how to get them sent home.

That was at least six months ago. Now they're flying home with us.

How to get a car big enough to take two 29"x29"x52" boxes, two suitcases, 2 wheelies, and two mid-size passengers? Über van to the rescue.

Such a thrill as our driver leads us round the back and through the airport's cargo loading dock:

Turning over my precious cargo to the bemused handlers at the check-in counter:

Labels: Hong Kong airport

posted by Alice Dimalanta Jones # August 04, 2015