Motherland

I picked a show at The Place for us to see this past Friday. Vincent Dance Theatre was presenting Motherland and based on the reviews and media I encountered, I was expecting to be entertained and provoked. Entertained and provoked I was.

This was gutsy theatre, the likes I rarely saw on stage in Canada. This is an adult show. Explicit and “in your face”.  In short, I was seriously impressed with the multi-talented artists on stage. They created a compelling piece of art through strong performance, movement and incredible musicianship. In fact, with perhaps the exception of the very start of the show, all sound and music was done live on stage. Either performers played a variety of instruments of piano, cello, guitar, violins or small speakers were used for effect.

I don’t even know how to being to describe what I saw or experienced. One of the questions I ask myself often when I come out of a performance is if I liked it. That feels too simple a question for this show, which makes me think I’m still affected quite strongly by what I experienced. Someone in the dance world recently said to me – there is dance that the general public like and then there is dance the dancers like. This piece will more likely fall into the latter category. A 2 hour, no interval, performance tackling the ever large subject of femininity, hypocrisies, and social inequalities is not your light Friday night date. I was once again impressed by P being able to survive a show like this and still be willing to talk about it on the bus ride home.

Things this show did brilliantly. It tackled current gender politics without straying into the realm of cliché. Attained poignant moments that almost made me weep such as the old woman’s stories of her life and childbirth. Captured individual stories and made the characters believable.  I found the white stage and backdrop plus the props of dirt, fake blood, antique wooden boxes and musical instruments fitting to the work.  Not so good was the rhythm of the vignettes – there was a similar pulse in the length and quality of each scene which made a 2 hour show feel about a half hour too long. Regardless, I applaud all the performers especially the 12 year old girl bringing an element of innocence and curiosity to the staged adult world. At the end, when all the performers, apart from the pristine musicians, were covered in dirt and fake blood I could only marvel at their talent.

These marathon performances do something to my head. I can’t quite describe it – perhaps it is something like finishing a really heavy subject matter book. Would I recommend the show? Not to absolutely everyone. But to a number of people that I know, mainly involved in the theatre world, would find it as intriguing as I did. I’d like to see this (or Vincent’s other works) brought to Toronto and Montreal audiences. I’d like to experience it with a Canadian audience.

Touring London

I’ve been busy! With the fall season here, I have jumped into some old habits. I’m taking a couple very inspiring flamenco classes on Tuesday nights and scheming how I can manage another class during the week. I spent a week volunteering for a dance festival which I promise to scribble about this coming week. I’m still on the job hunt for something creatively fulfilling. And in the meantime, I’ve started doing freelance work as a tour guide for this young, upbeat tour company.

Insider London offers a range of walking tours around London that are more connected with current trends and historical quirks than your regular tourist stroll. They cater to Londoners almost more so than tourists by showing you a glimpse of London you might not already know.  People generally think I’m a student or expert in whichever given topic I’m guiding on – past examples being First World War, history, Victorian architecture and so forth. But at the end of the day, I’m a storyteller, a public speaker and a lucky person to learn up on a whole bunch of things I would never necessarily delve into otherwise.

So what have I been learning? At the moment, I’m doing tours of the Underground. We literally spend 2 hours riding the Tube and popping out at stations of interest. Time Out London might give us a feature or review in the near future as the 150^th anniversary of the underground is upon us in January. If it’s favourable, (ie. Time Out’s word is God) I might be spending a lot of time on the tube!

Next up on my study list is Street Art. I’ll get to spend time showing people around uber hip East London uncovering the stories and people behind the ever changing art in that area. I’ve got a lot to learn. Watching Exit through the Gift Shop isn’t quite enough background. I haven’t spent much time in that part of town so this is also a good excuse for me to tack on some time to browse or hit the coffee shops.

Finally, I had a ball doing my audition for this company with part of the script from the Death and Debauchery tour. London’s seedy and gruesome history at its best, bringing a new element to Soho and Covent Garden area. I’m hoping to get to this one pretty quickly despite the cold weather creeping in. Another fun one I hope to being doing soon with Christmas parties on the way is the History of Drinking tour. Yes, we go to 4 pubs and if you’re interested, I’ll tell you something about drinking and history in London.

As part of my training as a guide and someone experiencing life in the UK, I’ve hit a couple tours myself in the past week. I coerced a few Canadian friends into the Jack the Ripper tour last Friday night. Our guide was excellent – and since it was the Day of the Dead, it seemed appropriate to spend the night talking about gruesome murders! It is incredible that an unsolved mystery with around 100 theories holds so much appeal still today. As there were at least 5 other tours out at the same time as us that night, “Jack” sure stimulates this local economy.

My second tour, while mandatory London learning, was atrociously dull. I got myself to Big Ben before 830 on a Monday morning to have an hour or so tour of the House of Parliament. The rooms and corridors were as opulent as my tour guide was boring. Parliament is already a dry subject (to me) so I could have used a few more anecdotes throughout the morning to enliven it all. But! I can check that off my list as places I’ve visited.

So when are you booking your tour with me? Tag along to one of our weekly tours or get your office or group of friends out to give me some work and you some fun!

Giving thanks British style

Yesterday was Canadian Thanksgiving, hence a holiday for the country today to sleep off eating loads of turkey and pumpkin. Living far away and currently suffering from confusion of seasons since there was no proper summer according to me, Thanksgiving snuck up on me. Only last week was I reminded it was on and I was scheduled to work the whole weekend.

Then it dawned on me this Saturday that this would be the first year I wouldn’t have turkey. I will be attending a proper big dinner in 2 weeks time (thanks to a friend who also wasn’t ready to host this weekend) but in the meantime, I needed to pull something together. I dropped my Sunday work shift, P looked up some recipes, and we made a right proper meal. Last year and this year have only been the 2 of us for this holiday that is typically full of people and too much food. I kind of like the “tradition” we’ve started of creating gourmet meals – this year, brie and basil stuffed turkey breasts wrapped in prosciutto and a fennel orange salad. Last year I found a pumpkin pie but without warning of the holiday we settled for a cranberry pumpkin cupcake from our local cupcake store.

The hype surrounds the food but I’ve noticed these last few years that many people are well aware of counting their blessings, giving thanks for who and what they have in their life. Since yesterday was also 13 months since I arrived, I’ve been reflecting on where I’m at here in London and what is great about being here. Will stick to the fun and lighthearted awesomeness of living in London!

Shows – For any theatre lover, New York may be the only rival to London for this aspect. Specifically as a dance theatre patron, I feel really spoiled as we get both the UK and Europe artists pouring into the theatres. I have had to reframe how I approach attending shows, they sell out here! The 1500 seat Sadler’s Wells! In the last year alone I’ve seen, among others, Pina Bausch, Akram Khan, Manuela Carrasco, Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker and Matthew Bourne. I feel overwhelmed by how much excellent theatre and dance there is on offer here constantly.

Transportation – Lets face it, the Tube is expensive. But when you combine the tube, the bus system and the public bike system (“Boris” bikes) you are faced with a fantastic network to get around the city. I have taken up cycling in London since I got my fantastic retro Raleigh on Valentine’s Day this year. It is a dangerous venture but I would have it no other way. There is again, a huge network of bike paths, cycle superhighways and diversions around big crazy traffic circles (Elephant and Castle anyone?) that have encouraged me to cycle a few different directions in London. Between my bike and the transport, I’m able to navigate London pretty well.

Museums – Commonly known, most of the major museums are free! And there are loads more to visit – London has the most museums and galleries in the world. I’ve had to start a list that will need to be methodically checked through in order to hit everything I want to hit.

Markets – I must admit, I love Toronto’s markets but they don’t hold a candle to the sheer number and diversity of London’s markets. Granted, we spend most of our time in Brixton’s market for its fresh produce, incredible food scene, dodgy vendors and community spirit yet I still feel we have more to explore. However, we have all the big ones like Portobello, Borough and Spitalfields as well as gourmet weekly ones like Herne Hill, Venn Street in Clapham Common and the one next to Saatchi Gallery. I endeavour to find a German style Christmas market in this city this year! Tips appreciated!

Cheap flights ­– OK, kind of a cheap shot since it isn’t London but it definitely comes down to location. It’s pretty great to live so close to Europe and be able to get there quickly. Even for getting to France, the bus and train are waiting for us to book. It also means I can get to Canada for about the same price as Toronto-Alberta round trip. And because London is one of the biggest hubs for travel in the world, I have already met up with a number of friends because they are passing through the city.  More visitors are good, we have a lot to do here!

Thank goodness the UK border agency allows us 2 years on our visa because it takes a good year to figure out how to navigate this place. I’ll keep exploring and am sure to turn up more and more gems every year.

basking in Basque

My last post about our trip to Spain! I have some catching up to do after this regarding the shows I’ve seen in London as well as new shows coming up. But I thought it important to finish what I started last week.

We left San Sebastian late afternoon on Thursday with the desire to explore Basque country a little more outside the main cities. We had heard the coastal drive heading west of San Sebastian was gorgeous and we were not disappointed. It reminded P of Great Ocean Road and me, of the Cabot Trail in NS. Stunning. Apparently it is a popular training area for cyclists as we saw pro cycling along most of the winding, hilly roads for the rest of our trip. We had had enough sun already and didn’t want to overdo it but we definitely saw some great looking beaches along the way. We did want a quick snack in a small town so chose Ondorroa as it was described in my guide as a small fishing port town with a few great places for seafood pintxos. Unfortunately, it appeared all the seafood was exported to the rest of Spain – we found nothing fishy in the bars we tried. Slightly disappointed with the standard options, we got going to a small town south of Bilbao where we were staying in an Airbnb for our last 3 nights.

We were in Amurrio, about half hour from both Vitoria-Gasteiz and Bilbao. We had our own private suite with a massive bedroom and living room, the latter which we would have used if it was cooler. But with the amazingly hot weather we could sit out on their gorgeous patio deck. Good place and convenient base to explore the area. As our next couple days unfolded however, might have been better to be near Bilbao. On Friday, we headed back for the coast east of Bilbao passing through Guernica (made famous by Picasso’s striking painting) towards Mundaka.  My book sadly failed me again however in convincing me this was where to find one of the best beaches. It is one of 11 spots Billabong has stamped with approval for an amazing surf and the area is pretty cool but for sunbathing and dipping, not the best area. We set off again for a viewpoint called San Juan de Gaztelugatxe. It was indeed beautiful but we didn’t have stamina to walk down a really steep hill to walk onto the island it was so we snapped some photos and chose to circle all the way back around to what really is a beautiful beach – Playa Laga. Sadly it was late afternoon by this point and it was one of those afternoons that clouded over. However thanks to our adventurous driving, I can recommend the following for beaches: Laga and the town of Bakio (further west spotted from our San Juan lookout) Skip Mundaka’s poor pintxo scene unless you are a mega surfer and want to catch the longest left break in the world.

My best idea of the holiday came when we were on the beach – we decided to head to Bilbao for dinner. The highway we came in took us on the bridge that passes right next to the Guggenheim and it was a magnificent first glimpse of the museum. The sun was setting, it was still really hot and we snagged one of the last free street parking. The museum has transformed Bilbao apparently from industrial to a classy nice town full of art. That night, sold out sadly, the museum hosted live DJs and bands to celebrate its 15^th anniversary. We instead took loads of pictures along the river from the museum into the old town (its 700 years old) and marvelled at the sculptures and architecture we saw along the way. Rough Guides came through this time by suggesting a little place called Café Bar Bilbao on a very lively square. (come to think of it though – is there such place is an un-lively square in a Spanish city?)

It had everything that appeals to me about a pintxo/tapa bar. Tiled walls, men behind the counter who appear grumpy but are actually loving what they do and always pull a little side smile when serving you and smashing down plates and glasses, plus an absolute fantastic arrangement of food. We were only 2 days away from leaving Spain and I hadn’t had calamari yet. Pretty sure it is a speciality at that place as it is the only dish when ordered gets shouted back to the cook. Calamari, 1.50 euro wines, the best pintxos ever. We were stuffed and happy. So much so we ended up there the next night on Saturday.

We were so full and tired from our meal we crashed pretty hard when we got home and the next day, full of sun and heat again, meant we pulled out the lovely sunbeds provided by our hosts and spent the afternoon lazing around. We thought about going to Victoria-Gasteiz – it was a chosen destination since we planned our trip – but we still hadn’t made the Guggenheim and we aren’t sure we’ll be back to Bilbao. So we chose to spend our last night by exploring what is an absolutely gorgeous contemporary art museum, another sunset walk along the river and of course, more delicious pintxos at our new favourite bar plus a couple others next door. It was a pretty fantastic end to the trip.

We still had some driving left to do the next day to get to Santander from where our flight departed. Last stop was a cute beach off the main highway called Oriñón but it was too windy to be pleasant. We were definitely off the tourist track though and wandered through the flea market and trailer park that was set up before we left.

It feels so long ago already but I’ve been embracing London’s autumn as much as possible since I got home so I should hopefully have some time to write about the shows I’m getting to this week. As for Spain, hasta luego…

the glorious San Sebastian

We left wine region for San Sebastian; in all honesty, it is the city we based the trip around. Neither of us had been before and it had come highly recommended from anyone who has been. We were not disappointed – it is a magnificent city. Beautiful with its beaches, rolling green hills, incredible food scene and a very happy, chill atmosphere. It felt to me to be a much more prosperous city than many others I’ve visited in Spain.

Unfortunately we had to work hard to appreciate the city at first. The forecast had called for rain on our wine tour day but it held out until we arrived by car in Pamplona. Then the rain came down like nobody’s business accompanied with extremely heavy fog. The drive from Pamplona to San Sebastian reminds me so much of drives in BC and I suspect the scenery was stunning but we were negotiating some pretty bad driving conditions. It is a drive up and down lush, green “mountains” (always in quotations from an Albertan) and full of tunnels. We would have breathed a sigh of relief arriving in San Sebastian except it is a terrible mix of highways – take one wrong turn from a city street and you’re on a highway out of town. I’ve never driven such a maze. We were hopelessly lost getting to our hostel and encountered the same problem getting back after dinner that night (an hour instead of 10 minutes from centre to hostel!)

Regardless of the stress, we found the Green Nest Hostel situated in the gorgeous park, Ametzagana. P and I met last April in another Nest, the White Nest in Granada and it is by far the best hostel I’ve ever been to, so we chose to try out the Green Nest. We were some of the first guests, it had only opened 2 days before! The manager knew us from the White Nest so we were greeted by a friendly face. Small world! We had the best private room in the place, with a great view and like the White Nest, an extremely comfortable and clean stay.

We were exhausted and hungry, the hostel is on its own in the outskirts of town so we headed to the centre to sample some of the delicious pintxos. It was getting late but we managed to hit a couple places before walking into one called Bar Astalena that offered us free pintxos because it was the end of the night and they were going to throw it out! We promised to be back the next night as thanks.

And we did go back! The next day was P’s birthday. We had a long sleep, made an amazing brunch complete with mimosas and finally head into town late afternoon. It was our first view of its beaches – stunning. We watched the very busy surfers’ beach of Zurriola then headed for the famous Playa de la Concha. We had 2 destinations – the one on the west side, Chillida’s incredible sculptures, we left for the next day. It was a little over an hour from sunset so we decided to walk part of the pier then up the Monte Urgull which towers over the old town, the bay and the ocean. We didn’t get the memo to bring drinks or a picnic as many people were doing but it didn’t matter. It was probably the most picturesque part of our trip. The sunset was beautiful and the hike had given us enough of an appetite to explore the culinary avenues again.

We had some suggestions from staff at the hostel and my guidebook. We didn’t have to go much further than Calle de 31 Agosto. We started with Atari and tried a recommended hot tapa called corrilleros. Mashed potatoes with meat so tender it melted in your mouth. Yum! One of my best glasses of red were consumed there too – Baigorri, chosen simply because we had stopped to try to get in to their winery the day before. We also hit the fun and delicious Taberna Gandarias and the cheap La Cepa, all on the same street. We were feeling close to full but knew we had to hit Bar Astalena once more. We were not disappointed by their delicious, non-bread hot pintxos. (standard pintxos come speared on a piece of bread) Pistachio croqueta, mini crepes and shrimp wrapped pasta were followed up by a small chocolate bite that was heaven. Yum! One of the more inventive places for food in the old centre we’ve been told.

Ready to head home, we ran into the one person we knew in San Sebastian, the manager from the hostel. He was with the Nest founder and another colleague who were in town to oversee what the hostel needed in its opening days. He made us tell his boss the story of how we met at the White Nest and next thing we knew, we were in bar toasting new relationships and dancing the night away. An unexpected fun night and a great way to celebrate P’s birthday. The “big boss” told us that “anyone who joins in White Nest is part of my family”. So we now have a new contact in Valencia, most likely our next Spanish trip.

We were unfortunately leaving the next day for more road tripping but spent most of the day in San Sebastian. The weather was unusually hot for September so we sunbathed and picnicked on the magnificent beach, visited Chillida’s sculptures and jumped in the ocean. We also promised ourselves we would return in the future then jumped in our car to see small town Basque country for the rest of our trip.

Winding through wine regions

With some difficulty, we found the car rental in Madrid’s train station (side note: check out the train station’s gorgeous indoor garden if you’re visiting!) and jumped into our little Leon for the week. P negotiated driving on the right side of the road with the shift stick in his right hand while I negotiated Spanish signs. We miraculously made it out of Madrid into the very dry route heading north.

I bought a Rough Guide to Spain last year and it has served me ridiculously well. I was following along where we were on the highway in my guide to realize we were going to pass by the Rio Duero, which I suspected correctly has something to do with the fabulous Ribera del Duero wine. Since we had left our Monday open to enjoying our road trip, we decided to turn off the main highway to follow a 40 odd kilometre stretch between Aranda del Duero and Peñafiel. There were quite a few bodegas along that highway, just like my trusty guide told me. We decided to go all the way to Peñafiel first where we drove up to check out its really crazy castle perched up on a high hill, so narrow it kind of looks like a huge ship. We are pretty sure absolutely every person in that town and the area were asleep for siesta. Nothing was open, no one was to be seen. After snapping some vista photos from the castle and a few of their Plaza del Coso with its balconied wooden buildings (unfortunately still used today for a bullring in August), we headed on a little road to some suggested bodegas. Sadly, we learned the hard way that there is absolutely nothing to do in wine region (Ribera or Rioja) between 1pm – 4pm as everyone siestas. It also has that casual country attitude that could result in the bodega choosing to not bother opening after 4pm anyway which takes all the spontaneity and ability to discover a fun new wine randomly. Le sigh. Perhaps la siesta is the reason Spain is in such economic turmoil?

If you head to either region, I highly suggest you book in advance. As we discovered when we called for Rioja bodegas with our hostess later on, there are sometimes only one English tour a day. We had to decide between 2 bodegas that only had their English tours at 4pm and 4:30 with no option to just do tastings and buy some wine. So it seems effectively, you can only really visit 2 places a day, one in the morning and one in the afternoon. If I go back, I’ll make sure I hit Bodega Alejandro Fernandez and the couple next door (all a few kilometres north of Peñafiel) We did managed to snag one bottle from a classy looking place called Cepa 21 however as their office was open.

We eventually made it to the little sweet town of Haro, which has a number of bodegas as well. We snuck into one as a group was exiting to be told again there were no English tour spots for another few days. If you don’t have a car or just want to hit one wine spot, Haro is the place to go. You don’t even need to go into town if you take the train, the station is surrounded by 4 or 5 bodegas! We never made it back though, opting for countryside estates instead.

The fun is in the road trip however and as such, we had booked another Airbnb in a tiny town called Labastida near Haro. Perhaps the highlight of our trip, we stayed in Lur Mendi, this old gothic building that has José’s butcher shop on the main street level and a couple floors of rooms above. His wife Mari was our gracious host. The town was small enough to not be open for dinner around 8pm when we arrived and we hadn’t eaten much at all. So she offered us some jamon from the shop, which we gratefully accepted. Once we got to the kitchen (our own private one as we were the only guests that night) we found not just a big plate of ham with a baguette, but a huge chunk of cheese and a local bottle of Rioja. I threw in some olives we had left from Madrid for good measure and we ate like royalty. Mari spoke to us (well to P since it was all in Spanish) for quite a while and offered to arrange our bodega visits for the next day. After a wander around the tiny town accompanied by another glass of vino tinto, we crashed to get ready for the Rioja visit the next day.

Mari had big plates of eggs, ham and fries (with a bottle of wine!) out for us in the morning. We also had oranges and a special juicer to make fresh juice, instead of wine, so we were well fed for the day. We felt so spoiled we asked to buy some cheese and ham for the road – instead, she handed us a bag with cured ham, chorizo, cheese and a bottle of wine to take with us! Most of it has come back with us to London so we’ll enjoy in the next month. We bid our farewells with promise to return if we come back to Rioja.

She set up a visit for us at this incredible vineyard just outside the village called Remelluri. It was the site of winemaking for centuries but left abandoned for most of the last century before this family bought the farm and brought it back to life. Organic, traditional ways of tending the grapes and a real dedication to winemaking has produced a really lovely result. We were left to walk around the farm and we visited this medieval wine crushing spot, set in stone. Earlier in Labastida, we were in a bar that had a Guinness record holder of most grapes squished…perhaps he did it in the stone basin we found?

After we returned to the office, we got to see all the barrels and hear more about the history of the farm before indulging in a “tasting” which in Spain apparently means a full glass of wine. Delicious and moved by the vineyard, we bought a bottle (which apparently has been at royal events in Spain in the last couple decades!) She told us she was pleased to see young people interested in visiting the vineyards so I guess our generation isn’t making a huge appearance quite yet.

It is a bit of a tease to drive on throughout that gorgeous region when everything is closed for siesta. So we just enjoyed the views and decided on Bodega Ysios for our last visit. Our other option was the Frank Gehry designed Bodega Marques de Riscal but we drove by it, took a photo, I had a wine and we moved on. Ysios was a great choice. The bodega is designed by Spanish architect, Santiago Calatrava who I’m currently fascinated with after our trip. It was your typical, “this is how we make wine” tour with their special features but it is clearly a wine and brand that focuses on design and innovative ideas. A special feature were these incredible wine glasses representing the 7 deadly sins, all related to how you drink it, designed by Kasper Hamilton. The goal is to make the 8^th deadly sin, the tempting Ysios wine. It was a sharp contrast to our morning tour but we loved both for different reasons. We had two tastings in their gorgeous reception room and lingered long looking over the vineyards out towards the town of Laguardia. Highly recommend stopping in if you can!

Madrid: the start of a great Spain holiday

We’ve just returned to London from a glorious 10 days in Spain. I already have a backlog on performances I saw before our trip but I’ll diverge for the next few entries to speak about our time in Spain. Perhaps it will warm me up to think about my vacation as it has turned bitterly cold and wet here in London whilst we were away.

We (my boyfriend and I) started our journey in Madrid, spending the weekend there. Madrid holds a special place in my heart after my 2 weeks studying flamenco there last year. It meant a lot to me to bring P there to show off the city to him. The weather was amazing, we arrived to 30 + degrees for the whole 3 days. Airbnb is our preferred way to travel now, fantastic way to meet locals and have accommodation with character. We booked a private room in a cosy apartment in Lavapies, a non touristy, vibrant Madrid neighbourhood. Our hostess is an Argentinean who has lived in Madrid for about 5 years. She had a cute little dog, Loba, that was full of character and sweet beyond belief!

Our Friday was basically full of food. We took a menu del dia on calle Argumosa in Lavapies for lunch. Having been a few places in Spain now, I think that some of the better food is in Madrid. Might be because of the diversity and competition a cultural city attracts? Regardless, I suggest calle Argumosa for any Madrid trip as it is reasonably priced, holds a local vibe and really chill. I’d give you the name of the place we were since I’ve been there multiple times but I have no idea what it is called! Go explore yourself and if in need of a café con leche de soja (only one I could buy in Spain) head to La Libre, really close to Reina Sofia on this same street. We went there for brunch the next morning, being only one of the few places in Madrid (and Spain) we could find for a more filling “than light” breakfast. Another great street to hit, which has more picks since I was there last year, is calle Santa Isabel which I know well because of the flamenco school there.

Madrid was strangely quiet on our Friday evening exploration of the streets. There were few people in Plaza Mayor and we only saw locals and weddings around the Palacio. If you’re heading to Madrid at all, know that you can walk around the centre so easily and hit all sorts of lovely streets and sites. We used Friday as our tapas crawl night. To miss – Mercado de San Miguel. Popular and recommended to us, we stopped in to be charged an atrocious amount to eat and drink. Maybe we picked the wrong spot inside the market? Anyway, the old local taverns are always a better bet. Go where the old Spanish people are – that is my way of finding an authentic Spanish place.

Last year, with other Canadian friends and on my own, I found some lovely places that I took P to that night. Hit Plaza de Jesus for both Cerveceria Cervantes and Taberna de Dolores for authentic and entertaining service at the bar and inexpensive food and drink. Dolores has won me over a few times over and we did make sure to hit it once more before we left Madrid. If you need other hot spots for Madrid, head to Plaza Santa Ana area, Calle Cava Baja and, where we spent our last evening, the lovely Plaza Paja to La Musa Latina – calamari with wasabi dip, need I say more!

As much as we like eating, we did do the odd other thing as well. Saturday we spent our afternoon in a free visit to the modern art museum, Centro de Arte Reina Sofia. The world class museums in Madrid all offer free admission at some point in the week which I absolutely love. Not only is the building of the Reina Sofia stunning in itself, P was impressed by the collection of his favourite artists from the 1900s. P impressed me when we first met by taking me to the Tate Modern and telling me loads about the artists – having studied art in uni, he was a much more interesting guide than an audioguide. But I digress. We also thoroughly enjoyed the sister spots of the museum on Sunday in the park, Retiro. The Crystal Palace and Palacio de Velazquez were housing exhibits by the Spanish artist Nacho Criado. Without art, these spaces that are free to the public daily are absolutely beautiful to visit. With Nacho’s work, we lingered long. Needless to say, we did a pretty good job at “culturing” ourselves for the weekend. On the whole, my trip impressed me strongly by Spain’s artists.

Because Madrid has great parks, I took P to my 2 favourite ones. We had a picnic on Parque de la Montana at dusk on Saturday, watching the light change, sitting next to the Templo de Debod. A 4^th century BC Egyptian temple, it was given to Spain as a gift to recognize the work by Spanish engineers on the Aswan High Dam. The park is rightfully filled with families, teenagers, photographers and the persistent local beer sellers. My other favourite park is Parque del Retiro not just because of its art spaces mentioned above but because of its beautiful architecture, trees and vast spaces to hang out. We spent Sunday afternoon there after an amusing hour visiting the massive flea market, El Rastro, that takes place every Sunday not far from where we stayed.

We were itching for a road trip though so we had to bade farewell to Madrid on Monday morning and packed ourselves into a lovely little Leon for the next 7 days…

Last Night of the Proms

I can now check off “The Last Night of the Proms” from my bucket list. To be honest, I didn’t know it was on the list until I started working at the Royal Albert Hall. I had to ask forgiveness for my innocence when they spoke about “The Proms”. I pictured 8 weeks of graduation parties with pimply teenagers maldressed in suits and evening gowns. Luckily, it is a lot nicer than that.

LNOP, as it is referred to by Hall staff, was this past Saturday the 8^th of September. I signed up to work the queues from 11:30am onward, leading up to the 7:30pm concert. We have had queues all year but this time was something special. Whilst the Hall sells advanced seated tickets, there are always up to 1400 tickets available for standing room at £5 in either the arena (front of the stage) or “up in the Gods” – I mean the Gallery.  You can buy a season ticket to either the Arena or Gallery which guarantees you entrance to the every Prom including the LNOP up till 20 minutes before the concert. You can also queue every day for either section and we admit as many as we can fit in. (with such a large capacity, we only turned people away a couple times this year) If you attended 5 concerts this summer and could thus produce 5 ticket stubs for say, the arena, you could buy a ticket to the LNOP arena section and along with the season holders, be guaranteed entrance up until 20 minutes before the concert.

Which brings me to the LNOP queues. Season holders and ticket holders were in one queue – guaranteed entrance. But they were still there from the break of dawn. I think we used the word “keener” in high school. It was a party. They bring loads of food, and this time, loads of champagne, alongside their flags and patriotic paraphernalia. By 3pm, there was even a full table with chairs set up directly in the middle of the steps with a full spread. By the middle of the afternoon, many people had changed into their evening dress as well. Most of the year these people look like they haven’t changed their wardrobe since the 90s but that night, full tuxedos and gowns were brought out. (photo credit: Christie Goodwin)

I handled the “hopeful” queue for the arena which hovered in the 250-300 range for most of the afternoon. We had to be very militant. Don’t leave the queue for more than 30 minutes. We did spot checks every 3 hours, if you weren’t there, to the back of the queue. Cash only. You can’t hold a number for a friend who hasn’t arrived yet. Generally, it reminded me of the film fests again where people almost immediately became friends with their neighbours. Mini bbqs were held, Pimms were consumed – the first 2 people in that queue actually camped out starting at 10pm the night before. At the end of it all, I only turned away the last 80 people or so, all who had shown up only an hour before we admitted that queue.

The hard part of my job was done so I just got to be amused for the rest of the evening. First half of concert was actually nice music with soloists violinist Nicola Benedetti and celebrated tenor Joseph Calleja. The Prommers wait all year for the second half though. At the interval, balloons were blown, massive balls were bounced around, noisemakers were produced and crackers and streamers flung everywhere. And into the traditional half we went. I was slightly prepared for British patriotism from the Hall’s Classical Spectacular events held last spring but this was a new level of singing and flag waving. Fantasia on British Sea-Songs is always the highlight – badly bopping Prommers, horns honking to the music, fake crying and humming all figures into the protocol of listening to this set of songs. It finishes with Rule, Britannia!, so very British. A fantastic surprise appeared however – Team GB medal winners appeared on stage for the encore and the crowds went MAD. I had no idea until that night there were 40,000 people at the Hyde Park event plus 1,000s more in Cardiff, Glasgow and Belfast. I should feel honoured I was both in the Hall and even on TV (my boyfriend spotted me the next night when watching replay)

For those of you who can’t quite picture what I’m speaking about here, I’ll link you to the video posted by the Hall. And thankfully, I’m now on holiday to recover from this wonderful musical summer.

My musical summer

It has been a couple of extraordinary nights of music. In all fairness, it has been a couple months of music as the BBC Proms have taken over my life for the summer. But it was only last week that I feel I’ve been able to thoroughly enjoy some of the performances – once as a patron and once as a steward. They were very different nights but I loved them both all the same.

On Wednesday, I was serenaded by Eric Whitacre’s lyrics and music. It was an hour and a half uninterrupted, almost completely unaccompanied, soundscape of voices. Late night prom, starting at 10:15, meant no interval. I must admit, I hadn’t heard of him before but the queues forming for his concert were full of under-25s, giving the whole atmosphere a great vibe before it even began. I was excited to hear Imogen Heap’s song however, featured on the bill. The evening reminded me of the late night programming on CBC radio, The Signal. I listened to that program regularly for a couple years in Toronto and I must admit, I miss it (yes, I can stream it but it starts at 3am GMT) “Night music” is how I describe her beautiful programming and it is very probable I heard Whitacre’s compositions on there in the past. Track down his “Cloudburst” or “Sleep” for some ethereal sounds.

Friday night, I attended the Royal Albert Hall for the first time as a patron. We lucked out – we were seeing the Berliner Philharmoniker, considered one of the best orchestras in the world, and we were sitting in a prime box to watch and listen. First, was the incredibly beautiful Brahms, Piano Concerto No. 2 in B flat major. I was absolutely carried away in the piece – a challenging, but rewarding, concerto for the pianist to play. I hadn’t had time to read the program notes for the second piece before it began. The Proms programming this summer has tended to pair a very well loved piece of music, such as the Brahms, with a lesser-known or more contemporary piece. In this case it was a Polish composer’s symphony written in the 1980s, Lutosławski. At first slightly confused as to what the overall nature of the piece would be, before I knew it, I was pulled in and loving every musical experiment and lyricism. I plan to listen again.

I’m reminded of the power of music. I haven’t played the piano in years but spending all this time around live music lately has me wishing I had one in my living room! I’m grateful for this chance to be re-introduced to the power of classical and contemporary music.

Working the Proms all summer has been a test of endurance. It is the world’s largest classical music festival, running since 1895. The original idea of the “promenade concerts” was for people to walk (promenade) and listen to music. The Hall has maintained this tradition by selling standing tickets, available only on the day. This means we have had queues of eager prommers day in, day out on our doorstep. At first I likened it to working queues at the Toronto film festivals but the system is slightly more complicated for the Proms, making for long explanations to tourists or other first time prommers on which queue to join, how long you can leave and other miscellaneous information. Also, some of these people literally queue all day. I have yet to arrive to work before a prommer. It is slightly overboard. People find it more than worthwhile however as tickets are only £5, best Royal Albert Hall deal all year.

The Last Night of the Proms is on Saturday. I’m working the queues all day before this famous performance. I really don’t know what to expect except for fancy costumes, carnations, and an overwhelming presence of union jacks – some people wait all year for the next LNOP to arrive, me, I just know it is going to add greatly to my UK experience by seeing this event live. I’ll report back next week once I’ve recovered.

Getting started – writing from experience

Gosh, it has been 3 years since I started up this blog. Like many creative endeavours, the intention of the writing has evolved. A couple characteristics have remained consistent though – this is personal blog and it touches on my passions of travel and arts & culture. Having joined the thousands of young Commonwealth people who make a pilgrimage to live in London on a working holiday visa, I feel it is high time to start writing about my experiences here. It has been almost a year already after all!

There is also a professional motivation behind starting up my blog again. In the year that I have been living here, I have struggled to find permanent work in my field of arts management. Everyone will tell you it is a very competitive time to look for work in London, in most fields. It is discouraging, to say the least, to be filling out job applications and attending some interviews for almost a year without the right thing materializing. I am fortunate to have a great part-time job as a steward and tour guide at the Royal Albert Hall but I am still hoping to advance my career in management.

My dream job for years has been to eventually become a curator of live performance. That person who programs a festival or a season, also known as a presenter. There is a mix of creativity and organizational leadership that appeals to me. While I’m not working directly in this at the moment, I thought I would take some self-directed education on. It is important for presenters to see as much work as possible and be able to envision how works of art may or may not fit in the context of their community. Many artists and arts managers do this naturally, attending shows often, including myself. London is an overwhelmingly exciting city to be in for its breadth of live performance and I have made an effort to see as much as possible in the last year on a budget.

It is one thing to talk about the show after I’ve seen it, with my date or colleagues in the field. It is another to articulate in writing what I have seen. So, with an effort to document what I see and build a CV of shows per se, I’ll be writing here about what I take in here in London (and beyond if I make it outside of the city) By doing this, I also return to writing about my field, something that has interested me for many years. I took an arts journalism class years ago in Toronto. I don’t intend this personal blog to be journalism but I do hope it plays a small role in having more writing published about shows and issues.

So keep your eye out for shows and events I’ve taken in, mixed among my travel musings both around London and Europe. And if you happen to read this and you’ve got a show or event on I should come see and subsequently write about, please do let me know. J