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Tuesday 30 July 2013
Hereford birthday barn
We headed to a barn in Burghill for my birthday (turned out to have about 5 birthdays that week out of the 15 of us but still), it was lovely and really quiet around us - we had a pool, sauna, croquet lawn, table tennis plus lots of delightful food and drink.
A selection of Istanbul snaps part 2
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| Just behind the Blue Mosque |
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| Balik Pazari |
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| Yoros Castle |
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| Bosphorus leading into the Black Sea |
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| Princes Islands |
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| Blue Mosque |
A selection of Istanbul snaps part 1
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| Aya Sofya |
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| Gülhane Park |
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| Aya Sofya |
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| Basilica Cistern |
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| Grand Bazaar |
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| Galata Bridge/New Mosque |
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| Blue Mosque |
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| Istiklal Caddesi |
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| Taksim Square |
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| Chora Church |
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| City Walls |
All photos my own.
Monday 29 July 2013
PITCH Festival
At the start of the month, I headed over to PITCH Festival in Amsterdam.
We arrived on Friday evening and headed to the hotel to check in, we were staying a little out on the centre of town, but a walk away from the site, the lovely Westerpark.
After a couple hours down time, we headed to the old gas works:
Our first act of the day was Leif, I then headed into one of the bigger stages for Mulatu Astatke who was playing with a large band and suitably impressive.
We danced along to a spot of Rustie before sampling some of Mykki Blanco's warm up acts - one was a mermaid-esq dancer who mesmerised the crowd with her/his laser lights, I couldn't help thinking that it might not work in London but in the friendlier, more open climes of Amsterdam, no one batted an eyelid. I only managed to see one of Mykki Blanco's songs before I headed over to the festival's biggest stage to see James Blake. It had been a while since I'd seen him, I was reminded of why I got into him. Excellent set. Afterwards, I rejoined my group and we got hyped for Jon Hopkins who quickly became my festival highlight. We mucked around till it was time for Cyril Hahn but he couldn't quite keep my attention so we wandered home.
Saturday - we jumped in a taxi to town and had a wander around the canals and Begijnhof before having a drink on the riverside, a drink at the cavernous Gollem and a quick stop at a cafe. We headed back to the festival site for round two. We spent a little more time by the reedy waterside drinking 0.2l beers and eating falafels and frites but still managed to check out the Syrian don that is Omar Souleyman and Bonobo who were playing as a 5 (?) piece band. I had a mild freak out after Bonobo whilst having a smoke, and had to sit in the shade for a while (I was dressed for less hot weather), luckily after chilling for 10 minutes, I was good and ready to dance to AlunaGeorge, Lukid, Disclosure, Bicep and Cashmere Cat. We had become restless towards the end of Bicep and Cashmere Cat so we decided to leave before Bashmore and spent our last tokens on more frites, a wise choice you might say. We walked home excitedly, running around picnic tables and posing with an array of bicycle carts.
I noticed that there seemed to be a shortage of lighters at the festival, quite surprising for the location. And that sports luxe was big on the scene in Amsterdam
We arrived on Friday evening and headed to the hotel to check in, we were staying a little out on the centre of town, but a walk away from the site, the lovely Westerpark.
After a couple hours down time, we headed to the old gas works:
Our first act of the day was Leif, I then headed into one of the bigger stages for Mulatu Astatke who was playing with a large band and suitably impressive.
We danced along to a spot of Rustie before sampling some of Mykki Blanco's warm up acts - one was a mermaid-esq dancer who mesmerised the crowd with her/his laser lights, I couldn't help thinking that it might not work in London but in the friendlier, more open climes of Amsterdam, no one batted an eyelid. I only managed to see one of Mykki Blanco's songs before I headed over to the festival's biggest stage to see James Blake. It had been a while since I'd seen him, I was reminded of why I got into him. Excellent set. Afterwards, I rejoined my group and we got hyped for Jon Hopkins who quickly became my festival highlight. We mucked around till it was time for Cyril Hahn but he couldn't quite keep my attention so we wandered home.
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| James Blake |
Saturday - we jumped in a taxi to town and had a wander around the canals and Begijnhof before having a drink on the riverside, a drink at the cavernous Gollem and a quick stop at a cafe. We headed back to the festival site for round two. We spent a little more time by the reedy waterside drinking 0.2l beers and eating falafels and frites but still managed to check out the Syrian don that is Omar Souleyman and Bonobo who were playing as a 5 (?) piece band. I had a mild freak out after Bonobo whilst having a smoke, and had to sit in the shade for a while (I was dressed for less hot weather), luckily after chilling for 10 minutes, I was good and ready to dance to AlunaGeorge, Lukid, Disclosure, Bicep and Cashmere Cat. We had become restless towards the end of Bicep and Cashmere Cat so we decided to leave before Bashmore and spent our last tokens on more frites, a wise choice you might say. We walked home excitedly, running around picnic tables and posing with an array of bicycle carts.
I noticed that there seemed to be a shortage of lighters at the festival, quite surprising for the location. And that sports luxe was big on the scene in Amsterdam
Sunday - it was the day of the Wimbledon final so we hit up a sports bar (Euro Pub) in Dam Square, ie. it was a little dodgy but the only sports bar our hotel knew about. We hadn't managed to watch any tennis before it was time to head to the airport. Beers in the sun wasn't a bad consolation though. Murray won the match whilst we were in the air.
Castles and trains
A selection of photos from a recent National Trust themed day out with my mother and her partner. We rode the East Sussex and Kent railway from Tenterden to Bodiam on a diesel train, explored Bodiam castle and then back to Tenterden, this time on the steam train. A quick stop off at Scotney Castle on the drive home.
Monday 8 July 2013
Kirkwood
It has become another theatre filled time, so off we went to see Chimerica last week, I think I booked on the strength of the Time Out review - 5 stars aren't that frequent - and the plot sounded interesting. I then recalled I had seen another of Lucy Kirkwood's plays at the Royal Court, NSFW, which I thought was very good.
It was my first time at The Almeida Theatre and I was blown away by Chimerica - the plot's main strand is a photographer searching for the Tank Man of Tiananmen Square - in the play, he has taken that iconic shot in 1989.
And he now wants to know if the Tank Man is still alive and who he is, as we follow his trail around America, other strands are weaved into the play: growth, censorship, protest, politics.
Like NSFW, it deals with moral issues very well, remembering there are many grey areas, whilst also been very sharp - it is getting transferred to the West End and I thoroughly recommended. Think I will keep an eye out for her next play as well.
It was my first time at The Almeida Theatre and I was blown away by Chimerica - the plot's main strand is a photographer searching for the Tank Man of Tiananmen Square - in the play, he has taken that iconic shot in 1989.
And he now wants to know if the Tank Man is still alive and who he is, as we follow his trail around America, other strands are weaved into the play: growth, censorship, protest, politics.
Like NSFW, it deals with moral issues very well, remembering there are many grey areas, whilst also been very sharp - it is getting transferred to the West End and I thoroughly recommended. Think I will keep an eye out for her next play as well.
Saturday 6 July 2013
Drunk
Last week I made it to my first ever Punch Drunk production. They are an immersive theatre company who came on to my radar a few years ago but haven't done anything in the last couple of years here, except a thing for kids.
We went to You Me Bum Bum Train in December 2011 - an incredible immersive experience, you went in solo and moved throughout their sprawling set for 45 minutes with only actors as your accompaniment, you were essentially the star and your reactions changed their actions. This was said to be similar in feel to Punch Drunk's shows so I had high expectations.
Tickets went on sale in March and I booked tickets for the previews for myself and 5 others.
Unfortunately on the day of our booked slot last week, they had technical issues so had to cancel our show. I was pretty pissed but got on the phone straightaway and managed to rebook 4 of our tickets for the next night.
It took place next to Paddington station it what looked like an old postal sorting office but I'm not sure if that is correct. After checking in our belongings, we went in with nothing except our tickets (some cash might have been useful though). I don't want to say exactly what happens as the show is running for a long time but similar to YMBBT, you make your own experience. You can follow the actors to gather fragments of the story, pulling them together the more you explore but you also need to explore by yourself and discovering the incredible detail in the sets. One of my particular favourites was the Narnia esq wardrobe in the fitting room. I didn't see everything and didn't follow half the actors, the three hours flies but the actors do certain scenes on loop so you have the chance to take it in from different perspectives - apparently the action is 10 hours end to end so I guess it's impossible to see it all in one night. The plot is based on a real/fictional Hollywood studio pre WWII in America and the goings on around it, I never saw anything to do with a drowned man though, perhaps I missed that bit.
Just reading some background on Punch Drunk and they worked on the Adam Curtis film which I remember watching - interesting how these things come together.
We went to You Me Bum Bum Train in December 2011 - an incredible immersive experience, you went in solo and moved throughout their sprawling set for 45 minutes with only actors as your accompaniment, you were essentially the star and your reactions changed their actions. This was said to be similar in feel to Punch Drunk's shows so I had high expectations.
Tickets went on sale in March and I booked tickets for the previews for myself and 5 others.
Unfortunately on the day of our booked slot last week, they had technical issues so had to cancel our show. I was pretty pissed but got on the phone straightaway and managed to rebook 4 of our tickets for the next night.
It took place next to Paddington station it what looked like an old postal sorting office but I'm not sure if that is correct. After checking in our belongings, we went in with nothing except our tickets (some cash might have been useful though). I don't want to say exactly what happens as the show is running for a long time but similar to YMBBT, you make your own experience. You can follow the actors to gather fragments of the story, pulling them together the more you explore but you also need to explore by yourself and discovering the incredible detail in the sets. One of my particular favourites was the Narnia esq wardrobe in the fitting room. I didn't see everything and didn't follow half the actors, the three hours flies but the actors do certain scenes on loop so you have the chance to take it in from different perspectives - apparently the action is 10 hours end to end so I guess it's impossible to see it all in one night. The plot is based on a real/fictional Hollywood studio pre WWII in America and the goings on around it, I never saw anything to do with a drowned man though, perhaps I missed that bit.
Just reading some background on Punch Drunk and they worked on the Adam Curtis film which I remember watching - interesting how these things come together.
Thursday 4 July 2013
A recent trip to Istanbul part 3
Today is Monday and it was our first and only lie in of the trip, we skipped breakfast and casually got ready for our day out. We were heading to the Princes Islands today, the boats there didn't leave from our stop so we had to get another ferry there (I thought a scenic boat trip would be nicer than tramming it).
We left Eminou on our side to get to Kadikoy on the Asian side, on the way over, we had great views at Aya Sofya, Tokapi Palace and the Blue Mosque and we went past the famous Haydarpasa Terminal enroute but were a little stressed about making our connecting boat - what a surprise, we hadn't left a lot of leeway. We presumed the boat we had to catch was behind us so we thought we'd have a minute to get there. After getting off in Kadikoy, we tried to spot the boat to Princes Islands, I noticed it was the next terminal along and we thought could see our boat so we ran over. Sam dropped the water and kicked it in his running, then scooped it up a bit further down. We frantically bought tokens and then joined the queue, our tokens wouldn't work and the man couldn't explain (yes, we should have a better understanding of Turkish), but we couldn't see any other token machines. In the end (about 10 seconds later), another man took 3 tokens of us (only 2 were ours), which roughly covered the far and opened the chain to let us through. We ran along and the boatmen were closing the gate as we came out of the terminal.
We stayed inside on our second boat and watched a neighbouring family trying to control one of their sons, he was given food and drink by another family, dropped the food, his dad put it in the bin and he tried to eat it out of the bin. He also looked to be attempting prayer on a tissue on the floor but he is elder brother quickly stopped. We got off the ferry at Heybeliada and headed to the supermarket for picnic supplies. The islands have no cars, horse & carts act as taxis so it is a pleasing contrast to Istanbul proper. Our next task was to find a beach, this proved a littler trickier. We eventually came across a woodland with picnic tables that was had some nice sea views so we thought we could eat there. A man came over and said we had to pay after a little argue (I said it was public as there was a big public sign by the entrance) in our respective languages, we left. We then came across a sign for a beach so headed down past some military training grounds, unfortunately the beach was a slither and packed with loungers. They had additionally laid a barrier from the beach to the sea thus eliminating that lovely crashing waves sound. We decided we didn't want to pay a fair few lira for this privilege so headed back and found a spot overlooking the sea to have our lunch. It was a pretty peaceful lunch with only a few people wandering by. Post picnic, we headed back to the boat area for a drink, some cards and an ice cream.
We got seats on the upper deck on the way back, and entertained ourselves by watching locals feed the gulls, there was one particularly cheeky bird who had no qualms about eating biscuits striaght from their fingers. The birds followed us nearly the whole way home, thankfully with no poo. We got off the ferry at Kabataş, and got the tram home. Did a spot of present shopping but couldn't find any reasonably priced bowls - the ones I lusted after so.
We headed out for a late meal at Pasazade, the food was a welcome change from the kepabs and was also really good. We were the last people there by the time we finished (there weren't many people there to begin with to be fair) and they gave us some turkish delight at the end of our meal - our first since we'd been here. We intended to go for a nargileh but were too tired and had an early start to get my bowls!
The next morning, we had the earliest start of our trip, wolfed a quick breakfast (I tried the honey, it was lovely) and ducked into the Blue Mosque before heading to the market. I was worried about my hair as I didn't realise they provided lots of clothing for visitors. The mosiacs were lovely, but it did seem a lot smaller than Aya Sofya once you were inside. After our bowl buying, we headed quickly back to the hotel for our luggage as we were running a little late. We got distracted on the tram there by an Algerian trying to go into businessman with a Bangladeshi man he had just met (on the tram), the Bangladeshi man lived in Istanbul so was doing his best to avoid the conversation politely. By mistake, I blame the conversations, we got off our tram a stop earlier for the airport change which only added to our lateness. We had to hurry through security and didn't get a chance to spend our spare Lira - we'll just have to go back to Turkey another time.
We left Eminou on our side to get to Kadikoy on the Asian side, on the way over, we had great views at Aya Sofya, Tokapi Palace and the Blue Mosque and we went past the famous Haydarpasa Terminal enroute but were a little stressed about making our connecting boat - what a surprise, we hadn't left a lot of leeway. We presumed the boat we had to catch was behind us so we thought we'd have a minute to get there. After getting off in Kadikoy, we tried to spot the boat to Princes Islands, I noticed it was the next terminal along and we thought could see our boat so we ran over. Sam dropped the water and kicked it in his running, then scooped it up a bit further down. We frantically bought tokens and then joined the queue, our tokens wouldn't work and the man couldn't explain (yes, we should have a better understanding of Turkish), but we couldn't see any other token machines. In the end (about 10 seconds later), another man took 3 tokens of us (only 2 were ours), which roughly covered the far and opened the chain to let us through. We ran along and the boatmen were closing the gate as we came out of the terminal.
We stayed inside on our second boat and watched a neighbouring family trying to control one of their sons, he was given food and drink by another family, dropped the food, his dad put it in the bin and he tried to eat it out of the bin. He also looked to be attempting prayer on a tissue on the floor but he is elder brother quickly stopped. We got off the ferry at Heybeliada and headed to the supermarket for picnic supplies. The islands have no cars, horse & carts act as taxis so it is a pleasing contrast to Istanbul proper. Our next task was to find a beach, this proved a littler trickier. We eventually came across a woodland with picnic tables that was had some nice sea views so we thought we could eat there. A man came over and said we had to pay after a little argue (I said it was public as there was a big public sign by the entrance) in our respective languages, we left. We then came across a sign for a beach so headed down past some military training grounds, unfortunately the beach was a slither and packed with loungers. They had additionally laid a barrier from the beach to the sea thus eliminating that lovely crashing waves sound. We decided we didn't want to pay a fair few lira for this privilege so headed back and found a spot overlooking the sea to have our lunch. It was a pretty peaceful lunch with only a few people wandering by. Post picnic, we headed back to the boat area for a drink, some cards and an ice cream.
We got seats on the upper deck on the way back, and entertained ourselves by watching locals feed the gulls, there was one particularly cheeky bird who had no qualms about eating biscuits striaght from their fingers. The birds followed us nearly the whole way home, thankfully with no poo. We got off the ferry at Kabataş, and got the tram home. Did a spot of present shopping but couldn't find any reasonably priced bowls - the ones I lusted after so.
We headed out for a late meal at Pasazade, the food was a welcome change from the kepabs and was also really good. We were the last people there by the time we finished (there weren't many people there to begin with to be fair) and they gave us some turkish delight at the end of our meal - our first since we'd been here. We intended to go for a nargileh but were too tired and had an early start to get my bowls!
The next morning, we had the earliest start of our trip, wolfed a quick breakfast (I tried the honey, it was lovely) and ducked into the Blue Mosque before heading to the market. I was worried about my hair as I didn't realise they provided lots of clothing for visitors. The mosiacs were lovely, but it did seem a lot smaller than Aya Sofya once you were inside. After our bowl buying, we headed quickly back to the hotel for our luggage as we were running a little late. We got distracted on the tram there by an Algerian trying to go into businessman with a Bangladeshi man he had just met (on the tram), the Bangladeshi man lived in Istanbul so was doing his best to avoid the conversation politely. By mistake, I blame the conversations, we got off our tram a stop earlier for the airport change which only added to our lateness. We had to hurry through security and didn't get a chance to spend our spare Lira - we'll just have to go back to Turkey another time.
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