London for a Fiver: Get your dancing shoes on!

This Saturday night, Traveller and flattie shook off their converse and hit the dance floor.

The Blues Kitchen in Camden was our space of choice and boy, what a brilliant place to move it.

Traveller can quite easily tire of 'doof doof' music, so when presented with constant blues hits from the 50s, 60s and 70s - she found her happy place. The Blues Kitchen has live music from 9:30pm and the bands on Saturday were fantastic.

It reminded T of the 'cassette tape' her father presented her with around her 10th birthday - it was a triple decker and choc-full of hits from those time periods. T can remember listening to those tapes over and over until she knew each and every song.

So, inevitably, on Saturday there were times whenT was the only one on the dance floor who knew the words to songs from the likes of Chuck Berry, Jerry Lee Lewis, Elvis and The Big Bopper.

Ah well, at least everyone was dancing!

With a great atmosphere, a fantastic playlist and at only £3 for an entry fee, it is a veritable bargain!

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London for a Fiver: Swimming with Ducks

Hampstead Heath is one of Traveller's favourite spots in London.

It is a vast expanse of gorgeous green fields and once arriving you feel completely out of the city.

The Heath has various bathing ponds; and, as the weather in London reached 'hot' this weekend, T and RF headed to the Heath in search of a tan and a swim.

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We picnicked, swam and enjoyed the sunshine.

The water, however, was beyond freezing!

The screams coming from the pond should have been enough to warn Traveller, however, sometimes she likes to think she's tougher than she is...

Let's just say it took about five minutes to regain all feeling in her hands and feet.

{too cold..too cold}

The best part? The pond only charges £2 - so it is a beautiful and affordable day out!

London for a Fiver.

Traveller loves London.

There is so much to do and see as the city hosts many of the world's most iconic buildings and Traveller believes it has the most beautiful parks of anywhere she has been in the world.

Today, Traveller went on a tour of the hidden gardens of the city and it was amazing!

We toured around the small gardens that can be found in the city's financial district and T couldn't help but gaze at the gardens, but also the architecture of the buildings surrounding the city.

One of T's favourite gardens had an Azara tree in it which made the whole garden and its surrounds smell like vanilla.

Heavenly.

The Vanilla Tree.

One of the best parts was that the tour was only £5 and the money goes straight to charity.

There is so much you can do in London for a fiver or under that from now on - perhaps once a fortnight - Traveller is going to run a little feature called London for a Fiver.

Late night at the Barbican.

This weekend, Traveller went to an event at the Barbican in London.
The Barbican is an arts venue which focuses on film, dance, theatre, art and music. This weekend, they hosted 'Barbican Late Night' where you could do many things 'arty'.
There was ping pong playing on specially designed tables, a quiz session for film buffs, the architectural design and building of houses made of bread, cheese slices, marshmallows, paper and cardboard and last, but not at all least, was the silent disco.
The silent disco was a dancefloor where everyone was wearing headphones. There was no loud music; just the sounds of feet shuffling and voices singing. It was so much fun! The interesting part was that half of the room were listening to one song while the rest were listening to something completely different. You could always tell which was the more popular song by the enthusiastic bopping and individual voices that were singing aloud. T's favourite part was that they played all the old-school-classics: Love Shack, Summer of '69, YMCA, U Can't Touch This and the Will Smith classic, 'Boom! Shake the Room'.
Another fabulously free London night.

All things free and beautiful...

Traveller can't resist filling you in on another free thing she was able to do in the Capital. Filled in by her flattie, T learned that Nokia were hosting a free roller-skating night near Tower Bridge. You just had to sign up online beforehand and you were given free skate-hire and rink time for an hour, while a DJ played in the background.

Fun!

T hasn't roller-skated since she received her first roller-blades at around 10-years-old. After getting a group together during the week, it ended up that there were ten of us going to hit the rink.

It was a beautiful night and it was finished well by having dinner at the close-by Cantina del Ponte - one of T's favourite Italian restaurants.

Kicking up our heels at the scoop

Traveller is lucky to have a hubbie that likes to celebrate by doing something with a bit of 'culcha'.

This weekend we went down to 'The Scoop' on the Thames. The Scoop is an amphitheatre right near Tower Bridge which, during the summer, holds free events. You can see plays, films and hear music - all for free! The best part of the deal is the atmosphere; with Tower Bridge and many other icons in the background, it is a beautiful night.

While we were lining up for our bit of free London, we saw the lifting of Tower Bridge. We haven't seen this before and were quite excited. Yes, we are a bit nerdy like that.


We then entered the scoop, placed our picnic blanket down and commenced eating dinner while waiting for the show to begin. The agency which organised the job interview for hubbie gave him a bottle of congratulatory champagne, so we enjoyed that along with a few other yummies.

The play we came to watch was 'Medea'; it is originally by Euripides but was re-translated by Stella Duffy. Free theatre tends to attract a very diverse audience, so this version of the ancient play needed to be engaging and it was! The audience were on the edge of their 'seats' which was lucky, because T gets quietly rankled when people chat through live theatre (it must be the teacher in her).

So, Traveller and hubs enjoyed another fun and thrifty night in London. T wishes she had some photos to show you of the peformance but, as always, she was much too engrossed in the actual event to think of her camera. Next time!

Run Traveller Run!

Over 30K in the last five days. 13K planned for Saturday. Sprints tomorrow night.

Running is slowly taking over T's life.

T, along with a few friends, is booked in to run the Royal Parks Half-Marathon in October. The Royal Parks is one of the best running events in London - it's route goes past some of the most memorable London icons, such as Buckingham Palace, the Houses of Parliament, Royal Albert Hall, Kensington Palace and it goes all through Hyde Park.

Now this all sounds lovely, except the furthest T has run previously in a race is 10k. Now, she knows that lots and lots of people have run half-marathons before and it's not really that big a deal - but T is a little bit scared. In fact, she is practically shaking in her running shoes, so to speak. T has many worrying questions racing through her mind, like, 'What if I run out of steam after 10K?', or 'What if I get a really sore knee or shin and simply can't run anymore?', or, perhaps even more embarrassingly, 'What if I have to take an emergency bathroom break in the middle of the race?'.

In order to get over the shakiness and the silly questions, T and one London friend have created a very strict schedule to make sure that they are ready. They have approximately 12 weeks until the starting gun sounds. The schedule has involved hill runs, intervals, long runs and a bit of swimming to give the knees a rest. One of the best things that T has discovered while preparing for the race is all of the running clubs that are around. One that she and her friend are now visiting on a Monday night is the Niketown Running Club.

The running club is seriously motivating. There are many people to race against on the night and there are a few freebies thrown in as well; you receive a free chip (so you can sign in easily), a free shirt after 3 runs and a bottle of water after each race - bargain! Each Monday night you can choose to run 3, 4 or 7 miles. We have been signing up to do the 7 mile run, which is led by a lovely grey-haired woman who is at least in her late 50's. Oh and the most humbling thing is that she absolutely whips us! She is so fast!

Each time we run it is different, sometimes we can sail through 7 miles without too much discomfort, but other times, particular this week for T, it can be absolute struggle-town! She was hurting about a quarter of the way into the race. Now even though this was tough, T secretly likes it better when it hurts like this. It seems to make finishing so much sweeter.

So that is where T is at with her running. Twelve weeks of serious training to go before her first half-marathon.

And...just between you and her, she absolutely loves it!

If anyone has any running or half-marathon tips (like what to do if you need to go to the loo!) - feel free to share in the comments section below. T would love to hear any advice!

photo by flickr

A bit of cul-cha

Traveller had been looking forward to her summer holiday for weeks, whereby she imagined days and days of doing whatever she wanted in one of the most exciting cities in the world. However, what T didn't anticipate was that London is also one of the most expensive places to live and travel; how was she going to entertain herself without spending all of her hard earned cash?

Well, truth beknown, that while London is expensive, it probably has the most free events of any city that T has been to. You can watch free concerts, have free entry into museums, experience free tours, watch free plays, and anything else you can wangle your way into!

Upon reading a fantastic book about the things you can do in London (after borrowing it from the library of course!), T uncovered a wide range of fun activities that will keep her occupied for the next month and a half.

The most recent free event that T attended was a free lunchtime talk at the National Gallery in Trafalgar Square.

The lectures are featured at the museum's theatre from Tuesday to Saturday at 1pm every week of the year. Yesterday's lecture was on the musuem's current focus painting, Caravaggio's 'Supper at Emmaus'. It was a 45 minute discussion of why the painting was so extraordinary and the learned chap that spoke also pointed out many interesting parts of the painting and what they were symbolic of - so fascinating!

T understands that this isn't really everyone's cup of tea, her cousin's fiance is her case in point as he fidgeted his way through most of the talk, however, she is not deterred and can't wait to go and experience more of what Free London has to offer. Perhaps she should now go under the pseudonym of Thrifty Traveller?

Hey Jude: Part Two

On Tuesday evening, T, hubbie and her flatties rushed off to the Wyndham Theatre, more excited than you can imagine. They arrived at the theatre, greeted some of their friends from the morning and then took to their box seats! Because it was such a special occasion that the company had been planning for over a year and a half, their seats even had presents on them. We could not believe it. We usually spend £3.50 on a program, however, we were given a program, a copy of the play (an edition printed for this particular performance, with Jude's photo on the front) and a poster!

When Jude Law's name was first announced as performing Hamlet at the Wyndham, T has to admit that she was a little dubious as to whether he could pull it off. Well, after about three minutes, she cast all doubts aside and enjoyed a truly phenomenal performance of the Bard's best play. He was outstanding! The best part was, our little box was so close to the stage, that as T watched, Jude looked her in the eye about four times....so fun!

During interval we made plans with our friends from NC to have a drink after the show. Before that, we were going to go to the stage door and wait so Jude could sign our plays or programs. After the show, the director and Jude gave a quick talk about the performance and why they decided to fill a theatre for free (to provide London with an audience in the future) and then we all raced downstairs to get prime spots at the stage door.

After a little wait, Jude came out and there were so many people there! There were people that hadn't come out of the show and just wanted him to sign photographs, passers-by, paparazzi and audience members. He was very gracious; he signed as many as he could and even signed five professional photographs for a very pushy man (T doesn't know if she could be so gracious!). T did manage to stammer out a few words to him, to which he responded very kindly - a very lovely actor!

After the procuring of the autographs, T, flatties and their new friends made their way to the pub right near the theatre, for a drink and a chat about the peformance. We had a great time and even noticed that the actors seemed to frequent the same pub. So, as our lucky day would have it, we had a chat to the actor who played Horatio and then one flattie declared her admiration for the actor who played Laertes (we had seen him in Twelfth Night). They were very nice and very normal and were so inspired by performing in front of such an enthusiastic crowd; it was really lovely to see the night from their perspective.

Then we went home, twenty-one hours after we had arrived at the theatre that morning.

A perfect day!

Hey Jude: Part One

This week Traveller experienced what could possibly be her best day in London so far. Seriously. She could, in her excitement, even go so far as to say that it was the best day in her life so far - but that might be a little too much, considering she has experienced her own wedding and numerous other life-changing events prior to this wonderful day!

The day began with an alarm buzzing at 4:30am. T awoke, changed and ran out of the house with one of her flatties, to catch a red bus into Leicester Square. T usually loves the red buses. They are cheap, convenient and provide a lovely look at the city while you are on your way somewhere. However, at 4:30am they are a completely different experience! T and her flattie had to hold their breath the entire time they were on the bus out of concern that they might puke with the pure stench of the many intoxicated people...on a Tuesday morning!

They made it out alive and to their destination in record time. Destination = Wyndham Theatre. This was the theatre where Jude Law was currently playing Hamlet. T and her flatmates had been to the entire Wyndham season; they had seen Kenneth Branagh in Ivanov, Derek Jacobi in Twelfth Night and Judi Dench in Madame de Sade. You think with all of this experience they would have remembered to secure tickets to Jude early - however, before they knew it...they were all sold out! Thus, an early morning line-up was in order, as the Wyndham holds 30 standing tickets aside to sell on the day.

They arrived at Leicester Square at 5am on the dot and were met with two Americans from North Carolina, who were there to do the exact same thing. Will and Bill (T kids you not) were father and son from the southern states, and soon became fast friends. T and flattie chatted to Will and Bill and various other theatre enthusiasts as they joined the queue. It was quite astonishing how quickly five hours flew by and before we knew it - we were at the box office! (It is worth a quick mention, that T, flattie and our North Carolina friends had to assert authority a few times during our five hour wait, in order to fight off the various queue jumpers that came our way. Some pretended they didn't understand what we were saying, some sat down right in front of us and said they were there first and others just creeped closer and closer. But to no avail; T and her posse of Americans fought them off with all the kindness of spirit they could muster at that hour in the morning.)

As the clock struck ten, the doors opened and our American friends took their rightful place at the front of the queue. T and flattie hung close behind to see what type of standing room they were receiving, how much it cost, and if by some heavenly chance, there were any seats left. To their surprise they heard muffled words like, 'an under 26 evening sponsored by the company', 'free to you because you lined up,' and these fateful and beautiful words, 'and there is also this box in the grand circle which is yours for free'. Will, Bill and family gasped and stammered their way through the transaction and then said to the rest of us, 'Y'all..coffee is on us!' Flattie and I looked at each other and tried to be happy for our new friends, muttering kind phrases such as, 'they deserve it', and 'how fantastic'. We gulped and took a step towards the desk. T quickly stuttered in her quietest voice, 'I guess there aren't any seats left?' The lady looked at T, surprised, and said, 'Why yes, there are these two boxes just for you. For free!' T's knees started to knock, her voice shook and she did everything she could possibly do to stop herself yelling, 'Yahooooooo!!!!' She coolly nodded, spelt her name out, and then skipped over to her American friends as they all took photos of each other, in their unfathomable glee.

After sharing coffee, we and our queue friends went our separate ways and looked forward to seeing each other that evening. T and flattie promptly went home, shared their good news with the world wide web through facebook and then T had a three hour nap to prepare herself for Hamlet...and Jude!

The Fascination with Running

Wherever you look in London, there are people running. They are in the parks, on the paths, on the streets and when they aren't running, they are planning when their next big run is. Ahh.. Londoners - you have to admire their determination to run in a smog and pollution ridden city after a long day of work and tube-travelling.

Traveller has to admit that she has not just been observing this phenomenon - she has become apart of it.

Besides the fact that it hurts, is tiring and takes time - there are so many positives to this form of exercise in the city. Honestly!

1. It's free (unless you are on a treadmill).
2. It allows you to enjoy the gorgeous parks that London has to offer.
3. It's a very good way of keeping off those winter pounds (for in London, it always seems to be winter), and
4. There is always motivation.

You can't go anywhere in London without hearing about the next big race. There are hundreds of races every year, from 5k's, to 10k's to half-marathons and the ultimate fitness test, the marathon. Even the local celebrities are runners, T has seen numerous pictures of the likes of Gordon Ramsay, Ronan Keating and Brit T.V stars pounding the pavement at various London marathons.

So, in saying that, T now has two races on the cards. First up, is a 5k run in the Race for Life on the 20th July and second is the Nike Human Race - a 10K run which happens in 25 cities all over the world on the 31st August. In London it happens at dusk, at Wembley Stadium, followed by a concert by the likes of Moby. Fun!

Well, fun... until you look at the facts.

- Traveller has never run over 5k.
- The race is in just over two months.
- In that time, T will be travelling and eating copious amounts of Italian food.
- There will be thousands of really fast runners there and,
- T has a hard time tackling a challenge when she is nervous. A lot of talking herself out of it tends to happen - which only takes more time away from the actual training!

In aid of fighting her anxiety, T has started to map out a plan in order to get herself fit for the race, and already that looks like a LOT of running. 136 k's worth to be exact! Eek! During this planning stage, T discovered that she actually likes the idea of running a little more then the hard work it takes to run 10k at a moderately fast pace.

On a more positive note - the London running hype has even reached her anti-exercise hubbie, who is 'considering' doing the Nike Human Race. T can't believe it! He hasn't committed yet, but he has been on three runs this week and has been running further each time. T is very proud!

On an even more positive note - if there is any way to combat the Heathrow Injection - this may be it. T and hubs are off to Italy for two and a half weeks tomorrow, and with all the pizza, pasta, wine and gelati on offer, they are going to need all the help they can get.

Salute!