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Watergate Bay
Travels

Memories of Watergate Bay

After a delightful couple of holiday weeks where I never woke up with an alarm and occasionally never got out of my pajamas, it’s back to battle stations this week. Back to work, back to school. Back to life, back to reality.

A bunch of New Year’s resolutions aren’t really my thing. Why is January the only month you can commit to positive change? It’s a year-long, life long process.

But there is at least one thing that I do know. I want more of this. More sunshine on my face, more sand in my toes and, more time with good friends.

More jumping for joy.

Watergate Bay
Watergate Bay
Watergate Bay
Watergate Bay
Watergate Bay
Watergate Bay
Watergate Bay
Watergate Bay

Harry Potter Studio Tour London
Travels

Harry Potter Movie Magic

To this day, I still don’t think I’ve read a series of books that captured my imagination as much as Harry Potter. I’ve done Twilight, The Hunger Games, His Dark Materials, and others. But none had me pre-ordering the next installment so that it arrived at my doorstep on the day it was released. None had me consuming their 500+ pages over the span of 24 hours. I loved Harry, Ron, & Hermione’s magical adventures and following J.K. Rowling’s carefully and cleverly crafted plot twists.

So for me, it felt like a religious pilgrimage of sorts to visit the Harry Potter Warner Brothers Studio Tour London at the end of the summer. Because I’m not just a fan of the books but also of the movies and the practical magic of movie making. Here, at Leavesdon, where they filmed all the Harry Potter movies, the studio saved many of the sets, costumes, and props to give visitors an immersive experience into the magic of filmmaking, to give them their own Harry Potter adventure.

Privet Drive, Platform 9 3/4, the Hogwarts Express, Dumbledore’s office, the Gryffindor common rooms, the Ministry of Magic, Diagon Alley, they’re all here. The Creature Room, in particular, was a favorite of ours. And I could not help but be in awe of the skill, craftsmanship, and artistry that went into creating Harry’s magical world and making it come alive.

It was spectacular. This Muggle can’t wait to go back.

Harry Potter Studio Tour London

Harry Potter Studio Tour London
Harry Potter Studio Tour London
Harry Potter Studio Tour London
Harry Potter Studio Tour London
Harry Potter Studio Tour London
Harry Potter Studio Tour London

Harry Potter Studio Tour London
Harry Potter Studio Tour London
Harry Potter Studio Tour London
Harry Potter Studio Tour London

Lanzarote
Travels

Our Summer Holiday to Mars (aka Lanzarote)

Well, the weather has turned predictably winter and predictably shit here in the UK so I thought, what better time to go through some photos and relive memories of hot sunny summer days. I needed to remind myself that the sun does indeed shine and bask us in its glorious warmth.

This year, at the end of the summer holidays, we traveled to Lanzarote in the Canary Islands for a week. Less than 100 miles off the coast of Africa, and averaging only 18 days of rain a year, we’d have to be pretty unlucky to not to have perfect beach and pool weather. And perfect weather it was indeed, sunny, hot, and rarely a cloud in the sky.

My approach to travel has definitely changed over the years. A younger, childless me, would have organized the hell of a holiday, reading up on my destination, planning activities and excursions, desperate not to miss a single “must see” item. But this time, I just wasn’t bothered. I wanted to let go of work and my to do list and just relax for a week with absolutely no agenda or schedule. So we woke up when we wanted, lounged around the pool as long as we wanted, and I even FINISHED A BOOK!

Lanzarote

No matter where I travel now though, one of my favorite things is a bit of run tourism. Going for a run is a great way to explore a new place and get your bearings. Running in the heat isn’t my thing though so getting out early in the morning was key, although I don’t think my version of “early” was early enough. By the time I’d get in from a run I was dripping with sweat. But despite the heat, I was rewarded with amazing views of the coast and the volcanic landscape.

Lanzarote

Thanks to a few years of high school Spanish about 30 years ago, I had enough Spanish vocabulary buried deep in the recesses of my brain to communicate. And when that failed me, like when we had a situation with a small toy mouse we’d bought that my child decided he wanted to exchange, Google Translate came to the rescue. Mouse exchanged, child happy. The little man even got into learning a bit of the language and became quite proficient at ordering his “zumo de piña” all by himself.

I’m also grateful that I’ve had the little man swimming regularly since he was just three months old. He loves swimming and is confident and happy in the pool like a little fish.  Even when he has his goggles on upside down.

Little Lanzarote Fish

The beach was what I would consider a short walk from where we stayed but it was quite a trek for little five-year old legs, especially over a dry desert landscape which I suspect is quite similar to the surface of Mars. But he was a trooper and the journey was well worth the reward. There were beautiful sandy beaches and clear blue waters that were shallow and calm enough for little boys to enjoy. We went swimming in the sea and he said “Mummy this is amazing.” I agreed.

Papagayo Lanzarote
Papagayo Lanzarote
Papagayo Lanzarote

My little multi-media artist even built his own rendition of Mordor and Mount Doom out of sand.

Papagayo Lanzarote

The one excursion we did take was a visit to Timanfaya National Park. The little man has been quite interested in volcanos, but of course we’d only read about them in books. The stories of Pompeii in particular had captured his imagination. So he was pretty excited about the idea of going to an actual real life volcano. Thankfully, the last time the volcanos erupted on Lanzarote was back in the early 1700s, but that still seems pretty recent to me in geological timescales. And there is plenty of evidence of ongoing volcanic activity: geothermal vents that light dry brush on fire simply from their heat and geysers that spit hot water into the air. Most interesting though is the restaurant built around grilled meats cooked entirely from the heat rising from the depths of the earth.

Timanfaya Lanzarote
Timanfaya Lanzarote

The park covers about 20 square miles of lava fields as far as the eye can see. If I were a filmmaker scouting locations for a movie set on Mars, I’d be sorted. (Proper filmmakers have already figured this out.)

Timanfaya Lanzarote
Timanfaya Lanzarote
Timanfaya Lanzarote

Lanzarote was exactly the kind of low-key holiday I needed. And I’m certainly missing its blazing warm sunshine.

Berlin Wall
Travels

Visiting the Berlin Wall

It was a year ago today that I ran for almost five hours around the streets of Berlin completing my first marathon. And yesterday, as runners completed the 42nd edition of the race, I couldn’t help but reminisce. I think I even felt a twinge of envy, wishing I was there again, huddled at the start line with thousands of other runners.

But while in Berlin, I actually did a lot more than just run the marathon. I’d never been to Berlin before so we stayed for several days after the event and made a holiday out of it. I highly recommend the idea of running holiday. It’s a fun way to travel and experience a new part of the world and, when the time is right for me to run my next marathon, I’ll pick a new destination to explore.

One of the highlights of our travels around Berlin was certainly a trip to the Berlin Wall Memorial. Despite my affection for cold war spy fiction over the years, I wasn’t prepared for the reality of this place. Here, this last fully preserved section of the “death strip” is a somber reminder of the horrors these people lived through and the freedom for which many of them died fighting. And in the midst of today’s refugee crisis and the politics of a war on immigration, I think many politicians could do with a reminder that it’s those who tore down, not built, the walls who ended up on the right side of history.
Berlin Wall
Berlin Wall
Berlin Wall

Badbury Clump Bluebells 2015
Everyday Adventures, Travels

Our Annual Bluebell Pilgrimage

A few weeks ago we made our annual pilgrimage to the frolic in the bluebells at Badbury Clump. We’ve visited every Spring now and I think that its beauty and magic just keep getting better each year. And this time we were both even brave enough to have a go on the tree swing.

Badbury Clump Bluebells 2015
Badbury Clump Bluebells 2015
Badbury Clump Bluebells 2015
Badbury Clump Bluebells 2015
Badbury Clump Bluebells 2015
Badbury Clump Bluebells 2015