These are a few of my favourite things

In this final week before University begins again, I've managed to fit in an energetic end-of-summer visit to Kew Gardens, and a long anticipated trip to the British Museum to see the magnificent Life and Death in Pompeii and Hurculaneum exhibition.  Flowers, pumpkins, a tessalated glass roof, ancient artefacts and good friends - some of my very favourite things.

And now I am rubbing handcream into my hands, in anticipation of going back to University next week.  A nurse's hands are very dry and sore from all the handwashing and disinfectant alcohol handrub they have to endure, but mine have recovered somewhat over this long, lazy summer holiday.

I've done what reading I can, found a new notebook and printed off my timetable.  I've been baking every day and have filled the freezer with muffins and loaves of bread in anticipation of days when there's nothing for breakfast and I haven't even got the time or energy to eat a slice of soda bread, never mind bake one.  I can't believe it was a whole year ago that I started my course.  I've loved and needed the summer off, but I'm so pleased to be going back now.  

Along with going back to University, comes commuting once again, and therefore the return of sock knitting, which I can stuff into my bag and do on the tube.  I am obsessed with sock knittingat the moment, and I have come to realise that it is a cyclical enthusiasm - as soon as it is cool enough to wear hand knitted socks again, I remember how wonderful they are and feel compelled to knit more.  Stay tuned for sock updates!

10 things

• The running continues to improve - I like it more each time I go, and my 5K time is now down to 31 minutes and 4 seconds.  The sub-30 5K run is heading my way, I feel sure.  My brother-in-law asked me last night "what's changed for you with running?" and I had no insight for him beyond that I didn't used to enjoy it, but now I do.
• Our Race for Life is in Cambridge next weekend.  A massive thank you to all the blog readers who have contributed so generously to our Just Giving page - some of whom I haven't even met before.  I don't have an email address for everyone who has donated, so I haven't been able to thank everyone in person - have a public, and sincere Thank You here instead!  We shall, of course, report back here after the race with photos....
• We have both bought bright pink t-shirts to wear for the race, even though neither of us likes bright pink.  Olivia pointed out that if we didn't wear bright pink for the race we might feel like a couple of sparrows in a flock of flamingos.
• I just found out about the Walk for Women event happening across the UK this summer - I hope I'll be able to go along to at least one of the walks.  They are happening all over the UK to celebrate 100 years since 50,000 suffragists marched across the UK, ending at a rally at Hyde Park to raise awareness of their cause.
• When women get together, they can really make things happen!
• The most famous suffragette, Emmeline Pankhurst believed she was born on 14th July - Bastille Day - although her birth certificate states that in fact she was born on the 15th.  Nobody has really got to the bottom of why this discrepancy came about.  My own Grandmother was definitely born on Bastille Day, however, and was given a French name by her parents as a result - she is 90 today.  Happy Birthday, Grandma!
• I have booked tickets to go and see the Pompeii exhibition at the British Museum, which has been extended until the end of September because it has been so madly popular.  If you want to go, book soon - there are only a few slots left for September.
• The other exhibition I am determined to go to this summer is The Laura Knight Portraits at the National Portrait Gallery.
• I have learnt more about my daughter's interests and plans since she set herself up with a Pinterest account, than any amount of chatting over supper, on runs or long car journeys has ever revealed.  She dreams of travelling to Poland and China and likes foxgloves, trilby hats and lavender.  Who knew?
• In the bustle and busyness of full time work, running, summer plans and end of term, I found myself with an unexpected half hour to myself one afternoon last week.  I was close to one of my favourite places in the whole of London - St Paul's churchyard - so I lay in the dappled shade, reading my kindle and reflecting on how even in the middle of a hot, crowded city like London, there are places of sanctuary and calm.

The ordinariness of January

I love January for its ordinariness - its everyday qualities.  After the excitement, busy pace and indulgence of December I relish the plainness of January.

The first daffs are in my glass vase above the fireplace, good meaty things are in the slow cooker, and I write and read as much as I can, immersing myself in imaginary worlds which contrast nicely with the ordinariness of life in January.

Yesterday morning I went to the British Museum to see the Grayson Perry exhibition, The Tomb of the Unknown Craftsman.  Visiting this exhibition is to enter into someone else's madly imaginary world.  Perry has created an exhibition celebrating the life of unknown craftsmen through the ages.  The exhibition has a great deal of Perry's work alongside objects from the British Museum's collection, arranged in themes to do with death and the afterlife such as pilgrimage, worship, magic and relics.  

There was so much humour and thoughtfulness in the way the objects were selected and displayed.  I wandered around with a big grin on my face, chuckling at the captions beside the items and the cartoon-like quality of the big, beautiful ceramic pots that Perry has made.  Everybody else in the exhibition was smiling too.  Have a look at the little 2 minute film on this page to hear from Perry himself about what he was aiming to do with the exhibition.  It exceeded my expectations, which were very high to begin with.

His beautiful pastel-pink custom made motorbike, which is on display just outside the exhibition, is anything but ordinary.  It dazzled the senses against the beautifully plain cream stone and clear glass of the rest of the museum's Great Court.

January - I love your ordinariness, and your calm.  But just a little bit of colour and jazz is very welcome too.

How to feel better

What to do with your weekend when one member of the family is hungover and the other three have streaming colds?


Here's what we did:

• Pottered over to We Make London and got a free goodie bag for being one of the first 10 people through the door - thank you! Got to gaze at many beautiful things and spend some money.
• Popped in to the British Museum, admired the wonderful roof and then found some Ancient Greek wall friezes with chickens on them.

• Had a restorative lunch of noodles, green tea and gyoza at Wagamama's

• Came home, ate strawberries and took paracetamol before crawling off for naps, exhausted but happy.

Oh, and just in case there was any doubt, I was one of the streaming colds posse, not the hungover one.