The Last Post

I started typing this at Heathrow airport, as I filled in time before I got on the plane to New Zealand. I had great intentions of putting up a bit more about activities during that whirlwind time in the last week of being in London but it just never happened. It was a fantastic week, and I really enjoyed spending time with those good friends who I look forward to seeing again in New Zealand one day soon.

It was a fantastic year, lots of adventures, lots of new friends, and lots of old friends that I have got to know even better and enjoyed time with. It was a healing year in many ways and a year of discovery.

It's quite a story as to the reasons for my return to New Zealand, and if you are really curious what it is, then feel free to email me and I will fill you in on the details. It could even be a book one day.... It's a lovely story, and I'm really happy in my new home in Cheviot, North Canterbury. This is a beautiful part of New Zealand and close to a source of some of my favourite wines (Waipara reislings.....)
In the photo section there's some photos of the area, and also some photos of the Glenmark Cheviot rugby team, during their very successful year.

I've been debating for some time what to do with this blog now my travels in the UK are over. I have decided that I'll keep it on the internet for a while but not update it. People are obviously still accessing the photos and hopefully enjoying them.

I hope you have enjoyed reading my blog as much as i have enjoyed living it
jane

contact email: jane.thompson@actrix.co.nz

Birthday lunch at Gordon Ramsays at Claridges

When your sister has a significant birthday in London, it calls for collecting up the best girlfriends, a cousin and heading to Gordon Ramsays at Claridges. It's a beautiful hotel, decorated in the art deco style (of which I am a big fan!).

The food was great. I had quail starter, the beef for my main and a berry desert. Others tried the trout, chicken (poissin) and Catherine raved about her desert of grilled peaches on a bready thing (aka peaches on toast!). No sign of Gordon. The coffee, while good for London standards, wasn't a patch on kiwi coffee. Oh how I am looking forward to getting good coffee as a standard rather than an exception!

East Sussex, Hever Castle, Dorset, Devon & Dartmoor

To see the photos of the various places mentioned in the title, here's the link.

http://picasaweb.google.com/jane.thompsonuk/SussexDevon

As well as having some great outings with Aunty Pat, we also had some lovely dinners out. The highlight was the Huntsman pub, near Eridge. Their summer pudding, with sour cherries, was THE best desert I have had in England. Truly superb.

Other notable pubs included the Castle Hotel in Bramber (near Lewes - see picture to the right) and The Elizabethan, in Chudleigh.

Walking to Wistmans Wood, on Dartmoor was fun, but the promised drink at the pub at the end of the walk didn't eventuate as they had finished serving lunch and there was an hour to go before they would serve afternoon tea, and you couldn't get a drink unless you ate! Very strange but not to worry, there was another place further up the road where the obligatory Devon scones and clotted cream were available. The photo is of Phil Trump, having a rare day off, at Wistman's Wood.

We also lunched in Sherborne, Dorset with the Pinneys. That's a lovely town, well worth a visit.

I also thoroughly recommend getting a gps / sat-nav system - saves lots of hassles!

Nobel Prize winners, Charles Darwin relations and world famous novelists

I had the good fortune to be able to attend the panel debate on Creative Energy: what drives writers and scientists which was a joint event between the Medical Research Council and PEN (www.englishpen.org) held at the Royal Geographic Society in London.

The speakers were
- Ruth Padel, poet, chair of the UK Poetry Society and great great granddaughter of none other than Charles Darwin.
- Sir Aaron Klug, MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology and Nobel Prize winner
- Dr Sheena McCormack, HIV researcher at the MRC Clinical Trials Unit
- Ian McEwan, who has written many fabulous books, including Atonement and On Chesil Beach

They were all very interesting and entertaining people, each one of whom could have entertained the whole room for some hours on their own.

Sir Aaron defined creativity as both a flash of imagination as well as being assembled over long periods of separate studies. He stated that it is more important for an idea to be fruitful than true. Science has progressed through people going down wrong tracks, and there isn’t always a direct route to the solution.

Ruth Padel compared poetry to experimenting, and both use metaphors. Creativity is a process of recognition and realisation and goes forward in stages. The metaphor is crucial in both science and in writing. Creativity also relies on being able to bear muddle and mess and cope with the knowledge that there are a lot of details. Ruth herself said that she can only work in a “creative muddle” – she has to have lots of things around her and goes through a process of gathering things until she starts creative. She also thought there is an element of paring away in creativity as well.

Dr Sheena McCormack is involved in HIV prevention work, talked about how she always wanted to be a doctor. She attributed this to coming from a family of doctors and seeing how much they enjoyed their roles. She also discussed creativity from a team perspective, and how it is an organic process where people must have “can do” attitudes. She also discussed the things that cramp creativity, especially the paperwork involved in science proving that you did a good job! As to there being one truth, Dr McCormack stated that the important thing she has learnt is to make the message right for that person and that there is not one truth for everyone, its all about perception (lovely postmodernism themes coming through here, reminding me of my Massey studies!!).

Ian McEwan was a very entertaining speaker as well. He talked about the commonalities between the two different domains of science and art. Imagination is the obvious one but then said that if you look at similarities, you are forced into generalities. Creativity needs persistence, tolerance, drudgery, luck, playfulness, ambition and ruthlessness.

“To float in a determined stupor is crucial” for both scientists and artists.

He also talked about scientists going into “novelists domains” citing an example of a lecture he recently attended where a neuroscientist talked about Revenge. Scientists are increasingly experimenting in emotions, and emotions are no longer the reserve of poets and novelists.

As to the eternal question of how you get to being creative, he said there is no one answer but that creativity does become a habit and once you have been doing it for a while, it just becomes “what you do.”

Vanity is also a common trait between artists and scientists. There’s passion around precedence and status anxiety for both of them.

There were lots of questions and comments from the floor. One of my favourite responses was Ian McEwan’s when asked about the responsibilities artists have. “Listing your responsibilities is like knitting a rope to hang yourself” but then he went on to say that novelists are responsible for coherence.

The only issue with these sorts of events is that there is so much material covered in so short a time and while it did last well over two hours, it was very much “once over lightly.” Still, I felt very privileged to have the opportunity to attend.

Rain, Bra Shopping and Cultural Activites

Iit’s been raining here in London since Saturday – so much for the English summer. My tan which had developed nicely after the week in sunny Spain has now all but disappeared. I’m loathe to use the fake tan again as last time people thought I was wearing jungle print stockings – it was sooooo patchy! Never was much good at those such girly things.

Catherine (sister) has arrived and is checking out all the interesting exhibitions and museums in London while I am working. She has sussed out some that I have never heard of, my cultural activities here have been somewhat limited obviously. I do know some good pubs and wine bars however….

I’m only doing half days at work this week so have snuck in a few fun afternoon activities. It was shopping yesterday – took the opportunity to stock up on the wonderful English bra’s. Yep, sounds odd I know but then again, with my “assets” this can be a bit of a challenge. I went to Rigby& Peller, which is where the Queen gets her underwear from. If it’s good enough for her…. Bet she doesn’t have to get a ticket and wait in the queue until her number is called to get a fitting however! The service is wonderful and I walked out with three very lovely items, and a scorched plastic card. I then picked up a couple of real bra bargains at £5 each (confident in the knowledge that I had the right sizing) in the Selfridge’s sale, so the average price per item from the bra shopping went down considerably.

Joined by John, Vivienne and Kirsty, we ventured out in the rain last night to go to a great theatre production at the Tricycle Theatre (just down the road from my place, its a lovely small theatre) – Moonlight & Magnolias. It's a comedy about the writing of the script for Gone with the Wind film. It was hilarious, we laughed and laughed.

Tonight we are off to a panel debate about creative energy, what drives writers and scientists which includes some Nobel prize winners, and IanMcEwan. It's at the Royal Geographic Society so that should be a lovely venue. It was organised through work and is free, another bonus.

Friday sees us heading out of London (yah) to Sussex to stay with my great aunt and then on Monday head further down to Dorset and Devon.

We are due back in London for me to work Thursday and Friday and also to go to see Jeremy Irons star in Never So Good, which is a portrait of HaroldMacmillan, set against a back-drop of fading Empire, war, the Suez crisis, vintage champagne, adultery and vicious Tory politics at the Ritz (I have copied that last bit directly from the blurb on their website).

The week after is Cathy’s 50th birthday, so its lunch at Gordon Ramsays at Claridges on the Monday and then dinner at the Cinnamon Club which is inthe beautiful venue of the old Westminster Library on the Tuesday. Back to work for three more days for me, and then farewell drinks, tidying flat, packing, and onto the plane on the 27th. It’s a whirlwind so I will be glad to get on the plane and even happier to set foot back in NZ. The crowds of England and especially London get very wearying for a country girl.

I'll try to fit in some more details about the various events, especially the writer's talk tonight for all those who visit from Bookman Beattie's blog. The writing activities have been a bit limited lately, its been sporting focus rather than literary. Cathy is visiting the London Literary event today so there may even be an update on that as well!

Barbury Horse Trials Photos

http://picasaweb.google.com/jane.thompsonuk/BarburyInternationalHorseTrials

Click on the above link for the photos from the Sunday three star event at the Barbury International Horse Trials. There's lots of photos of Mark Todd and Gandalf, Andrew Nicholson on many horses, Joe Meyer, Dan Jocelyn, Annabel Wigley and various others, even William Fox Pitt!

Rain, rain, mud, mud was the order of the day.

Update

I'm just back from a holiday in Spain with Legs, Pat, Sam and Robyn Carey and took lots of photos, especially of the kids. http://picasaweb.google.com/jane.thompsonuk/SpainWithTheCareys

Tomorrow Cathy (sister) arrives from New Zealand to stay with me in London. The flat is very full at the moment as I also have Aunty Pat and Judy staying. They attended Wimbledon tennis today so I am looking forward to catching up with them and finding out how it all went. Unfortunately some of us had to work.....

Sunday I'm going to Barbury Horse Trials in Wiltshire. I'm looking forward to seeing all the kiwi riders there, there are a bunch of them competing including Jonelle, Tim, Toddy, Annabel, Dan, Joe and more. Blyth also arrives in UK today and will be there too.

Congratulations also to Katie McVean, Sharn Wordley, Daniel Meech and Bruce Goodin for making the NZ Olympic showjumping team. All the best for Hong Kong guys.