The Boat Race

by Neil Stevens

Here in London the unofficial start of spring coincides with the Oxford Cambridge Boat Race. This year the race will take place on Saturday April 11. The men will start at 17.50 but - for the first time ever, the women will join!!!  Hurrah and high time !!! They start at 16.50!!

The whole race takes around 16 to 18 min (Cambridge holds the record of 16 min 19 sec). It starts at Putney Bridge (see Blog photo above). Blink at your own peril. Depending on where you stand, you will see them for about 2 min or less and then you have to find a guy with a radio or follow it on your phone. The atmosphere however along the river is very jolly, pubs are full, obviously, and the bridges are bursting, too.

If you like t see a bit more action, come to the Head of the River Race. The women's race will be on the 14th March with an early start at 9.30., the men's race is on 29th March with around 400 crews who row the championship course in reverse, from Mortlake to Putney. If you miss a boat, chances are very high that you will be able to follow a few others ....

The Schools' Head is this year on Monday 16 March, from 13.00. According to the website there are 347 boats!

found on Pinterest

Netball Part I

We are learning about the beautiful game of netball since my daughter took it up 2 years ago. Not played on the continent it was a new ballgame to me, but it is fun to watch and the girls like the tactical and strategical side of it.
Why however netball is considered a winter (outside!) sport, is admittedly beyond me, but maybe I am missing the stiff upper English lip.

Be that as it may, even the Brits have to give in to wintry conditions sometime: the National Tournament on Saturday with 62 teams was cancelled today, due to a forecast of severe winds and rain - the tournament is normally held right next to the sea near Brighton! The girls will be disappointed, though!!

this is how it would look like on a good day - spectacular!

found here

Things to do at Easter

The Easter Holidays will start for a few schools today already!! And whilst some are slightly worried that they will have to hunt for snow on the continent during their skiing vacation, others are hoping for a warm and sunny Easter here in London.

Spring definitely has arrived for my husband with the annual boat race between Oxford and Cambridge, this year on the 7th April 2012. Blink and you miss them, but the atmosphere along the Thames is cheerful and you can check out this page for good viewing points and pubs, of course.

For a nice egg hunt try Kew Garden and their Mayan Adventure  or our favourite haunt for a hunt, Ham House.

But I take cookie dough, ready and handy from the freezer over a chocolate egg any day, I'm afraid. Be inspired by this recipe with a twist from Canelle and Vanille (it's a gluten free recipe).

And if you insist that not everybody can live on chocolate alone, try out Nigel Slater's Easter recipes (he is our favourite chef!) for your Easter lunch (+ pudding).

And make your own Easter Eggs, like these maybe

found here

Have a lovely weekend! 

Olympia - London prepares?

I'd like to share just a few of my own experiences and observations, totally not objective, but nevertheless telling, I think.

There is no lack of enthusiasm e.g.:
We live opposite some tennis courts and whilst all outdoor tennis normally stops on the continent, here they play whatever the weather (nearly). Last winter I got an email from the Club Manager asking for volunteers to help with the snow shovelling  in order for playing to commence!! Amazing!

There is a lack of funding and support e.g.:

Our kids started with gymnastics some time ago. I believe that this sport offers good all-round athleticism and a great basis for any other sport. To my surprise I have found out that it is normal for a lot of clubs to do only vault and floor. They simply cannot afford the other apparatus. 

Then there is swimming, which is considered not only by me as a basic skill to have. I was surprised to learn that no university has a Olympic standard pool (50mx25m with 10 lanes), and that there was apparently non in London till they started building the Aquatics Centre for the Olympics and only three 50m length poolsas far as I can make out. 

(And the list could go on ...)

Sport is a big part of life, but since it can be expensive, you find that it is very much privately supported and enjoyed not so much by everybody but by families who can afford it.

found here

As Ed Smith puts it:
"Only seven per cent of the population are privately educated. But that seven per cent contributes a huge proportion of England's major national teams (football being the significant exception). The number of British Olympic medallists who are privately educated has grown over the past three Olympics to 45 per cent. The trend is the same in rugby and cricket: more private-school England players, fewer state-school ones." 

Only recently the government has withdrawn funding for the programme of schools sports partnership. State School sport in general has gone into decline, especially in deprived areas where it could do so much good.

I am sure the Olympics will inspire a lot of kids to join in - they just need to get the support they deserve!

On the Ice

Although we are a family with young children, we already have a few sacred family traditions. One was going to the ice rink at Kew Garden before Christmas. The setting was marvellous, just in front of the Palm House.
Sadly, they stopped it a couple of years ago. There are a few fairly recent new options around town now like the ice rink in front of the National History Museum, at the Winterwonderland in Hyde Park or the one at Somerset House, but we do miss the feeling of open space.
Therefore we might go and try out the ice rink at Hampton Court this weekend! Wish us steady feet!

by Ane Cathrine Buck 

found here

Wildlife Photography of the Year

Wildlife Photography at the National History Museum ( till 11 March 2012) - stunning!

winner in the category 'creative visions of nature'

Stefano Unterthiner

And somehow, looking at these pictures, I suddenly remember that the Ice Rink is open outside the museum (till 8th January 2012) ...

London prepares for 2012

greyorgreen

Boris Bikes (rental bikes a la Paris, named after the current mayor) will probably be transport of choice till the Olympics, and possibly during the event, too - London is one big building site. The rent-a-bike idea is lovely, though still quite dangerous in a city where cars are not used to watch out for bikes and bike lanes a few and far between. 

There is some light at the horizon though: 4 Super Highways for bikes have recently opened, they are wider and painted a light blue. At least it is a start, and more are being planned.

found here

Summer in the City Part I

Here are my suggestions for a good start into the London Summer

Enjoy some Music on a Summer Evening

or Summer Music and Dining at the Courtyard at 51 till the 13 August

(and much more Music at the Proms of course from 15. July till 10th September)

Then there is the Festival Watch this Space with free outdoor  theatre, music, dance and circus at the National Theatre

I love watching a film outside:

on a  Rooftop Cinema in Hoxton  (and more information here),

or check out Nomad Cinema with screenings in Battersea Park, Fulham Palace, Opera Holland Park. I think we will be watching ET in Richmond Park on 1 September, just the right setting!

A Beach is still the highlight of every summer. And I might have found an Urban beach - the Big Dip on Clapham Common. A very new venture, so I have no idea what it will be like, but they promise a pool and a beach. On till the 17. July. Check it out here.

A  good old-fashioned fair in Barnes on the 9th July

An Urban Physics Garden on 100 Union Street till the 15 August

A walk or cycle along the London canals, the Towpath Cafe on Regents Canal

found here

Go and stroll around Hampstead, stopping at the very British Coffee Shop.

ENJOY!

Wimbledon

We have reached the 2nd week of Wimbledon and after a really wet first week, they had the hottest day of the year yesterday. And there is no breeze on Centre Court. If you did not get a ticket, don't fancy sitting on Murray Mount, than there is still the option of open air screening around London. At the Duke of York Square they will show the final 3 days, other places cover the whole 2 weeks. You can find out more here.

via

Visual Note - Training for the Olympics

Weston Super Mare Somerset Girls School ca. 1930

found here via

Olympia - London prepares

We recently went on the London Olympics Tickets website (4 hours before the deadline - told you I am terribly organised) and bid for some tickets, mixing major events with lesser known ones to have a good chance of getting a few, we hope. Yesterday we were informed that our credit card will be debited this week, if we are lucky in the ballot, but we will not know which events we will get tickets for till around the end of June. That seems to me a rather weird system ... there is just not enough information about the chances of applicants like us winning (if you can call it that, we are still paying after all).

londonprepares

But still - the excitement is sloooowly building up. There even is a dedicated website about how London prepares, starting this summer with a lot of sports events. Check it out here. The setting for beach volleyball - at Horse Guard Parade- is especially spectacular. And the London - Surrey Cycle Classic will basically test the route for the Olympic event and will pass down the road from us. The only downside is that we have probably left the country for our holidays by then.

P.S. Tickest for these test events will go on sale from May 26 and are available through Ticketmaster.