BUSY LONDON MAMA PART ONE

Flags line the Mall that runs up to Buckingham Palace

What a busy life I lead! No sooner was I home from my girls' trip to France than I was off again on an airplane to London. Squeezed in between these two events were my granddaughter Jelena's school summer party, her birthday on the same day, outdoor concert with friends, and an overnighter to the mountain cabin to prepare it for sale. I came back from London late Friday night, then went to a barbecue party last night which lasted into the early hours of the morning. Who was the last one to leave you ask? Well... one guess is all you're getting!

My main reason for going to London this time was my birthday present - which was a visit to the David Bowie Exhibition at the Victoria and Albert Museum - David Bowie Is. The tickets were no longer available on the internet, so the way to do it was to turn up at the museum and queue and hope to get lucky. My sister did this in May and managed to get hold of tickets for the following day.

And YES!! I got lucky! Not only was the queue absolutely decent - it took only thirty minutes - and the entry time was one hour later! When my husband and Sophie came back from their walk around the block I was jumping up and down and waving the tickets around like a complete idiot, deliriously happy.

The V&A is a beautiful museum, and I used to visit it a lot in the seventies. While we were waiting for our entry time we went into the Raphael section and gaped in awe at the enormous paintings with biblical themes. Then we sat outside in the courtyard by the pond and enjoyed the gorgeous sunshine. Oh, my expectations were sky high! My bliss was exquisite, as it always is in London anyway.

Well. What can I say? I simply cried my way through it. It's hard for me to write about it without getting emotional. Lyric notes, photos, videos, films, costumes, music, drawings - all accompanied by headphone info. It was Overwhelming. Breathtaking. Brilliant. Fantastic. It was perfect. It was David Bowie's life - all of it. And I loved it. I loved it.

I actually had a huge problem tearing myself away.

My new Aladdin Sane earrings

When we entered the last room music came on full blast. Enormous screens covered the walls from floor to ceiling, and "Heroes" from two different concerts played in synchronicity on two walls.

I could have stayed forever. Maybe I'm still there.

BERNIE TAUPIN COPYCAT

I am about to cash in on my birthday present, which is a trip to London. After having had a good friend over for lunch today on my sunny terrace I went to work on my laptop to book tickets and hotel rooms. Yes, rooms plural, because we are taking daughter Sophie along, as we will be paying a visit to our suppliers who are located in Surrey. They send us the best frozen yogurt in the world for our Smoothie Bar - where Sophie is manager - and we would like to start importing some of their other stuff too - like soft frozen yogurt (eaten like ice cream) and sorbets.

The funny thing these days is that GETTING to London is quite cheap because there are a lot of options by low cost airlines, whereas finding a relatively affordable hotel for three people is NOT easy. And fully booked most of them! We are definitely not paying nearly 2000 pounds for 3 nights, there's a limit to everything. And the hotels with these prices are not even that great. Okay, we need two rooms, but still... My friend Grete however recommended a website to me called airbnb.com, and I think this might turn out to be my rescue. A fully furnished flat in Soho for three days? Well, why not!

Grete in London 1972

Grete and I share a huge affinity for England, and especially London. When we first went there together we were only sixteen - well, almost seventeen - and we still marvel at the fact that our parents allowed us to travel from Oslo by ship and by train, through three or four countries, to arrive at the YWCA in Russell Square right smack in the middle of the metropole! And all the time I was carrying my guitar! Talk about a dedicated post-hippie....

The entrance to the YWCA on Russell Square, 1972 (shopping, no guitar)

Oh, the discoveries we made! Oxford Street, Carnaby Street, Hyde Park, Trafalgar Square, discos and pubs (did we look older than we were)? And - greatest of all - Kensington Market on Kensington High Street - a three-storey building with stalls! Clothes, incense, records, hippie stuff in general - treasures everywhere! We each found and bought the same chequered shirt there that Bernie Taupin wears in a photo in the text leaflet inside the album sleeve of Don't Shoot Me, I'm Only the Piano Player. Needless to say this was our favourite record at the time.

Bernie Taupin in Bernie Taupin-shirt

Bernie Taupin fan in Bernie Taupin-shirt

Many are the times I've been back to London - so many that I've lost count. While I was at University in Brighton London was only a short train ride away, and over the years I've had two boyfriends who lived there. (NO, not at the same time)!

So - London. Here I come again. Looking forward.

RED RED CHERRIES!

The village of Céret - just beneath the snow-capped Pyrenees - is Cherry Town Number One in Roussillon. It's also a well known art centre, not least known for its Musée d'Art Moderne, documented by yours truly in an earlier blog post. And just to make it clear - cherries are my absolute FAVOURITE berries!

Table mat in Céret restaurant

For some reason I'd never visited the annual Cherry Festival in Céret, but this year it was finally time! My friend and I got there early in the afternoon on the Sunday of the festival weekend, all set and ready for cherry shopping, cherry eating and cherry contest watching. Surprised at the easy parking access and the relatively small crowd in the streets, we were soon to learn that we hadn't seen nothin' yet!

Stalls lined the narrow streets, and there was only one theme: Yes, you guessed it... CHERRIES. Everywhere. Absolutely all over the place. Never have I seen so much cherry decorated stuff. Never have I stepped on and crunched so many cherry stones. And at last I'm in possession of cherry things that I never knew I needed.

Cherry (and strawberry) kleenex box

Cherry jam

Cherry jewellery

Cherry painting

Cherry butcher's window

Hmmm... cherries

Cherry cards? Cherry accessories?

Cherry balloons

Nearly all the restaurants did menus with cherry themes - for instance steak with cherry sauce, melon and serrano ham and yes - cherries. However we had an à la carte menu, but sat at a table next to a family who wore cherries dangling from their ears.

The real highlight - and what we'd been looking forward to - was the cherry stone spitting competition. Set up underneath the beautiful arches, the contest was complete with red carpet (stone was out if it did not land there), speaker, referee and three cherry trees for prizes. The cherries had to be consumed before the spitting started - with only stones left in the mouth - otherwise things would be slowed down. An elderly woman seated in front of us made it her duty to point out exactly where the stones landed, and the excitement was electric!

A bit unfair perhaps, that children, teenagers and adults participated in the same class - most of the little kids' stones landed right in front of them. The longest hit was 9.5 metres - and this was of course a grown man's achievement. And he had probably practised too!

When the contest was over and we tried to make our way back to the car park, we got stuck in the crowds. Oh wow, was it slow-moving! On the way we bought 3 kilos of cherries (10 euros)! Full of inspiration we spent some time practising our cherry stone spitting in the car park when we finally got there, and decided to join the competition next year. There was a shortage of fifty-something-year-old girls in that spectacle - and we're definitely going to change that!

Watch out Céret - you ain't seen nothin' yet!

Very proud of new cherry earrings and cherry scarf

Cherry bib - for a Big Mama who's very sloppy

Cherry top matching scarf

Three kilos - YUMMY!

LOST IN FRANCE

Saturday market in Thuir, France

Your favourite blogger is back! You're not rid of me that easily!

I've been lost in France for a week. That is - I've been on the annual girls' trip to my house there, something we've been doing now for nine years. We are former colleagues who used to work together in a bank in Oslo in the eighties, and because our work place was extremely male dominant, us few females stuck together and made our own space - weekends away, girls' nights out etc. (Not that we didn't enjoy our constant male companionship at work - far from it - but we just needed a time-out every now and again)!

One of my friends brought me cat candle holders from Krakow

The fabulous thing about these girls is that - apart from being crazy and funny and generous and sweet and serious - they are so incredibly helpful. The first three days, when the wind was howling around the corners, working outside was not an option (dust and leaves everywhere, especially in your eyes). But then the wind stopped, and all of a sudden we were living in a different world and the girls got down to it. They removed the winter pool cover and started cleaning the pool until it became swimmable. They weeded flower beds and got rid of strange stuff that had grown through the terrace. They killed weed roots with scary products. They sprayed ants and other creepy crawlers to death. They trimmed high growing hedges. They stuffed rubbish sacks with grass and dead leaves. They watered newly planted flowers.

And me? What did I do? I cut down this triangle of undergrowth:

Not living permanently in France, the most sensible thing is to have as few growing patches as possible to tend to - in other words - bury everything under concrete! So this is basically what I want to do with this little spot of "greenery" - pave it over and place some cosy furniture on it, and a potted plant or two. When I discovered oats here - spread from the nearby field with the vigorous wind - I was even more determined to get rid of it!

And I cooked - when we didn't go out for meals. I made shoulder of lamb, bouillabaisse and Boeuf Bourguignon and I put lots of wine in everything! Well, why not.... in France.

Home cooked shoulder of lamb

Salad with duck gizzards and chèvre on toast

Spicy penne with scampi at....

.... Perpignan's best Spaghetteria

"Moules Frites" at Bar de la Marine, Collioure

Tuna steak at my favourite restaurant in Thuir - Can Marty

Food, fun and French festivals - what could be better? Well, sun and wine maybe?

More on festival life to follow.

Meanwhile - here's a picture of my new guy!

Finally it's summer - at Collioure