5 Great Things – 16th Nov

Mental Health Training

Earlier this week I spent a morning training to become a mental health first aider. I learnt about many of the different types of mental health conditions and how to spot the signs. It was a real eye opener for me to learn just how common mental health conditions are; they are actually more common than cancer and it was also really scary to learn just how many people commit suicide every year. Did you know, we lose 3 x more people to suicide every year than on our roads and 80% of those are men. I came away from the course with a new understanding and respect for people with mental health problems and just how brave they are to come forward and ask for help in a society that is so judgemental, when what those suffering really need is support and somebody to listen. The course taught me how to calm someone down when they are having a panic attack and gave me the tools I need to have a conversation with someone wanting to take their own life. I strongly believe that everyone should have mental health first aider training if only to raise awareness, although understand the opportunity isn’t out there for everyone. If this is you, perhaps then check out Professor Green’s documentary that aired last week: Suicide and me? Some of the information I learned is similar in this and I too think he was very admirable to share his experiences.

Running

Ok so I only actually went on 1 run this week, less than I had planned to, but I really bloody enjoyed it and will definitely go again! I didn’t run more because I stupidly didn’t stretch properly first and ended up with 4 day long shin splints, but I pounded the pavements with Freddie and that in itself was pretty funny. Bless him, it’s a new concept to him, running with me, so for the first 4 or 5 minutes he didn’t quite know whether he should be sprinting or stopping to sniff anything that interested him. He soon got into the swing of things however and I felt like I was winning at life afterwards, like maybe just maybe I could become a regular runner– let’s see if I can get 2 in this week shall we?

Quality family time

Sometimes we all get so caught up in our own rat race and forget just how much we need our mum. I’d had a couple of ‘meh’ days towards the tail end of the week and yesterday I spent the morning wandering around antique shops, dodging puddles in the downpour, drinking coffee and eating cake with my ma. Simple things that really made me smile. It was fab to spend some quality time with her and to catch up just us girls. I am really looking forward to our next outing together and spending more time with the rest of the family over Christmas.

Champagne Tote

God alone knows how many 5p carrier bags I’ve purchased since the government bought in the charge for carrier bags. I’m sooooo forgetful I never remember to bring any bags with me, so when I saw this little beauty gleaming out from a cutesy boutique window, I couldn’t walk past without buying. I used it today and was impressed with how much stuff I could cram into it and how strong the handles are. Now I’ve just got to remember to leave it in my car boot not at home.

Paris

I feel like I can’t finish this post without mentioning the terrifying attacks on Paris this weekend. How frightened all of those innocent people must have been being shot at whilst they were enjoying a relaxing meal, cheering on their football team or singing along to their favourite band. It’s despicable to think that so many innocent people are dragged into terrorist acts and war around the world day after day. Now of course, these attacks don’t belong on a 5 great things list, but what is great is the worldwide support. Seeing how Tower Bridge, the Sydney Opera House, San Francisco City Hall, Las Vegas’ LINQ High Roller and the One World Trade Centre’s spire in New York (to name but a few) all shone in red, white and blue got me all choked up. My thoughts are with the friends and families of those involved.

Life through a lens

I’m feeling a little sorry for myself today as I’ve had a bit of a bug this weekend and so I’m off work sick. I’ve just dragged myself round the block cos don’t matter how ill I feel, little Fred still needs his morning walk and hurled myself into the shower to try to make myself feel better. I’m a little perkier now that I’m snuggled up with Freddie, PLL and peppermint tea on the sofa. I’m desperately hoping that that’ll settle my whirring tummy. We shall see.

Anyway, enough about my stomach and its inability to retain food, I’m here to tell you all about my new found love: photography. Ok, that’s a lie, I haven’t just found photography and I have had a keen interest for years, but have I done a scoobies about it? No sireee. I mean, I always love hearing my dad’s stories about his school days and how he use to have to develop photographs in a dark room and I nearly (god alone knows why I didn’t) took photography at college, so I guess it’s always been in me. I then dabbled at university, as one of our modules was photographic based and I thoroughly enjoyed it. It was assigned to us over the Christmas holidays, I’d gone back to the family home for a couple of weeks and I am basically elf when it comes to that time of year, I love it! Bearing this in mind it seemed a no brainer for me to choose this as my theme and I set about kneeling down in the snow to take close ups of brightly coloured baubles hanging on empty twigs and playing about with the camera effects to jazz up a row of crackers, putting some in focus and some out of focus. What I didn’t love however, was the crappy mark I got for that assignment and rather hurt, insisted that my photography lecturer went through with me what exactly I’d done wrong, so that I wouldn’t make the same mistake again. Turns out she wasn’t crazy about Christmas as a theme (bah humbug) and was holding the cracker photo upside down, so couldn’t tell what it was.

I guess that kind of knocked my confidence a bit and I assumed I just wasn’t very good at photography, so didn’t bother pursuing it any further. That was until I saw an introduction to DSLR Photogaphy on GroupOn (no they haven’t asked me to mention them and no I don’t get any kind of profit for doing so, although I totally should the amount I bang on about them lately!). Fathers day was looming and I thought a. that would be a fab present which he’d love and b. it’d be a great way to spend some time together – I’m always taking my mum out but as dad’s mobility is limited (if I haven’t told you the full story, promise I will one day) I find it difficult to think of things to do with him other than take him out to lunch/dinner/brekkie…you get the gist…all the food!

Naturally, our day did kick off with a Maccies breakfast, because, obvs and then off we poodled to Milton Keynes to the photographer’s studio, which was an enlarged shed that he’d converted into a photographer’s cave. The set up is him and his wife – he obviously runs the show and has all the knowledge and she is very doting and helpful with constant cups of tea, biscuits, cakes and handouts for his students. They make a great pair. There were 9 of us on this workshop which was about the right number as there weren’t too many people fighting for his attention when we got stuck. He is a very knowledgeable man and despite us all having very different cameras, he knew almost instantly where our different settings would be.

Today’s weather is very dull and overcast for July, but we learnt some amazing tricks for when the sun is beaming, so I can’t wait to try them out. I feel much more confident going forward with my photography now, knowing enough about aperture, shutter speed and ISO to take a half decent snap. While I’ve been happy shooting selfies and quick shots on my iphone for the past few years, I think it’s time I stepped things up and showed my DSLR some more love. I’ve booked another outing for it already; we’re popping back for the practical session of yesterday’s theory class. Finally, something I can do regularly with my pops that doesn’t involve calories!!

Mum’s surprise day out in London

As you’ll know from my previous posts, it was my mum’s 50^th birthday last week and she’s had a week of surprises. Our present to her was a day out in London, which of course was a secret too.

I picked her up at 9.30am and we set off for Oxford Circus. Our destination was Old Bond Street’s Tiffany’s. The magpie in me absolutely loves Tiffany’s jewellery and mum had never stepped foot in any of their shops. As she’d only quite recently seen Breakfast at Tiffany’s the movie, I thought it appropriate to recreate the moment (or try). Conduit Street Starbucks provided the food, but Starbucks can never quite grasp my name for the cup which always brings comical value to my coffee. I’ve been named Laura, Lean (really wish I was) and that day I was Lea. Maybe it’s the way I say it, must work on that…Liiiiiiiii….annnnnnnnnnnne.

Now of course, Tiffanys is a fine establishment (dahhhh-ling) which means you can’t actually eat IN there, so we searched eagerly for a bench or somewhere to perch outside, whilst we devoured croissants and coffee. Turns out there isn’t anywhere, unless the curb tickles your fancy? It didn’t, so we lingered awkwardly on the pavement scoffing until we’d finished and could have a nosey about inside. FAIL!

Once we’d finished browsing (our favourite pieces can be found below), we headed off to Baker Street to Madame Tussauds; somewhere else mum had never been. I managed to get hold of a 2 for 1 voucher on www.daysoutguide.co.uk so paid £30 instead of £60 for the two of us. As long as you’re travelling by train and show your train ticket for that day, you’ll get the 2 for 1 offer, although the lady at the box office didn’t actually check our train tickets.

We were both impressed with how realistic some of the waxworks were (Russell Brand, Benedict Cumberpatch, Bruce Willis, Mo Farah and Helen Mirran for example) and mum commented on how lifelike the eyes were. The experience also now includes a 4d viewing of a short superheroes film, which had some great special effects too, so yeah that was good.

3 o’clock and our next stop was The Park Lane Hotel’s Palm Court Restaurant for champagne afternoon tea, which I found a voucher on www.redletterdays.co.uk for. I bought the ticket so long ago, I can’t remember how much I paid for it then, but there’s an offer on there now for around £80 for 2 people, so I would imagine it would have been around that mark. The hotel itself is very grand (as expected) and had a huge Christmas tree in the lobby. Everything looks so much prettier at Christmas, so it was nice to see it this time of year. We had a short wait and were then shown to our table. The restaurant is decorated in an Art Deco style with strong chinoserie influences found in the spiky plants and the vines in the wallpaper panels, and that too was decorated for Christmas.

Shortly after we sat down, a harpist appeared, dressed in the most elegant evening gown and playing the most beautiful music. She positioned herself directly behind mum right next to our table, so of course I told her that I had arranged that especially for her birthday. She definitely didn’t believe me. The harpist played everything from Enrique Iglesias to The Lion King Soundtrack, which I thoroughly enjoyed and felt the need to tell her when I saw her in the loo after tea!

The waiter handed us a menu each to choose our tea and I was amazed at the amount of options – from camomile to earl grey to rose. I was keen to try something I had never had before and wouldn’t usually choose and although I enjoy a fruit tea, I’m not keen on Earl Grey as I found it quite fragrant when I tried it. Most of the others sounded like they too would taste perfumey, so I opted for the safe English breakfast tea, as I knew I would enjoy that. Mum did the same. We were served a glass of Champagne followed by finger sandwiches (chicken mayonnaise roll, cream cheese and cucumber, egg mayonnaise and cress, smoked salmon and beef and horseradish sandwiches), which were all delicious! Our next course was scones – fruit and plain with butter, clotted cream, lemon curd, strawberry and raspberry jam. To finish? French pastries – a really rich chocolately cake, a fruit tart, a caramel slice and an orange slice. The portions were tiny, but I couldn’t believe how full we were when we left. We must have filled up on tea! The staff were attentive and very professional, the food was fantastic and the surroundings beautiful. I would highly recommend Palm Court to anybody who fancies a spot of afternoon tea in London.

We had some time to spare before the show started, so I had secured us a table at Jewel Bar in Piccadilly to while away an hour or so and sup a few cocktails. The booking entitled us to table service, so we didn’t want for anything and every time the waitress went past she checked we weren’t in need of another drink. We started off with a MASSIVE Pornstar martini, it’s meant for 3 people and mum decided that after 3 sips, actually she didn’t like it. Luckily for me, I do. So yeah, I guzzled most of that! Yum! We had a couple more drinks (mum a fruit Bulmers and me some horrendous honey rum concoction – fyi, honey rum is lovely, all the ingredients SOUNDED lovely but together, just no!) and some eats, (mum, a chicken burger and chips and me, calamari and chips (lush!)) and then headed off to our final destination (not literally…there were no deaths involved that day thank god!)

I’d booked tickets to see East is East at Trafalgar Studios, which conveniently is really close to Charing Cross station, so off we headed. There wasn’t much of a queue so we went straight in to find our seats. The theatre itself is quite small, so there was minus no leg room. At 5ft 2, leg room is not normally a problem for me but even I was a bit squished. As a family, we love the film East is East and use lots of the quotes from the film when bantering with each other, so with everything else I had planned, when looking at budgets it won hands down against War Horse and Lion King (2 I’m definitely planning on going to see soon).

Jane Horrock played Ella Khan fantastically and we were pretty impressed with the actors who played the children too. The show portrayed the difficult family relationships and the challenges the father faced bringing up his Asian family in a predominantly white British Salford much more vividly than the film, but the passion and drama only added to the atmosphere on stage. It’s a controversial show choice and admittedly, not for everyone (the couple behind us asked in the interval if there’d be less swearing in the second half) but we enjoyed it, if only for Jane Horrock’s performance. A good job well done.

Back to work I go to pay for mum’s 51^st!!