Mayfair

Yesterday I was strolling around Mayfair. I needed fresh air in a very lazy Sunday. It was due to a very lively Saturday when I attended two Birthday parties until very late ... too much for my age!.

Mayfair emerged in the eighteenth century as one of London’s first real residential suburbs. Soon it started to attract aristocratic London and set the westward trend for middle-class migration and you can see now the touch of luxury and elegancy in every corner. The borders remain among the prime shopping streets (Piccadilly, Regent Street, Bond Street). Too many things to see during one afternoon so I decided just to address the less popular streets, and I walked down from house along Park Lane until Picadilly street, but once I headed this street, after two intersections I turn on the left to get to “Shepherd Market”. A little warren of alleyways and passages now occupied by swanky shops and restaurants, plus a couple of Victorian pubs that I presume are extremely popular during the summer. Even yesterday there were plenty of people at their surrounds having beer and it reminded me somehow the atmosphere of people having the aperitif in the Barrio de Salamanca. It was too formal to be close to “La Latina”. Anyway this area is very charming and I recommend going there and I’m sure I’ll come back but next time with company to have a good Belgian beer. I’ve read that Johnny Depp and Vanessa Paradis spent a cool 17,000 pounds on a meal. Unfortunately my budget is not so high for a dinner but still I think I’ll be able to manage a good company.

Afterwards I headed Old Bond Street and after passing by the most expensive and well presented shops I’ve ever been so far in London, being home to all the leading multinational designer clothes outlets like Prada, Versace, Donna Karan, Chanel and so on I got the Royal Arcade an example of the traditional and elegant English shopping mall. Close by, are the auction house “Sotheby’s”, 34-35 Old New Bond St, where I stopped to admire the oldest outdoor sculpture in London (it dates from 1600 BC) and nearby a popular double statue of Winston Churchill and President Roosevelt. American bonds continue in Grosvenor Square where I went afterwards and where you can find the ugly US Embassy and a big statue stands in memorial again of Roosevelt. From there, I reached Oxford Street that led me again to my apartment at Kendal Street. I found out why that name, Oxford Street was the old Roman road that linked Londonium with Oxford.

In the end it was a nice walk, a little step to keep knowing this great City of London.

The Spanish connection

I’ve been enjoying a long Easter vacations: 6 days travelling around the south of Spain, and 4 days in my hometown… So let me tell you about my last interesting day in London: visiting Marylebone.

The outlying village of St Mary-by-the-Bourne was swallowed up in the eighteen century to become a mesh of Georgian streets and houses much of which survives today.

I usually visit this neighbourhood twice a week when I go to the Gym, it is just the one besides Paddington in the east, and I was curious to know what I could find there.

Last Sunday before Easter I decided to walk around it and it was worth it. I started at “the Wallace Collection” that is a national museum in an historic London town house. There are 25 galleries with French 18th century painting, furniture and porcelain with superb Old Master paintings and a world class armoury. In the middle there is the typical dinning room to have the English tea, really nice. I stopped to see “woman with a fan by Velazquez” in the great gallery, the largest room in the house. It was interesting to read about the identity of the woman, who was decided to be French rather than Spanish by experts, due to her neckline. Spanish women haven been always more traditional! The “treasure of the month” was a Bohemian Welcoming Glass dated 1609. ‘Lift me up, drink me up, set me down, fill me again and bring me a good brother again’ was written on its surface. It seems that the tradition of making toast is not new.

But the most special interesting moment in the afternoon was my visit to St Jame’s Church, the “Spanish place”. A Catholic chapel was built in 1791 thanks to the efforts of the chaplain at the Spanish embassy and It become a neo-Gothic church designed in a mixture of English and French Gothic. Inside you can see the Spanish Royal features and thre are even two seats reserved for the royals, denoted by built-in gilt crowns high above the choir stalls. That’s the first Spanish connection with London that I’ve discovered here.

Afterwards, I was walking down Marylebone High Street, much nicer than Oxford Street to see shops although the offer is of course much smaller and I found a very interesting place, a lovely library specialized in travel books, with a galleried hall at the back and a stained glass roof. Even if you had not the intention of buying something, you’ll do because of its super nice atmosphere.

And tomorrow, back to office, I’m really lazy to come back to work, but at least I’ve practiced a little tonight English. Let’s see if I haven’t forgotten to speak tomorrow!.

London, a quiet place

Since the last week I have the feeling that I’ve lived in a small town. This sounds very strange living in London, isn’t? Before moving here I had London in my mind as a very stressful city. But the reality has been very different. I might not be very objective because I live in a very central location and it might not representative of how London in general is, but the thing is that I feel more relaxed here than in Madrid since I moved here in July. Why? That’s because London is very much spread. There parks in everywhere, the buildings normally don’t have more than three or four floors that result in a lot of open spaces so in the end you never have the feeling that you are shut in, on the contrary, sometimes when you are walking down the streets it seems like you are not in a big city at all. Traffic is not so high except on the main roads like Oxford Street or Bayswater road. There is a little church besides my apartment that play its bells every hour the same as if I was in my parents house!

As I promised myself, I didn’t go out at night either last Friday or Saturday. I think it was a good disposal. In the end it was so calm that I almost didn’t leave my neighbour. Saturday in the morning I took the bus to go to a farmer market at Orange Square, corner of Pimlico Road and Ebury Street, SW1. http://www.lfm.org.uk/ I was talking with the farmers about cheese, meat, fish…I was queuing for fresh fish and I started to talk with two women about recipes, at some moment the grocer tells us “check in internet”. The funny thing is that she is telling this not only to me but also to the two women that are 50-something. Here, new technologies are quite popular! If you see the square, it could be a typical scene of a small town.

In the afternoon I was walking across Hyde Park. I’m drawn to come to this place almost every weekend. I was surprised because of the high number of people riding horses. Coming back to home, I cross Hyde Park Garden Mews, with the horses in the streets, and it seems like if I was in a small village. Looking at the entrance of the houses and at the little gardens I could appreciate the first flowers of the spring.

On Sunday, I organized a lunch at my apartment with an American girl, a New Zealander girl, a Spaniard and I. Very nice conversation and as usually when people don’t each other very well, we started to speak about trivial things like work, renting expenses, our countries but we end up talking about relationships. We hadn’t seen each other since beginning of December and all of us had something interesting to tell so that’s why after two bottles of wine nobody wanted to go home and the chat was still very lively.

Today I’ve had more social life in my neighbourhood. In Spain, social life at work is done at lunch time. In England is after work. “Do you fancy going to the pub? Already, it is only 5.30! Come on, let’s go to Victoria!” Victoria is a pub located only 200 m from my house so I couldn’t say “no”. “One of the best pubs in London” they told me very excited-. In addition, some English people came so it was a good chance to exchange opinions and views about our cultures. My colleagues were right, Victoria Pub has the typical warm atmosphere of the best English pub. They were speaking about the passion that English people have for team sports but they admitted that although they made up a lot of them like football, others have learnt to practice them better! “Dam it; it is incredible that we are not going to play the Eurocup!” “I have to admit the Cesc Fabregas and Torres are ones of the best of the Premier League!” After two pints of Leffe, Belgian beer that I’m getting used to having, I decided to go home, a little drunk to be honest. Instead my colleagues drunk at least 3 pints and they were fresher, how can they make it?

My neighbourhood is very nice but I’m thinking of making last weekend up by going out a little next weekend… !

Paris, city of light

Paris is part of my new life in London. Once a month I have to go to the capital of France because of business travels.

I’ve kept always good memories of Paris. It was the destination of the trip that we organized when we passed the third course of my degree. It is the place when I met for the last time a good friend. And now it is part of my new life here.

On the other hand, I didn’t have a good feeling of French people in general before moving here because of the typical competition between neighbours. In my subconscious was the fact that my parent house was burnt during the French invasion in the XIX century, we discovered this by doing some improvements some years ago when we knock down a wall and we could saw how some burn rests still remained. In addition I got quite upset when I read all the damages that they caused in Burgos at that time. Still if you go to the “Monasterio de San Pedro de Cardeña” you can see how the French soldiers damaged the faces of the sculptures because in their leaving they didn’t have time to devastated everything. And look, this is the worst part: In this sacking, they desecrated the tomb of the most important hero in the Spanish history: “El Cid”. Fortunately, a French man gathered his rest scattered on the ground, he kept in a little box and that’s why after the war they were found in a house near the Cathedral. God bless you, my friend.

But that is history. We can not judge people nowadays because of the acts done by their ancestors, it is ridiculous. So in the end I’ve changed my concept about France and even I was supporting them last weekend during the 6 nation’s championship. It can be also because a French company pays for salary me every month!

Travelling is a good thing to leave chore for some time. The trip to Paris is easy, only 2.15 hours via high speed train. I took the train early in the morning. Some workers like but also I could see in my couch two couple in their mid forties drinking champagne (an obsession in London as I've mentioned some times) and with the look of people that are travelling for pleasure. Sure they were going shopping or just to spend 2 days doing tourism.

Paris is one the most beautiful cities in the world. Only walking down its streets is a unique experience. Each time I go, I try to visit a different area after work. I go usually to the same hotel, it is located in Montparnasse, the famous painters’ quarter. This time I was very lucky, my room is on the 19th floor, with an amuzing view.

I decided to go for dinner to a close restaurant that is in Catalognia square. I felt at home, what a Spanish name! It was Monday and still it was almost full at 8, a good signal of its quality. Besides me, there were two couples of business men and a group of Asian people enjoying the French goodness.

When I took the metro I noticed once more their good wearing style, they have a very good taste and you can realize why they are the capital of fashion. The mixture of races is almost like in London but less international. It is like if people in Paris assumed very quickly that they are living in Paris they have to look like French whereas in London there is more a feeling of staying temporarily without loosing their identity. I could hear some Spanish speakers, we are around everywhere. In only 20 minutes I got to the “champs elysees”. Despite the fact that it was Monday, the street was crowed of people at 22.00. I can not be surprised when it said that more than 500,000 people are here every day. The avenue is lined with cinemas, boutiques, restaurants, tearooms and café terraces. At last, the Arc de Triomphe, standing at the centre of the Place Charles de Gaulle.

I came back to the hotel at 22.45. I go to the bar with my laptop to browse on internet taking advantage of the free WIFI. There are many people, I think when you travel for business, somepeople feel a little alone being out of home and they look for a warmer atmosphere out ot the hotel room. Even It seems like if a woman who is in a table in front of me is looking at me?? No, I'm kidding! But be careful because in these kind of hotels, full of business men, I've seen more than once a sort of "professional women" around...I decided to go to my room and I still had time to watch TV, in fact, I came just on time to watch the debate between Rajoy and Zapatero. I hope it was useful for our future!

My back was next day in the afternoon. In the train the same image as the day before. Some workers like me, with the faces looking like very tired and a group of people, this time in their thirties, with a lot of shopping bags from luxurious brands. It is clear that there a lot of rich people in London!

B Bar and the mascarade party

It has been a quiet weekend in the end. One of the best things has been to stay in bed until late and to have a “Spanish breakfast” with tomato, olive oil and even real ham. And of course a good coffee, I can not do without it. It looks like very good, doesn’t it?

The weather is becoming better in London, it is warm and even during the majority of weekend sunny. The spring is coming. The bad thing is that I have to go to bed earlier as it is difficult no to be woken up with the light early in the morning. I my bedroom in Madrid I could manage a complete dark but here it is not possible with only curtains, and bearing in mind that my window looks out at the east, why here don’t they use blinds? If I could do up something in my apartment I would start with this.

Friday I was invited to a birthday from a colleague from the office, but I was really tired after all the week and as no one from the office intended to go I didn’t feel confident enough to socialize with unknown English people. I was lazy; I have to do away with these fears, next time I’ll not miss the chance to meet new English people. I rented a film called: “Love, Honour & Obey” typically English, it was only ok, and the script for me was overdone and silly.
On Saturday I stayed at home during the day, putting things in order, reading one of the best books I’ve ever read: “Tuesdays with Morrie” (Ji, thanks for your recommendation!) and watching TV. At 6 my phone rang “Yes, of course, I’ll be there at B Bar at 7.30”. I didn’t want to discard this chance to have fun. My Belgian mates had reserved a table in another trendy place: B Bar. In fact the plan included also a private party at the same place after dinner.

I have to take back my remarks concerning the quality of the restaurants in London. B Bar was more ok, a menu for 35 Pounds that included three courses + coffee. Well, the problem is if you order 5 bottles of wines for 6 people…., it reminded me the dinners that I used to have in Madrid with my friends, … then the budget can rise dramatically and my friends like to drink too much! It could be my fault; I chose a Monteviejo Festivo 2004, Malbec, from Argentina that was excellent. By the way, I went to some interesting places last weeks: “Cocoon”, a Japanese restaurant in Regent Street that in average was 8/10, really good, and “Asia de Cuba”, in Soho, a fushion between Caribean and Asian food. The atmosphere was very special, the courses are very large but the quality is not great and I guess it is a little overpriced. The last one has been “Busabba”, a Thai very close to my house; don’t miss here a Thai pad. Great value for money! I’m getting into Asian food in general, the offer is much bigger here than in Madrid.

After the dinner the masquerade party was supposed to be downstairs. Some people dressed up masques, I was afraid at the beginning that we could end up with the same situation as in the famous film “Eyes wide shut” but fortunately everything it was quieter. There were not so many people but it was fun. Even I run into some colleagues from the office, I realized that London is not so big and as well as in Madrid people are in the same networks and go out for the same places. I went to home at 2.30 h, not so late but this morning I was really tired again!

It hasn’t been a special weekend at all, again part of my new routine. I think next week I’m going to try to make the most of my time by visiting more places during the day and attending more cultural events. I want to squeeze every minute here and the problem of going out at night is that we consume too much energies and in the end not always is worth it. I can not get away with it to be active the following day, so I’ll change my plan for next weekend. It is Sunday evening; it is already dark in London and a new week is waiting for me in London.

Drinking beers with my new CEO

I’m working at an international company with offices in several countries around Europe and even other continents like Africa. There is an International area in the Group that centralizes some activities where I’m working for, although in terms of Human Resources I belong to the affiliate in UK. My role is to coordinate some activities concerning the launching of new products in different countries, so far, UK and France.

Some months ago, a new CEO was announced for our affiliate in UK. He comes from the same industry although he has been working on several fields. His fortune is huge, I guess, several hundreds of pounds, so that he could afford to stay without working anymore, in fact he wasn’t working some months ago, but he believed that this new project was a very interesting challenge and he was after this new job. That’s what he said during an interview that was published on a famous newspaper some weeks ago.

Last week all of the employees based on our office at Paddington, we were invited to have drinks at 6pm onwards by him, he wanted to be presented. It was exciting as for me that was the first official event with my colleagues from the office.

I stayed in my desk until 6.30. In Spain if you are called to be at 6, you have to go at least half an hour later. But when I went downstairs almost we were run out of drinks! I had a beer to feel more British. I liked these kinds of events. People have different objectives. One of my friends told us, “we should approach that group of girls”, it means, “he wanted to warm his relation with the typical girl with who normally you can only exchange some sentences every day in the office like “hello, how are you doing?” and this way, to move forward to the next step that might be to go to the pub. Other colleague told me “we should say hello to our manager”. It means, “Let’s flatter our boss, the annual review is coming”. And other didn’t stop looking at a colleague that owned us a document “I’m going to tell something to Roman”, that means “you can not answer my emails but now you are not going to escape”.

In the meantime I was very curios to see new super boss. At 7 he appeared, dress up very casual and he started the speech. Very simple, very close, I enjoyed a lot. It was a combination of strategic marketing lesson plus an amount of motivation. No more than 30 minutes.

Drinks continued but some people started to leave the canteen, today we had Arsenal and Manchester playing champions league. I didn’t care about it, I was very happy yesterday because of Liverpool’s performance. Torres was again crucial in the victory by forcing a red card. I stayed talking with a Polish friend who has a girlfriend from Burgos, that is a good link, isn’t? And we saw how our CEO still was with us. His attitude was like if he was a colleague more and we could see him talking with everybody. We couldn’t miss this chance and we introduced ourselves: I’m Rodrigo, from Spain. I was a little embarrassed because of my bad English but he was really nice with us, without stop talking and very natural. What a difference compared to the top management in Spain! I may have been bad lucky and I’ve been working in Spain only for two companies but I really appreciate the attitude of this gay.

Before saying good bye, he stopped a woman who was passing in front of us as he recognized her as one of the people that raised some questions in public after his speech. In fact she asked him about his favourite film. He answered “The Italian Job” because of his passion for racing cars. It was very fun because she was a little drunk, I couldn’t understand what she was telling us and this time I guess it was not only because of my bad English!. That’s a different culture, I thought, I couldn’t imagine the CEO I had in Spain standing a conversation with a drunk worker. After 30 minutes of amused conversation, we put out our beers, we left them and I came to my beloved apartment in Kendal Street. We were not putt off him.

The back to home from the office is nice, I walk during 10 minutes inside typical English houses, and always is a good time to relax and think about the things that happened during the day at the office. Today I started with two annoying conferences call. But I ended up with a smile.

Welcome to the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew,

Last two weeks are being extremely sunny in London and I wanted to make the most of it by going outside.

Kew gardens is one of London’s treasures. You can explore different regions of the world and see some of planet’s rarest plants, as well as mango tres, giant palms, banana trees and more. It is in the East of London normally, about 40 minutes from the City centre.

Unfortunately I didn’t see everything last Saturday because of a failure in the Tube. The line from Hammersmith to Kew Gardens was suspended and my special visitor (thanks for your patient!) and I were trapped in a bus in a traffic jump. It took us to get to the gardens from Victoria Station almost 2 hours, what a disaster! But it was beyond our control. It has been the first time that I’ve gone out of the city centre and I’ve learnt that as well as in Madrid, here during the weekends the highways can be a chaos. We got to the place at 2.45 and it closed at 4.15. My recommendation is to go there at earliest at possible and to plan to spend at least 3 hours.

In the end it was very worth it. I don't remember such a beauty Botanic Garden like this. I haven’t seen so far many British gardens but I guess this a good example of England’s green and pleasant countryside. We had time to go through the famous Palm house where we could admire plants from all around the world. When you walk through their humid tropical rainforests, you can discover how we can depend on the plants that inhabit these parts of the world. In the basement there is a small but excellent tropical acuarium.

Outside, the landscape is amazing. The mix of different colours, type of plants, glass houses, lakes and historical buildings has a bearing on the beauty of this place. We enjoyed a lot by strolling.

Another reason to come now is the fact that Kew Gardens is hosting until April a landmark open-air exhibition of 28 large-scale sculptures by the acclaimed artist Henry Moore. We didn’t pay so much attention on this but we could realized how the sculptures complemented the landscape and I think it can be very interesting to see it from the other side, that is, to see how the changing light affect the sculptures throughouth the seasons.

Given that we are in winter, we couldn’t see so many seasonal flowers but at least we found the area around the Victoria Plaza transformed by a stunning Crocus carpet. Here, hundreds of thousands of purple and white flowers appeared to create a magnificent burst of colour. And also we could admire some Narcissus along the Broad Walk that links the Orangery to the Palm House.

We had to run to be on time at the exit since we wanted to spend until the last minute and we finalized the visit when at the Lion Gaten at 4.20, very closed to a beautiful Pagoda, the most distinctive landmark.

Sometimes when you visit a place, and you left it, you see at your back and you think, I’ll come back once more. This was the case.