Portraiture...

So today I took myself off to the National Portrait Gallery to see the BP Portrait Award. I've been before and really enjoy it - and as usual when I go to the gallery, I wonder why I don't go more often...

My fave painting was Jose Escofet by Miriam Escofet - so incredibly lifelike it was more like a photo - of an older man (the artist's father) and I just thought it was amazing. One I thought was interesting as well was called 'Commuter' where the painter had made sketches of someone on a tube, taken photos of him on his phone and then painted his portrait. Not too sure about the moral/ethical issues with that... Wondering how I would feel if I happened upon a painting of myself in a gallery that I had had no say in at all...

New toy...

I'm now the proud owner of a funky new phone - very cool Sony Ericsson K810i - which I'm still working out how to use! I should transfer my old Vodafone number to it next week, so until then I'm still only playing with it...

But I'm sure having the camera on it will enable me to take (and blog) many more photos!

Weird getting used to a new phone - especially when I've been Nokia since my bag was stolen about 15months ago, but I'm sure in a few weeks I'll hardly remember what my Nokia was like!

Lady Be Good...

No - not what I tell myself every day...

I went to see Lady Be Good with a bunch of friends from work - it is the first time I've ever done the Regent's Park Open Air Theatre and I really enjoyed it. I struggled with enthusiasm during the day - I've never gone to them before cos I've never trusted the weather, and the year I live dangerously we have the worst and wettest July since records began...

So I was well prepared with my walking jacket on, my picnic blanket to sit on and my fleece to keep my legs and hands warm and it was great! The musical was originally performed in 1924 with Fred Astaire and his sister Adele playing the brother and sister of the story - it was really well done, very fluffy, very funny, with beautiful frocks and dancing.

So I was pleased I trusted the BBC forecast and did go - roll on Macbeth in August!

Sam and Phil Goff

Myself and Phil Goff
Originally uploaded by enetheru_2006.

And here is Sam, snapped with Phil Goff while attending the Youth Parliament in Wellington - go Sam!!

Harry Potter & The Deathly Hallows...

finally came out on Saturday! Well technically it was on sale at one minute past midnight, but I'm not quite that much of a geek...

Frustratingly I had to help Julia move in to her new flat first, so couldn't dive into it until about 4pm, but had it all finished by 2pm today :-).

Loved it - cried a few times, but thought it was great. I think it finished things really well - and while some things didn't happen that I wanted to, but on the whole it was worth giving up my weekend to it!

Harry Potter & The Order of the Phoenix...

So Tuesday the HP geeks (me, Maya and Steve) toddled off to see the latest HP film - which was great! Possibly the best one (excluding the first one of course which holds a special place just cos it is the first one...). And Maya and Steve were even more geeky than I was about the story :-)

And Julia buys her flat...

So on Monday Julia completed on her house so we just had to go round and have a look, and toast it with some champagne... :-).

Oh - and I had to go to the dentist to have my teeth scraped and polished which is just unnatural.... Although they did feel much better afterwards!

Opening the door to her flat...

Opening the door to her flat...
Originally uploaded by Megan Shields.

And the real front door...

Opening the door to the new flat...

Opening the door to the new flat...
Originally uploaded by Megan Shields.

The door from the street...

Sunday night - must be the Guillemots

Sunday I was off to see The Guillemots who were playing at Somerset House as part of the summer series there. Despite being worried it was going to rain amazingly it didn't and the show was pretty good. They're possibly not the best band to carry an outdoor venue, but they played Trains to Brazil which is just one of my fave songs at the mo :-).

Walking again...

So for the first time in ages Julia and I went out for a walk. This one was Petersfield to Liss - 11.1m. It is one I'd done a couple of years ago when training for Trailwalker, but Julia had never done it.

The walk was famous with the Trailwalker group as the pub had had such fine food, and again it didn't disappoint. Although I was pleased that the huge hill I remembered happening just after lunch was actually before it! The Shoulder of Mutton hill is not a very nice one to walk up!

Everything seemed very lush, and there were loads of butterflies around - I'm sure that is unusual for July and was a reflection of the enormous amount of rain we've been having over the last 6 weeks. This time last year the ground would have been parched and rock hard... summer?

A couple of photos below, but more on my Flickr account so check them out :-)

The view from almost at the top!

The view from almost at the top!
Originally uploaded by Megan Shields.

Gave us a chance to rest as I took the photo!

Trying to get a decent shot of the Shoulder of Mutton hill - steep!

Trying to get a decent shot of the Shoulder of Mutton hill - steep!
Originally uploaded by Megan Shields.

This was taken trying to show how steep the hill is!

Commuting NZ style...

Commuting NZ style...
Originally uploaded by Megan Shields.

Couldn't resist posting this one of Adrian on the train in Welly...

Where does the time go....

9th July already.... catch up stuff below :-)

Tour de France starts in London

It was a super sport Sunday in London as as well as the Wimbledon men's finals, it was also the start of the Tour de France. Julia and I toddled off to Craig's place to watch the bikes - he doesn't live far from the start at Greenwich.

They were amazing, but went past in a flash! Didn't even have time to take a photo! They looked like a shoal of fish swimming past - colours were amazing.

After that we headed off to Greenwich and had lunch - then watched this amazing street theatre - which I'm assuming was French but they seemed to be singing in Italian! Looked very cool tho!

The singer

The singer
Originally uploaded by Megan Shields.

Tour de France street theatre in Greenwich (2)

Tour de France street theatre in Greenwich (2)
Originally uploaded by Megan Shields.

Hampton Court Palace Flower Show

No stopping yet!

Friday (another day off work for me...) Steve and I went along to the Hampton Court Palace Flower Show which was great. Given the torrential rain we'd had all week the gardens looked remarkably fresh and we didn't get any rain either which was great. The Festival of Roses was a bit disappointing - they didn't seem to have lasted too long, but the rest of it was good. Including some rather stunning garden statues...

No photos from this year however.

Maya turns 21...

No rest for the wicked... well there was a bit of a rest for me luckily. We had originally planned to meet at 11.45 but due to being somewhat under the weather I pushed that back to 1pm...

Maya, Chris and I had a lovely afternoon at the London Zoo which was great. We got to see the gorillas and we spent ages in the reptile house so Maya could admire all the snakes... Watching the tiger (looks just like Lenny!) was also a highlight for me :-).

Then we toddled off to Saltyard for a highly delicious dinner and bubbles to round off the day. Then I had to take my slightly worse for wear body back home...

Chris and Maya + gorilla!

Chris and Maya + gorilla!
Originally uploaded by Megan Shields.

Knowledge stuff...

Wednesday was our annual Knowledge Community Day which I helped to organise. The morning was usual work stuff - presentations etc, but in the afternoon we went to the Oasis Children's Venture to do some gardening and wall painting. Great fun despite the odd torrential downpour! I was in the painting team (check out a couple of the photos below) and had a good time turning a brick wall white so they could come along and cover it in graffiti...

Sobering to realise that for the kids who use the centre, that is their backyard - that is where they get to run around and let off steam. Makes you realise how spoilt we are back in Godzone.

Then in the evening it was our summer party... Fortunately I took many more photos than I featured in! Great night - although I really shouldn't have had the margaritas I had...

The group even happier that evening!

The group even happier that evening!
Originally uploaded by Megan Shields.

The happy group at the end

The happy group at the end
Originally uploaded by Megan Shields.

Hard at work during the rain...

Hard at work during the rain...
Originally uploaded by Megan Shields.

Hard at work painting under the trees during a downpour...

The Hold Steady...

aka as the most "boysiest' band I've been to in a long time...

The Hold Steady get rave reviews when they play here, but it really was a very male oriented audience. I went with Divya and I'd say we were one of the few 'girl couples' there - as opposed to girls who were there with their blokes...

And they were really good - but didn't light my fire as much as I thought they would. Perhaps it was also due to it being a Monday night gig at Shepherd's Bush - never a good time, but I just couldn't love them as much as I knew I was meant to. I'm sure all the boys would disagree with me tho!!