Category Archives: London

Magical Evening

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This Thursday I will be visiting the world’s oldest and last surviving grand music hall called Wilton’s. A wonderful and magical place hidden in the centre of London near Tower Hill. John Wilton built the theatre behind his pub ‘The Prince of Denmark’ in 1858, later know as the Mahogany Bar. A sun-burner chandelier with 300 gas jets and 27000 cut crystals dominated a mirrored hall. The auditorium remained incredibly intact: the original cast iron ‘barley sugar’ pillars support a papier-mâché balcony under paper roses set in a vaulted roof. In Wilton’s day, 1500 people used to cram into the music hall to hear the top acts: artistes from the Covent Garden were lured over in full costume to perform late night arias.

Here, I will be attending The Soldier’s Tale by Stravinsky which was recommended to me by J. A music-theatre performance: a mix of drama, music, film and physical theatre. Presented by the world famous Academy of St Martin in the Fields, which joins forces with director Lawrence Evans and internationally acclaimed and highly versatile violinist, Anthony Marwood in a unique production of The Soldier’s Tale, a Faustian fable of a Soldier cruelly tricked into giving his soul to the devil. I’m really looking forward to this, I will bring my camera along *as usual* and will try to catch the perfect moment to share… I’ll be accompanied by Chris that evening and will be wearing my chocolate satin dress that I’ll have to finish tomorrow. I think it will blend in nicely with the magic of the evening… :)

© G. Allen, The Entrance

© G. Allen, The Auditorium

© Wilton’s, The Auditorium

© Wilton’s, The Auditorium

A Mystery…

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Monday I had my blood test done and for the first time, ever since I’ve moved here, I was confronted with the bureaucracy of the UK health system and I was not happy about it to be honest. What could have been done in about five minutes took fifty minutes instead and I was sent from one place to the other and back again; most annoying, especially if you don’t have much energy and want things to be done and over with asap. After fifty minutes I finally ended up waiting for my turn to have blood taken and was in and out in five minutes, no pain, no bruises this time.

Today I had to see the doctor to discuss the results of all the previous tests so I took the bus again to the hospital and waited for the doctor to come see me which took about twenty minutes. She took me to a room to discuss things. She told me, all the tests had come out negative for hepatitis, which was a major relief to me. So the only reason why I ended up in hospital with a liver malfunction could be the Chinese tea that I have been drinking for five weeks.

The doctor said I have been lucky, I went to hospital on time, I could’ve ended up having severe liver damage, she said people have died of the Chinese tea treatment. It’s like having allergies, it could harm some but others might never be affected at all. She said this must have come as a bit of a shock to me and if I’m honest it is in a way. I really put my faith and trust in this treatment only to find myself in hospital five weeks later… I will have to come back for more blood test in three/four weeks and take things slow in the meantime.

I have to say I’m happy about the test results but it all remains some kind of mystery to me still…

The hospital, beautiful building