We arrived at the airport and were picked up by a beautiful water taxi that virtually flew across the water towards the mainland, and we sped past the larger boats and Vaporettos in the warm light of the winter sunset. The photo is our view out the back, and it was a bumpy ride but exhilarating all the same. After 20 minutes we were on the labyrinth of canals sweeping under the wooden footbridges and past the world-famous gondolas. To say we were excited was an understatement especially when we arrived at our hotel and stepped out of the boat into the canal-side entrance.

The Liassidi Palace Hotel where we stayed is a beautiful old building which is adorned with art throughout and boasts regular art exhibitions on the mezzanine floor. The concierges were always helpful, they lent me an iphone charger as I had forgotten mine, but breakfast was a different matter and we were scolded every morning by one of the staff and the food was always cold – but the coffee was great.

As Venice is very small, it’s great to get out and explore and we walked for several hours a day. It’s easy to get lost but pretty easy to get back on track. There are 122 tiny islands which are patched together with elaborate footbridges and travel is by foot or water.

We were very near St Mark’s Square and visited the oldest, and most expensive, tearoom, Florian which first opened its doors in 1720. The decor hasn’t changed and it was great to be in there to have impeccable service and chamber music. The prices are very high and a dessert cost around 15 Euro but as a one off, it was worth it.

Window shopping takes on a new meaning in Venice. There are hundreds of shops which sell carnival masks. One in particular stood out, it was along the canal from our hotel and we decided to have a nose around and there was noone but us inside and loud classical music. With all the masks and costumes inside, we began to feel swept up in an historic drama and nearly squealed when the owner appeared. Such is the atmosphere in Venice that you feel you could walk through a doorway or turn a corner and easily step back in time to a century, or even two, ago. The shop windows are lit at night like the one below.

In my next post, I will cover off some of the amazing art we experienced and visited, in the meantime, here are some of the travel details.

Getting there and back:

Flights:
We flew with easyjet from Gatwick and flying was cheaper because it was on Thursday and outside of the school holidays. Our tickets were £85 return each and booked a month in advance.

Trains:
Gatwick Express had problems with it’s booking engine so I didn’t get our first class tickets and instead took the train from Clapham for a quarter of the price. It cost £13 return for both of us using a Family Railcard discount card.

Taxi:
We usually cab it to Heathrow (it’s 15 minutes by car) and Stansted (2 hours at least by train and 90 minutes max by car) but Gatwick is a doddle for us by train. We tend to shop around for cab prices and find Green Tomatoes is about 50% cheaper than Addison Lee for account and cash bookings.

International Women’s Day is a really important movement as it brings to the fore many issues around the world and also gets a lot of people thinking and acting on behalf of certain causes.  This year, I would like to highlight the Join Me on the Bridge campaign which everyone can become involved with…

International Women’s Day (IWD) is an important day for women worldwide, celebrating the economic, political and social achievements of women past, present and future. As well as a day to celebrate achievements, it is a day to remind the world of how far we still have to come in the fight for global gender equality.

As Women for Women International’s founder Zainab Salbi says: “we envision a world where no one is abused, poor, illiterate or marginalised; where members of communities have full and equal participation in the processes that ensure their health, well-being and economic independence; and where everyone has the freedom to define the scope of their life, their future and strive to achieve their full potential.” Join me on the Bridge is part of our fight to achieve this goal.

Join me on the Bridge began in 2010 when women from the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Rwanda joined together on the bridge connecting their two countries, showing that they could build the bridges of peace and hope for the future. This action sparked a massive global movement, involving thousands of people on hundreds of bridges worldwide. Bridge events have taken place in all the countries Women for Women International work with: Afghanistan, Iraq, Kosovo, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Democratic Republic of Congo, Rwanda, Nigeria and South Sudan. Women survivors of war in these countries have lived through unimaginable suffering and hardship, but they find the strength and courage to call out for change and demand peace and equality for themselves and their loved ones. Join Me on the Bridge asks people to stand with these women on International Women’s Day (March 8th), to show support and solidarity for their struggle and to raise awareness of their plight.

We ask people to stand with women like Lucienne M’Maroyi, a participant in one of the Women for Women International programmes in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Lucienne is a 24-year-old mother of three who was raped, kidnapped and forced to watch the murder of her brother during an attack on her village in December 2006. After eventually escaping her kidnappers she was shunned by her husband when she returned to him. Without her husband she had no way of supporting herself and her children, which is when she found Women for Women International. The programme she enrolled in gave her the skills to earn a living and live independently. As Lucienne told us: “Joining the programme has been a salvation. My children were suffering from malnutrition, but since I began receiving training and learned about the three types of food that need to be part of good nutrition, my life has changed and my children are healthy.”

Join me on the Bridge is an important campaign for women like Lucienne as it lets them know they are not alone, and that women all over the world will support them in their fight to build a safer world for themselves and their families.

There will be events taking place globally from Canada to Tasmania, so check the Join Me on the Bridge website to find an event close to you. Our flagship UK event in London will be starting at 10:30am on the south side of the Millennium Bridge. From here the march will go on to the Royal Festival Hall, arriving at 12:30 for speeches, stalls and entertainment – all are welcome to join. The event is open to everyone and the organisation also encourages you to organise your own event, there is a variety of resources available to help you, including a free organiser’s toolkit. Your event can be as big or small as you like, and can be organised at any time of day to suit you.

There is also information on how to fundraise at your event, to raise money to sponsor a woman through one of our programmes. No matter what size your event, every person standing for peace on March 8th will make a difference.

Thanks for Sarah from WWI for providing this information, and do let me know if you are going and I will meet you there.

Here we are at The Cookery School for a blogging cook along with Master Chef winner Tim Anderson. For great inside tips he is @cheftimanderson on twitter.

I’m starting the year with a resolution to continue supporting the good works that bloggers can do by becoming part of the Mom Bloggers for Social Good with 400 founding blogging Mums.  I know I am in great company and hope that we can make some noise in 2012 for all these good causes.

Mom Bloggers for Social Good is a global coalition of mum bloggers who currently span eleven countries – United States, Canada, UK, India, Spain, Nigeria, Singapore, Netherlands, Malaysia, Jamaica, and the Philippines  – who care about spreading the good news about the amazing work non-profit organizations and NGOs are doing around the world.

When the campaign partners need to reach the masses about new initiatives, advocacy campaigns, or fundraising efforts we will work collectively to spread the word through our social media and blogging platforms to spread the word.

Here’s where you can follow the campaigns in social media:

But did you know Lush has a small collection of Spas around the UK?   They seem to be quite a well kept secret but they’re well worth discovering as they are a completely different experience, offering a range of treatments which are both visionary and architected to create an escape from the stresses and strains of every day to leave you invigorated and refreshed.

The Spa is a world away from many other places I’ve been to and is more of the kind offered by boutique hotels than high street beauty bars.  Great care and attention is paid to the decor and antique furniture and the walls are adorned with retro framed prints of birds.  Everywhere you look there are life affirming Lush products including oils, massage bars and even different types of tea.

I tried The Good Hour massage which is designed to iron out muscular tension using a massage bar of your choice – I chose the Hottie bar with ginger and black pepper (and you get to take it home too which is an added treat).  They all have a base of Shea butter which is great for creating a lasting moisturisation for the skin; perfect for keeping Winter skin supple and protected as well.

The massage has it’s own sea-themed soundtrack which mixes voices and ambient sounds which makes a refreshing change from the usual panpipe muzak which usually gets put on at other spas.   My masseur, Anna, sat and talked me through the treatment for about 10 minutes which meant I could ask her to target my knotty shoulders and stiff lower calf muscles.  She talked about the vision for the spa and how the treatments were all aimed at the body and mind and then started the great unknotting process.  A day later, I can still feel the benefit of the treatment and would definitely go back again.

To begin with, the room is darkened and candles flicker around the room to create an atmosphere of relaxation, this is accented with a bowl of aromatic sea scents and a gentle light that gradually changes colour.  The masseur uses the a jelly disc which is chilled to help circulation and also complement the massage bar.  You can expect some intense pressure to release tension and also a great sense of wellbeing at the end of the hour.

And to finish off, tea with a drop of Rum and biscuits, well what’s not to like?

The Lush Spa can be found at;

123 KINGS ROAD,
LONDON
SW3 4PL
T:020 7349 9648

There’s lots more information about the Spa locations and ranges of treatments and vouchers at this link here.

Not believing in Father Christmas is a symptom of Secondary School in our house and the Year 7s have been coolly discussing their lack of belief.  While it’s more poignant than painful to sense this change of perspective that my 11 year old and her friends are experiencing, I feel like there is a small window of opportunity to redeem this sense of wonder that surrounds Christmas, if only to a tiny degree.

When Polar Express came out a few years ago, we went to see it at the cinema and it was a really sweet and life affirming film.  ’Of course you’ll never stop believing in Father Christmas,’ I said when bright eyes looked up at me beseechingly as we left the theatre.  So hoping that Arthur Christmas would have the same effect, albeit few years on, off we went to Westfield for an Orange Wednesdays treat; and yawned our way through the film.  It just didn’t measure up.  It was an average story and we left deflated and resolutely unfestive!

Trying again with the animated film format, we watched A Christmas Carol after a lazy Sunday lunch and it was great – scary, spirited (literally) and of course, it’s one of the great Dickens’s stories.  It still hadn’t quite hit the spot.

Presented with a free day off school (or rather the November 30 strikes) I decided I would take direct action myself and book a slot in the grotto and a skating session for my daughter and her best friend.

‘What? The (groan) grotto?  We don’t want to go there – it’s rubbish!’

‘Don’t be silly, there’ll be loads of kids your age going – school will be shut so what else will there be to do?’

‘I’m only going if we can go skating…’

And so the morning arrived and we went to ‘The Grotto’.  I think a trip to an abattoir would have been better received, but I remained resolute and unperturbed as I joined the queue and told the friendly Elves I would be back to collect the girls in 40 minutes.

‘You can’t let them go in unaccompanied I’m afraid,’ said the Elf-in-Charge.  Damn, I thought, I’m going to have to sit through this myself?!  And so in I went as well.

We sat through a 5-D move extravaganza (whatever that is) and then the girls went to meet Father Christmas.  He was very jolly with a South African accent and a red nose, there was also a professional camera set up to capture the moment and pictures were on sale for £15 a pop at the end.  And who said Christmas wasn’t commercial? I thought.

They did get gifts.  They were shoved in a bag and they proceeded to the ice rink to get their boots on and risk life and limb on a giant ice cube.  45 minutes later, with rosy cheeks and smiles, the girls changed back into their shoes and I took them for lunch.  Their gifts were colouring books, and to my surprise they both set about colouring in the pictures with gusto – all world weariness shoved aside and a small piece of childhood reclaimed, if only for a moment, made it a pretty great day to still believe in the good old Christmas spirit.

So that’s it for me, who cares if Father Christmas really does exist at all, it’s all about recapturing the spirit of true childhood that matters, and that goes for us all, whatever our ages.

 

Poetry is one of the best ways to discover language and it’s also to be enjoyed which is why we love poetry in hour house; be it Edward Lear, Shakespeare, AA Milne, Oscar Wilde or even our own witterings, it’s all part of story telling and an essential part of connecting as human beings.

Most of all it should be fun and that’s why I think this new app is a great idea because it combines the novelty of an app with some of the greatest poems written, with readings by actors who are loved by children for their great film work; Helena Bonham Carter and Bill Nighy, and it’s also beautifully illustrated by Natasha Law.

About the app:

Designed and conceived by former actress and mother of three Allie Esiri and writer and mother of five Rachel Kelly, the iF Poems App aims to introduce poetry to school-age children in a creative, fun way. Inspired by their own children’s love of reading (but also their incessant desire to play on the iPad) this collection will entertain as much as it educates.  Ten per cent of all sales of the App will go to Save the Children’s work helping children the world over fulfill their potential. 

From Lear’s The Own and the Pussycat to Belloc’s Matilda Who Told Lies and Was Burned To Death to Yeats’s An Irish Airman Forsees His Death, the breadth and scope of poems will help your child understand the solace, joy and beauty of poetry. Beautifully illustrated and read by two of Britain’s finest and most loved actors, this magical collection of 230 poems is the perfect tool or Christmas present for tech-savvy parents and grandparents.

Helena Bonham Carter says: “There is little that is as deeply satisfying than the apt poem. It’s like chocolate for the soul. Except less fattening. And unlike most delicious things in life it’s actually good for you. It resolves the nervous system, captures the elusive experience of being alive so we may always have it and never lose it. Give your child an appetite for poems and they will never be bored. Get this app, and with poems in your pocket you’ll be armed with beauty and food for the soul and you will never be lonely. I think as a child I was a bit scared by poetry until someone told me it was a song that didn’t need the music… Some people say that a good tweet is a haiku. A text could be a poem too… It’s just making magic with words…”

The iF Poems app for iPad and iPhone is already available to download and doing quite well (which means it must be good!) priced at £1.99 for the iPhone and £2.99 for the iPad version in the UK.

10% of all sales goes to help fund the work of Save the Children. 10 downloads of the App for iPad would buy a mosquito net to protect a child from malaria, or buy a blanket for a newborn baby living in poverty in the UK as the winter comes around. A few more than that would provide a child in the UK with educational books or toys to help them with their development while the App helps your child with theirs. ‘Click here to download the App for your iPad.

Set in 1960s Mississipi, it unveils the domestic lives of society there and sheds light on the absurdity and tragic consquences of deep seated racism. The story pivots around Skeeter, a young upstart who is determined to be different not just by nature, but by her own personality and independent lifestyle and Aibileen, a house maid who has lost her son.

Skeeter is unlike her other friends who are all intent on marriage and homemaking and yearns for a career of her own after finishing college. She applies to her local newspaper to become a journalist and is given a job on a newspaper which isn’t exactly what she wanted; she’s to become the ghost writer for the Miss Myrna cleaning-hints weekly column. Aibileen is a professional maid and surrogate mother to her charges who she brings up in a unique style.

Skeeter turns to Aibileen, her best friend’s maid, to research her column and gather advice on all things household related and then comes the slow dawn of realisation; Aibileen and her friends have more than tips to share, they have their own version of events and life in Mississippi that span generations and date back to slavery. Skeeter has found the inspiration for her first book hidden in plain sight. She begins to surface the stories from the other side of household help; by those that are employed, virtually as slaves, banned from using toilets inside the houses of their white bosses yet given the responsibility of raising their countless offspring. It isn’t long before Skeeter learns that what she is doing is illegal yet she is unperturbed and her ambition drives her on. She finds herself a publisher who she begins talking with and who then mentors her through the book writing process and encourages her to push the boundaries of racial divides, prejudice and motherhood.

Unlike Mississippi Burning which was horrific, this film is layered with the complexities of women’s relationships; the erosion of dominance and respect among groups of friends in a changing socio-political landscape, the employer-employee set up (more master slave in some circumstances), confidantes and keepers of secrets, intergenerational dissonance and the quasi mother-child bond that comes between childminders and their wards. There’s a lot more to this vignette than just interracial struggles, it’s at the cusp of the American feminist movement, desegregation, Vietnam and the swinging 60s and for a mainstream film, it does a good job of leaving the audience asking questions and delivers a few laughs along the way as home perms go wrong, dressmaking is way off vogue and cooking leaves a lot to be desired. It’s as if all the women are aching for change and await a catalyst.

This film ticks all the boxes for a classical emotional rollercoaster, without being too over the top, and much like Driving Miss Daisy or Fried Green Tomatoes, it will definitely sit on the poignant yet fearless shelf of moviedom.

There are some really choice scenes in the movie; my favourite being the ‘Shit Pie’ incident. Sissy Spacek is great as Mrs Walters, the mother of the spiteful and vacuous Hilly Hollbrook; Emma Stone makes a good impression as the upstart writer Skeet. The full cast is here.

The film struck a chord with all of us at the screening because it’s about storytelling, and how bravery and unity can help overcome diversity. It resonates heavily with how many of us use blogging to share and tell stories as part of highlighting causes and also how others have used social media to find their voices and make changes. With that in mind, it’s worth looking at the social media camaign that goes along with it here.

About the film
As friendship is so vital to the story of “The Help,” so was friendship vital to how the film became a reality. Director/Screenwriter Tate Taylor and Kathryn Stockett, author of the book “The Help,” were childhood friends who grew up together in Jackson, Miss., in the 1970s.

“The Help” is set in Mississippi, and although a fictional story, it takes place during one of the most important eras in our country’s cultural history—the changing times of the 1960s.

Director and screenwriter Tate Taylor knew from the beginning that “The Help” had to be filmed on location in Mississippi. He wanted to capture the period of time in a very honest and entertaining way and that could not be accomplished on a movie studio back lot.

Taylor explains, “Mississippi is a character itself. Everyone here has some eccentric, eclectic characteristic to them. It’s a fun place. Just look at the storytellers who have come from the South. A lot of their fame and accolades are just because they were writing about what life is like here. They didn’t invent anything. They are commenting on the South. There is no other place quite like it.”

Tate Taylor (Director/Executive Producer/Screenplay by) was born and raised in Jackson, Mississippi and graduated from the University of Mississippi. After spending time in New York he moved to Los Angeles to pursue his film career. Taylor has established a mentoring program based in Mississippi with Kathryn Stockett, author of “The Help,” that provides creative and structural mentoring for writers and filmmakers.

Kathryn Stockett (Author of “The Help”) was born and raised in Jackson, Mississippi. After graduating from the University of Alabama with a degree in English and creative writing, she moved to New York City, where she lived and worked for 16 years. She currently lives in Atlanta. “The Help,” Stockett’s first novel, was on the New York Times bestseller list for 103 weeks, six of those weeks were at number one.

This new film from DreamWorks Pictures boasts an illustrious cast, including, in alphabetical order, Jessica Chastain, Academy Award® nominee Viola Davis, Bryce Dallas Howard, Emmy® Award winner Allison Janney, Chris Lowell, Oscar® winner Sissy Spacek, Octavia Spencer, Emma Stone, Academy Award® nominee Cicely Tyson and Mike Vogel.

The film is written for the screen and directed by Tate Taylor, with Brunson Green, Chris Columbus and Michael Barnathan producing. Executive producers are Mark Radcliffe, Tate Taylor, L. Dean Jones Jr., Nate Berkus, Jennifer Blum, John Norris, Jeff Skoll and Mohamed Mubarak Al Mazrouei.