Having spent most of the week struggling with using my old-skool Photoshop Elements software to insert bleed guidelines and crop marks in artwork for the printers, Sunday came as a much-welcomed day of rest. I was taking part in my first carol service since I was 8 years old. (I played a stroppy proto-feminist version of Mary who couldn’t see why Joseph had to be waited on hand and foot. He wasn’t heavily pregnant and having to ride a wretched donkey, so why couldn’t he do some housework? Plus ça change – but I can still recite the Magnificat. Still, my poor mother 🙂
This time, I was given one of the readings. Easy-peasy, Japaneasy. Apart from the fact that I suddenly became a nervous wreck which is amazing considering how lippy I am ordinarily. No problemo, I’ll just practise it over and over again. My first mistake– I usually read the King James’ version of the Bible. A couple of days later, I remembered we use the NIV at church. After a lifetime of hearing the same words in different versions, I knew the text enough to jumble all the versions up, resulting in an epic fail. Panic, panic. I must have read the NIV verses a hundred times in the last few days which unfortunately made my insane brain connect it to another work. Every time I started to read ‘In those days, Caesar Augustus decreed that a census should be taken of the entire Roman world‘, a crazy voice at the back of my mind echoed ‘In Xanadu did Kubla Khan, a stately pleasure dome decree‘. I was terrified that I would step in the pulpit and those words would come out of my mouth. Admittedly- excellent poem by opium-addled maniac poet vs revelation of the birth of the Messiah. Mixing them up, absolute nightmare.
Come Sunday, it was pretty much under control. Turned up at church to be met by one of the organisers, Lydia. ‘Glad to have caught you before the service. Just a couple of things, remember to pull the microphone down to mouth level’. Okey-dokey. ‘And project your voice’. Whaaat??? Project? What’s the microphone for? KLC design school, yes. RADA, no!!! ‘Don’t worry’ she said, ‘The microphone is on maximum anyway. It’s easier for us to turn your voice down than to turn it up’ (!!!!!) This did not help as I now had a vision of speaking thus, ‘ IN THOSE DAYS, CAESAR AUGUSTUS issued a decree…’ It would certainly wake the congregation up, but wasn’t really what I was going for. Full-on panic. Then Jill the church administrator told me we’d run out of room (lol) due to the size of the crowd, and extra seats had to be put in. So, all of West London would witness my disaster. Quelle horreur. It was hilarious, not; my heart was pounding like a drum and I kept repeating ‘It’s for the glory of God, It’s for the glory of God’ to myself.
Of course, my tiny little part of the proceedings was hardly noticeable, and the participants as a whole played an absolute blinder. I managed to refrain from swearing, falling over the lectern or deputising as a booming voice from heaven. The service was wonderful, and the choir and solo singers were amazing. A couple of glasses of mulled wine post-service, and I didn’t care about Caesar Augustus or Kublai Khan. Thanks a lot for your blasted ear-worm of a poem, Samuel.T.Coleridge. So, make sure you attend at least one carol service this Christmas and have mercy on participants if they fluff their lines. It’s all to the glory of God. I leave you with some of my favourite paintings and if I don’t post again before Christmas, I wish you all a very merry and happy Christmas.
(Paintings: Holman Hunt’s Light of the World; Leonardo Da Vinci’s Virgin & Child with St Anne & John the Baptist cartoon; Sassoferrato’s Madonna)
January Oranges
According to ‘experts’, i.e some pseudo-psychologist who has made it all up, unbacked by any scientific data or research whatsoever, the second week in January is the most depressing week of the year. We at AlaraApothecary say ‘Yah boo sucks!’ to the second week in January. As far as we are concerned, it’s the second week in January and the British mind turns to summer holidays; hence the lovely images in today’s post.We laugh in the face of sub-zero temperatures and gale force winds, muttering the well-rehearsed names under our breath’ Maldives, Mauritius, Tanzania, Nairobi, Miami, Lagos, Galle……’
I know that you lovely people out there will not forget those who cannot afford summer holidays and are really just hoping their next meal will come along. The ineptitude and downright wickedness which has resulted in Syria, Yemen, Afghanistan and Iraq is staggering. Never mind the second week in January, every week is a nightmare in some places. We are not depressed because we are warm and well-fed and comfortably housed. I am firm in my belief that everyone who reads this will try to help in whatever little way they can, because that’s how we roll at AlaraApothecary, and God bless you all for it. Rather than the January Blues, I wish you the January Oranges because as any fule kno, orange is the colour of joy. Pip pip.
Happy New Year
Well, 2015 was a humdinger of a year, wasn’t it? You know how at the end of a year your main thought is, ‘Thank God I don’t have to live through that again…..’ The year was an eye-opener to so many things I would never have believed to be possible, but then again, a lot of really excellent stuff like AlaraApothecary happened so I’m really grateful for them. Swings and roundabouts. It is much better so see things as they really are, no matter how disconcerting the picture is. 2015- year of emancipation. 2016- year of pure awesomeness. Courage is not the absence of fear; it’s feeling the fear but doing what needs to be done anyway.
In the spirit of celebration, I’m showing pictures of some of the lovely things that reinforced why I think a creative career is so worth pursuing. Just seeing this stuff cheers me up; knowing there are minds out there thinking up this gorgeousness. Not as useful as a cure for cancer or malaria I know, but then few things are. Hope they make your day a bit brighter too. So that this isn’t entirely given over to frivolity, I leave you with words of wisdom from the late, great, Nelson Mandela:
‘Resentment is like drinking poison and hoping it will kill your enemies‘
‘It always seems impossible until it’s done’
Wishing you all a happy, healthy and prosperous new year.
Eye Candy
Looking around over the past few days, I’ve noticed that the Post-Christmas hiatus has set in. It’s that weird period between Christmas and the New Year when most people have a lot of time on their hands. We look back on the past year and re-appraise everything we’ve done – usually, with non-hilarious consequences.
AlaraApothecary to the rescue….. Firstly, don’t take it to heart. While there is life, there is hope; we will all do better next year by God’s grace. Secondly, the whole changing of one year to another is not significant in itself. Any changes we wish to make can be made today. Besides as I was saying to my nephew the other day, time itself is an artificial construct (cue long, heated argument 🙂 )
In a bid to brighten your day, we are posting lots of images of beautiful, frivolous and amazing things which make us wonder and smile. Hope you enjoy looking at them as much as we enjoyed selecting them. Have a good one.
( Photos: Ond table, Alberto Pinto; Mattia Bonetti table; Phillipe Malouin for Roll & Hill chandelier; Nigerian Parables chair by Yinka Ilori; Margo Selby fabrics; Tojukin Yoshioka Flower chair; Rupert Till sculpture; Home-made Insalata Caprese con Bresaola; Tortoise bowl – Ted Muehling for Steuben; Herve van der Straeten chandelier; beauteous Chrysler building; Roseline Assouline dress; Kumulus chandelier by Peter Nilsson; Coral shell; Darcy Miro bracelets; Peruvian costume; Mosaic wall by Sicis; Installation by Orly Genger; Abalone shell; Search for Enlightenment by Simon Gudgeon)
The perils of knowledge
Having spent most of the week struggling with using my old-skool Photoshop Elements software to insert bleed guidelines and crop marks in artwork for the printers, Sunday came as a much-welcomed day of rest. I was taking part in my first carol service since I was 8 years old. (I played a stroppy proto-feminist version of Mary who couldn’t see why Joseph had to be waited on hand and foot. He wasn’t heavily pregnant and having to ride a wretched donkey, so why couldn’t he do some housework? Plus ça change – but I can still recite the Magnificat. Still, my poor mother 🙂
This time, I was given one of the readings. Easy-peasy, Japaneasy. Apart from the fact that I suddenly became a nervous wreck which is amazing considering how lippy I am ordinarily. No problemo, I’ll just practise it over and over again. My first mistake– I usually read the King James’ version of the Bible. A couple of days later, I remembered we use the NIV at church. After a lifetime of hearing the same words in different versions, I knew the text enough to jumble all the versions up, resulting in an epic fail. Panic, panic. I must have read the NIV verses a hundred times in the last few days which unfortunately made my insane brain connect it to another work. Every time I started to read ‘In those days, Caesar Augustus decreed that a census should be taken of the entire Roman world‘, a crazy voice at the back of my mind echoed ‘In Xanadu did Kubla Khan, a stately pleasure dome decree‘. I was terrified that I would step in the pulpit and those words would come out of my mouth. Admittedly- excellent poem by opium-addled maniac poet vs revelation of the birth of the Messiah. Mixing them up, absolute nightmare.
Come Sunday, it was pretty much under control. Turned up at church to be met by one of the organisers, Lydia. ‘Glad to have caught you before the service. Just a couple of things, remember to pull the microphone down to mouth level’. Okey-dokey. ‘And project your voice’. Whaaat??? Project? What’s the microphone for? KLC design school, yes. RADA, no!!! ‘Don’t worry’ she said, ‘The microphone is on maximum anyway. It’s easier for us to turn your voice down than to turn it up’ (!!!!!) This did not help as I now had a vision of speaking thus, ‘ IN THOSE DAYS, CAESAR AUGUSTUS issued a decree…’ It would certainly wake the congregation up, but wasn’t really what I was going for. Full-on panic. Then Jill the church administrator told me we’d run out of room (lol) due to the size of the crowd, and extra seats had to be put in. So, all of West London would witness my disaster. Quelle horreur. It was hilarious, not; my heart was pounding like a drum and I kept repeating ‘It’s for the glory of God, It’s for the glory of God’ to myself.
Of course, my tiny little part of the proceedings was hardly noticeable, and the participants as a whole played an absolute blinder. I managed to refrain from swearing, falling over the lectern or deputising as a booming voice from heaven. The service was wonderful, and the choir and solo singers were amazing. A couple of glasses of mulled wine post-service, and I didn’t care about Caesar Augustus or Kublai Khan. Thanks a lot for your blasted ear-worm of a poem, Samuel.T.Coleridge. So, make sure you attend at least one carol service this Christmas and have mercy on participants if they fluff their lines. It’s all to the glory of God. I leave you with some of my favourite paintings and if I don’t post again before Christmas, I wish you all a very merry and happy Christmas.
(Paintings: Holman Hunt’s Light of the World; Leonardo Da Vinci’s Virgin & Child with St Anne & John the Baptist cartoon; Sassoferrato’s Madonna)
Florentine Renaissance
Furo e Ponteruolo
Gelateria Santa Trinita
Green Life
During my recent trip to Florence, I was amazed to see how much the city had changed in the year since I last visited. There has been a substantial increase in the number of small shops offering artisan-handmade and eco-aware products. There has also been a corresponding increase in the number of hipsters 🙂 The two go hand in hand, of course.
My two favourite finds were Paolo at Furo e Punteruolo, and Green Life, both on Via del Giglio. Paolo runs a one-man factory, making the most beautiful bags, rucksacks, belts and other leather goods by hand. I particularly loved seeing him work with his old-skool Dickensian-style tools and the shop smells incredible. We agreed that he definitely needs to take on an apprentice so his skills don’t die out. He’s hoping to talk one of his children into it; if not he’s promised to take on someone else. His work is beautiful, make sure you visit and buy one of his gorgeous bags.
Green Life is a couple of doors away. They stock clothing and products made from sustainable fibres– bamboo, eucalyptus, etc. Their T-shirts are so soft, it’s ridiculous. I fell in love with a mustard-yellow handwoven jumper. The colour was a vegetable dye made from onion skins. Oh me, oh my. Definitely worth a visit. I cannot omit Gelateria Santa Trinita from the list. Their ice-creams are sublime, the girls working there are really sweet and they fully understand the importance of making an ice-cream choice 🙂 They are a good reason for crossing the Arno, and there’s a whole artisan community on the other side of the river that’s well worth visiting.
Then you have the showroom that rejoices in the name ‘Musee des Fabrics’ which always makes me smile. The above fabrics are hand-painted silks. I didn’t get a chance to go inside but what I could see looked terrific.
Finally, there was the usual roster of fabulous products from the high-end brands : Prada, Ferragamo, Gucci etc etc.
Just in case you are now beginning to feel that Italians have gone soft, make sure you get a look at L’Importuno which was carved by Michelangelo on the bricks of Palazzo Vecchio. Graffiti, genius-style. There are many stories about how he came to carve it. My favourite one is that he was accosted by a lunatic/bore as he crossed the Piazza della Signoria on his way to work every single day, and that one day he finally snapped. As the man went on and on, he carved his likeness in the stone.
L’Importuno
I leave you with my favourite memory of Florence: a signboard outside one of the food shops: