3rd Grade Kicks into Gear

Claire’s first week of school was good, and short. Love it when you can ease into the schedule w/ a weekend close at hand.

We started with third grade oerintation – really just a brief stop at the school for a rundown on logistics, tours of the 3rd grade pod for the kids and a download on expectations for parents.

From there we met friends in the park for a couple hours of fun on a nice, sunny September day.

Claire likes her teacher, who she gets to call Suzanne; her classmates seem like a nice mix. And the third grade agenda includes a couple of rapidly advancing field trips, one to Buckingham Palace. Not bad for the 8 year old crowd. Spanish has been swapped for Italian, which is a bummer as Claire was really enjoying it.

While she jumped into things at ASL, Ava and I had a few days together to catch up with friends at parks. We also met up with friends for a picnic in Kensington, and of course we retraced our steps to the Duck tour bus stop.

We scored on the weather for our amphibious vehicle adventure, and our guide was good – witty and fun, great with kids. She had lots of smart little insights to share.

The part on land, I think, is actually better as it’s longer than the water portion, hits the highlights well but without being laborious and then the pop into the water is a fun end with great, if shortlived, views.

That same week I went on a walk with a group to Islington, walking along the canal from Regent’s park until we reached the town. It’s a great way to enjoy the changing neighborhoods, plus helps me sort out my (lacking) skills as a navigator. We had another great, sunny day for our Islington adventure (so far September has been much nicer than August!).

That evening Joe and I had a final good-bye dinner with our friend Price, the last in his family to head home for work in New York City. We met for drinks at a local pub, then had a great meal at l’Aventura in St. Johns Wood – it’s a lovely little French restaurant just around the corner from us. Our food at l’Aventura was fabulous, from the olives to dessert. I had the lamb, which was beautifully done. Lovely atmosphere, too – quiet, warm and quaint, very nice service.

On Sept. 6 our first St. Johns Wood Women’s Club board meeting kicked off – great group of ladies with lots of fun plans for the year.

With a poorly timed tube strike (is there ever a good time) Ava and I spent half the day on Sept. 7 navigating to get to Toy Story III. Let’s just say we were determined. With our travel plans awry, we switched gears to the bus and many moons later wheeled into the mall, where we met another Ava and her mom for our movie.
It was a good one, I must say. Worth the time it took to weave our way there!

That evening I took a VERY long cab ride to join a friend and a few other ladies for an evening of burlesque at Volupte. We all dressed up and had some lovely cocktails in the bar before being shepherded downstairs for dinner and the show.

Here’s a descriptor of the venue:

This tantalising burlesque supper club will entertain you with its mesmerising dance, circus and cabaret acts.

Discreetly tucked away and yet within easy rich, Volupte is a wonderful treasure box of retro extravagance. To titillate your mouth and mind, there is a bar on the ground floor.

Past a velvet curtain, you will find yourself in a surprisingly small space: the kitchen and stage area are at the very back, while the rest of the room is occupied by small tables. The decor is slightly rough around the edges, a detail which adds to the atmosphere rather than detracting from it, and it includes contemporary elements like the elaborate wall murals and vintage tributes like images of Bettie Page and other starlets, grandma lampshades or a display of old bottles, shoes and other pre-1950s paraphernalia. Additionally, a kitsch semi-private booth is like something out of the Little Mermaid and this adds to what is a vivid vision.

The Atmosphere
Effervescent as champagne and yet smooth as velvet, Volupte has the smoky atmosphere of a decadent Moulin Rouge-esque venue but none of the seediness. Here you should definitely expect the unexpected: it is a burlesque supper club (try to actually eat before the show starts or you may end up dropping food everywhere) but burlesque is definitely not the only act on the bill. Vaudeville comedy, fire eaters, snake enchanters, circus performers, hula hoopers and even aerialists are all at home here.

The atmosphere is remarkably similar to the Au Lapin Agile, a small, ancient cabaret venue in Parisian Montmartre, which can be considered the forefather of venues like Volupte.

Dinner was good, particularly as it was accompanied by good champagne. And the show was bawdy, fun, suggestive without being lewd, if that makes sense. Plenty of skin, bare boobs with nipples decorated with sparkly things or things dangling from them and propelled in circles.

A few numbers were done solo, most in groups of 3 or 5. One woman did a fan dance, which was probably my favorite – dramatic and lovely (the fan). The women were young, a mix of shapes. One wonders if they aspire to different types of dance or theatre work? The emcee, also a woman, played the crowd well, particularly the rowdy reunion group, a mix of men and women near our table. There was one couple that looked to be on an awkward date; if that was the case, I’m thinking it was an odd venue for a first date…

September 9 marked Ava’s first day of year 1, the equivalent of Kindergarten. Drop off was happy this time as several of her friends were gathered, all smiles, in the John O’Connor room. She was beaming at pick up, so I gather it was a good first day with Miss Cox and Miss Laffy.

Meanwhile I too went to class – the first session of Thomas Hardy with Alice Leader. Frankly I was less than excited to get into his books, having been preoccupied with The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo series. But Alice's classes are always good; she’s great fun and draws a good group of interesting, intellectually stimulating women. And her field trips are spectacular.

Hardy, I’ve found, is really an enjoyable author. My favorite so far has been Tess of the D’Ubervilles.

On Sept. 10 I went to Knole w/ the St. Johns Wood Women’s Club for a tour. It was a great day out.

About the place…

Set at the heart of a timeless deer park, Knole has fascinating links with kings, queens and nobility, as well as literary connections with the novelists Vita Sackville-West and Virginia Woolf. Knole was the birthplace and childhood home of Vita Sackville-West, who went on to create the gardens at Sissinghurst. Thirteen magnificent state rooms are laid out much as they were in the 18th century to impress visitors with the wealth of the Sackville family, who still live at Knole today. The house includes world-renowned rare furniture, important paintings and the prototype of the famous Knole settee.

Knole has always excited a range of different reactions. Henry VIII liked it so much that he forced Thomas Cranmer, his Archbishop of Canterbury, to hand it to him in 1538. Yet, the following century, the diarist John Evelyn was so depressed by the greyness of this 'greate old fashion'd house' that he hurried out into the sunshine. In the 18th century, Horace Walpole was impressed by Knole's 'beautiful decent simplicity which charms one' but on a later visit decided that it 'has neither beauty nor prospects'.

These mixed emotions can partly be explained by the many faces Knole presents on different days and at different times of the year. On a dull winter's day, as you ride the crest of the knoll in front of the house and the north front looms in sight, Knole's sprawling mass of sodden Kentish ragstone strikes a sombre note. But on a sunny summer's day, the south front, with its colonnade of seven lightly coloured marble arches, dances to a very different tune.

The Sackvilles and Knole
Knole was rebuilt and then furnished in three main bursts of activity, each separated by around a hundred years. In the early 17th century, Thomas Sackville, 1st Earl of Dorset, transformed the late medieval archbishop's palace into a Renaissance mansion. Towards the end of the 17th century, his great-great-grandson, the 6th Earl, acquired Knole's unique collection of Stuart furniture and textiles through his office as Lord Chamberlain. And then, towards the end of the 18th century the 6th Earl's great-grandson, the 3rd Duke, added Old Masters bought on the Grand Tour to Italy and portraits commissioned from contemporary English artists such as Reynolds and Gainsborough.

Visitors today see a house and collection little changed since the 3rd Duke's day. By the end of the 17th century, the Sackvilles had withdrawn to private apartments on the ground floor and tended to live there rather than in the more formal, public rooms on the first floor - today's showrooms. The very fact that large areas of Knole were inhabited only intermittently from the end of the 17th century and that the furniture therefore remained under dust sheets for long periods, accounts for its miraculous survival.

On display in the Great Hall is a facsimile of the bound manuscript of Virginia Woolf's novel 'Orlando'. The novel is dedicated to Vita Sackville-West and, in the words of Vita's son, Nigel Nicolson, it is 'the longest and most charming love letter in literature'. Vita is the eponymous hero/heroine (Orlando changes gender over the four centuries in which the novel is set) and Orlando's ancestral home is a house, like Knole, with a legendary 365 rooms. The pages are threaded through with similarly specific references to Knole and to its past and present incumbents. It ends with Orlando taking possession of the house whereas, in fact, Vita had been denied ownership of her beloved Knole because the house was passed through the male line.

In 1930 Vita fell in love with Sissinghurst Castle and bought it, along with 4,000 acres of farmland. Together Vita and her husband, Harold Nicolson, made a garden which reflected their different personalities - Harold being a classicist and Vita a romantic. Today, Sissinghurst Castle Garden is also owned by the National Trust.

After coffee we had a guided tour with a very sharp little old man leading the way. Lunch was crusty bread and tomato soup, then back to London. It was a great, relaxing day out; I did manage to get Ava’s ballet slippers ready for class (why they don’t come with elastics attached is beyond me). Alas, that evening I learned I’d done them incorrectly. So much for efficiency.

The next day Joe and I headed off to the Proms, a big, very British summer event.
The Proms, more formally known as The BBC Proms, is an eight-week summer season of daily orchestral classical music concerts and other events held annually, predominantly in the Royal Albert Hall in London. Founded in 1895, each season currently consists of over 70 concerts in the Albert Hall, a series of chamber concerts at Cadogan Hall, additional Proms in the Park events (like ours) across the United Kingdom on the last night, and associated educational and children's events. In the context of classical music festivals, Jiří Bělohlávek has described The Proms as "the world's largest and most democratic musical festival".[1]

Prom is short for promenade concert, a term which arose from the original practice of audience members promenading, or strolling, in some areas of the concert hall during the concert. Promming now refers to the use of the standing areas inside the hall (the arena and gallery) for which ticket prices are much lower than for the reserved seating.

The gates opened at 5 for our Prom experience, and our group made its was into Hyde Park with the masses, landed a good picnic spot and spread out our feasts. A very civilized event and a lovely day for it, we danced, chatted and listened to a wide range of music, watching the acts on big screens around the field. Great lawn party!

Mid Sept found activites kicking in, Claire resuming Monday afternoon ballet, which is now 1 ¼ hours. Good thing it’s close to Pizza Express; Ava loves their doughballs and the occasional Monday glass of wine isn’t a bad thing.

About ballet…Miss Susan was a ballerina, now runs several ballet/dance programs around London. She oversees things and frankly isn’t the most organized person I’ve dealt with. She doesn’t do anything electronically, doesn’t write things down (i.e. shoe sizes – I’m not sure how many times we discussed Claire’s size, which is critical as she needs four different pairs for the class). It’s a mix of ballet, jazz and tap, and now that Susan’s decided the girls will stand for their exam, character dancing has been added in. Therein in addition to the 4th pair of shoes, a long black skirt with ribbons is required.

Naturally all of these costs just keep mounting up so no, the ballerina won’t be giving up dance class anytime soon.

Ava’s continuing with ballet too, a different class, different approach, not so many shoes.

On the 15th of Sept. I went to the Sargent and the Sea exhibit at the Royal Academy of Arts.

American expatriate artist John Singer Sargent (1856-1925) is best known for his glamorous society portraits. Now, for the first time in Britain, 'Sargent and the Sea' presents more than 80 paintings, drawings and watercolours that reveal a less familiar side of the artist: the seascapes and coastal scenes subjects produced in his early career during summer journeys from Paris to Brittany, Normandy and Capri, as well as two transatlantic voyages.

Great, concise exhibit with some lovely seascapes. I then wandered through Mayfair/Piccadilly on my way home as it was a great day to be out.

In the evening I gathered with my reading group at the Clifton Pub to select our upcoming reads over pub grub and wine. First up: Paulo Cuelho’s Witches of Portabello.

That same week I found my way out to the Olympia Centre, one of those big special events venues, for a Boden warehouse sale. It was a cheerful, bustling madhouse of clearance and great fun – especially as I’d arrived early in the day. No doubt not much later it became a jumble sale. I got a few great bargains after pulling all kinds of potential pieces into a big free for all “changing room,” wherein 25+ other women were donning bits and pieces and crowding around the few and far between mirrors.

Phew! I'm now mid way through September...