The Royal Academy Summer Exhibition and The Halcyon Gallery Private View with Lorenzo Quinn

The sun was shining gloriously as my mother and I caught an early afternoon train up to London. We had an art filled day ahead of us as we'd been lucky enough to be invited to the Halcyon Gallery to privately view a collection by Lorenzo Quinn, and even have a chance to meet the artist himself! I was incredibly excited as I've been a huge admirer of his work ever since I first saw an aluminium sculpture of his called "The Force of Nature," a stunning depiction of nature's struggle to keep the world in balance. But first, off to the Royal Academy to soak in their Summer Exhibition.

The Summer Exhibition is one of the largest open exhibitions in the UK. This means anyone can enter work, giving the selection committee up to 10,000 pieces to sift through to find the final 1000 entries! As you can imagine this leads to an interesting and varied exhibition. (Sorry for the lack of photos- I couldn't take any inside!)

On a personal level, I found the exhibition to be a mixed bag. There were some pieces I found absolutely stunning, while others I'm sure you could have found in any pre-school or tacked to fridges  up and down the country. Then again, I'm not art expert so what would I know?
One piece I found particularly fascinating however was a sculpture of a mule which, when you turned a wheel, proceeded  to draw a picture of him self. I think that anything interactive has a tendency to draw you in that bit more and this was why this sculpture stayed with me.

After we'd trundled around the entire gallery, we decided to take advantage of the beautiful weather and headed to Green Park for a spur of the moment picnic. A lot of sushi and a lovely lemon tart later, we could be found sprawled in the sunshine, books in hand.

Soon however, it was time for the gallery viewing so we headed off to Bond Street. We'd arrived at the Halcyon some time before the main party to have a good look around at Lorenzo Quinn's sculptures before the place filled up with people.

As we were shown around, our guide talked us through the concepts behind all the pieces, which mainly focused on the forces of love and unity. I'd never seen so many pieces of Quinn's art in one place before so happily pottered about looking and re-looking at everything there. Once we'd finished our tour, mum and I popped off for a little retail therapy, promising to return for a glass of champaign later.

After a quick trip around Selfridges and trying on a couple of hats in Fenwicks, we were back. The gallery was packed with people all sipping on glasses of bubbly and munching on canapés. Suddenly, we were very glad we'd gone earlier since now it was near impossible to see the art. Fortunately, the artist him self was not so hard to see and so we managed to have a quick chat with him in which he told us his female forms were modelled on his wife!

Lorenzo Quinn's work is spectacular and I cannot encourage you all enough to try and hunt down some of his pieces and see them in real life. They'll blow you away!

May Week, Cambridge

May Week is the traditional name given to refer to the period after exams at Cambridge University. It's a time where students can blow off steam and many of the colleges have extravagant balls. Luckily for us, these balls often have wonderful firework displays which can be seen from the river. Therefore last night, my mother, Marcus and I wrapped up warmly and headed down to a bridge over the River Cam to watch the Trinity May Ball fireworks.

Kings College

Despite spending a large amount of my time in Cambridge, I aways get blown away by how picturesque it always looks.

The fireworks were amazing, lighting up the sky timed to a variety of music from modern to classical. There were even blooms of fire shooting up along the neighbouring bridge! The combination of the music, fireworks reflecting in the river and the beautiful setting really made this a magical night. The rain even held off until after the show too!

Many people had taken to the river to watch the display, rafting up under the bridges. Once the show had commenced, we watched them all dreamily punt back up the river before heading home. 

Much Hadham Open Gardens

One of the best things about living where I do is that I have access to both big, bustling cities as well as the serene British countryside. This was fantastic growing up as one moment I'd be in my town coat being whisked off to see a West End musical, the next I'd be up a tree in the middle of the forest. This weekend, my mother and I decided to go off to one of the local villages, Much Hadham, to wonder around peoples' gardens. The village was holding a charity event, where by the villages opened up their gardens and put on cream teas and music, all in the aid of St Elizabeth's. I love events like this- there's always a wonderful sense of community spirit (and who doesn't love being nosy every now and then?!). Anyway, I thought I'd share with you some of the pictures I took that day.

Mint Polo in the Park 2013

Last Saturday, a few of us decided to pop down to the Hurlingham for a day of polo in the park. It was Ladies' Day so I took the opportunity to don a hat and enjoy the June sunshine!

But first, brunch. We broke our studenty way of life and the boys whipped up a delicious eggs benedict. Ali, our master chef, went as far as to make the hollandaise sauce from scratch! I was put on the much easier task of chopping strawberries and mixing up breakfast Pimms (perfectly acceptable at this time- it's summer after all!).

Then, all suited and booted, we hopped on the train to Putney Bridge. The first thing that struck me was  how many people were there! Last year I'd attended on the Sunday and although busy, it hadn't been nearly so crowded. Not deterred however, we entered the park in search of a good spot to watch the matches from. Typically, we nested outside a pop-up pub which kept the boys happy.

The polo is exhilarating to watch. The players wheel their ponies tightly around each other, swinging their mallets, before making a mad dash across the field after the ball and hopefully hitting it into a goal.  At half time, spectators are invited onto the pitch to stomp on the divots (the bits of turf torn up by the ponies) to smooth the field before play resumes. The whole game appears almost chaotic, but we didn't mind as we cheered on the teams from the sidelines.

Feeling hungry, we pottered off to the food stands to find some rather late lunch and then browsed some of the stalls around the park. The boys even had a go at riding a polo pony simulator which they said turned out to be harder than it looked!

As the sun sank lower in the sky, we snuck up into the grand stand and watched the last match, groaning as our chosen team let in a few goals. Our spirits were not dampened however- we'd had a great day in beautiful sunshine. Lets hope this is only a preamble to the rest of summer!

Lucky Chip at the Player Bar

After watching The Book of Mormon, Marcus and I found that all that laughing had made us somewhat peckish. Therefore Marcus whisked me away to Lucky Chip, a now permanent pop-up at the Player in Soho serving oh-so-delicious sliders. These mini burgers were heaven on a plate. I'm not a huge burger girl, but these were truly scrummy. The meat was juicy, pink and packed with flavour while the brioche buns were not in the least soggy. They came with a selection of extra fillings and a side order of fries which happily complimented the flavoursome morsels.

Very content, we nibbled on our buns while sipping cocktails (I had a 'Penicillin' while Marcus had a 'Mexican Breakfast'), absorbing our lively surroundings and endlessly reminiscing over the spectacle we'd just witnessed. This was a truly lovely end to a fantastic evening.