creating mixed media designs at West Dean

I impulsively decided to treat myself to an artist retreat in the idyllic oasis of West Dean College, West Sussex. I chose to spend 3 days learning about mixed media techniques - a combination of using colour, style and texture in a range of painting, printing, stencilling and collage techniques. There were 11 other very capable and prolific artists learning with me, from an impressive Oxford artist, Jo Dixon. Jo is a patient and intuitive teacher - she taught us some new techniques each day, to play and experiment with. We all tried out some new strategies and experimented with our individual colour pallete and artistic themes - and by the last day, our self- contained Orangery studio was full of colour, texture, design and creativity. I was so inspired that I created some amazing new work.

Each day, we enjoyed long lunches of freshly prepared food, and afterwards, I enjoyed exploring the extensive walled gardens, with their floral and fruit medleys. The gardens were meticulously arranged, both inside the traditional greenhouses, and outside in the geometric garden. I quickly realised that I was the only newbie in our class, all others were regulars to this wonderful place and its selection of over 300 short courses per year. There was an exhibition of Julie Collin's mixed media work and I think she will be the drawcard for me to come back...

360' a poorly reviewed movie that I really enjoyed!

I do love chancing movies that have been poorly reviewed - but I also know that sometimes there are very good reasons. This time, I think the reasons were academic - something about looking for deep meaning, when in fact sometimes in life there is not so much depth - we just live it and in lots of different ways and places. This is where I parted from the reviewers - I enjoyed the simple messages, the cinematography, the music and the general ambience of the film. I walked out of the theatre entertained, feeling good and slightly affirmed as a person that life is not always what it seems, and sometimes good things happen, sometimes they don't....

So the music was edgy, we travelled between Vienna, Paris and London - although we were not overloaded with the classic shots of these cities. We saw side streets, interiors and people in transit. I loved the way we saw split screens of conversations. And to the theme - life is random, sex is an important driver and we all dream of being somewhere else than where we are - and often with someone else - but sometimes we stop and recognise the futility of chasing the dream, and we get away with it - other times relationships fall apart.

The film starts in Vienna where a businessman, played by Jude Law, is married to a woman (Rachel Weisz) who's cheating on him with a photographer who's unfaithful to his girlfriend. She is dumped and is returning to her home city of Rio de Janeiro when she runs into Anthony Hopkins, sitting beside her on the plane. He is off to see if a corpse is that of his long-missing daughter. Instead of meeting him for dinner, she opts for (and survives) an evening with a recently released rapist grappling with the outside world. Then there's the Bratislavan novice prostitute Law hopes to hire, her sister who accompanies her to Vienna for her evenings out, a Russian mobster, his sympathetic driver, his unhappy wife and her smitten Muslim dentist boss.

It all happens and in something of a random order - so when we see the other side of decision taken it makes for genuine interest. The message is reminiscent of sliding doors - life has many paths and we have the options to take one of the many forks - and so do all of the people we come into contact with - this is introduced at the beginning and is pervasive throughout. I found it's simplicity refreshing and very affirming. It is not just our decisions that inform our life - it is also the decisions of those around us and sometimes we can do nothing about this, but just regroup and continue the best way we can...

an afternoon cycle to Brill

A great way to appreciate the long summer afternoons is to jump on my bike and head out of Oxford. One of my challenging destinations is the Buckinghamshire hill of Brill. I particularly enjoyed the ride up the gently sloping back of the hill almost from Long Crendon - then I enjoyed sunset by the windmill as I headed home via Boarstall, Stanton St John and Elsfield. Altogether a great 2 hours, just over 50km and 270 m climbing up... and cruising down again...

Farewell lunch in Berlin

I have always enjoyed french dining just off the Charlottenstrasse in central Berlin. Entrecote looks like a classic French brasserie and sounds like it, at times also. Both French and German are used interchangeably - so we maintained our tradition of ordering the menu du jour - a classic steak frites with a simple salad starter. I love the scattering of walnuts amidst the mustardy vinaigrette. I enjoy they way they slice the rare steak and place it in a rich gravy beside the slimmest crunchiest fries I have ever enjoyed. and the best is that they only serve half the portion at a time, keeping the second half warm and fresh - such simple and elegant style. It is, as always a wonderful way to enjoy a business lunch with both businessmen and tourists...

my jewellery treat

I had found this great little jewellery shop on the approach to the inner courtyards behind the Hackescher Markt. I have been a regular visitor and shared my find with trusted friends. It is one of the few shops where I could genuinely enjoy wearing absolutley ANYTHING. The design is simple, stunning and elegant - they use stainless steel accompanied by Swarovski crystals and pearls, both using an elegant rainbow of colours. I first bought a matching circular purple crystal ring and earrings and have always wanted to expand this to a rectangular blue crystal ring and earring set. But this time as I found what I had dreamed about buying, I was distracted by the range of new pearl settings... it was such an enjoyable challenge and already I am very happy with my purchase...

Focus DDR - a contemporary exhibition

The exhibition “Focus GDR” presents an interesting and well curated range of unique objects from the German Historical Museum’s collections that vividly illustrate many of the official GDR abbreviations. While they may be familiar to many Germans, I am still amazed at observing the way a whole city/ country of people lived according to such strict dogma - but perhaps if they knew nothing else, it was probably not even an issue for them. But it does seem that it was pretty important to belong to the prevailing political party. The giant busts of Marx and Lenin were omnipresent and seemed to align education and ideology with the communist party of the Soviet Union. There seems to be a shared glorification of the working classes, while the elite political leaders maintained a private lifestyle visiting hunting lodges and appreciating the benefits of a more western lifestyle. The People's Police (Deutsche Volkspolizei) were responsible for protecting the public against criminal offenses and for maintaining socialist conditions. Locally, the police checked the house book of every household - where inhabitants and guests had to be faithfully recorded each night. The Stasi, or Ministry for State Security (Ministerium fuer Staatsicherheit) were both the domestic secret service and the foreigh intelligence service - apparently their focus was to secure the rule of the (only) political party and therefore they kept the entire population under surveillance - but to complement the 90,000 full time Stasi, there were 189,000 unofficial informers who secretly reported on all areas of society. It was bizarre to see the olympic athletes parade in their tracksuits, showing pride in their country, but hiding the almost official doping practices.

It was interesting that the motorisation of the population was not a high priority and therefore the production of vehicles lagged behind the demand. Families had to wait up to 15 years for a delivery of a Wartburg or Trabant, but they required so much petrol and were so polluting, they have not survived much beyond the 1990's. So it really felt like a glimpse into history, but it was not that long ago!

Cycling around Berlin lakes

I am totally impressed at how easy it is to travel with road bikes on the city trains and quickly get out into the surrounding greenery. Berlin is surrounded by lakes and canals and these lakes are dotted throughout some very lush and green countryside. The green forest of Grunewald is only 15 mins away from central Berlin, just past Charlottenburg, accessible via both S and U Bahn lines. You can almost cycle off the train directly onto a quiet 20km cycle loop through the forest and alongside the Wannsee. At the southern end of the loop, it is possible to cycle out along a causeway to a tiny elite island, which has great views back across to the mainland. The road along the lake has a couple of slight inclines which makes it a little mmore challenging and rewarding, for an after work cycle.

It is also fun to take the RegionalBahn 1 stop out to Bernau to explore what was rural East Germany. Here the land is flat, the farms are gigantic without any dividing fences or hedgerows and the roads are shaded by 2 lines of giant trees perfectly spaced along both sides. These allees were so practical for their time, providing shade for horses and their carriages, but they are clearly challenging any road expansion plans, but it seems that new motorways are being built separately to preserve these small roads. So it makes cycling enjoyable. Several villages have evidence of the large and expansive buildings of the old LPGs (Landwirtschaftliche Produktionsgenossesenschaft) or communal farms. It was good to see them still being used to house some of the many pigs grown in this country. We cycled 50km through Lanke, Prenden, Ruhlsdorf, Marienwerder and along the shores of the long narrow Werbellinsee to Joachimsthal. We cycled along the north of the lake and returned on the other side to enjoy some smoked fish and a quick swim at Altenhof. We were a bit late returning along some less well used roads through Eberswalde and Biesenthal and so we had to catch the train home... not such a bad outcome after all!

Friedrich der Grosse: revered, respected, reviled

Friedrich II of Prussia is known to the Germans as Frederick the Great, and this exhibition at the German Historical Museum in Berlin celebrates it being 300 years since his birth. It seems as though he has inspired generations with many different personas. He was in early conflict with his domineering father and while he chose to run away, the friend he ran away with, was beheaded by his father - that would have made him stop and think for a bit! He was recognised as a cultural philosopher, being able to speak in french with Voltaire. He was also an important military commander and hero - although it seems as if these attributes were villifed by the Nazi warmongery. Most recently, he is acknowledged for inspiring the current German work and moral attitudes and their deep resilience - so it has been an interesting transition...