Category: SEE

A Visit to the Adventure Travel Show

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Last weekend I rose with the birds and set off across London in search of adventure.  Well, in search of The Adventure Travel Show at least.  Even though the show’s been going for 20 years I’d never heard of it before and wasn’t sure what to expect when I arrived at Kensington Olympia.

Set out on one floor the place was bustling with eager travellers, keen to snap up a bargain in between seminars and panel talks.  We opted to give the seminars a miss – I’m sure they were great but at £45 they were beyond my budget for the day.  But no matter. In between entering every competition in sight and lusting after expensive adventure holidays we managed to get along to a couple of panels and they were brilliant.

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Shoes: Pleasure & Pain at the V&A

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I did not have three thousand pairs of shoes.  I had one thousand and sixty.

-Imelda Marcos

I have always been envious of my mother’s ability to walk into a shoe shop armed with the knowledge there would be a pair in the store that might very well be perfect for her.

Sadly, like Jack’s beanstalk, my feet grew and grew until I stopped being shown the cinderella section of the shop in favour for the clunky men’s designs.  That was until I discovered a few online stores that catered for my size 9s and as my credit card burned hot with overuse my love of shoes was reborn.

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My Day In Pictures: Lumiere London

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The promise of dazzling illuminations and free art across London drew me out from under the warmth of my duvet and into the cold for some low light photography practice last weekend.

Lumiere London was organised by creative company Artichoke Trust whose modus operandi is to flood public spaces with art so it may be enjoyed by the widest audience possible and for no charge.  So far, so good.

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Lee Miller: A Woman’s War

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I wouldn’t be surprised if you hadn’t heard of Lee Miller before today.  I hadn’t heard of her until I saw a picture she had taken on the London Underground.  It was of a wartime pilot, looking out from the narrow cockpit of her plane.  The picture was an advert for an exhibition of Miller’s work at the Imperial War Museum.

I’d invested in an Artfund Pass last Summer and, for shame, have gotten little to no use from it thus far.  I want to see lots more exhibitions this year so on New Year’s Day I embraced this resolution with great gusto and began booking tickets at museums.  And a visit to see Miller’s work was one of them.

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My Day In Pictures: St. George’s Market

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One of my favourite places to visit when I’m home is St. George’s Market.  A stone’s throw from Belfast Central station, it’s a great place to wile away the hours.  Open Friday – Sunday you can start your day with breakfast from one of the many stalls – a good idea if you’ve been sampling the local pubs and clubs the night before.  And it’s not just local food you’ll find there – if you’ve a hankering for paella, for example, they’ve got you covered.

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