Sports Day....Tennis Lessons…

Like every year Blair and I have been looking forward to governor’s day; the annual picnic and sports day organised by my work. While I see it as an opportunity to spend a lazy afternoon eating and chatting with friends, for Blair it is one of the key days in his sporting calendar.


Not only is there a chance to see games of cricket and football but, more importantly, we have use of the beautiful tennis courts.



So, this morning Maria, Alastair, Blair and I set off for what promised to be a day of fun. First up was food, a great BBQ fare with lovely salads and the all important dessert.

Then followed a trip to the dodgems and the realisation that I am starting to be a bit too old for that! Wearing my battle wounds with pride we made our way to the tennis courts where Blair and Alastair showed us what the world of tennis was missing.

Next up was Maria who, with some expert advice from Blair, perfected her service. Although we do not have photographic evidence, I can confirm that the ball even made it over the net!



The highlight of the day however was Blair’s session with the Wimbledon Junior Tennis Initiative (WJTI).
This is a community tennis initiative run by the All England Club designed to introduce children to tennis. Some of their squad players, with ages ranging from 6 to around 10, came to the governor’s day to showcase their incredible abilities and to play with some older, more experienced players.

After an invitation by their coach, Blair joined in their warm up training and then played mixed doubles. Great fun was had by all and, who knows, maybe one day Blair will be able to say that he once played tennis with a Wimbledon champion!

The Gehry Pavilion (Hyde Park)

Today we caught up with a friend of mine, Richard (an architect himself) in Hyde Park to take a closer look at this year Serpentine Gallery Pavilion.

Every year an international architect is invited by the Serpantine Gallery to design a ‘pavilion’ structure to be located on the Gallery’s lawn for three months.
This year the legendary American architect Frank Gehry was chosen.

This timber & glass clad pavilion is surprising his first built project in England and it has made a definite mark on the landscape so far.
The pavilion is formed by four massive steel columns, over clad with large timber planks, which support a complex suspended network of nine overlapping glass planes that create a dramatic, multi-dimensional space.

The glass canopies are made up of about 30 panes of varying sizes from specially made frosted reinforced glass (shipped in from Austria), which are positioned on top of the timber structure.

The Part-amphitheatre, part-promenade, is seemingly made up of random elements which form a transformative place for reflection and relaxation by day, and discussion and performance by night.

Apparently the design inspiration came from “a fascinating variety of sources including the elaborate wooden catapults designed by Leonardo da Vinci as well as the striped walls of summer beach huts.”

Frank Gehry describes it: “The Pavilion is designed as a wooden timber structure that acts as an urban street running from the park to the existing Gallery. Inside the Pavilion, glass canopies are hung from the wooden structure to protect the interior from wind and rain and provide for shade during sunny days.”

Follow the Construction:
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=ANuimkRfGiw&feature=related

Once we had exhausted all comments of the structure and Grigoria had heard enough about architecture, we headed back across the park to get an ice cream on the way home.

A Walk in the Woods….

This summer my sister was selected to participate in the annual field trip of her Biology department.
This was very exciting news and Maria had been looking forward to the trip for a while. The only unfortunate thing was that the trip was scheduled to start straight after her exams so she had little chance to rest.
Being a real trooper however, Maria was undeterred and off she went to Silwood Park (where the Imperial Biology campus is located) for two weeks of fun with bugs, birds and small mammals.

Today Blair and I set off to visit her and snoop around all her newly established insect traps (don’t ask…). A short train trip later we were in Sunningdale (the closest train station). Unfortunately, the weather turned on us and it started to rain as if we were in the middle of winter. Poor Maria who had come to pick us up was absolutely drenched!

Once we got to the Park the rain had eased and by the time we had lunch it was all clear skies and a perfect opportunity to go for a walk around the park. Silwood borders Windsor Park but it is an unmanaged forest (so no pruning or landscaping here). Although less than an hour out of London it felt like we were in the middle of the countryside, full of lush green vegetation and even more bunnies!

By the time we were getting ready to go it had started to drizzle again so it was a mad rush to the station to avoid the rain. Both Blair and I had a great day outdoors and it was great to see Maria doing something she clearly enjoys so much.