Englishness

Excerpt from "The English and Their History", by Robert Tombs.

Holiday Resort for Young Family with Under Three Years Old Babies

We are looking for a balance, some good play time for the baby, some good viewing time for parents, something quite, something dynamic, something urban, something in the nature, something tiring and challenging, something soothing and relaxing. Isle of Wight suffices all, with every small bit but in style!

We went to Ryde first and fine sand and the distance from the sea makes the beach there as a perfect place for babies to play. We stayed in Ryde Castle hotel which is very family friendly and has a superb location, within five minutes' walk to the beach. There are several playgrounds at the side of the walk around the beach. When kids are bored with building sand castles, these playgrounds are alternatives. When it is baby's nap time, quickly, parents can retreat into the quite woods where parents can enjoy birds singing and baby can have a sound nap without being disturbed by car horns and dogs barking.

After we visited Osborne house, then we went to Shanklin. Shanklin chine is so adorable! Could you imagine carrying a baby to climb cliffs? It does not sound that feasible, but in the chine, special geology shape makes such attempt nothing but possible and the combination of cliff, waterfall, hills, creeks, and sea, all within reachable zones, does make me feel, at one moment, that I am in Shangri la! Our choice of hotel "Luccombe Hall Country House Hotel" is not disappointing. It was the residential place of the local Bishop which might explain that the interior is not new, but it has a lovely garden and sea view. Its indoor pool and outdoor playground did keep my baby busy.     
   
On the fourth day, we managed to find time to go to Ventnor and walked around the rocky beach. It was windy on that day which made the view more special, imagining strong and torrent waves hitting on those hard rocks again and again, wave splashes bounced in all directions to make us feeling wet. The walk to steephill cove is so pleasant and exciting; we enjoyed challenges of pushing a heavy pram and trying to pass around rocks, pebble beach, and to climb hundreds of stairs up the hill; At the same time, the baby enjoyed all the wildness and freshness and slept without any tiny complaints. When we were just about to feel exhausted, we had arrived in Ventnor Botanical Garden and enjoyed a nice cup of tea and cake there, before we took a ferry back home!

Shanklin Chine:

 Ryde Beach:

Shanklin Beach:

Ventnor Beach:

Books for new Mum

Your Pregnancy Bible: Dr. Anne Deans
Your Babycare Bible: Dr. A.J.R. Waterston
French Children Don't Throw Food: Pamela Druckerman

For being a mum

Having a child is like letting "your heart go walking around outside your body".

 

---Cited by Hillary Clinton at her interview and the original is from the writer, Elizabeth Stone. 

Irregularity in Bird's Nest

Why does a Chinese bowl or a Chinese window have this kind of pattern? Maybe the Chinese people like things to appear in this irregular way, but underneath there are very clear rules. The Bird's Nest developed in this way.

— Li Xinggang, head architect of CADG

Walking along with butterflies

It felt like a dream land where flowers were blooming and butterflies were around when we entered into Butterfly show in Natural History Museum.

Irregularity in Bird's Nest

Why does a Chinese bowl or a Chinese window have this kind of pattern? Maybe the Chinese people like things to appear in this irregular way, but underneath there are very clear rules. The Bird's Nest developed in this way.

— Li Xinggang, head architect of CADG

A strange poet and a little bit I learned about American Naturalism

"Hope" is the thing with feathers, that perches in the soul. Stay calm and fresh or hope will fly off. 

By Emily Dickinson

“Hope” is the thing with feathers -

That perches in the soul -

And sings the tune without the words -

And never stops - at all -

And sweetest - in the Gale - is heard -

And sore must be the storm -

That could abash the little Bird

That kept so many warm -

I’ve heard it in the chillest land -

And on the strangest Sea -

Yet - never - in Extremity,

It asked a crumb - of me.

Sash Window

The product of Victoria times. With Roman blinds, it does have a very elegant outlook. Recently learned somewhere that the average life time of British houses is 150 years.

Colors

Colors are everywhere and are so common nowadays in our modern life that we almost could forget their being. Until recently I went to visit an Ancient Chinese Art exhibition, said to be once-in-a-life event, where paintings across 5000 years were collected and shown, didnot I realise that the hardship in making these colors, or more precisely, in persisting these colors. At that time most colors are extracted from mineral stones which themselves are precious, and it is also notoriously complicated to prevent colors from fading away. In all this explains the rarity of those coloured Chinese ancient paintings. 

Certainly it is not such any more nowadays.Yet, when an old problem gets solved, a new one springs out. Which color shall we use when confronted with dazzlingly number of colors? I didnot need to go far to get this problem. When I was in a blank old house with nothing, think positively , this would be a nice canvass. All white is the main color which has a maxing and new effect, used on all walls and ceilings. Our builder recommended us to use Elephant's Breath color on skirtings and doors. It is kind of color which gives warmth and staidness but not as flashy as red, not as aging as yellow range, and is classified in a range of contemporary neutral colors which I like. Wheatfield color on carpets is a kind of gold yellow, proved so far resisting my kid's naughtiness best while keeping its new look. In the kitchen, we stayed simple by using black worktop, high-gloss white cabinets, and grey long tiles, which gives modern look. We also used a touch of Red Earth in the skirtings of bedrooms, as a bold design, to give coziness. You might not feel exhausted when you are reading here, but I can tell you that we were all exhausted when we reached this stage. And it is not finished yet. Lights, so many colors! Even for simple ones. Shinny white from hydrogen lights, glowing yellow from incandescent lights, Mercury white from Led lights. If it is a shaded light, shades render different colors. And perspectives make difference. For lights from the same bulbs, direct to the floor or reflected from the ceiling, the feelings created are different. Certainly there are more and it is hard to imagine that meticulous details involved in decoration. So it is wise to know when to stop. Glad, it is done for all before we ran out of all the steam!   

Online shopping, what more you could shop there?

Thanks to all the benefits gained when I did all my shopping online for my newborn during my pregnancy, I think I should give the return for the gain, so I decided to venture into some categories which I used to have doubt and shop more of them online. Till now, I managed to buy some clothes, curtains, curtain poles, lights, clocks, groceries like meat and vegs. Not all experience ended up being smooth. We bought a light and found out that it does not have a diffuser which caused the light too bright and made it not suitable in kid's room. We chose a clock online and went to the shop for the second look, realizing that the picture on the website is not well taken from all perspectives so the real thing gives a very different feeling. The biggest piece we ordered online is our IKEA Corner Wardrobe. We designed our wardrobe on their website and got the satisfactory delivery. The worst online order is our washing machine. After all the trouble of fitting it in, it could not dry at first and then stopped working at all. Now everyone is waiting for a replaced one with the great fear of going back to the age without machines. We almost bought tiles, paints, carpets online, but we were so new to these colour schemas that we had to overcome our laziness and go to shops to grasp a real feeling toward all the colours, equivalent of taking some aesthetics lessons. But perhaps next time we will. But still I will visit those mortar-brick stores, because that is fun.

Smell of Life

Last Christmas could be the warmest Christmas since I came here and the wettest one. Through all the winter, it was raining and raining. The arrival of global warming could be that quick? After a biblical rainy winter, sunshine came finally! Spotted this book in a lovely shop in our new residential zone, because its cover title reminded me of one friend who once introduced me of this interesting quote. The full one is "When a man is tired of London, he is tired of life; for there is in London all that life can afford"---From Samuel Johnson. 

Tower Bridge in the evening

Passed by Tower Bridge every day and this is the first time that I caught the moment when the Bridge opened at night, with beautiful lightening. Bye to you, Always impressed by you for being beautiful and yet practical. Bye to you because we are moving out. (The picture taken one month ago.)

Dropbox, making my file transference easy!

Dropbox, really handy! Connecting PC and wireless, across OS among Windows, Linux, Android, so seamlessly! Otherwise I would have had to use USB, trying mail attachment, and look everywhere for a cable.