The aim of this blog was to post once a week, unfortunately I did not factor in the extremely good weather that the UK has been experiencing of late! If its sunny outside then I have to be out enjoying the day and not sat inside sewing or typing. I can’t even apologise for having a two month blog post break, I’ve had a lovely time!
June 2013
At the end of June my mum came to stay for a long weekend. The purpose and the highlight of the trip was going to go to Wimbledon on the first Monday. My mum had won a pair of tickets for No1 Court in the postal ballot. The best match of the 3 we watched was Nadal V Darcis, in which Nadal was defeated by 3 straight sets. As the underdog Steve had a lot of support, but by the 3 rd set I felt quite sad for Nadal, his shoulders were slumped and head bowed. It was sad watching the demise of someone that has previously won.
As part of the experience mum was dragged in each of the Wimbledon shops and she bought me a Wimbledon chair pad, I love it! The Ralph Lauren clothing collection was beautiful, I wish I could afford the dress and blazer. I was disappointed though by the home gifts that were offered, cups and mugs covered in strawberries, hardly inspiring.
July 2013
At the start of the month I attended a lecture at work on the role of social media, the guest speaker was Euen Semple. Whilst the whole of the site was invited, the audience consisted mainly of the I.T. crowd. I went simply because I thought it may help me with my blog. Two things stuck with me. The first thing was his analogy of skimming pebbles with attracting visitors/followers to your blog/twitter feed. In that the more you practice throwing the pebble the more ripples you will create. The second is that it is becoming popular practice of large companies to ask senior management to write blogs about what they have done at work. Euen likened this to your dad dancing, you’re pleased that they are having a go but really you just want them to sit down. What I have taken away from this lecture is that,
a) I have to start somewhere and that the more I post the larger my ripples will become and
b) to not post for the sake of it!
My dad seems to be spreading the word about my blog as all the relatives have been shown it. I received a lovely birthday card praising my blog from our family friend Pat. She moved to Portugal many years ago with her husband Ron, and every year since has always remembered my mine and my brother’s birthday. It really is the small things that mean the most, so many thanks Pat!
July’s activities included cat sitting, cycling, kayaking and birthday celebrations! It was also the month that my cousin and his wife visited London for 5 days from Brooklyn. To celebrate my Aunty Lou’s upcoming 80th birthday in September, they treated Aunty Lou and myself to lunch at the Ritz. We congregated at Victoria Station, with the plan being to get the number 38 bus there. The bus is Aunty Lou’s favourite and stops right outside! However, on this special occasion it let her down as the road was closed due to a run, so in a black cab we jumped! Upon arrival we walked through a classic vintage wooden spinning door into a beautiful white circular entrance hall and were directed to the restaurant at the far end. We walked past the crowd having afternoon tea and entered the beautifully empty, quiet and Louis XVI-inspired styled restaurant. Everything about it was perfect and in the words of Athlete I thought to myself “ Oh this is beautiful, I’ve got to soak it up”. We started with 3 little appetisers and bread. I chose roasted pheasant egg on bacon lardons to start, roasted duck breast for main and crepe suzettes with Gavin for dessert. I’ve never had crepe suzettes before, its quite a show! I also had a Duchess of Cambridge cocktail selected by Giulia, which had a purple flower floating on the top of it. I realise I have used the word beautiful a lot, but it is the only word that springs to mind that accurately describes the experience. Recalling the memory just makes me smile. It was also inspiring, in that such lovely side of life could be mine if I’m successful in my dreams.
My favourite company at the moment is the Cambridge Satchel Company, a company started up on £600 and the dreams of Julie Deane. For my birthday at the end of July my mum bought me the Vintage Navy Designer Satchel. I had been eyeing up for about a month and had visited both the Covent Garden and Cambridge shop to check them all out. I must of been destined to own one as on the day of my birthday they were back in stock. Whilst the company started out online I wanted to buy it in person from the shop, the customer service is great in there, no pressure to purchase, appear to love the product, happy to advise and great at helping with what letter spacing to have for my embossing. It is how I would like my shop to feel.
What with the lecture and the Ritz I have been reflecting on my dreams. My day job is a Research Scientist in the pharmaceutical industry. Though it has taken me several years to realise I do love my job and actually I’m not sure if I could give it up. What I love is becoming submerged in a new topic with the hope it may be impactful on your project. At the moment I want to learn deconvulution of profiles to allow examination of concentrations in various areas of the body. Whilst this is something that can be done by a computer program I want to know exactly how it is done, though I am not sure my maths is good enough, there appear to be a lot of derivations.
With regards to soft furnishing and my shop, what I want to create is the Isobel Harada brand. How this will happen I have no idea and maybe I won’t be successful in this quest. But I am firm believer of pure imagination “Anything you want to do, do it, want to change the world there is nothing to it”. – Willy Wonka.
Isobel Harada 