Nothing like being busy

What an active weekend - I'm certainly starting to work my muscles and build a bit of stamina; my legs are a teensy bit sore today!

On Saturday there was more skiing. I'm trying to get lots of practise in so that I don't lose the skills my instructor taught me and continue to grow in confidence. I did lots and lots of runs. In fact, barring the short break for a cup of tea in the middle, I pretty much skied for two hours straight. And I got to wear my new ski jacket which I treated myself to after being signed off by my coach (up until now I've been skiing in my sailing jacket, which worked just fine but won't cut the mustard on a proper skiing trip).

At the top!

Sunday turned into skating day. We didn't join the London Friday Night Skate crew for their Sunday stroll because we wanted to take it gently, so instead we pottered up down and around Hyde Park for a couple if hours. The place was packed (well it was 27degC) so we had fun dodging pedestrians, cyclists, other skaters, skateboarders, scooters and other associated Sunday park goers. Sunshine, ice cream and selfies on-the-move. Glorious.

We topped off the weekend with homemade seafood paella (very loosely based on Jamie Oliver's recipe here), dining al fresco :) Long may the warm weather continue!

Little happy thoughts

I've finally started taking more photos on my phone to blog about. Unfortunately, this hasn't exactly translated in me remembering to write blog posts so I've got all these photos sat doing nothing!

I thought I'd share with you some of the best things that I've done recently...

A cheeky glass of champagne.

A tasty and healthy mid-afternoon snack. Much better than biscuits.

The sea always makes me happier. I didn't even paddle this time.

Dawlish beach, Devon. Beautiful.

Sushi plates arranged into a rainbow. I love sushi and rainbows :)

Another rainbow :)

What's been making you smile recently?

Let loose on the slopes!

After three lessons featuring quite a bit of falling over and a very patient ski instructor, I've got myself signed off to ski by myself!

This lesson was so much more fun than the previous two. I took the bumps more naturally and even smiled whilst skiing (a new experience for me!). I also didn't take any tumbles although there were a few wobbly moments. 

Currently my skiing still resembles a zombie on ice. I'm much more relaxed than I was but am still too stiff; I have a tendency to look at my skis unless someone reminds me to look up; and generally I pootle down at a pace slightly faster than that of a tortoise.

Anyways, I am celebrating and made the most of an hour on the slopes without my instructor. Yay!

A spot of sunshine

Holidays, no matter how brief, have an amazing ability to relax you. It's as if the world resets for a while and all the stresses and worries dissipate. Last weekend we disappeared off to the southern coast of Spain for a few days, and it turned out to be just what I needed.

Here's a flavour of what I did:

I managed to pack a reasonable amount! For once my "write a list, ponder for a couple of days on it, pack in the shortest amount of time you can" method really worked for me. Hand luggage only, including several pairs of shoes, all under 10kg :)

I spoke Spanish lots. We went to an area that isn't very touristy (especially not for foreign visitors) and managed to get by with almost no English being spoken. I usually get very nervous about speaking French or Spanish, but I seem to be growing in confidence and actually remembering key language (sometimes even at the point were I needed it!)

I walked on the beach, paddled in the sea and swam in an outside pool.

There were lots of churches and parades (it was Holy Week after all), a couple of castles and a lighthouse.

Procession of the paso through the streets. This one was on Palm Sunday so it depicted Jesus riding a donkey into Jerusalem.

The amazing gardens at Real Alcázar in Sevilla. I have so many pictures of this beautiful place that you may get treated to another post all about it!

Breakfast was tostados con tomate; lunch and dinner were tapas. What else does a girl need?

I arrived home with a slight tan and a smile on my face, even though our flight was delayed. Six days later and the smile hasn't gone yet!

Conference excitement

I was honoured this week to be invited to a performance based on the life of Alan Turing. Usually my mum or aunt does the "representing the Turing family" side of things, but on Wednesday it was my turn!

The show, entitled MIL-STD-1815, was a newly devised composition of acting, song and dance around the concept of "Can machines think?" A much better description of the play itself can be found here - a blog post by journalist Martin Ince who I met and chatted to. It was part of a week-long computing and AI conference at Goldsmiths University called AISB50.

Personally, I loved the quirks; the parts which showed Alan Turing's personality. Particularly the scene where he was searching for the family silver (he buried it in or around the Bletchley Park grounds at the beginning of WWII to prevent it falling into enemy hands. Unfortunately his map and memory weren't quite good enough for him to relocate it, and so it is still missing to this day!).

Following the performance, I met some interesting and inspirational people: Professor Mark Bishop (co-director and science/maths advisor on the show, as well as Chair of AISB50), Professor Barry Cooper,  the performers in the show and Maria Elisabetta Marelli, an Italian playwright. It was lovely to chat with people who rate Turing and his work so highly, and to hear more about what he did.

Maria Elisabetta invited me to her talk the following day, so I rushed out of work on Thursday and almost catapulted myself across London to make it on time. I was so glad that I did! 

The lecture was about a play that was performed in 2012 in Milan. A very well thought out play that looked at many of the concepts that Turing developed, using an amazing array of technology. The clips on their website Turing Case History were incredible and I wish I'd seen the actual show.

I hope that somewhere the funding will be found to bring the Turing Case History to the UK, although I'm very aware that arts funding is a huge issue here. It seemed to me that Thursday's talk initiated discussion between a couple of influential people in the fields of arts, computing and Turing's legacy, so maybe there is a chance...

My view of the stage for MIL-STD-1815, including the piles of sand which represent all the places Turing dug whilst trying to find the family treasures!

Gone skiing

I finally had the skiing lesson that I've been promising myself since Christmas!

It went well. One hour 1:1 tuition, having only ever tried it once before about five years ago, and I was (fairly) happily zigzagging slowly the main slope! Not quite competent enough to ski without an instructor yet, but my next lesson is booked - want to build on the good work I put in before I lose it again :)

before

after - the bottom of one of my last runs

Pancake time!

Tuesday was Shrove Tuesday so I got out the frying pan and got to work on making pancakes.

The first batch were savoury (leek, mushroom and spinach):

The second batch were sweet (chocolate, raspberries and cream):

Yummy :)

What's your favourite pancake topping?

In other news: Following on from last week's "Shocking news", today I wore a rather bright turquoise/mint coloured cardigan to work. I don't remember ever wearing an item of clothing in this colour. Surprisingly no-one commented on it!