Sad news

I have lost my fitbit :(

It somehow dislodged itself from my jeans the day after I wrote a post all about it. Am going to have to replace it.

Anyway, here's the original post...

I am loving my fitbit one!

It is small and easy to fix to clothing.

It measures my footsteps, flights of stairs and distance travelled, and calculates calories burnt. 

It can also record my sleep, although I've stopped bothering, and I log my weight every few days. 

I'm finding that having a target (especially for number of steps and flights of stairs) is a good motivator.

And it seems to cope with the rough and tumble of everyday life too - there was an incident a couple of weeks ago involving a washing machine, but it's still going strong! (The fitbit one is not designed to be waterproof, only resistant, so repeating this experiment is not recommended!)

I haven't found a single downside yet. I can always find somewhere on my outfit to attach it and it works brilliantly. Definitely worth trying :)

Last weekend - one of us had been for a morning run. It wasn't me!

Red carpet glamour

I've had the most exciting week ever!

Dress up to the nines CHECK

Stroll down the red carpet in Leicester Square, surrounded by celebrities, TV crews and journalists CHECK

Listen to speeches (including a family name check from Mr Benedict Cumberbatch himself - check out his speech here) CHECK

Watch The Imitation Game CHECK

See my mother, aunts and uncle's names in film credits CHECK

Get whisked off to the after party CHECK

Free champagne in VIP area CHECK

Meet Benedict and Kiera Knightley CHECK

Spend a marvellous evening introducing self to actors (Charles Dance, Mark Strong and Matthew Beard to name a few) and other interesting people (the film's director, producers and many film-industry types) CHECK

Be overwhelmed with how excited everyone is at bringing Alan Turing's name and genius to a wider audience CHECK

Finally make it to bed much later than you should on a weeknight, but very very happy CHECK

The Imitation Game is a new movie based on the life of my great uncle, Alan Turing (played by Benedict Cumberbatch). Wednesday night was the  European Premiere and the opening gala of the BFI London Film Festival. Huge thank you to the team at Studio Canal (the film's UK distributors) for inviting the family to attend this historic event.

The film is on general release in the UK in mid-November, and across the world around the same time. It isn't completely historically accurate, but it is a great film and well worth a watch!

Edit: This post is now featured on IMDb, which is ironic as one of the people I met was Col Needham (founder and CEO of IMDb)! http://m.imdb.com/name/nm1212722/board/thread/235536253

Edit 2: Photographs taken by the husband, my sister and my brother-in-law.

Landed

Home at last. After two weeks of travel and exploration I've stumbled home; a bit on the tired side from jetlag and preparing for "normal" to resume.

I really really enjoyed Japan. We visited Tokyo and Osaka and both were exciting, vibrant and full of contrasts.

I got used to being spoken to all the time in a language I don't understand. I made a real effort to learn some basic Japanese before we left, which was vital to us eating on a couple of occasions, but most of the time I didn't understand a word. Unlike other languages which you can pare down to key words (e.g. "You want bag?" or "Tray wait here"), the people we met usually stuck to their usual phrases which they merrily repeated. When these needed a response from me, then mime or switching to English often occurred. The result was me smiling blankly until they had finished talking. In any other place I've visited I think I would panic at facing not knowing what was being said so much.

What I'm most enjoying about being home:

- real tea! I've entirely given up on finding a decent cuppa abroad so have enjoyed my first couple of cups

- not having to walk so far in underground stations. In all seriousness we once found ourselfs walking 850m from out platform to the correct station exit. There were stairs, escalators, walking along another platform, etc all with suitcases!

So far I'm missing:

- shop assistants/train staff/etc all bowing at me

- chopsticks. I was actually slightly miffed that they have me noodles with a fork on the plane!

- saying "hai" (yes/I agree/that's everything/I'm content) all the time.

- being away! I love travelling and visiting new places! ✈️

Adventures in Tokyo

More customs:

- no one talks on the train, well almost no one - mothers with young children and maybe a group of teenagers, but still very quietly

- don't sit on the floor (crouching is ok if you're desperate)

Things that have made me giggle:

- random translations on menus. In general, the English on display is very good, but we have come across some great ones: squid lever, octopus fried without a coat, one pot of guts possibly selecting, shoestring potatoes, deep fried chicken of knee cartilage, etc...

- accidentally choosing an Italian restaurant for lunch - spaghetti and prawns eaten with chopsticks anyone?

- watching my husband negotiate eating a poached egg on top of spaghetti using chopsticks 

- the fact that the tempura restaurant will batter and deep fry everything including the sheet of seaweed

Another scary thing I did:

- stood on glass platform 350m up on the Skytree (cue picture of my feet!)

Best things we've eaten and drunk:

- sushi meal made of a million courses, including beautiful sashimi

- fresh prawn tempura

- homemade gyoza

- chicken and spring onion yakatori

- sake (particularly one named Joan)

- miso soup, served with almost every meal and often containing clams (which are great fun to deal with using chopsticks!)

24 hours in Tokyo

Customs I've learnt:

- never put your bag on the floor: use a table, chair, hook or specially provided basket

- place money on the dish provided, not into the vendor's hand

- stand on the left on the escalator

- a nodding bow is good, but if you bow more then you might end up in a over-bowing situation where people keep bowing lower and lower

- you generally stand by the door of a restaurant (don't walk in the door unless you can't get the waiter's attention), then end up sat in a queue on a chair or stool outside until there is a table ready for you

- don't eat or drink outside/on the move (including on the train), it is acceptable if you are sat on a bench

Other observations:

- people who speak English can be found in the oddest of places: a chef who named every type of fish in English (more than 20 types) and the American girl working in a Japanese cafe with amazing cakes

- the pedestrian crossings and train stations often play jingles or even whole songs to signify different events (e.g. train approaching)

- instructions are very clear (which door to use, which side of the stairs to walk, cycle lanes on pavements, etc) and are often laminated sheets stuck up

- due to the no eating whilst walking "rule" there are almost no litter bins on the streets

- most people seem to be really quiet most of the time, unless their job requires them to be noisy (e.g. greeting customers at a restaurant)

Things I have done that were scary or unusual:

- rode on a roller coaster (my first big roller coaster - can't say it's my favourite activity, but I did it!)

- eaten abalone, roe, sea urchin (two types!) and eel. The eel was quite tasty!

Summer relaxing Part 1

It has finally got to that part of the summer where work stops and relaxing starts, and I am loving it!

So far my favourite moment was swimming in a pond. I've been meaning to give outdoor swimming a go for a while now, but never quite got round to it, so you can imagine my excitement when I had an invitation to visit a "ladies pond".

The Hampstead Heath Ladies' Pond (also called the Kenwood Ladies' Pond) is a beautiful stretch of water surrounded by trees and small grassy areas for sitting and reading/chatting/sunbathing. It is "manned" by lifeguards and is generally idyllic. Swimming is one of my favourite activities, and swimming with a couple of friends and some Canada geese was pretty much perfect. 

It's not the sort of place to take photos, so this is the only one I have:

I hope you can imagine how glorious it was!

Turing takes over the world

Or so it seems at least.

This week has been a whirlwind of Alan Turing related activities - it is all so exciting.

It started with the announcement that the Benedict Cumberbatch movie, The Imitation Game, will open the London film Festival:

Wow! That is just super exciting. I have even been in contact with one of the producers at Black Bear Productions about a special family screening and other exciting film events.

And then I also discovered (via The Turing Years twitter feed, run by the wonderful and incredibly busy Prof Barry Cooper) that the Pet Shop Boys were performing a new Turing-inspired piece of music. Further investigation revealed that it was an opera which was being premiered at the Royal Albert Hall as part of the BBC Proms. Wow.

Wednesday evening involved me rushing across London, expecting to stand in a queue for a couple of hours in the hope of getting a "promming" ticket (standing in the arena or gallery). Instead, I was incredibly lucky and managed to buy a returned ticket from the box office.

It's hard to explain the feeling. I grew up being told by my mother that my great uncle had done amazing things and was the father of modern computing, but almost no one had heard of him. Then here I was with around 1500 people (very rough estimate) and a much larger number listening to the live broadcast, witnessing a performance all about his life. Crazy.

The opera/musical biography "A Man For the Future" was pretty special. It combined a full orchestra, the electronic musical style of the Pet Shop Boys, choral singing and a narrator speaking over the music. It focused on his work in WWII and his struggles with authority over his sexuality, hinting at some of his other academic successes and genius.

In other Turing news, there are plays and tribute artwork popping up all over the place. The Duchess of Cambridge visited Bletchley Park (WWII code breaking central) last month too. I can barely keep up!