Music, Roses and Curry - The Perfect Day!

On Sunday, after the taps were finally fixed and the water was back on and we were all able to finally SHOWER, we jumped in the car and headed into central London. We had tickets for a London Symphony Orchestra family concert at the Barbican in the afternoon. We were supposed to go with Windy and family, but they couldn't make it in the end.

This is the courtyard outside the concert hall and shows the, horrible concrete flats which sell, inexplicably, for millions of pounds.Inside the concert hall. We love coming here to the family concerts. The pieces tend to be linked by a theme, introduced well by someone who explains what is going on in the music. It is a very relaxed atmosphere and the members of the LSO clearly enjoy playing for the children.

Our favourites pieces this time were Grieg's Hall of the Mountain King and William's theme from the movie ET.It became obvious, though, that this would probably be our last LSO family concert. Jack and Grace are too old for them now, really. But, on the other hand, they aren't quite ready for a whole evening of just one or two symphonies. We need something which is in between.

We all have such brilliant memories of the concerts and composers' workshops we've been attending 2-3 times a year for the last 8 years or so. I know it has helped to sow the seeds of a love in both my children of all kinds of music.

Grace said she wasn't feeling grumpy, just that the sun was in her eyes. {g} Jack is happy because he can't hear us. He has his headphones in and his MP3 player on. There weren't in his ears during the concert though. {g}We drove to Drummond Street to a South Indian vegetarian restaurant called Chutneys. I thought I'd just take a photo of the street it's in. It's fairly typical Georgian town houses and a real old-fashioned London pub.Now, the only reason we can afford to eat here is the all you can eat policy on a Sunday. This restaurant clearly was not counting on quite HOW much my husband can eat.Because he can eat a lot.

And not put on weight.

Which annoys me no endJack is very cautious about Indian food though and tends to stick to the blandest dishes he find.The evening was yet young, so we decided to drive to Regents Park, which was on our way out and go for a Sunday evening perambulation in the gardens.

Along with half of London. It was packed with families picnicking, playing cricket, sunbathing and so on. We parked next to this lovely building.Check out the windows below. I imagine the original owner liked the effect of lots of light, but wasn't prepared to pay quite so much Window Tax as planned. Those central 'windows' are brick and paint.We discovered a Rose Garden in Regents Park.
There is an open air theatre too. I once took a group of schoolkids to a June performance of A Midsummer Night's Dream there. It was magical.
Regents Park is also the home of London Zoo.
It's a pretty big park.Jamie was embarrassed that I took photos of him in a Rose garden and started doing a funny walk.Love the gilded Gates of the Inner Circle of the park.I like embarrassing my family in public and so grabbed a kiss from my 13 year old son.
See. He loves me really!
Grace being all romantic. It's hard to believe that this is right in the middle of a large city. We really enjoy London's parks.

Walking over the bridge to the Japanese garden.

Jack spotted some two foot long Koi carp in the pond.
Jack thought it would be suitable revenge for the kiss to take a picture of me with the PO Tower growing out of my head.

Grace is next to a rose named after her.

Jack next to a rose named Invincible.

The shadows lengthened and it was time to go. We'd had a lovely, relaxing afternoon and evening.