European rooms at the V&A, London Lumiere Festival, Asian trip and Sponsoring Guide Dog Puppies

Hello all.

I did mean to blog while I was away but the iPhone is so fiddly plus even though I was away nearly a month I never quite got over the jetlag in Asia which is odd because now I have it back at home too.

  I don't know where to start but then again these posts I do are just jumbled anyway so you won't notice.

I came back home and it was spring. 
London doesn't do summers so it makes up for it by having glorious springs.

Did I tell you about one of the most wonderful gifts I have ever received?

My friend sponsored a puppy and you can too if you like - please click here.
If you don't live in the UK, most countries have their own version of this program.

Don't you love acupuncture?
Even though a massage feels better I find an acupuncture session has effects that last a lot longer.
My favorite acupuncturist in the UK is in Bristol and I wish she would move to London but then she would charge triple and booking would be a nightmare.

To fend off winter illness, I had been upping my intake of garlic putting it everywhere - even on my fried eggs.
 So I was all Asian housewife and peeling garlic while watching TV.

So sexy right?

We don't have the northern lights in the UK so London held its own urban version called the
Lumiere Festival in January.

The highlight was definitely the colors shone on Westminster Abbey.

It was spectacular and if you are interested there is a short video of the lights changing on the building.

This apparatus below was projecting the light installation.

While we were walking to Westminster Abbey,

we walked by a house that cleverly tried to make pedestrians not to peer into the house.  My friend and I did anyway to find out it was a cardboard figure placed in front of the lamp by the window.

In auction news, I was tempted by books that I wouldn't even read.

And some classic decades old editions of Playboy that I could have got because you know people only read it for the articles.

I went to the newly opened European Rooms at the V & A.

It is a triumph.

You may recall I went to a talk at the V&A to discuss Europe as an entity to celebrate the opening so this is actually a very pro-European museum.

Toile from the 1700's.

The pattern for a waistcoat.

They had a few recreated and transplanted rooms which are worth the trip.

And they then had mid century killer seating areas for a rest.

I went to Bangkok for some R & R and 
I tend to stay at the Sukhothai 


and the Okura pictured below.

I do split the stay in two different hotels because each gives me what the other can't.

I love the Okura because the flower arrangements are always a fabulous fusion of Japanese floral artistry and Thailand's lush flora.

But for a 10 dollar one hour massage I don't mind my surroundings no matter how crude.

You know how the best part of yogurt is under the lid?

That applies to coconuts as well.

 I say I don't like Bangkok so much but I love the hotels, the food and the sunsets by the river.
I do keep going back.

I went to Seoul to visit family for the Lunar New Year.
These are some of the plant pots that belonged to my grandmother who was a fan of blue and white.

My uncle and aunt aren't great gardeners but they do keep watering the plants as well as they can!

 Years ago the building that the sunset is bouncing off of was the tallest in Asia in the 80's and yet now they practically build edifices that tall as a standard height in some Seoul precincts.

Well I wish you all a happy year of the Monkey and hope you have lots of fun in 2016! x