Lunch Treat/Buena Comida

Working hard at Insituto Cervantes

So after a week of intensive Spanish lessons, three hours a day every day, exhausted and head spinning - having spent another morning discussing mis abuelos y hijos y hermanos with fellow students - I decided, on the spur of the moment, to treat myself to a noice lunch.

I travel to the Intituto Cervantes by tube, on the Piccadilly Line to Hyde Park Gate, then walk on into the heart of Belgravia. In the course of the week I have discovered an excellent authentic little Italiano bistro (if that's not mixing too many foreign-acquired words) where the coffee is good; however the food is not so good. Today, as I prepared to descend once more into the arteries of the Tube, I noticed some top-hatted gentlemen opening discreet but heavy doors...The Lanesborough Hotel. Drawn like iron filings to a magnet, I ventured indoors, where more formally dressed gents (tails, waistcoats, white rose boutonnières) patrolled the hallway, deeply carpeted, exotically flowered and with the chill of the drizzle outside assuaged by fires. Noice.

The Lanesborough (from its website)

With an unerring sixth sense, I soon discovered the restaurant, which turned out to be called Apsley's, and to have been established by a many-Michelin-starred chef named Heinz Beck:

This is the first restaurant outside Italy created by internationally renowned chef, Heinz Beck - holder of 3 Michelin stars at La Pergola in Rome. As Beck has said of his cooking, it is "light cuisine of Mediterranean flavours". The Executive Chef, and the man responsible for ensuring the quality and consistency of Beck's menu is Massimiliano Blasone, who was the Executive Chef at Castello Banfi, the Tuscan estate producing Brunello di Montalcino wine.

I enjoyed cream of Jerusalem artichoke soup with Langoustines, venison with red cabbage, and a souffle, plus various amuse bouches. The sofas were so comfortable I had to concentrate so that I didn't fall asleep (replete as I was with Spanish verbos); and the service was par excellence (now I really am mixing the languages).

pre-dessert

Actual dessert

I see from the website that The Lanesborough also has something called 'The Library Bar', which sounds right up my alley...maybe a treat when I am finally able to string a few words of Spanish together. Sad to say, despite some small progress, that is barely yet the case. I struggle on.

Muchas gracias a la profesora Yolanda para sus esfuerzos esta semana.

New things I learnt today

Our Workbook - gotta start somewhere

Off to class this morning: three hours of ‘intensive Spanish’ – for beginners. Our teacher se llama Yolanda, and there are doce estudiantes. An interesting mixture: a teacher of art history, a girl from Israel, a lady about to have a baby, a fiction writer, an illustrator, a man who used to be on television but now owns a gym and dance studio, an American interior decorator, a Russian who used to live in Quebec, an actress, a man who likes Spanish films, and a professional girl polo player who lives half the year in Argentina. Y yo. It would be hard to make up that eclectic list.

I learnt one interesting thing this morning in the three hours spent upstairs at the Instituto Cervantes at Eaton Square in Belgravia – the full scoop on the Spanish surname thing. Each Spanish person has two surnames: the first surname of their father, and the first surname of their mother. In that order. Unless they marry a foreigner and things get thereby confused, they keep these two surnames throughout their lives, married or not. The children of a marriage take the first surname of their father and the first surname of their mother, per the rules.  You’ll note that after a generation or two, any name leading back through the maternal line is dropped, but did you really think it would be different?

Still don’t get it? Try this (all names made up):

Yolanda Vallés Rodriquez marries Alberto Vizcaíno Morcillo (she is Señora Vallés)

Their daughter Ana will have the surnames Vizcaíno Vallés

She marries Raul Olano Artigas (but remains Señora Vizcaíno)

Their son Luis will have the surnames Olano Vizcaíno

Right – glad we cleared that up.

What I need to do every day.

Life here in London is resuming its routine, including Monday’s visit to see Dan at the gym, and a check-up with Caragh Mary Bernadette, the Irish chiropractor. I learnt that the highest temperature Caragh managed over Christmas in Ireland was minus 11 degrees. I also learnt that one’s hip flexors are awfully important muscles, that is, if you want to be able to climb up and down stairs and other similar everyday activities. In fact, without them, you couldn’t actually sit down. They are what make you bend in the middle. There are a lot of them, and they don’t appreciate decades of sitting on your butt, especially on a bad chair. So stretch those hip flexors, folks!

Dan spent his New Year break in Morocco, and returns with a strong positive recommendation; which is excellent news as the Atlas Mountains in Morocco are the chosen destination of the next IP-Trek  outing next September.

Atlas Mountains, Morocco

I also learnt that miracles do sometimes happen: the Telecom Fairy visited me today and I now have – after only four months in London – decent broadband!!!!!!! Yes, after merely waiting five weeks for a technician, paying for a land line I don’t want, waiting a bit longer for delivery of the hub that BT could not, for some reason, send earlier, installing it myself because they don’t bother with that bit, figuring out what to do about the fact that the super-mod con St Pancras Chambers has non-standard telephone plugs that don’t fit anything.....we are ON AIR. Next time you have a whinge about Telstra or one of its devil’s spawn, just know that things are no different in the UK. Possibly worse, scary as that sounds. Still, I am not complaining tonight: I’m whizzing along here now!

And completely randomly, I also learnt today that when Isaac Newton discovered that light could be broken up into the colours of the spectrum, he deliberately chose seven colours because seven was a prime number considered to have mystical properties. If you ever wondered why there was very little difference between ‘indigo’ and ‘violet’ in the colours of the rainbow, that explains it.

Rainbow at Gullfoss, Iceland, last July (photo by me)

Photos from:  

http://www.drnickcampos.com/health-newsletter/StretchPain.html

http://www.difusion.com/catalogo_details/11/gente_1_nueva_edicion_libro_del_alumno.html

http://www.ip-trek.com/

Belgravia - ¿por que?

Beautiful Belgravia

 This week I ventured to a new part of London – Belgravia. ‘Why?’ I hear you ask. Or, more appropriately (as will emerge) ¿por que?

Belgravia is an area of beautiful Georgian and early Victorian buildings now occupied by many embassies and consulates. Just off Hyde Park and Green Park, with street names like Grosvenor Street, Belgrave Square, Eaton Square and Buckingham Palace Road, you know you are in the heart of posh London.

This website claims that the area is full of the ’very wealthy’, including actors, politicians and ambassadors. And I quote: ‘Being the most expensive district in London, Belgravia property is exorbitantly priced and is expected to go up further in the future.’ Wikipedia claims it is one of the most expensive residential districts in the world. The area takes its name from the title of Viscount Belgrave. The village of Belgrave is two miles (3 km) from the Grosvenor family's main country seat of Eaton Hall, so there are lots of family-related names in the area. Most of it was owned by Richard Grosvenor, 2^nd Marquess of Westminster who was an 1820s version of today’s property developer.

Belgravia terrace: on the market in 2009 for 100 million pounds *gawp!*

 Belgravia is very pretty. It has many grand terraces of white stucco houses. It is a relatively quiet district in the heart of London, compared to many districts which have far more busy shops, large modern office buildings, hotels, and entertainment venues. Many embassies are located in the area, especially in Belgrave Square.

Institut Cervantes, London

Amongst these is the Spanish Embassy. And adjacent to the Spanish Embassy is the Institut Cervantes, the goal of my expedition. Yes, I am revisiting my determination to learn to speak Spanish. As some of my readers will know, this has proven almost as difficult for me as learning to ski (although with less risk of broken limbs). However, with a plethora of Spanish classes available at the Institut Cervantes, I have no excuse. Well, actually I can think of plenty of excuses, but I have brushed them all aside and have enrolled in a two-week every-day immersion course in January. This cost a substantial sum, so I hoping that with the combination of investment, turning up every day for two weeks, and a competent teacher, some progress might be made.

ídeséame suerte!

Images from:

http://www.belgravia.org/

http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/local-national/could-this-house-sell-for-record-pound100m-14268743.html

http://firstrung.co.uk/articles.asp?pageid=NEWS&articlekey=5108&cat=44-0-0