Some of my favourite places

Not running today but I have just got back to London for a short trip home for Easter.  So as I am feeling a little whimsical I thought I would share some of my favourite places that have nothing to do with running.

I don't consider myself particularly sentimental but the following have a special place in my heart for a variety of reasons.

The Palm House, Sefton Park Liverpool

I first visited Liverpool in 1997 with my boyfriend (now Mr Lapin). As a  proud Liverpudlian he was keen to take be me back to visit his childhood and spiritual home.  So one cold winter's night I found myself on the last train heading north from London taking a circuitous route via Manchester finally alighting at Liverpool Lime Street.  And there he was, Mr Lapin, just before midnight waiting for me on the platform.

In 1997, the Palm house was in disrepair and locked behind rusted gates and fence. You could see through the bars that this grand iron structure, a building of its time, was sitting forlorn and in decay.  The Palm House had broken down and was now but a shadow of what it must have once been.  A symbol of Victorian grandeur and mercantile success.  My husband spoke with sadness about it and the decline of his city and in so many ways the Palm House was a metaphor for a city that had long past its glory.    


Mr Lapin carries a sadness about Liverpool, a sadness mixed with immense pride.  We didn't go back to Liverpool for some years after that visit, and so we did not know that at the time of our trip there was a fundraising effort to renovate the Palm house.  In 2001 it was finally restored to glory and in 2011 we went back to Liverpool for a visit and took a walk in Sefton Park.  In between the trees, reflecting the sun off its glass the Palm House stood in all its majesty, looking as it must have done over 100 years ago. 

visit: http://www.palmhouse.org.uk/index.php for the history of the house.

Crepes & Co, Sukhumvit soi 12, Bangkok

Why is this in my list of favourite places?  Partly I will admit because of its close proximity to my home, partly for the food; a nice mixture of north African tajines and Belgium crepes, and partly because of its setting, an old house in a beautiful tropical garden.  For me, I just can not go wrong when I eat there, whether it is for brunch, lunch or supper.  Unfortunately, it is rumoured to be closing sometime this year. The land is finally being sold.  No doubt the plot and the one next to it will soon see a leviathan rise up in its place - some fanciful high-end apartment living complex that are taking over the city and Bangkok will have lost another little gem of peace and tranquillity.  Such is the change that is happening in that city.

The lake where I water ski

In August 2009 I plucked up the courage to join my friend Ms L to go water skiing.  It was not a pleasant sight the first few times - a lot of falling flat on my face and wrenching my shoulders from their sockets.  So much so that there were quite a few Monday mornings where the only way to drink my coffee was to clasp the mug shakily with both hands and lower my head to the mug rather than the other way around.  Eventually after a number of weeks I cracked it, I suddenly understood how to stand up and go with the boat, not fight it.  I have been skiing on and off ever since.  The picture here captures the beauty of the place and the wondrous light you can get in Thailand once you leave the city behind.  The picture represents the calmness and focus I get from skiing coupled with a sense of drama about whether I will manage to stand up, stay standing and make across the wake.  I never thought I would be a water skier; I never quite believed I had the skill or the nerve to try it.  The joy has been discovering that I was wrong.

London Town

Where I am now writing this post.  I was born, grew up and educated in London.  My working life started here, actually everything started here and it is a place that I love and hate in equal measure. It is difficult to explain.  When I was young I felt that London held me back, kept me from doing what I wanted to do - I wanted to get away from it and see the world.  I suppose as most teenagers do, I saw my home as my gaoler, keeping me from adventure and life.  I did not think it all that great and could not understand people who would look wistful and say how jealous they were of me living there.  London was a hard, tough place in my eyes.  Yes it had beauty and history and opportunity but during the 1980s, my teenage years, it was a place of extremes, from extreme riches to poverty, where you would see homelessness and Ferraris side-by-side I saw an ugliness in the city that stayed with me for many years.

I have been away from London for almost 9 years now and each year I return for a holiday and perhaps it is because I am getting older but I seem to have become more at peace with myself and my home town.  I have started to appreciate the city more.  I am looking at it through different eyes.  It is still a tough place, it still has the economic and social problems of the 1980s but that will never change.  I now begin to see to see how beautiful London can be and how it is a city that challenges you, and maybe I am no longer angry at that challenge.  Last summer after a night out with friends, Mr Lapin and I took a walk across Tower Bridge, one of the quintessential images of the city.  I looked up to take the picture and suddenly felt a tug of homesickness to be leaving this place the following day.  I am home again now for a couple of weeks and time to rediscover London- though it is threatening to snow eek...

Happy Easter everyone