Niina's collected tips for running

From a beginner for beginners :)

1. Invest in good shoes. I have never owned quality running shoes and used to go running in ballerinas. Now I have invested in a pair of Asics, probably one of the leading brands, and they are amazing. It's a massive difference! It feels like walking on custard!

2. Breathing: one of the most important things. Find a good rhythm. For me, breathing in 3 steps, breathing out 5 steps works best. You won't have to count all the time, your body will get used to it.

3. Most importantly, keep going. At the beginning you will quite often reach the point when you feel like you just don't want to go on any more. But there are some tricks you can use to keep you going:

- listen to supportive, positive music with a strong beat
- try to take your mind off the running. Don't think all the time how far you still have to go. Keep your mind busy with other things. I imagine dance choreographies to the song I'm listening to in my head!
- If you think you can't do it any more, check your body: how are your lungs? Do your legs hurt? How is your heartbeat? Most of the time you will feel that you are actually okay.
- Imagine light flowing through your body. Imagine how it fills your lungs and your heart.
- Think positive. Don't allow thoughts like "I can't go any more" into your head. Think "I can do it"
- My very last resort is to imagine that I have giant wings that carry me. I only do it when I'm near the end if I'm really exhausted, because it works, but not for very long.. ;-)
- Divide the run into section, like from one bridge to another. Don't think about the whole run, just about the section your at. Think, I will try to make it to the next section

4. Don't over-challenge yourself. Build up slowly. If you've never been running, start with 10 minutes. Ten minutes is a lot! Stick to a certain length until you can master it comfortably.

5. Stretch afterwards. Your muscles will be warmed up, you will be amazed how much more flexible you will be. Also, it gives your body time to cool down slowly.

6. Girls, buy a sports bra. No further explanations ;).

That's it! Those of you who wouldn't have expected this kind of post from me, haha, I surprised you!

Viva La Diva at the 02

review will follow

The Sleeping Beauty at the Royal Ballet

Oh bliss! A great Tchaikovsky score, a traditional stage design, very detailed costumes, a fairy tale story and superb dancer - all together make a wonderful ballet evening.

Sleeping beauty is a lovely ballet, the story is light and leaves one in high spirits. The royal ballet stuck to Marius Petipa's well-loved choreography and restored the original stage designs.

Aurora was danced by Alexandra Assanelli, a very likeable principal. She was beautiful, fresh and of course a very good dancer, although she had a few insecure moments (the penchée during the rose adagio), but it didn't matter too much. She balanced well during the Rose Adagio, expect for the very last one which was a bit shaky, but she just gave a big grin and the audience was immediately on her side. She was just a perfect match for the innocent character of Aurora.
Also very remarkable was Yuhui Choe as Princess Florine, the audience seemed to really like her.

One scary moment took place during Act 3 as one of the dancers injured herself during her solo - she limbed of the stage and collapsed off-stage. Everyone seemed to be holding their breaths. I hope she'll recover. Apart from the evening went by smoothly with very quick and impressive setting changes.

My personal highlight was definately the Rose Adagio. The music and the choreography are equally exquiste - watch Alina Cojocaru in a flawless rendition:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uA5C-s4NjoQ

The official trailer:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=t2nTjN7lwWo

My favourite English Actors and Actresses

Emma Thompson

I have just watched Sense and Sensibility with Emma Thompson's great audio commentary together with the producer Lindsay Doran and have been utterly enchanted once more! The commentary is witty and profoundly honest.
Emma is an outstanding actress that has reached international stardom, but yet never behaves like a movie star. She also is a highly capable writer, having received an oscar and a golden globe for her S & S screenplay. She also published her diary of the creation of S & S which is profoundly frank and moving.

My favourites of her movies: Sense and Sensibility (she did the big crying scene at the end 11 times in a row), Peter's Friends (playing a hilarious eccentric), Wit (playing an English professor faced with terminal cancer), Love Actually (the Joni Mitchell scene is THE best acting in the entire movie), Remains of the day
I have yet to see Howards End, which earned her her first oscar.

Alan Rickman

Talking about Emma, Alan immediately comes to ones mind (no, not Kennegh!). It is probably harder to find a movie they did NOT both star in than the other way round. They make a superb couple in Love Actually! He also directed Emma in the film The WInter Guest. And of course he makes a great Coronel Brandon in S & S. And can we imagine anyone else playing Snape? Oh, and don't get me started on the voice :)...

Hugh Laurie and Stephen Fry



They both did a lot of comedy work while at Cambridge, together with Emma Thompson, and later starred in the comedy series A bit of Fry an Laurie together. Hugh Laurie is an actor that knows and to outstanding by being subtle. He know is very successful as the main character in the tv series House, MD.
As for Fry, I think he is genius! I loved him in Peter's Friends. And the Harry Potter audio books are beyond brilliant.

Imelda Staunton


A very fine English actress. She hardly gets the leading roles, apart from Vera Drake, but always delivers quality. Yet again, she is deeply moving in Peter's Friends, plays the villain in Harry Potter and Freedom writers, and plays Hugh Laurie's wife twice, in Peter's Friends as well as Sense and Sensibility. That's probably also due to how great their difference in height looks...

Philip Glenister

Away from period drama (although he does that in Cranford) to police drama. The Gene Genie! Glenister plays Gene Hunt, a rough, but at times heroic DCI, in the series Life on Mars as well as the sequel Ashes to Ashes. His original but very rude quotes are unique. He achieves to behave apallingly badly, but yet to be very likable to his audience.

This list could be continued forever with Hugh Grant, Kate Winslet, Jude Law,...

BBC Radio 4 - not just for the middle aged!

... which is the title of a facebook group I recently joined. Actually, this is going to be a declaration of love. According to my hostmum, Radio 4 has "the best and the worst programmes on the radio", but personally, I just think it's brilliant!
Actually, the first thing I do in the morning when I enter the kitchen is turning the radio on. This is normally during the Today programme. It isn't my favourite, but sometimes it has highly fascinating items, such as the "six words life story", asking listener's to sum up their life in 6 words. This originated from a bet by Ernest Hemingway that he could tell a story in 6 words, which he did: For sale: Baby shoes, never worn.

My other favourites include:

Women's Hour: Every Day at 10:00 am. which is usually on during the time that I clean the kitchen. People complain about one of the hosts, Jane Garvey, but I like her. I have discovered some interestings things because they were featured on this show: Stacey Kent's Jazz music, the play "Shadowlands" because Janie Dee, the main actress, was on the show, which I saw twice and which has become my favourite play ever and the BBC 1 series "Ashes to Ashes", sequel to "Life on Mars" which I loved, as Keeley Hawes was on the show.

Desert Island Discs: Every Friday.
Every one knows the opening music. On this show hosted by Kirsty Young, the guest is asked to pick 8 records that he would take to a desert Island and explain why. Finally, he also has to pick a book (everyone gets the bible and the complete works of Shakespeare) and a Luxury.

Just a minute:
A hilarious show. The guests have to talk about a certain topic for a minute, The rules are: no hesitation, repetition or deviation. If one of the rules is broken, the other guests can press a buzzer and take over.

Book of the week:
Each week, one book is read. Usually, the choice is good and the radio adaptation high quality.

Afternoon play:
A different radio play every day. Wants me want to become a writer for radio drama :).

You and Yours:
A costumer affairs programme covering all sorts of topics. I like it because one of the hosts has the funniest voice ever :D. It sounds as if he is talking with a constant big grin :).

Thanks to Radio 4, I actually have an idea of what is going on in the world (which I never did ;)). I even gave up reading The Independent having tried for a while, because the radio covers the news so well.

Food in London: pros and cons

Pros:

- quality supermarkets: probably as an effect of the class system, there seems to exist a certain kind of grocery store ladder ranging from cheap stores such as Tesco (selling turkey with mold under the skin because the refrigerators broke down over night - no, I did not make this up!) to top-notch expensive brands like Waitrose, and the queen of supermarkets: Marks and Spencer. If one is willing to pay considerably higher prices, one can get considerably better quality which outshines any German supermarket.

- authentic Asian food: London, with it's high number of asian immigrants, has an Indian restaurant around every corner. Though varying in quality, one can find some really tasty food made by real indian chefs. It is not surprising that the Bangladeshi dish Chicken Tikka Masala is labelled the nation's favourite food, which can be found in the countless restaurants down the famous Brick Lane.
Needless to say that China Town offers some very tasty Chinese food, advertised by roasted duck hanging in the windows.
The current sushi trend has led to an number of chains and restaurants opening and it is part of every supermarket's read made food offers. Those, however, often consist of tuna out of a jar and smoked salmon, so it is advisable to look for the more authentic places. Or to try making some home made sushi; as there are 3 japanese grocery stores between brewer street and Piccadilly circus.


Cons:

- the "bread": The English seem to believe in the equation bread=toast, as one can buy any sort of grain combination from white to brown, but it is always the sponge kind of toast that can be completely squished flat...

to be continued...

Vidal Sassoon the 2nd

Looking for an emotional rollercoaster? Go get a haircut at the Vidal Sassoon Advanced Academy.
This time I took my 14-year old girl Alex with me as she wanted some purple in her hair and was generally interested getting a different look. Generelly, Alex has a quite funky stile so I figured she would suit the Academy...
So off we set to Bond Street for our appointment at 13:30.
Alex got some food from McDonald's as she didn't really have breakfast, so we ended up hurriedly stuffing chicken nuggets into our mouths in front of the building.
Then we went inside and both paid our 11 pound and went down into the classroom. I could tell from the names of the students on the mirrors that we didn't get what we had hoped for (japanese), but Spanish.
Alex also got moved away from me since she wanted color as well, so we couldn't talk any more.

to be continued

Freaky Tuesday

Another incident from Marie's and my walks home from school. Today we decided to re-enact Freaky Friday, thus changing roles. Practically, that meant that we swapped places on the pavement - I am usually walking next to the road as being near it frightens her. The following conversation (drawing on our daily routines...) developed:

Me (as Marie, with a high-pitched wailing voice): I'm huuungryyy (always her first line)!
Marie: You can eat at home. But then you have to do your maths homework and have a bath...
Me: I am huuuuungryyyy!
Marie: There is nothing I can do about that.
Me: I am tired. I can't walk that fast (holding her hand)!
Marie: Well, an I can't pull you all the way home!
(I put on a sulking face and dropped my head. Dramatic silence.)
Marie: You're not very talkative today (imitating precisely my tone).

At that point we burst out laughing and I quickly changed places with her, as the whole thing was feeling scarily real...

How to turn a walk home from school into an adventure

I'd like to share a game with you that Marie and I sometimes play on the way home from school. The idea is very simple: She closes her eyes and I lead her home. BUT we don't just walk down the streets, but travel to foreign places, mostly highly dangerous jungles. We encounter elephants (squeezing ourselves through their legs), monkeys dragging at Marie's jacket, deep rivers that we have to cross balancing over a log or a shaking chain bridge and over have to evade obstacles, bending low or jumping out of the way of passing herds.
Marie absolutely indulges in the game, playing her part very well, getting very excited with many Oh's and Ah's.
It is hilarious to watch other people on the streets watching us. Once a group of old ladies excitedly whispered "She has her eyes closed!" when I led Marie three times around a lamppost. Must be quite a strange sight, admittedly...:)

(picture taken in the park on the way to school)

"The Nutcracker" at the Royal Ballet

Is there a better way to spend a wet, gloomy and cold evening than to let oneself be absorbed into the magical world of the Nutcracker?
I was quite in a rush as I raced to Covent Garden from Leicester square in my horribly uncomfortable high heels (bought for my oxford interview knowing that they were killing me but were my best option) in the rain without an umbrella.
But once one has entered the Royal Opera House, one seems to have left all this discomfort behind the doorstep.
I left my coat at the cloakroom and made my way to my standing place in Stalls circle right. I could not have made a better choice! The view is fabulous due to fact that the auditorium is generelly not the bombastic (the orchestra stalls seem really small compared to e.g. the munich state opera house or the Berlin opera. We were standing behind armrest right behind the people sitiing paying 80 pound for their seat having the same view.

The nutcracker is probably one of the most well-known traditional ballets. The beautiful score by Tchaikovsky is just perfect.
The stage design was magnificent - quite changes, impressive props, a huge christmas tree in act one, a lovely living room scenery where the family celebrates christmas eve and a breathtaking palace for the sugar plum fairy.
The costumes were equally traditional with incredible attention to detail.

The performance itself was first class as well. Quite a few children were involved who showed impressive professionalism, Drosselmeyer did quite a few stunning magic tricks and the different dances were sometimes funny (the chinese dance) as well as simply beautiful in their perfection. I had seen the leading pair (sugar plum fairy/prince) in Romeo and Juliet and was impressed once more.

The audience was sadly just as stiff as always, literally ceasing to applaud when the curtain closed for the first time, but the dancers reappeared so quickly that there was no real chance to escape clapping - very clever. Funnily the dancer of Clara got a far bigger flower bouquet than the sugar plum fairy, Roberta Marquez.

To sum it up, a magical, lovely evening that again demonstrated the world class standard of the Royal Ballet.

PS. I definately recommend the hand-made icecream sold during the interval - the best strawberry icecream i've ever had and apparently chocolate is supposed to be even better!

(picture shows the snowflakes)