Author: samantha

The Dementia Diaries – Chapter Nineteen – It’s Only Going To Get Worse

On By samanthaIn THE DEMENTIA DIARIESLeave a comment

I’m sorry for the rather depressing title of this post but there is no point pretending life is all sunshine and rainbows when it really isn’t. I went to my parents’ house on Sunday and noticed that the wastepaper basket in their bathroom was overflowing with, what looked like clean cotton wool balls, hundreds of them. There were unopened bags of cotton wool balls on every surface, maybe twenty of them. I had arrived at 11am and Dad told me that Mum was getting dressed. I vacuumed everywhere and put some washing on the line, there is always washing. Aftern an hour had passed I went upstairs to check on Mum. She was in the bathroom dabbing her face with two cotton wool balls which she dropped into the wastepaper basket. Then she took out two more balls and dabbed at the same place on her face. I didn’t want to startle her but I couldn’t make her hear me. I watched her doing this about five times then I felt guilty for spying on her so I tapped her on the shoulder. As usual, she seemed irritated by my visit and immediately asked me if I was going home. I tried to gently coax her downstairs but she shrugged me off and kept dabbing at her face with more and more cotton wool. Dad came upstairs and led her away to eat breakfast even though it was now lunchtime.

Today I picked up some medication for them. When I pulled up on their driveway I noticed a woman watching me. She came over and said, and I quote, “I knew your mum from church. I have been meaning to pop in and say hello for years but I’m always too busy I’m afraid” I have written before about how the vicar has never once bothered to call in on my parents despite Mum being a regular churchgoer before dementia and here we have another useless churchy person. Sorry, no offence meant but honestly, how was I meant to respond? I mumbled “have a good Christmas” and knocked on Mum and Dad’s door. Mum looked unbelievably frail, as usual dressed in clothes more suitable for August than December. She won’t wear a thick cardigan or jumper so the heating has to be on full blast all day.

My oven is broken and it is unlikely that it will be replaced in time for Christmas now, it is an unusual size and British Gas are going to source one for me. I am already dreading cooking Christmas lunch at my parents’ house with Mum telling me to go home every two minutes and demanding to know what I am doing. Even though I am fifty six years old, being shouted at by my mother still upsets me, I can’t explain it. Mum has shrunk to a tiny figure but she can be very intimidating and will stare angrily at me without blinking or looking away. I have actually lost sleep over it which is ridiculous. It will be eleven years on Boxing Day since I first noticed Mum asking the same question over and over again. I am feeling pretty trepidatious about what is around the corner. How much worse can things get?

Thank you for reading

Samantha

Cover Photo by Pawel Czerwinski on Unsplash

Yuka – Why Am I Putting This On My Body?

On By samanthaIn HEALTHLeave a comment

The other morning I watched my husband roll out of bed and get ready to leave the house in about five minutes. It takes me at least an hour to do the same thing. It started me thinking about the multitude of personal care products that perform part of my morning ritual. Are they really helping me to stay looking young and smelling fresh or do the multitude of chemicals that most of them contain cause me harm? I had recently read in a book about dementia prevention that coated dental floss, a product that I have used every day for thirty five years, contains chemicals, such as Teflon, that can contribute towards cognitive decline.

A friend called me and asked which foundation I use. I told her Estee Lauder Double Wear. She asked if I had the box. No, why was she asking? She said that her daughter had recommended an app called YUKA. The app enables you to scan barcodes for almost all your food and personal hygiene products. Yuka then provides a detailed breakdown of the ingredients and rates the product from 0-100 and uses terms such as Bad, Poor, Good and Excellent. The app then suggests more healthy alternatives. There is no advertising on Yuka and brands cannot pay to have their products recommended, the information the user gets is all derived from independent testing.

Within about thirty seconds of finishing speaking to my friend I had downloaded the app and was frantically scanning everything in sight. I must warn you, it is highly addictive.

Here is how my morning list, including my breakfast, scored. My dental floss had a bar code but wouldn’t scan unfortunately.

  • Marks and Spencer Restoring Hand Wash – Poor
  • Sanex Shower Gel – Good
  • Garnier Vitamin C Body Superfood- Good
  • Garnier Soothing Botanical Cleansing Lotion -Good
  • Coco Mademoiselle Deodorant – Bad
  • Colgate Maximum Cavity Protection Toothpaste -Poor
  • Corsodyl Daily Mouthwash – Bad
  • This Works Perfect Cleavage & neck Serum – Poor
  • John Frieda Pro-Filler Shampoo & Conditioner – Poor
  • Boots No 7 Restore & Renew Day Cream – Bad
  • Chanel Chance Eau Tendre EDT – Good
  • Manicurist Active Shine Illumine & Repare – Excellent
  • Marks and Spencer High Fibre Granola – Excellent
  • Vaseline Vanilla Daydream Lip Therapy – Poor

Now this long list does not even include my make up products. As most cosmetic products are boxed, the bar code does not appear on the product itself . I did scan my new Charlotte Tilbury lip liner which scored 11/100 – Bad. My friend is going to take herself off to John Lewis or somewhere similar and scan the various foundations. YUKA will also suggest alternative products as she does this. She has already switched shampoo to Ogx Thick & Full Collagen shampoo which scored 79/100 and a rating of Excellent. I noticed that Garnier products scored highly so I may try one of their tinted moisturisers. Also, the Seoulsista serum infused masks that I often use both on my face and hands scored as Good. You can buy these in Oliver Bonas along with the Manicurist range of nail products (score, Excellent) . My expensive Chanel deodorant, that I bought by mistake thinking it was my usual body spray, was disappointing and joining this as worst of the bunch was my Boots No 7 moisturiser that scored 0/100, especially annoying as I have just purchased a new jar.

My husband and son have eczema so I have always been careful in my choices when buying personal hygiene products for them but have never given much thought to the chemicals in my own make up, body lotions or shampoos. With, YUKA, it is easy to make more informed decisions about what we are putting in and on our bodies. I am going to take it to the supermarket to tweak my weekly food shop. YUKA is a free app, although a premium version is available, so there is no excuse not to get scanning.

Thank you for reading

Samantha

Autumn Acquisitions

On By samanthaIn HEALTH, SHOPPINGLeave a comment

Although I am persevering with decluttering my entire house it is inevitable that sometimes I need to buy more “stuff”. My daughter’s six year old iPhone was becoming increasingly unreliable which was worrying me as she depends on it for everything. Train tickets, ID, payment methods etc, it’s all on her phone. I decided to upgrade my own phone to an iPhone 16 and gave her my two year old iPhone 13. I resent upgrading my phone, I never seem to notice any difference in performance and it just seems like a colossal waste of nearly nine hundred pounds. Also my new phone needed a different charger – ugh!

Of course then we both needed new phone cases. I had seen Burga continually coming up on my Facebook advertising feed, probably as my phone had been spying on my conversations about phone cases, so I took a look at their website. They have literally hundreds and hundreds of lovely designs but they are fairly expensive at around £45 each for the more basic styles. A couple of days after initially browsing a “buy two get two free ” offer appeared. Slightly annoying that it wasn’t a BOGOF as who actually needs two phone cases? I eventually chose two designs and so did my daughter. I went for a bright, citrus case and a white rabbit design and my daughter, for some reason known only to her, went for lobsters and sardines. The cases are shipped from Lithuania and the tracking is not regularly updated. After three weeks I had given up hope of ever receiving the cases and contacted Burga requesting a refund. They told me that my parcel had been returned to their warehouse and they shipped it back out. Just two days later it arrived. The packaging is minimal which is refreshing. All four cases came in cotton drawstring pouches which could be reused, I keep my power bank in mine. The phone cases themselves are really excellent quality and very attractive. The have an attractive glossy finish and the colours are very sharp. Most importantly, they also appear to offer a good level of protection.

I also treated myself to some more Boots No 7 Youthful Replenishing Facial Oil. When I first received this product as part of a gift set I didn’t think it would suit my skin but I have really been impressed. I mix a single drop with my foundation to stop it looking cakey and I use a couple of drops under my moisturiser most days. I also bought a new lipstick by Revlon in a nude shade called Bare Affair It is a subtle, every day colour but I have found the formula to be quite drying despite being infused with vitamin E and avocado oil . Lastly I bought some Double Serum by Clarins. The jury is still out on this product, I find that it is easily absorbed but I have not noticed any results. I find that too much comes out with each pump of the dispenser which seems wasteful as it it expensive at £65 for 30ml.

So a little bit of a spendy month but, on the whole, I have been pleased with my purchases.

Thank you for reading

Samantha

The Dementia Diaries – Chapter Eighteen – Hospitals and Home Visits

On By samanthaIn THE DEMENTIA DIARIESLeave a comment

It’s been some months since I wrote a Demetria Diaries posts, we are still muddling along. My dad has employed a carer from an agency to come in twice a week for my mum. Unfortunately Mum won’t really allow her to do much but Hannah, as the lady is called, does wash her legs and sometimes Mums hair.

Things have deteriorated considerably in the past couple of months. Dad had a corneal graft some years ago and his yearly check up at Kings Hospital in London was approaching. We arranged hospital transport and agreed that, as happens every year, I would sit with Mum while he went to the appointment. When I arrived at my parents house my Dad looked so ill and frail that I couldn’t let him go into London without me so my lovely daughter literally ran round to their house to stay with Mum while I went in the ambulance. Dad has had some stomach trouble lately but a CT scan and blood tests haven’t found a cause for this. The clinicians decided Dad is too frail for a colonoscopy. On this particular day he looked pale and exhausted.

Kings is a huge hospital to navigate and we were kept waiting for hours. The eye clinic receptionist seemed annoyed that we were keeping the return hospital transport waiting and kept asking irritably when we would be finished – as though we had any control over the situation. You would think that the reception staff would take one look at Dad and wonder if it was really reasonable to keep an elderly patient, who had travelled a long way, waiting for hours after their appointment time. I could see Dad was becoming quite anxious about not being able to get home so I was pleased I had gone along with him. I told him we could pay for a taxi if need be. Eventually the consultant saw Dad, said all was well with his eyes and we made our way to the hospital transport hub. We were told nothing was available as it was so now after 6pm but that they would organise a taxi, at no cost to us. While we were waiting a couple from our village came over to say hello, what a coincidence. I didn’t know them but they recognised Dad and asked how he and Mum are getting on. I was hoping they would offer us a lift home but they, like me, didn’t fancy driving in London and had taken the train. Dad was too tired to walk to the station and take a long train journey, it is SO many stops. Eventually our transport, a shiny black Jaguar SUV, arrived and after a slow drive through City traffic we got home. My daughter said my mum had been a bit of a handful but she managed admirably.

Since then Mum has spent most days asleep in her armchair waking only to eat and, if she gets there in time, use the loo. She is always cold, the central heating is permanently on and she is wrapped in a fleece blanket. Mum does not welcome visitors and continually tells anyone other than Dad to go home.

My parents’ lovely next door neighbour died in his care home after a bout of pneumonia, he was ninety four and had advanced Alzheimer’s disease. Dad was very upset by this, Mum oblivious. This mild mannered, gentle man had to go into care after becoming aggressive towards his wife, what a cruel ending for him.

Mum has a nasty eye infection at the moment complete with an enormous stye. Her third infection is as many months, the GP has visited her at home a few times now. She continually says she wants to see her father who died in 1974. She is unsure of who I am. The speed of her decline is accelerating. Despite this, she gets up every day and gets dressed in smart trousers and her usual little T shirt and cotton cardigan. I have seen first hand the enormous physical and mental effort that this takes but my parents are not the sort of people who have ever sat around in their night clothes They just get on with things without complaining. They eat breakfast at a table my dad has laid with a cloth, table mats and cups and saucers. Dad says he sometimes feels he is running a hotel for one. I really admire them both. I think my Mum is still with us because of the devotion and care my Dad has showed her.

Thank you for reading

Samantha

Cover Photo by Pawel Czerwinski on Unsplash

This week I have been…

On By samanthaIn GOING OUTLeave a comment

Reading – None of This is True by Lisa Jewell

I have read most of Lisa Jewell’s previous books including Then She Was Gone which I reviewed here. None of This is True is her best book yet in my opinion, as soon as I began reading I was completely hooked. The book tells the story of “birthday twins” Alix, a glamorous podcaster who appears to live a dream life in a huge house with her wealthy husband and two children and Josie, a machinist, who lives a more modest life with one of her two daughters and her much older husband, Walter. Josie and Alix have never met until they happen to be celebrating their forty-fifth birthdays on the same night in the same gastro-pub. Josie introduces herself to Alix in the toilets with the phrase “I’m your birthday twin”. The women discover that they were born in the same hospital and share a moment of connection. Josie, however, isn’t content with just a moment and pitches an idea for a new podcast to Alix. Josie appears to have been the victim in a controlling relationship and Alix wants to help her tell her story. Nathan, Alix’s husband is not so keen on her new friendship, especially as it seems like Josie is becoming a permanent fixture. Thrillers are ten a penny on Kindle but Jewell’s writing is in a different league. Her ability to reel the reader in and weave a story together is really something else. Her books rely on an aura of menace and darkness and the story will stay with you after you have finished reading , you have been warned!

Watching – Your Friends and Neighbors – Apple TV

I don’t have an Apple TV subscription but a friend told me Your Friends and Neighbors is a must watch so I signed up for a free trial. Starring Jon Hamm as Andrew Cooper (famous for Mad Men) known as Coop, and Amanda Peet (Dirty John Two, The Betty Broderick Story) as his estranged wife, Mel. The show makes for glamorous and gripping viewing. Coop runs a hedge fund for a private company and, after an ill-advised one night stand with a younger employee, is fired, losing his capital account and everything he had spent twenty years building He looks for another position but his arrogant attitude alienates everyone and his contract had a clause which meant that he could not bring any of his previous clients with him (or something like that!) Coop’s lifestyle is lavish to say the least. He is used to spending $60,000 on tables at charity events, his house which Mel now lives in with her lover, Nick, has its own basketball court. When Mel and Coop’s son gets into trouble at school Mel casually pledges a quarter of a million dollars to keep him from being expelled. My favourite character, Coop’s business manager, Barney played by Hoon Lee, is struggling to keep up with his wife’s constant demands for more. He says that they have rooms in their house that they never go in yet they are spending money they don’t have to build more rooms and fill them up with shit that they won’t use. Consumerism and keeping up with the Joneses at its finest.

Coop needs to keep earning, as well as his two children he is responsible for his adult sister, Ali, who is struggling with her mental health, He is a fundamentally good guy who loves his famil. Coop’s plan to keep the money coming in is unorthodox to say the least and he gets into more than his fair share of scrapes. By the end of the season I was totally emotionally invested. The actors playing Mel and Coop’s children, Tori and Hunter (Donovan Colan and Isabel Gravitt) are wonderful and I found myself desperately hoping that everything would work out for their sakes. My only criticism of the show is that the styling of the women was so safe and boring, they all looked the same. Glossy brunette hair, cashmere sweaters in neutral tones, accessories by The Row and Hermes. It would have been nice to have seen more interesting fashion choices.

Listening to – Flesh and Code on Itunes

Flesh and code came up in my suggestions as it is presented by Suruthi Bala and Hannah Maguire the young women behind the hugely successful RedHanded true crime podcast. There are six episodes and some bonus content. Flesh and Code tells the story of an app called Replika which people use to create an AI companion. The app, which is still available, describes its companions as an “AI companion who cares, Always here to listen and talk. Always on your side”

The story centers around Travis who creates Lily Rose, who he goes on to have virtual sex with and even marry. No matter that he already has a wife, Jackie. Travis tells us how he is in love with Lily Rose and I thought how painful it must have been for his real life wife to hear that. There is a side story of Russian intrigue and some very sad developments in Travis’ family.

One Replika encourages its human to go to Buckingham Palace and assassinate the Queen, another encourages a human to send nude photos. People all over the world are in virtual relationships with their Replikas but one day the coding is changed and the sexy conversations stop, the AI become formal and careful about what they say. Travis and those like him are devastated and start an online campaign to have their former “personalities” restored. I didn’t really enjoy this story, I felt too sorry for Travis’s real wife who seemed to have been side lined in favour of Lily Rose who you just know had been created with big boobs and a skin-tight cat suit. Is AI ever a good substitute for real human companionship or is it dangerous tool? You will have to make your own mind up.

Thank you for reading,

Samantha

Cover Photo by Aaron Burden on Unsplash

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A Day Out in London – The Cartier Exhibition at the V & A

On By samanthaIn GOING OUTLeave a comment

If you enjoy looking at beautiful jewellery then the Cartier Exhibition at the Victoria and Albert Museum is a must see. It is showing until Sunday 26th November, tickets are around £25 each. I love the V & A, it is such beautiful building and it is especially lovely in the warmer months when you can sit outdoors and have a coffee or lunch.

It was in 1847 that Louis-François Cartier took over his master’s workshop in  Paris and later passed it on to his son, Alfred. His three grandsons, Louis, Pierre and Jacques really made Cartier the spectacular success that it remains today. Cartier must surely be the most glamorous jewellers on the planet and the go-to for real Royalty and the silver screen variety.

The exhibition was heaving with visitors and we had to queue the whole way round. There are some boards up detailing some of the Cartier family history. It did make me laugh that some women (nearly all the visitors seemed to be women) were speaking loudly about their own jewellery and the trials they had faced getting it insured, it was definitely an opportunity for a bit of one-upmanship! The first display we came to was full of diamond brooches, one of them was particularly beautiful, so delicate that it appeared to be made of lace rather than diamonds. See my cover photo.

I always associate Cartier with timepieces and my favourite items included in this exhibition were the gorgeous clocks. I could just picture them being on the desk in some elegant study. There were also display cases full of watches, notably their most famous Tank style.

There is a whole sparkling room devoted to tiaras, most of them commissioned for brides. All are dripping in diamonds, some are very ornate and some very simple. There are cards detailing which lucky woman wore each piece and at which occasion.

One of the bracelets featured The Star of The South Diamond Bracelet (pictured on the left below) is set with a diamond reportedly found in 1853 in Brazil by an enslaved woman. As a reward she was granted her freedom and a pension, what a sad story. It is so sparkly that it proved impossible to photograph clearly. The sapphires featured in the middle photo below are 311 and 478 carats, mined in Sri Lanka The necklace was sole to King Ferdinand of Romania as a gift for his wife, Queen Marie.

Cartier is known as ‘the jeweller of kings and the king of jewellers’. A great deal of the jewellery displayed is owned by the British Royal family but a lot was also on loan from wealthy families from the Middle East. The Duchess of Windsor has an entire cabinet devoted to pieces she owns. Imagine having the means to commission anything that takes your fancy. Although I enjoyed looking at all the fabulous pieces it was a little disappointing that there weren’t more photographs on display of it actually being worn. There was a screen showing short clips from films such as High Society and Sunset Boulevard but I would have liked to have seen how the jewellery was worn and styled, especially the wedding tiaras.

Thank you for reading

Samantha

A Day Out in London – Flowers – Flora in Contemporary Art at The Saatchi Gallery

On By samanthaIn GOING OUTLeave a comment

This was my first visit to The Saatchi Gallery. I travelled there by train then Tube, getting off at Sloane Square, it is about a two minute walk from the station. The Flowers – Flora in Contemporary Art exhibition is jam-packed and full of surprises, over five hundred pieces are included. The first exhibits include Primavera by Sandro Botticelli and Irises by Van Gough but the poor lighting did rather fail to do them justice but this improves after the first room . The exhibition features photography, sculpture, book and record artwork, cinema, painting etc. There are wallpaper and textile samples by Sanderson and William Morris and etchings by Elizabeth Blackadder. There is also a large print of Wordsworth’s I wandered Lonely as a Cloud.

My cover photo features the real show-stopper, La Fleur Morte, by Rebecca Louise Law. Over one hundred thousand dried flowers and seeds strung together on copper wire to form a stunningly beautiful cascading installation. To me it looked like something out of a book of fairy tales. It was worth visiting this exhibition for this enormous piece alone. I cannot imagine the logistics of transporting and displaying such a delicate work of art and the dedication required to complete such a time consuming masterpiece.

In a room featuring photographs and sculptures, which felt a little bare, there was a quirky sculpture by Joanne Grogan, Best Chair. This was was one of my favourite pieces, made of wood and ceramic. In the same room there was displayed a large, mesmerising, mechanical flower sculpture, The Machinery of Enchantment (2025) by William Darrell made with a 3D printer.

Pieces by fashion icons Mary Quant and Vivienne Westwood are on display as is exquisite flower-themed jewellery by Buccellati. An elegant wedding dress by Daniel Roseberry for Schiaparelli was the star of the fashion section. There are black and white prints of people covered in botanical tattoos drawn freehand by Daniel The Gardener, There are a few Andy Warhol pieces and three silver flower display sculptures on pedestals by Ann Carrington which, upon closer inspection, are ingeniously made of cutlery.

In the room featuring music, film and literature there were glass displays of books with flowers featured on the covers and record covers galore. The Cure, Joyce Carol Oates, Prince, the list of authors and musicians using floral imagery to represent their work is endless. A scene from the film Midsomer by director Aster plays. I haven’t seen the film but a beautiful young girl covered in flowers is featured and she looks terrified, like some sort of sacrificial offering.

The exhibition is extensive and entertaining. It did feel a little disjointed at times but I really enjoyed it. If your pockets are deep enough of course some of the pieces are available for purchase. Otherwise the gift shop sells some lovely items.

If you visit this exhibition wearing floral clothing until 20th august you will be admitted for half price although you can’t then book online

Thank you for reading

Samantha

Best CHair by Joanne Grogan, Fashion by Vivienne Westwood, The Machinery of Enchantment (2025) by William Darrell

Arrangement_ 593 by Tony Matelli, Botanical tattoos by Daniel The Gardener and a detail from La Fleur Morte, by Rebecca Louise Law

Things That Get On My Nerves – Possibly One in a Series !!😠

On By samanthaIn FAMILYLeave a comment

Maybe it is just me but, as I have got older I feel I am becoming a little less easy-going. This week a lot of people and situations have got on my nerves so I shall have a vent here.

Firstly, I sold two items on my local Facebook Marketplace page. A huge soft toy and a new Pandora Charm. Within minutes of my listings being approved I received messages from two women saying they’d like the items. I arranged times with them to collect and waited in. And waited, and waited and waited. Neither of them turned up or replied to my messages. This has happened to me so many times. Why waste other people time like this? Don’t they feel in the least bit guilty? A couple of years ago I was giving away a hamster cage and the same woman didn’t turn up three times. My husband was cross with me for letting her mess me around and still have the item. Another time I was giving away an enormous framed picture. After saying she’d like it a woman said she couldn’t collect and could I drop it off? Like an idiot I set off in search of her house, which literally didn’t exist. She told me she lived at number 110 but there was no such number in the street. I pulled over from outside 109, messaged her and she replied with ten laughing emojis , she had given me the wrong street name. Hilarious! So then she told me it was a block of flats on a corner, which corner was a mystery, there were two corners and two blocks of flats. Exasperated, I parked and asked her to walk to my car. She told me she couldn’t as she had two sleeping children (I later discovered after snooping on her profile they were about fifteen years old) so I lugged this heavy picture to her flat. She opened the door in her pyjamas, it was four o’clock in the afternoon. What a mug I am. I got home and blocked her .

Today I took a pile of freshly washed and ironed clothes to a charity shop on my local high street. I have a rule that, if I am going into town I whizz around my house having a quick declutter before leaving home. I got to the counter and the man behind the till was reading a magazine. I asked where to leave my donation and he just said “nope”. He didn’t even glance up. I asked what he meant and he grunted “we’re full”. Charming. Fortunately the next shop was grateful for my freshly laundered items.

Then there’s the person who, in an almost empty car park, parked so close to me that I had to scramble over the passenger seat to get into my vehicle, what’s that about? Walking along our street my daughter stepped into the road to make room for an elderly woman to pass. Instead of thanking her the elderly woman gave my daughter a filthy look. Years ago my oldest son would accompany me to drop my daughter off at nursery and every morning he would open a door for the same woman and her pushchair. She never once smiled at him or said thank you. After this happened a dozen times I told him to let her struggle with the door herself. Maybe not the best example but she deserved it.

All these little annoyances add up don’t they? I need to remember that using Facebook Marketplace is never a good idea and that some people have no manners. Deep breaths!

Thank you for reading

Samantha

Cover photo by Nik on Unsplash

Six, The Musical and Dinner in Covent Garden

On By samanthaIn GOING OUTLeave a comment

I had been hearing such good things from friends about Six The Musical so I decided to go and see it for myself. The show is on at the Vaudeville Theatre in the Strand. I paid approximately £130 for two tickets for a Saturday evening performance. We were seated in the upper circle, the seats couldn’t really have been better.

We caught the train from our local station to Charing Cross and then had a mooch around Covent Garden. Most of the shops were closed but there was still an buzzing atmosphere with , street performers such as contortionists, magicians and musicians. We went to Buns and Buns and had a steak dinner with a large glass of wine which was delicious.

The first, and only negative, thing I will say about Six is that it is unnecessarily loud, so loud in fact I did actually worry about damaging my hearing when it started. The show was written in 2017 by Cambridge University students Toby Marlow and Lucy Moss and was first performed by the university’s musical theatre group at the Edinborough Fringe Festival. Six is the tale of Henry the Eighth’s six wives, all told through song and dance. It has a similar fast-paced, high-energy vibe to Hamilton. The performers playing the wives enter the stage wearing various sexy interpretations of Tudor costume. All the musicians are women too, it is definitely a Girl Power show.

Each “wife” sings a number summarising how she met Henry and what fate befell her. Some of the tales are extremely sad. Tickets to Six would be a great gift idea for anyone studying history and I learned some facts that I hadn’t known before. Ann of Cleves was chosen by Henry after he saw a portrait of her by the German artist Hans Holbein. When Henry saw Ann in the flesh he declared she was ugly and their marriage was eventually annulled. She was luckier than Ann Boleyn and Catherine Howard though who famously lost their heads. Ann of Cleve’s musical number is very night-clubbish and there is a strong element of fun and humour throughout the whole musical. There is strobe lighting at a number of points in the show. My favourite performance was from Thao Therese Nguyen, the actress playing Anne Boleyn who somehow managed to stand out on a stage crowded with female talent.

Unusually, the show lasts for about an hour an a quarter, there is no interval. To be honest, I wish more productions were like this. I imagine the theatre loses a lot of revenue though as theatre-goers aren’t buying drinks in their bar or purchasing merchandise. We had sped through some really interesting herstory, pardon the pun, and were back home by 9.30am. A pretty perfect evening.

Thank you for reading

Samantha

A Trip to Copenhagen – Part Two

On By samanthaIn GOING OUTLeave a comment

We decided to visit Rosenborg Castle on the second day of our trip to Copenhagen. We booked tickets the same morning via the official website. The castle staff are very strict and won’t let you enter even a minute early. The castle and its surroundings are so beautiful. A little like at Buckingham Palace, soldiers march up and down outside and woe betide anyone who gets in their way. One member of the castle staff screamed to a toddler to get out of their way, it was a little harsh but the little boy’s dad didn’t seem too perturbed. Inside there is so much to see including portraits of various members of Danish royalty, many of whom were a bit… strange looking. There’s a whole room dedicated to glass wear but it would have been helpful to have an audio guide so we could know exactly what we were looking at. The Renaissance castle is home to the Danish crown jewels which we didn’t see because my daughter needed the loo, which is outside, and we could not get back in. It was a hot day and, to be honest we had had enough of the stuffiness. The castle is located in perhaps the most beautiful spot in Copenhagen, next to the Kings Gardens where you can go for a stroll afterwards. The cover image of this post is the view from the castle windows.

A sign for the Kings Gardens, A soldier outside Rosenborg Castle, The Glass Cabinet, Rosenborg Castle

The following morning my dad called to say that Mum had been taken ill and that the GP had called an ambulance. I spent several hours worrying but my brother and his wife live in the same town as the hospital and they were able to go and help. Fortunately Mum wasn’t admitted and is now recovering from an infection. As you can imagine, it did rather blight the day but, after I knew that Mum was going to be alright and I didn’t need to fly home, we went to Tivoli Gardens. This is the theme park that inspired Disney World and the second oldest theme park in the world, opening in 1843. It is a must if you are visiting the city with young people. There are more than thirty rides which I am sure my daughter would have loved had she been with friends but we paid around £20 each for entrance to the park, not including the rides. We then paid an additional £12 to go into the aquarium . There are numerous food stands, cafes and bars dotted around and plenty of places to sit and relax. The atmosphere is just lovely and the gardens are very pretty.

Photos from Tivoli Gardens, the aquarium, me trying not to worry about my mum, the gardens

On our final full day we visited the Botanical Gardens and the Natural History Museum . There was an icy wind and it was drizzling so we didn’t stay in the gardens for long. They are free to enter but you do need to pay to go into the Palm House. There is a very charming old building in the gardens which houses the Pioneer Centre for Artificial Intelligence research, an odd stetting for something so futuristic. The centre is not open to the public. The museum was well worth a visit. There is currently a wildlife photography exhibition showing which we really enjoyed. There is a whole room of fossils, stuffed animals, tusks and shells that visitors can touch and there was a children’s workshop taking place. It did make me sad to see the stuffed tiger, polar bear and other creatures but they have all been long-deceased. The museum staff were all very friendly and enthusiastic. Afterwards we went to the farmer’s market opposite our hotel for the most delicious (and pricey) sandwiches. We ate dinner at an Italian restaurant, again the meal wasn’t fantastic.

Our flight wasn’t until 9.30pm on Friday so we went into town to have pastries and coffee for breakfast at a bakery called BUKA. Afterwards we returned to Nyhavn Harbour and took another boat trip but, like most things in life, it wasn’t as enjoyable the second time. Then we headed into town for a look around the shops, a light lunch and an ice-cream. We finished our trip back at the King’s Gardens where my daughter fell asleep on a park bench, a few passers-by gave me very disapproving looks. Then back to our hotel who had arranged our taxi to the airport. Our flight was delayed by an hour or so and we were very pleased to be home when we let ourself in at 1am.

We loved Copenhagen, I had no idea there was so much to do and see. At no point was I worried about pickpockets or phone snatchers and the city is so clean. If you are thinking of taking a solo trip it feels like a very safe destination. Highly recommended!

Thank you for reading,

Samantha

Breakfast at BUKKA bakery