The set up
It is Thursday evening, just after dinner on a late June somewhat maudlin summer evening. I’m listening to 80s music inspired by Culture Club on Spotify. I’ve just finished a lovely mushroom risotto I prepared for myself which will be soon followed by my new limoncello aperitif. All through this evening since I finished work, I’ve been reminiscing of Positano in the Amalfi coast and the beauty and happy moments I’ve experienced in two trips that I’ve been there. I’m feeling nostalgic for that area and its significance to me as each time I visited it was totally different to each other in terms of mood and circumstances.
Courtesy of the glorious summer weather we are having this year in little Blighty, I’ve been having some lovely evenings this week. I spent summer solstice at the Heath with my sweet neighbour and yesterday I had a picnic with my lover. I’ve cherished walking so much on each occasion with a bright sunset for company and indulged in the brilliance of my companions. Although I’ve now been living over a year in London, I still cannot believe that I’m blessed with such lovely outings in places where I dreamed to be, ever since I’ve set my foot in the country fifteen years ago.
It was my lover who asked me yesterday, unexpectedly, how come I’ve not written a blog for a while. You see, I shared with him an old blog describing a walk at the Heath at summer solstice back in 2019. I remembered the experience and wanted to relive it by reading my blog. As we were sitting with my lover yesterday at Hyde Park with a view of Kensington Palace, I pondered for a minute about why I haven’t written a blog. I couldn’t tell why really. It isn’t because of lack of interesting walking experiences to share. There’s been plenty of those taking place.
In the end after thinking about it for a little while, it occurred to me that it is because of lack of energy to express myself in writing. Yet tonight, my memoirs of summers spent in Italy brought to me the need to write.
Dreaming of walking with my love in Positano
I am trying to figure out what brought about my walking down memory lane to Positano. Was it the conversation with my brother about how expensive it would be to go for a few days to Positano on my own to get a small break this July? Or was it the discussion with my lover about the House of Gucci film, which led me to talk about fashion and my love for the Moschino knitwear dresses which reminded me of the Moschino little boutique in Positano?
The conversation with my brother led me to buy the Limoncello. The conversation with my lover led me to dreaming of walking with him in Positano this evening! As I was looking outside of the window in my kitchen while waiting for the risotto to cook, my little pot of basil on the windowsill travelled my mind and led me to dream of an evening in Positano. I closed my eyes and I dreamed the following …
My lover and I were walking back from the centre of Positano towards Hotel Maricanto. The sunset was behind us as we were walking the uphill road towards the hotel. As usual, we passed the little Moschino boutique on the way, which has changed since the morning the dress on the shop window. We arrived just as the sun was setting behind the hills of Montepulciano and sat for dinner at the hotel terrace under the lemon trees. In front of us we had the view of the bay of Napoli, with the cosmopolitan Capri in the far distance. In my dream I could feel the warmth of my love’s hug and arms around me and the serenity of the beautiful place of this little paradise on earth. I could smell the flavours of fresh calamari and octopus grilled and served with lemon wedges, accompanied by tomato, basil and mozzarella salad and a small carafe of Montepulciano wine. As the sun set, the stars started appearing in the horizon and the air was filled with the essence of jasmine and the chanting of the cicadas who were hiding in the bougainvilleas.
Next in my dream was the taste of a double espresso, pistachio ice cream and limoncello aperitif. In the last part of the dream we were walking down the steps after dinner towards the beach for a stroll by the moonlight before going back to the room to sleep. The sound of the kitchen timer indicating that it was time for me to check my risotto broke the spell of my reverie and brought me back to my London pad. With my risotto cooked to perfection, the thyme in the pot winked at me conspiratorially and encouraged me to replicate some of the Italian flavours in my plate. Half dreaming, half awake I enjoyed my dinner and revelled at the magic of transporting myself mentally to an imaginary mini-break at the coast of Amalfi.
Escaping temporarily in my mind only
You may wonder why not actually make the above dream become real in the same way that my dream of life in London materialised. Well, the truth is that this summer is a bit strange and not possible to make this dream come true. Booking a holiday has become somehow tiny prohibitive as places like Positano are fully booked and extremely expensive. I hear on the radio and read in the news that there is going to be travel chaos with airlines either going on strike or cancelling flights. Airports are having major issues with staff shortages, with examples of passengers left stranded with no luggage or waiting for hours to get through security checks. All of this, plus not any days of leave from work left, means that for this summer I’ll be walking in Italy in my dreams only.
The above reasons are the practical side and excuses of not planning a small break somewhere abroad. The actual truth is that my heart and mind are very tired this summer. In my previous blogs I’ve mostly concentrated in describing the better parts of my physical and mental walks. There’s been quite a few challenges this year though, which have absorbed my energy to walk both physical and mentally. So even if my wish is to do so, in reality, I don’t have the energy for it . For the first time in my life, it seems that I need to try and push myself to rest and slow down for a bit so that I can recover my energy levels. This is something that I’m struggling with as I am so used to being full of life and energy so taking it easy doesn’t come easy to me! As the lyrics of a song from the Sound of Music say, “how do you catch a moonbeam and pin it down?”
Truth be told my lover, although he cannot join me this year, he has offered to set me up on a trip for a few days to escape from everything and anything. But with my big adventure to Australia coming up in September, I told him and myself that I can wait until then for the big escape!!! Besides if the weather keeps being so lovely through the summer, I will have lots of little bits here and there to make it feel like a holiday in London. This beautiful city is full of surprises and new discoveries to make which will make me happy and bring back my energy levels.
Some lovely surprises
Speaking of surprises in the last couple of weeks I walked into two exceptional London surprises. The first one was a walk through the Infinity Mirrors exhibition of YaYoi Kusama at Tate Modern. On a lovely and sunny Sunday morning a couple of weeks ago, I met with my love very early at Tate Modern to attempt to find tickets to the very popular exhibition which is normally sold out. Luckily, being a Tate member paid off and we secured two tickets to visit the exhibition.
We enjoyed a lovely cup of coffee at the members club first which has wonderful views of the river Thames and my beloved St Paul’s cathedral. The perk of being an early bird on a Sunday is that you can enjoy your favourite venue before the crowds invade them. And so it was truly precious to have this cosy and peaceful coffee and cake before the exhibition.
The exhibition itself was exquisite. There are just a couple of infinity rooms that they allow you to walk through for three minutes in each one of them. The concept of the use of mirrors to create the sense of infinity is unconceivable. We were brave enough to queue twice for one of the rooms and it was worth it as we were able to view a different angle of the mirrors. The feeling of seeing this type of art was so fulfilling that it left me speechless.
After the exhibition we walked along the river Thames towards Southbank and Waterloo station. For Londoners on a sunny summer day, walking along the river is equally close to walking to a seaside! For some strange reason there were not that many other walkers around, so the experience of the Thames and the views of both sides was very rewarding. Of course, walking hand in hand with my love did give the walk an additional flair of beauty and serenity.
The second surreal walk in London was with my sweet neighbour when we walked to the Heritage Live gig at Kenwood House to see live Bananarama and Boy George with Culture Club. What can I say about that? Simply unbelievable that within a fifteen-minute walk from my doorstep I got to see Bananarama and Boy George, the beloved bands of my youth, live on stage.
The evening was simply spectacular. The Heath was heaving with crowds gathered to watch the 80s bands perform. We were surrounded by some “very mature” music lovers (one could call them middle-aged old gits but I’m not as it will offend me and my sweet neighbour) who were absolutely sparkling with the music. We were very lucky with the weather too as it happened to be the hottest day of the summer so far, so for me it was fantastic to be out and about. What a better excuse to shout at the top of my lungs and jump up and down as a way of expressing my freedom from family-related frustrations?
True to my reputation for being a jukebox, I sang most of the lyrics of each song and felt truly giddy with happiness from the experience. The evening ended with a ten-minute invigorating and explosive exhibition of fireworks to mark the end of the gig. I kept asking my sweet neighbour to pinch me in case I was dreaming as I just couldn’t believe that I was living for real this amazing event. My excitement was so big that it took me until 1.30 in the morning to fall asleep!
The Epilogue
Whether it is in my dreams or in real life, this summer I am very lucky to be walking in beautiful places and countries. Be it alone or with someone beside me, I’m creating some truly memorable happy moments. Because in my life these special small happy moments are the true essence of my well-being.
Walks and Smiles 