Three workshops in two days. Three primary schools, two grades, lots of kids. That pretty much sums up most of my travelling purposes for yesterday and today. I signed up for RCM's lunchtime concert workshop where we (4 students including myself) had to teach a class of primary school kids what they'll be hearing when they come to the Royal College of Music next Thursday - Respighi's Pines of Rome and a few other pieces, including a participatory song, Green Garden by Laura Mvula. Day 1 - Thursday 1 May Left early in the morning at 8am. Bad weather - rainy and cold. Ugh. It also doesn't help that there's tube strike. Took the 94 bus to Shepherd's Bush (7 stops), then changed to 228 to Elgin Avenue Chippenham Road (16 stops). Arrived at St Peter's C of E Primary School at approx 8.50am for 9.30am start. Waited on the couch you see through the glass door of the main office and saw lots of kids running in and out - asking for the register, mentioning their doctor's appointment, smiling cheerfully when they saw their friends first thing in the morning...reminded me of the good old days. For someone (*cough*, me really) to have to walk for more than 30 minutes was definitely enough for me. Yet never have I ever walked so much. The distance between the two schools was much further than I expected. We arrived at St Charles RC Primary School at 11.45ish. All of us were starving, so we dropped down our instruments in the school's reception and went to buy some lunch. *More (long distance) walking* The first school didn't provide any instruments, so we had to get the kids to do some of the composition activities with their hands and feet. Glad St Charles had a lovely music director who gave us plenty of instruments for us to choose and use. Made things a bit more interesting. Successful second workshop with Melissa, Pablo and Phil. Day 2 - Friday 2 May Took 94 bus again to Shepherd's Bush (6 stops) then changed to 49 to Cheyne Walk (21 stops). Left at 12pm hoping to arrive at the school by 1pm. Unfortunately, miscalculated the time and arrived at 1.20pm. At least I still had 10 minutes before the kids came into the hall! After a long walk of searching, I finally found Ashburnham Primary School. The noisy kids at lunch hour led me to them. All instruments prepared. Yesterday we taught Year 3's in the morning, then Year 5's in the afternoon. Today we taught Year 3's AND 5's at the same time. Big group, twice as many kids. Overall I loved the experience. Here were some funny/cute delightful moments I recall in dot point form.
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After months of yearning to go to Tate Modern (but simply wasn't bothered to take on the distance) my last-minute trip to South bank was decided. At mid-day I hopped on the Hammersmith & City line (14 stops) and transferred for 2 stops onto National Rail from Farringdon to London Blackfriars. Long journey fully worth it. I visited every floor with a free admission gallery (three floors + multiple galleries in total.) All the different mediums fixated/positioned with purpose against a clean white backdrop really elevates you to another atmosphere. In particular, I felt most impact when I visited the different forms of sculptures in the Constructionism gallery, the eye-opening medium forms used in the Energy and Process gallery, and last but not least, the breathtaking compositions in Transformed Energy: Identity Politics (Room 8.) Many photographers' works also brought my attention: Harry Callahan, Graciela Iturbide and Miyako Ishiuchi. Below are a selection of my favourite artworks, paintings and sculptures I observed throughout the museum. 1. Jannis Kounellis: Untitled. 1979
2. Joan Miro: Women and Bird in the Moonlight. 1949 3. Henri Laurens: Autumn. 1948 4. Pablo Picasso: Nude Woman in a Red Armchair. 1932 5. Russian Revolutionary Posters 6. Maria Helena Vieira da Silva: The Corridor. 1950 7. Fred Wilson: Grey Area. 1993 8. Glenn Ligon: Untitled. 2006 9. Henk Peeters: Burn Hole. 1961 10. Annette Messager: The Pikes. 1992-3 11. Susumu Koshimizu: From Surface to Surface. 1971 12. Seung-Taek Lee: Godret Stone. 1958 13. Ben Nicholson: 1934 (relief). 1934 So far, I've been to Shoryu in Soho and Kingly. On the way to Kingly's Shoryu today, I also passed the one on Regent St. I guess you could call it 2 and a half out of 3 done! Don't worry! I'm not an eating-out all the time kind...I don't think... So why did I decide to go eat ramen today? Apart from obvious mouth-craving reasons plus it being Easter vacation period, I was given the voucher (see below) from my last visit to Soho's Shoryu. 2 for 1! Who could resist that?! It took a bit of time to find the place - nicely tucked inside Kingly Court and in between Kingly St and Carnaby St - but the search was worth it. Never had I tasted such good tonkotsu broth (not that I'm a Japanese cuisine expert or anything but it was seriously delicious.) I really liked the traditional Japanese setting. Freshly made hirata buns in that steamer right there! Behind the soy sauce! They've arrived! Was really impressed by the belly pork hirata bun I had last time at Soho - so I had to have it again! Except this time they spiced it up with some chilli sauce. Nice! Finally! The long awaited Shoryu Ganso Tonkotsu was in front of me - Shoryu's signature ramen: 'a rich tonkotsu pork broth with bbq pork nitamago egg, kikurage mushrooms, spring onion, sesame, ginger, nori, mayu (caramelised black garlic oil) & fried shallots.'
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