Welcome back Cultured Kids and hello 2022! Hoping you all had a healthy, happy winter-break, free of variants and vile germs! December school holidays spoiled us with some brilliant travels and hopping around Miami Midbeach, Sunny Isles, South Beach and Florida Keys, another very lucky escape we thank the universe. The return to London temperatures has been a shock to the system for us all but hey, with culture, friends and fun on the menu, we should not complain.
Zenbabytravel instagram in its good old Miami days, now disabled
My lovely partner in crime at Cultured Kids Museum Mum was my usual inspiration as we returned and headed for Mayfair to see the last day of David Shrigley’s interactive tennis ball exchange exhibition. Having discovered David 15 years ago, we absolutely adore his wicked sense of humour in his ludic sketches and unadorned sentences.
Last week-end we said good-bye to beautiful Natural History Museum Ice Rink after an incredible 16 years of iceskating, going forward the 5 acre garden will be dedicated to sustainable green projects and transformed into a hub for urban wildlife .
What else have we loved recently? Windowology exhibition at Japan House is poetical and filled with wonderful quotes. With sliding screens and transformative spaces, windows in Japan are part of a long architectural tradition and the exhibition explores gracefully functionality, changing lights, lifestyle and art. On until April 10th, free but with online booking recommended. ‘A good Western door creaks open heavily; a good fusuma or shoji glides open silently with the touch of a finger’ (Maki Fumihiko).
Less for the kids and more for the grown-ups, Conran exhibition at Design museum is brilliant. A free display celebrating the life and work of the Design Museum founder, Sir Terence Conran, to mark what would have been the 90th birthday of the British designer who revolutionised London hospitality scene and design, one journey through his extraordinary entrepreneurship, writing and architecture. I love his iconic Bibendum, Orrery, Quagliano, Le Pont de la Tour, Coq d’Argent, Blue Bird, Butlers Wharf Chop House and Launceston Place for 20 years now, so many dear memories, dinners and celebrations and hopefully more to come.
At the Garrison Chapel, Chelsea Barracks we discovered with awe that HRH Prince of Wales can paint and embarked through his watercolours on a journey through Royal Residences, Scotland, our darling Transylvania, Provence, Morroco, Turkey and even Switzerland! ‘The great thing about painting is that you are making your own individual interpretation of whatever view you have chosen. Because it obliges you to sit down and make a careful observation of the selected subject, you discover so much more about it than by just pointing a camera and arriving at a result which is probably almost identical to somebody else’s photograph. As a result, you become increasingly aware of things that may have escaped your attention previously – things like the quality of light and shade, of tone and texture and of the shape of buildings in relation to the landscape. It all requires the most intense concentration and, consequently, is one of the most relaxing and therapeutic exercises I know. In fact, in my case, I find it transports me into another dimension which, quite literally, refreshes parts of the soul which other activities can’t reach.’
On until February 14th, free and no booking required, we reckon it makes a perfect afternoon to be paired with Battersea Power Station Light Festival. Brightening up the dark evenings until 27th February 2022, six installations mesmerised us by the banks of the river: 2 of them are making their a UK debut ( Antenna Sud and Picto Sender Machine), whilst Run Beyond is on display for the very first time in London.
On a less happy or cultural note, some of you have noticed Zenbabytravel sadly dissappeared from Instagram. It all started on January 1st with some innocent pics by the pool in Miami, the bots have somehow deemed it as child nudity, the appeal and asking for review did not help. Moreover, a week after Instagram has deemed that we violated their Terms & Conditions, so for the last 2 weeks we have appealed on a number of occassions, sending Domain and WordPress invoices, passports, pictures, numbers. No sign of any human so far, we are at the mercy of AI and Bots, praying and keeping all fings crossed we see at some point our dear pictures, Reels and messages from friends back. Key screenshot below, any tips from blogging community and friends appreciated!
It also begs the question if Instagram is good use of one’s time, say 1 hour per week X 5 years time posting pictures and Reels only to be disabled in a second by Bots and algorithms without a real possibility of appealing to anyone human. That’s 260 hours in 5 years 🙈 or ~22 days of my life that very likely are better spent somewhere else 😅. 2 weeks now of appeals and no human contact on Fb or Instagram. Permanence is overrated and doesn’t truly exist but somehow, letting algorithms in charge of a huge platform that became utility & telecom like over years, doesn’t sound quite right.
Back to culture, London looks gloriously busy in February as well, our key highlights are Cirque du Soleil Luzia, we raved about many times, book tickets before February 27th! And whilst Mexico comes to London at Royal Albert Hall, Costa Rica comes to Kew Gardens between February 5th – March 6th via the Orchids Festival.
We loved reading all the articles linked on the last #CulturedKids and hearing from you all! My lovely partner in crime Vyki Museum Mum favourites have been Belfast with teens and Responsible Tourism in Siem Reap. Many congrats!
How is January 2022 treating you and what are your February half term plans?
