Another varied week which gave me the fantastic opportunity to meet Dame Kelly Holmes! Working with her charity on some exciting events (more on that in a future post). As an iconic sportswoman and heroine of mine I was really pleased that I managed to hold it together and maintain some professionalism. She really is a fantastic person, full of ideas and exactly as enthusiastic as you would expect. Currently appearing in 'Mission Survive' I was saying how impressed I was...whilst knowing of course that she couldn't tell me what the outcome of the series is, ah well I will continue to watch avidly over the coming weeks, come on Kelly!

Monday saw the first appearance of myself, Charlotte and Sandra, aka 'Las Nenas' performing at the Hub Dot 'Art of You' event. This was in the fantastic Kensington Roof Gardens venue, so we were delighted to be in this space sharing 30mins of flamenco guitar as the guests arrived. We are now plotting world female flamenco guitar domination....

Rounding off the multi cultural experiences of the week, my wonderful 'foodie friend' Dawn visited from Edinburgh with a suggestion of visiting a Venezuelan restaurant. This is what I love about entertaining my friends from further afield, it gives me a great opportunity to sample some little gems of London that I otherwise might not have thought about. The lovely 'Arepa & Co' is in Haggerston, who knew!  What a find, a lovely relaxed venue right on the edge of the canal, complete with hammocks for an even more relaxed experience! The food is fantastic, we sampled their speciality 'arepas' and 'cachapas' and of course couldn't resist a cerium, the Venezuelan version of a caipirinha. I don't now how we managed it but we somehow rounded of the international evening with a visit to the new 'The Social' tapas bar in my 'hood' Willesden Green. These are two places I will definitely be making a return visit to. Ole!

Definitely showing my age here quoting from an XTC song from the 80's....This has indeed, thought been a week of multi sensory experiences. 
To cover sound first, I was delighted to attend performances at Sadler's Wells Flamenco Festival including the amazing Arcangel accompanied by Dani de Moron. Along with my flamenco guitarist friends, we were transported back to wonderful times at the Flamenco Biennal in Seville last September, good times! 

There were two visual highlights in the week. As a member of the Creative Exchange (artist and designer network in North London), I also manage a series of events for their members. This month's event was a talk by travel photographer and writer Nori Jemil. Having won awards for her photography in travel magazines, Nori talked us round her current exhibition in Palmers Green. From Antarctica to the top of a glacier in Peru, her images were fascinating, and the stories behind them truly inspiring. 
My second sensory adventure was to Ottolenghi's wonderful 'Nopi' restaurant for a friend's birthday. If you have never been there, you HAVE to go! The food is amazing - Middle Eastern and Asian inspired sharing plates including the best sea bass I have ever had. AND, to add to the sensory overload, pay a visit to their very quirky toilets, which thankfully I had been warned about so that I didn't get lost/stuck inside this kaleidoscope like tardis!

Last and by no means least, I was honoured to deliver another event on behalf of the MS Society to launch their £100m appeal. If they meet this target over the next 10 years it will be ground breaking as they are on the cusp of finding a cure for the the cruel disease of MS. Eminent scientists and clinicians in their field including Professor Robin Franklin, Dr Jeremy Chataway and Professor David Miller led an inspiring Q & A to tell everyone more about the exciting advances being made in this area of neuroscience.