Observations from the Road
Observations from the Road – Blogging in the time of Corona virus
Mar
It’s Sunday morning and the weather outside is decidedly gloomy, a perfect match for my current state of mind …
I’m not sure exactly what happened to me, I am always an optimistic and can-do person! Part of being a South African is that we expect obstacles, and believe that they are a naturally occurring part of life! Yes, shit does actually happen! We know that, we’ve lived that! Behaving true to form during this shut down, I’ve broken out my new Kitchen Aid mixer that has been sitting unopened in a box in the pantry since there was a big sale I fell for on Amazon! I’ve baked a couple of cakes! Eating something naughtly has really put a smile on my hubbie and my face for a while. I’ve UPS’d some slices to my child in NYC! I love that I can open the UPS door and toss in my parcels and I hear a cheerful – ‘Thanks Mally!’ from behind the counter, it’s the little things!
I’ve frew frew-ed my house to the endth degree, I’ve Instagrammed, and chatted to my friends on all forms of social media like crazy! I’ve run the home part of the office, made samples, and sent them out to bored designers all over the world craving something creative to do! It’s very lucky that a couple of years ago, Kristen and I figured how to make our office work remotely for when I spend chunks of time in South Africa with my family. These days we are in constant contact, and it all seems to be working pretty seamlessly ….but something cracked in me in the middle of the night last night, I woke up and felt a new feeling … a deep unease, almost despair! This will not do!
Someone once told me that removing something from your to-do list is a real mood booster. So, here it is, a task that has landed at the bottom of my list like a long forgotten an old shipwreck – my newsletter on the DLN London Summit that happened last year in November – I know in a universe far far away!! This was my first Design Leadership Summit having been recently invited to join this rather terrifying bunch of leaders of architecture, interior and garden design. It was four days of totally stupendous, head-spinningly exciting sights, meals and social interactions, most of us had to take to our beds for a week to recover from all the excitement and stimulation.
When I look at the picture below, me fresh off the plane from Boston, all excited to see the amazing furniture that Justin van Breda had put together as a fundraiser for the Civilian Blind cane works (an amazing non-profit workshop that makes cane furniture in Cape Town) that he cleverly tacked onto the first day of the Design Leadership Summit. I’m all new red jacket, and big smile on my face telling the world that I’m in my favourite city doing my favourite designer-y things! Not a care in the world! I’m reminded of this song my parent loved when we were kids, and we all rolled our eyes when it played on the radio to their delight – “Those were the days my friends, we thought they’d never end, we’d sing and dance forever and a day…..” Most of you are probably too young to have heard of it, but anyway, it plays annoyingly a lot in my brain!
This little petal chair was my contribution, and I loved how it turned out! I was also in very heady company with pieces designed by Nina Campbell, Veere Grenney, Justin of course, and a bunch of other heavy hitting designer names. Quite the honour!
Justin is just like me, he loves to entertain in his home, and to hell with the fact that everyone has to squeeze in to his charming but rather narrow Kensington town house! This party was the opposite of social distancing!! I took a little bit of bad video to show my daughter Jessie (the London child) who had decided to skip the party – too much designer kissy kissy for her!
Here is a pic of our marvelous host in the party tent installed over his London garden. He’s demonstrating just how well made the furniture actually is! If you’ve never met Justin, just let me say that he is an imposing, tower of a man, and he fits into the petal chair quite nicely!
Here’s an Instagram of the Nina Campbell dog bed which definitely won best in show!
You might not know this, but my binge-watch obsession, is all things ‘Morse’ and ‘Inspector Lewis’ from the BBC. All these grisly murders, and there are a lot of them, are perpetuated with the most exquisite backdrop of ancient stone buildings bathed in golden light, charming overgrown English gardens, and gorgeous young people punting down the river wearing interesting hats! The show is a master of juxtaposition! I drooled through the entire day wandering around with our group in Oxford, gawping at all the easily recognizable buildings, and lapping up all the stories being told by our erudite guides. Next life I am definitely going to work harder and get myself a place at Oxford!
What a wonderful way to meditate, ambling around this courtyard …..
Grubs up!! Yikes how stylish! Table lights!
Always the nosy one, I had to see what was for dinner, quite the fancy menu I have to say!! Venison Carpaccio !! Don’t think you see that in most college dining rooms!
A totally transfixed audience in New College chapel, oddly it’s the oldest college at Oxford, I love the Englishh!!
Bikes, bikes, bikes!!
I’m a fan of a bit of espalier!
Later that day, with my friend Tiffany LeBlanc playing to the manor born!
It was freezing, but we weren’t going to mess up our outfits!!
Can you believe, I forgot to charge my damn phone, and it was too embarrassing to even contemplate finding an outlet in Blenheim Palace, so here’s my one and only picture from inside – we were allowed to mill about which was pretty incredible. I hear that Nina Campbell was the force behind the series of palace dinners that we attended. Night after night, another gob-smacking palace! It was a packing nightmare as we were given pretty explicit instructions on what was acceptable clothing at each event. My favourite quip of the evening from dear Tiffany – “Words I never thought I’d utter, I need a ladies maid stat!”
Day one registration at the Mandarin Oriental in Knightsbridge, quick bathroom stop before I headed back to change at Jessie’s house – I did a lot of Uber back and forth but it was worth it. I just couldn’t bear to be in London and not stay with my children in Parson’s Green. How cool are those lights!
I chose to do the meet and walk through of Veere Grenney’s house in central London for my elective activity on day one! Good choice! I drank it all in. The man is the master of the mix, high low, different era’s, and all with his own exquisite masculine eye! No corner of the house is overlooked or not and taken care of with his very specific eye.
Fortuny clad walls greet you in the jewel of a dining room in the front of the house!
Olive green velvet upholstered walls in Veere’s work station, a colour that my millennial daughter tells me is a big thing at the moment!
A beautiful corner of the living room, I ask you, have you ever seen buttons on the front of a sofa like that??
Everywhere I looked, there were little touches of genius, a tented ceiling above a built in bed in a spare bedroom, and of course, exactly the correct type of vintage lantern for the space – and books, books, books!
Here’s the quiet tv room in the lower level, oh I have so much to learn!!
Run home to change and get ready for palace number two. Kensington Palace! I doubt I’ll ever be eating dinner in there again in my life!
At last I got a chance to talk to my design icon, the funny, irreverent and utterly charming, and may I say extremely well connected, Nina Campbell!!
She always makes me laugh!!
Look up!!
They shuffled us out to set the table for the dinner and let us wander around looking at the collection of jewels on display in the public rooms,
But what really caught my eye was this lovely piece of original chintz on the end of one of the beds –
It was good to have a friendly face as my dinner companion – the lovely Cynthia Fergusson.
I was told the Freesias on the table came from the Blenheim green houses, chic to die!
The next day was time to learn, and we were held spellbound by panels of British masters of their crafts. Again, all very humbling…
My favourite take away!
More castles!!
The final dinner was held in Greenwich in the Painted Hall – I had honestly never heard of it, and we got there on the Thames on a champagne barge!
First we self-toured the Queen’s palace – quite austere, and honestly I found it a little spooky. I could feel the presence of many long dead monarchs shuffling around.
Once again my poor brain was suffering from overwhelmed-ness! Details, details, details, too many to actually process!
—And once again, look up!! Am I boring you yet??
Finally, a quick shout out to old friendships! One of the people I asked to write a letter of recommendation for me for my induction into the DLN, was Ankie Barnes. Ankie is a founding member of the network and a highly revered Washington DC architect. But I know him as Ankles, and he calls me Malice! We were in the same gang as teenagers in Johnnesburg in the 70’s. He went out with my sister Julia for a while and was really part of our family.
Ankie truly deserves all the recognition that has come his way! His work receives much acclaim. This is not a surprise to me as he was always the diligent one in our group. Try as we may to drag him away to come and watch home movies on a Sunday night- a South African Sunday night ritual – if he had a project to finish, there was no budging him!
Ankie and I cruised up in the barge together, swapping silly old time stories, and playing that remember game that is so irritating for others to witness. It was one of those sweet moments, we South Africans are a very scattered bunch!I love Ankie like a brother. There could not be a sweeter way to finish off the London Summit for me!
The pictures are grainy I know – it was rather dark, but my pleasure is very easy to discern. Who know how long it will be till we see each other again….
Interesting, entertaining and written with great humility as always. Well done Mally!
Loved living vicariously! Thank you for sharing!
Mally, I thoroughly enjoyed reading about your awesome trip and the amazing Palaces you dined in…..what an incredible opportunity, I’m so proud of you and your successes. Please keep the articles & photos coming ….. Love to the family ❤️