Saturday, June 27, 2015

Why Sintra (Portugal) is worth more than a day trip

I was lucky enough to spend a week in the pretty town and landscape of Sintra, a 35-40 min train journey west of Lisbon. (price: 2.15 euros each way! so cheap). Many tourists rock up for a day tour and leave, and I even got raised eyebrows from locals when I told them we were here for longer. "You are here until Friday!!??" said the woman behind the counter at the panaderia opposite the main square with incredulity. Even our super nice air bnb host, Daniel, had emailed us after we made our booking to check we indeed wanted to stay this long: "you'll have done Sintra in 2-3 days max".

Well actually, I wish I'd stayed longer! Here's why - with a few pics by me and the friends I was with.

The place has about 7 palaces to visit, with large gardens/estates (we only did 3). As a playground to the Portuguese aristocracy from the 1500s onwards, it's got gothic gardens (a tower carved inside the rock at Quinta da Regaleira), lots of exotic plants (some Sequoia redwoods can be found in the Palacio da Pena ground), stunningly designed rooms (the blazons room with its ceiling painted with the emblems of the Portuguese royal family and many others, at Sintra Palace) and more. The Moorish Castle is from even earlier. I found it hard to edit down my pics for instagram!

A photo posted by b (@studioincovent) on

C'est intéressant w/c 22 Jun 2015

Interesting, intriguing, exciting, amusing, enraging, fascinating things I recommend.


Long form - Alanis in Chain (Solaya Roberts, Hazzlit)
Alanis Morissette before Jagged Little Pill. Good read. This made me think of a couple of tracks from the album after Jagged Little Pill (ie the not as bestselling one): Unsent (no chorus, extracts from letters to lovers) and So Pure (with its video of Alanis Morissette dancing in a range of style - has she thought about taking part in Dancing with the Stars? She's do well I reckon)

Opinion piece - The real benefit cheats are the employers who are milking the system (Deborah Orr, The Guardian)
Lots of interesting facts for your next dinner party with your right wing friends. Only £8bn worth of benefits go to the unemployed, while an estimated £76bn go to people who are working. Why? In part because some employers don't pay a living wage or offer contracts with enough hours, so the government has to supplement the employees' income somehow. Does it sound right that Tesco has cost the Treasure £364m in pay-rate supplements in the last year? Maybe if employers paid better, the government would have to spend less on benefits, and would be able to cut taxes: all in all everyone would win!

Creative Review July issue
My big boss is on the cover of one of the best mags on creative culture. Amazing! Go, ballet, go!