The perfect time for a walk in the park

 London has some great parks and open spaces and they usually look their best at this time of year. The grass is still green and lush and the trees are in full leaf as you can see from this picture of Hilly Fields in Lewisham which is my local park.




I've always enjoyed having this a few minutes walk from where I live but now that I have more time I have really started to appreciate it. I love seeing all the different things that people get up to in Hilly Fields - blowing giant bubbles, practicing their slackrope walking (like a tightrope only it's not tight!), playing the guitar, doing exercise classes or just sitting enjoying the scenery - and all this activity is part of what makes city parks so special. However, there are times when it is good to be able to appreciate the space with fewer people around and I like being able to go there now at times when it is quieter.

Over the last few weeks I've discovered that a good time to go for a walk in the park is between 9 and 10am. Earlier than that and you'll be sharing it with the early morning dog walkers and runners and people walking or cycling through on their way to school or work and from mid-morning onwards there tend to be quite a few other people around. When I walked through Hilly Fields the other morning just after 9am, there were very few other people around - just a few mothers out jogging with their babies in pushchairs and a couple of people playing tennis.

As you might guess from the name, the park is on a hill and there are great views of the surrounding area. In one direction you can see to the Isle of Dogs and the Dome and in the other direction you can see to Crystal Palace and beyond.

 A short walk down Vicars Hill from Hilly Fields brings you to another park, Ladywell Fields, which has had alot of money spent on it over the last few years to open up the river that runs through it. It's a really attractive open space and I usually continue on there after walking across Hilly Fields.


From there you can also walk or cycle along the Waterlink Way to Catford and then on through various riverside parks for another couple of miles. It's a good place for some off-road cycling or walking.

A massage for a tenner

This may sound like one of those special offers that is too good to be true but I really did have a full body massage for £10 this morning at the beauty academy, T'ien, at Lewisham College (from whose website this image is taken). The reason for the low price is that the treatments are carried out by students and I certainly wasn't expecting the towelling robes and scented candles that you would get at somewhere more luxurious and expensive. However, I was a little taken aback initially at the extent to which I was foregoing privacy, especially as their website refers to a 'tranquil and stylish environment'. All the treatments take place in one large room and although there were curtains drawn round the massage couch, these could not prevent the noise of surrounding conversations filtering through.

I quickly overcame my initial shock at the slightly hospital ward ambience and was able to tune out most of the background chatter. This was helped by the fact that the trainee providing my treatment was polite and friendly and having asked what I preferred at the start, proceeded to give me the firm massage I had requested, starting with my scalp and finishing with my back and covering face, arms, legs and feet in-between. The massage was good but not quite as effective as the last one I had  a couple of months ago at the Apsara Thai Spa in Deptford where it was accompanied by delicious ginger tea, a chance to use the sauna and the smiliest welcome imaginable but that did cost nearly four times as much.

My massage today lasted about an hour and 15 minutes so really was very good value-for-money compared to standard beauty salon prices as long as you can cope with effectively being semi-naked in a room full of people! The salon also offers a wide range of other treatments at reasonable prices (e.g. a facial for £8) so I might well go back to sample something else.

The salon is only open on weekdays during term-time and in the past I found it impossible to get an appointment outside working hours but if you can be flexible about when you go and are looking for low-cost beauty treatments then I would definitely recommend giving T’ien a try. I imagine that other colleges with beauty courses offer something similar so it would be worth checking the website for your local college, if you like this idea but don't live in or near Lewisham.

The College also has a training restaurant which has an interesting menu at very reasonable prices but again the opening hours are limited. Now that I have more time I hope to be able to give it a try too as I've heard good things about it.