Jessica Ennis 'still has room to improve before London 2012' - Metro.co.uk
The 26-year-old landed a major pscyhological blow last weekend as she beat Olympic rival and reigning world champion Tatyana Chernova in what is her final hepthatlon competition before London 2012, breaking Denise Lewis's British record into the bargain.
But speaking to promote Aviva’s Back The Team campaign, Ennis insisted she still had plenty of work to do and that there was no clear favourite for the London gold medal yet.
'It was such a great weekend for things to come together but I feel I've still got room to improve,' she said.
Chernova responded to Ennis's victory by saying she thought it would heap home crowd expectation on her rival at the London Games, but Ennis was emphatic she would not get drawn into any mind games.
'It's a distraction,' she said.
'She'll be slightly disappointed with her performance - she needs to make sure she's ready and in the right place.
'I'm really happy with where I am and how it's going, I couldn't ask for more at this stage. I'm happy with what I'm doing - she can do what she wants.'
Despite the confidence boost of her performance, Ennis said she was trying to keep a lid on her expectations of what she could do in London.
'I feel exactly the same as at the start of the year, I believe I can go there and perform and win but I also know [2008 Olympic champion Nataliya] Dobynrksa and others are very capable of doing it as well - there's no clear favourite.
'It's great to win in Gotzis but it's not the Olympics, so there’s still lots of work to do.'
Ennis has made a point of avoiding going to the London Olympic Stadium to keep it new and fresh when the Games come round, but she said she had seen enough pictures to help with her mental preparation and visualisation of her performance.
'If I was going to any other championships, I wouldn't get to visit the track and become familiar with it so I don't want to become too familiar with London,' she said.
'You can visualise your technique and performance without being in the stadium.
'I've seen pictures so I can visualise and I think that's a very important part of the process.'
Aviva has been backing the GB & NI Team since 1999. Now it’s your turn. Search for 'Aviva Athletics' on Facebook to enter the competition to win a day with Jessica Ennis for your community.
London: ICC action considered for Syria - United Press International
GENEVA, Switzerland, June 1 (UPI) -- London is preparing groundwork for referring Syria to the International Criminal Court for crimes against humanity, the British foreign secretary said.
British Foreign Secretary William Hague, in a statement, said evidence from the U.N. Supervision Mission in Syria confirmed national security forces bombed the village of Houla and that government-backed forces summarily executed "entire families" during a recent massacre.
More than 100 people were allegedly killed at the hands of Syrian forces during the massacre, which Hague described as part of a "pattern of widespread and systematic attacks against civilian populations."
Damascus maintains its dealing with domestic terrorism and blames rebel forces for much of the violence.
U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay told the Human Rights Council that violence in Syria was continuing "unabated." This came despite pledges by Damascus to honor an April 12 cease-fire brokered with the help of former U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan.
The massacre at Houla, she said, may amount to crimes against humanity and other international crimes.
The Human Rights Council, in a vote of 41 to 3, passed a measure calling for an independent investigation into the events at Houla.
"Britain will support these efforts, and will continue to prepare the ground for a referral of the situation in Syria to the International Criminal Court," said Hague.
London 2012: Olympic saltire flag ban lifted for Hampden - BBC News
The saltire flag will be allowed to fly over Scotland's national football stadium during the London Olympics, games bosses have confirmed.
The move came after they previously said it could not be flown over Hampden, which is hosting some Olympic 2012 football matches.
Scottish athletes represent Great Britain at the Olympic Games, under the banner of the Union Flag.
The Welsh dragon will also be allowed to fly at Cardiff's Millennium Stadium.
A spokesman for the London 2012 Organising Committee said the move had been backed by the International Olympic Committee.
Hampden is holding eight London 2012 football matches.
The original restriction did not apply to fans attending games at the stadium.
London 2012: June events calendar and diary - Daily Telegraph
David Nash at Kew, Kew Royal Botanic Gardens; June 9 – April 14 2013
The works of sculptor David Nash will go on display at Kew Gardens this month, with sculptures, installations, drawings and film in place in the open air, garden glasshouses and on-site exhibition spaces. Nash is renowned for his work with wood and the exhibition will see the artist work on a ‘wood quarry’ in Kew, where he will create new pieces for the exhibition using trees from Kew Gardens that have reached the end of their natural life.
Bt Artbox Project, throughout London; June 18 – July 16
Sir Giles Gilbert Scott’s traditional red telephone box is an icon of British design but this month it gets a temporary revamp from select artists and designers. Keith Tyson, Romero Britto, Zandra Rhodes and Giles Deacon are among those selected to participate in the BT Artbox Project, which will see them decorate a full-size, fibreglass replica of the K6 telephone kiosk, which will then be displayed in different areas of the city.
Codebreaker - Alan Turing's life and legacy, Science Museum; June 21 – June 2013
One hundred years after his birth, Alan Turing is celebrated with a free year-long exhibition at the Science Museum. Examining his life and legacy, the exhibition considers his contribution to computer science – which still holds influence today – and remembers his wartime codebreaking successes. The exhibition will display one of the most comprehensive collections of Turing-related artefacts, including machines he developed and worked on.
BP Portrait Award 2012, National Portrait Gallery; June 21 – September 23
The National Portrait Gallery follows its exceptionally popular Lucian Freud exhibition with the BP Portrait Award. This is the most prestigious portrait competition in the world, with a £25,000 prize going to the work judged to best showcase contemporary portrait-painting technique. Admittance is free.
New London theatre and performing arts openings
London 2012 Festival, throughout London and nationally; June 21 – September 9
The London 2012 Festival is the cultural complement to the London 2012 Olympic Games and the culmination of the four-year Cultural Olympiad. Throughout the capital, and throughout the country, thousands of events will take place to ensure millions of people will have the opportunity to participate in this exceptional summer. Highlights in London include the BT River of Music festival, which will see act including the Scissor Sisters and the Noisettes perform at six separate Thames-side locations, and an enhanced West End LIVE in Trafalgar Square which will this year see the casts from every one of London’s West End musicals perform for free. You can see coverage of the festival as it progresses on our London 2012 Festival portal.
Southbank Centre Summer Festival; June 1 – September 9
The Southbank Centre has another summer’s entertainment sorted with its Festival of the World. With a focus on learning, the event seeks to showcase how art can transform lives with a programme that’s challenging, moving and engaging. Highlights include Bryn Terfel’s four-day celebration of Welsh culture and Unlimited, the largest series of commissions by disabled and deaf artists ever undertaken in the UK.
New London restaurant and bar openings
Chase and Country Tails Terrace, Harvey Nichols; June 4 - July 15
Hopes are high for a good summer and if clement weather does grace us then the Chase and Country Tails Terrace at Fifth Floor Harvey Nichols is going to be popular. Created by Chase Distillery, the terrace’s traditional English-countryside look is inspired by the Herefordshire countryside where the company is based. More a bar space that serves food than a restaurant, the terrace will serve drinks featuring Chase spirits and mini tasting dishes created by Fifth Floor restaurant executive chef Jonas Karlsson.
Beard to Tail pop-up restaurant, 24 Chart Street; June 12-15
Shoreditch cocktail bar Callooh Callay tries its hand at the food trade with the four-day opening of the Beard to Tail pop-up restaurant. The meat-heavy menu is set to feature plenty of hearty, homely dishes with mains priced at £8-£13. The space will accommodate only 35 covers. Annoyingly bookings aren’t taken but you can expect the cocktail list to provide compensation. The pop-up precedes the opening of a permanent Beart to Tail restaurant, currently set for September 2012.
The Cube by Electrolux, Southbank Centre; June 1 – September 30
A Room for London, the boat-shaped, one-bedroom hotel, is perched atop the Queen Elizabeth Hall already; now The Cube by Electrolux plonks itself above the adjacent Royal Festival Hall. A pop-up restaurant sponsored by the appliances manufacturer, it will feature dishes created by Michelin-starred chefs stationed across the British Isles, including Sat Bains, Claude Bosi and Tom Kitchin. Guests who dine here will be served at least five courses with matching wines, and only 18 people will be accommodated at a time. Lunch at the Cube by Electrolux costs £175 per person, while dinner costs £215. Bookings can be made through the website.
Eat London afternoon tea, Wyndham Grand; June 1-30
Chocolatier Damian Allsop newly created Eat London chocolate bars are influenced by London’s cultural diversity (coffee and banana crunch are used for the Brixton bar; ginger, peanut and soy for China Town) and to celebrate their launch the Wyndham Grand London Chelsea Harbour hotel has launched an Eat London afternoon tea for the month. The tea features traditional teatime treats that have again been adapted to represent different parts of the city and costs £28 per person. On June 9, Allsop will be present at the hotel to run a two-hour chocolate masterclass – that costs £40 per person.
Afternoon Rock tea, W London hotel; June 1 onwards
The W London hotel is now serving Afternoon Rock tea, its variant of traditional afternoon tea. Launched to coincide with this summer’s Jubilee and Olympic festivities, the tea celebrates all things British with a menu that’s inspired by great British rock bands. Served on a three-tier stand made from original vinyl records, items served are named after rock albums and songs. London’s Burning, for example, is a chocolate pudding and hazelnut crunch; Cherry Bomb is a chocolate, mascarpone and cherry dessert inspired by The Runaways’ 1976 song.
Other London openings
ZSL London Zoo Lates, London Zoo; June 1 – July 27
From now until the end of July, London Zoo will be open late on Fridays and the venue is offering a packed Zoo Lates programme of events to celebrate. Running from 6pm-10pm the adults-only event will feature live comedy and cabaret performances on site, a silent disco (loud music disturbs the animals) and, of course, the opportunity to observe the hundreds of different animal species resident in the zoo.
VAUXHALL MOTORS LAUNCHES NEW ENGLAND TV ADVERT - 3d-car-shows.com
Diamond Jubilee Celebrations In London: The Event Guide - Int'l Business Times
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Ditch the ubiquitous lager dens dotted around the capital in favor of a visit to the 2010 "pub of the year" as chosen by Britain's Campaign for Real Ale (CAMRA).
The Harp in Chandos Place lies in the shadow of Nelson's Column in Trafalgar Square, near Covent Garden shopping, dining, Leicester Square, the theatre district and the pubs and clubs of Soho.
8 p.m. Dine with the ruling class at Rules restaurant (www.rules.co.uk) in Covent Garden. It's old, it's grand, the food is traditional English and it's a popular dining spot for the privately educated elite. This gastronomic institution has been reviewed by Kingsley Amis, defended by John Betjeman, immortalized by Graham Greene and frequented by Edward VII and his lover Lillie Langtry.
Top up at the bar with a pre-dinner drink from the Royal Collection Cocktails menu: One recipe for every one of the 16 countries where Queen Elizabeth is head of state.
10 p.m.
Throw some regal shapes at one of the clubs favored by the young royals. Cut loose at Whisky Mist (www.whiskymist.com), get your Middleton mojo on at Mahiki (www.mahiki.com) or shake your aristocratic booty at Boujis (www.boujis.com) until the wee hours. Plenty of Sloane Rangers and Hooray Henrys to choose from here. But remember: keen royal watchers are already standing five deep at the barricades.
Saturday
Unless you have tickets for the Epsom Derby, where Queen Elizabeth will kick off jubilee celebrations by indulging in her passion for horse-racing, today is the best of two days to get your sightseeing in before the pageantry of the coming days.
9 a.m. Head to the Tower of London (www.hrp.org.uk). Founded by William the Conqueror after his 1066 invasion of England, the Tower, with its strategic location on the River Thames, has been a royal palace, a place of execution, a prison for traitors and still holds Britain's Crown jewels.
12 p.m. Cross over Tower Bridge, turn left and go for lunch at one of the many restaurants on the South Bank. For top dining try Le Pont de la Tour which overlooks the Thames, or the slightly less formal dining at the Chop House and Blueprint Cafe. They are all found at one website (www.lepontdelatour.co.uk/)
1 p.m. Head back toward Tower Bridge and keep walking past it. Here are the Mayor's round and gleaming glass and steel offices. There is a broad walkway beside the Thames that is popular with both locals and tourists.
As you stroll along you'll pass the Clink museum (www.clink.co.uk), Vinopolis (www.vinopolis.co.uk) -- a wine-lovers' emporium of all beverages related to the grape -- a replica of Francis Drake's globe-circumnavigating ship the Golden Hinde (www.goldenhinde.com), and a lovely bankside pub called the Anchor Bankside before arriving at Shakespeare's Globe Theatre (www.shakespearesglobe.com).
The thatch-roofed, oak-beamed Globe is a faithful reconstruction of the open-air playhouse designed in 1599 and a unique international resource dedicated to the exploration of Shakespeare's work and the playhouse for which he wrote.
Take in nearby Tate Modern Museum (www.tate.org/modern/), housed in an imposing converted power station. Further along the river you can go for a ride on the giant London Eye (www.londoneye.com) Ferris wheel or cross the Millennium footbridge just opposite the Tate for a visit to Christopher Wren's magnificent St. Paul's Cathedral (www.stpauls.co.uk), where Charles and Diana were married.
If you'd like to recreate last year's royal wedding of Prince William to Kate Middleton - now known as the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge - wander a bit further on and cross over Westminster Bridge for a visit to Westminster Abbey (www.westminster-abbey.org).
Here is also where England's monarchs are crowned and many put to eternal rest alongside the graves of the unknown warrior, Geoffrey Chaucer, Alfred Tennyson, Robert Browning, Charles Dickens, Rudyard Kipling, Thomas Hardy, George Frederic Handel and Laurence Olivier.
Sunday
7 a.m Get up! Get out! If you want to catch even a glimpse of the royal flotilla as it passes through London on the River Thames, you'd better make your way to a viewing spot soon alongside a million expected spectators.
A Chinese junk, Venetian gondolas and a boat rowed by Olympic champions will be part of the 1,000-vessel flotilla, where the queen will also be accompanied by a host of musicians playing everything from Bollywood songs to James Bond tunes.
London mayor Boris Johnson has said he expected the flotilla to be "like Dunkirk except more successful", a reference to the evacuation of British troops from France during World War Two.
Olympic and Paralympic champions including five-time rowing gold medal winner Steve Redgrave will lead the flotilla in a vessel also manned by soldiers injured in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The first Chinese junk to visit London since the Great Exhibition in 1851 will join the flotilla, as well as several gondolas, passenger ships, kayaks and lifeboats.
The flotilla will be over seven miles long and travel 25 miles of the Thames, passing every bridge in central London, some of which will be open to spectators at each end. For help with finding a spot to watch, click on: here
4 p.m. After the procession, Go for tea. Claridges (www.claridges.co.uk) was named by the United Kingdom Tea Council as London's top afternoon tea place for 2011 and it's just around the corner. Make sure you book in advance and obey the dress code: Elegant smart casual; no shorts, vests, sportswear, flip flops, ripped jeans or baseball caps.
6 p.m. Head back to your hotel for some rest.
8 p.m. Now that you've tasted a bit of royal hoopla, you might also be hungry for dinner. There are some 140 restaurants in Britain with Michelin stars, four of which have the highest accolade of three stars. Two of those are in London.
One is Restaurant Gordon Ramsay on Royal Hospital Road (www.gordonramsay.com) in Chelsea, the other is Alain Ducasse at The Dorchester hotel (www.alainducasse-dorchester.com).
Monday
10 a.m. Have a lie-in. You might not have tickets for the pop concert at the palace tonight here . But you can be in the vicinity to soak up the tunes and the vibe.
In the meantime, take the opportunity to visit the London dungeon experience (here) near London Bridge. Scare yourself with the prospect of transportation or execution, take the rat walk or the Traitor; Ride to Hell as you experience 1,000 years of the darker side of British history.
12 p.m. Go for lunch at the George Inn, a 17th century pub which earns a mention in Charles Dickens's "Little Dorrit" and is London's last remaining galleried coaching inn. Dickens used to come here for coffee.
The George's aged two-tiered balconies overlook a courtyard set aside for patrons to enjoy beer, ale, porter, stout and all other manner of drink as well as a hearty menu of pub food. This London treasure was rebuilt in 1676, after a fire destroyed the original. Shakespeare was another well-known regular.
2 p.m Take the Underground to the Imperial War Museum near Westminster. Winston Churchill was the queen's first prime minister and it was from here that he directed the Allied Forces which defeated Nazi Germany in World War Two.
The original Cabinet War Rooms - today part of the Churchill War Rooms - which sheltered the people at the heart of Britain's wartime government during the Blitz, lie beneath London's bustle.
In 1940, shortly after becoming Prime Minister, Churchill stood in the War Cabinet Room and declared: 'This is the room from which I will direct the war'. Today, you can step back in time to explore the secret headquarters where Churchill and his staff changed the course of history.
4 p.m. Head to the nearby Strand and Covent Garden for a bit of early supper or a late tea in one of the many restaurants and cafes.
6 p.m. You have three choices. If you have tickets for the party at the palace, get over there and have a mooch round the royal gardens and then take your place for a gala pop concert which will include Paul McCartney, Stevie Wonder, Elton John, Ed Sheeran, Jessie J, JLS, Kylie Minogue and Robbie Williams on a spectacular stage built around the Queen Victoria Memorial, right in front of Buckingham Palace.
If you don't have tickets you could join the thousands of people who are likely to be in the vicinity, head back to your hotel to watch it on the BBC, see it on a BBC big screen outdoors (here) or find a local pub holding a jubilee pop concert party.
Tuesday
6 a.m. By now you must be royally exhausted. Nevertheless, today is THE day. The royal procession, the horse-drawn coach, the guards on horseback, a thanksgiving service at St. Paul's Cathedral and the royal wave from the balcony of Buckingham Palace, a flypast and a feu de joie (celebratory rifle salute).
Get your sandwiches, thermos of tea or coffee, bottles of water and a spot along the royal process route and hang onto your view.
A timetable can be found on: here
4 p.m. Go home.
(Reporting by Paul Casciato, editing by Steve Addison)
London firms stumble over trademark hurdles - The Guardian
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