under another sun

Lorraine and I had an afternoon zoom up to London today, by way of doing something cheery. We went to The National Gallery and then into the Portrait Gallery. Just a lovely way to spend a couple of hours. Gallery behaviour so different these days, and it does make me feel like an old curmudgeon. I'd not been to the National for years. People walk up to deathless masterpieces of art, take a photo of it on their crap phones and wander off without giving it a second glance, or perhaps take a selfie with themselves in it with Van Gough's Sunflowers over their shoulder. The fact that you can download better images of the pictures from the internet. Anyway. Lorraine and I found ourselves sitting down near the Constables, and we looked at these over familiar images for some time. I've not really looked deeply at them since I was a child, as my tastes have moved on somewhat. But they really are astounding in lots of ways. Great to see the picture of Moulin Huet too by Renoir. ...

The Bacchanals Worked on my website all day - broken by a few conversations and emailing here and there. Then in the evening went up the hill to babysit for Anna and Anton. Spent some time watching The Peep Show, which is an farcical and toe-curling comedy. Very funny. Fortunately, as I watched and guffawed, the babies peeped not. Kate sent me a link about the pub we'd been in last night which was interesting. From E. Cobham Brewer 1810–1897 in the Dictionary of Phrase and Fable. 1898: Some hundreds of years ago there stood in the Tyburn Road, Oxford Street, a public-house called The Bacchanals: the sign was Pan and the Satyrs. The jolly god, with his cloven hoof and his horns, was called “The devil;” and the word Bacchanals soon got corrupted into “Bag o’ Nails.” The Devil and the Bag o’ Nails is a sign not uncommon even now in the midland counties.

Emergency beers at the Bag O' Nails Single-minded day today. Worked from 8 till 4:30 on a new me me me website which will showcase all things Peter Kenny for freelance purposes. I am pleased with the results so far, and I will naturally post the link here when it goes live in a few days. It is also forcing me to revamp my old sixthfingers site and refresh my cyber presence generally, which is no bad thing. In the evening, however, I went off to the Bag O' Nails at Victoria for emergency beers with First Matie who has broken her engagement with Gav. Although upsetting and horrid, one of the few good things about such crises is that it reminds you that you have lots of pals and they all care about you, and Kate's pals are naturally all rallying round. It was good to see her, and she is doing okay. In one way it's all quite reassuring. First Matie and me have had emergency beers many times over the years, and it feels part of the natural ebb and flow of things. On a rando...