A day with Toby and Mum
Off to London today, after a few bits of French work in the morning before zooming down to Preston Park and off to Victoria. I walked down to Tate Britain and met Mum outside. Toby had managed to get into the Hokusai exhibition at the British Museum by getting there at the crack of dawn. Mum and I chatted about wide ranging subjects and observed a heroic pigeon repeatedly infiltrating the Djanogly Cafe till Toby arrived, looking on fine form. Great to see him of course, and we had another cup of tea to celebrate.
Spent time mooching about looking at paintings. I always am surprised when I go there about what a a marvellous collection it is there. Pictures I've looked at since childhood, and some I paid special attention to when doing A level art, such as the William Roberts pictures. Liking this time the sheer unabashed gorgeousness of the colour in some of the Pre-Raphaelite work. Lovely stuff, and lots of old favourites. Also a room full of postmodern nonsense, a piece stringing together bits of Obsession for men adverts was a particularly useless 'stealomatic' (as they call such stuff in advertising agencies).
Tried to get some photos of all of us. Toby elusive although Mum managed to capture one of us on her iPad.
As we mooched about, I was very much taken with a piece by Mark Leckey. One of those darkened rooms with a film running. However this piece Dream English Kid was a sort of biography made from a collage of material he found online. But beautiful in parts, and as the timescale covered was 1964-1999, it resonated with me. The timeline ended at the time of the solar eclipse in 1999. I was working in Havant for the day, and still at IBM.
Then Mum, Toby and I went walking along the river, passing the houses of parliament. And then to Trafalgar Square. Where we stopped off on St Martin's Lane at a Côte restaurant, for a decent feed, and then mooched briefly through Convent Garden stopping off at the Nell of old Drury, opposite The Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, where we climbed upstairs to a peaceful pub room and a chat.
Home then, on the tube Mum and Toby getting of at Westminster for the Jubilee, and me heading off to Victoria, where the train had been cancelled. However the later train was a fast one and son I was home in reasonable time. Lorraine and Beth had been snacking quietly in the Preston Park Tavern.
A selfie of Mum, Toby and me; Mum in the Tate; mum's shot of Toby and I, a Harry Harryhausen skeleton and a still from Dream English Kid.
Spent time mooching about looking at paintings. I always am surprised when I go there about what a a marvellous collection it is there. Pictures I've looked at since childhood, and some I paid special attention to when doing A level art, such as the William Roberts pictures. Liking this time the sheer unabashed gorgeousness of the colour in some of the Pre-Raphaelite work. Lovely stuff, and lots of old favourites. Also a room full of postmodern nonsense, a piece stringing together bits of Obsession for men adverts was a particularly useless 'stealomatic' (as they call such stuff in advertising agencies).
Tried to get some photos of all of us. Toby elusive although Mum managed to capture one of us on her iPad.
As we mooched about, I was very much taken with a piece by Mark Leckey. One of those darkened rooms with a film running. However this piece Dream English Kid was a sort of biography made from a collage of material he found online. But beautiful in parts, and as the timescale covered was 1964-1999, it resonated with me. The timeline ended at the time of the solar eclipse in 1999. I was working in Havant for the day, and still at IBM.
Then Mum, Toby and I went walking along the river, passing the houses of parliament. And then to Trafalgar Square. Where we stopped off on St Martin's Lane at a Côte restaurant, for a decent feed, and then mooched briefly through Convent Garden stopping off at the Nell of old Drury, opposite The Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, where we climbed upstairs to a peaceful pub room and a chat.
Home then, on the tube Mum and Toby getting of at Westminster for the Jubilee, and me heading off to Victoria, where the train had been cancelled. However the later train was a fast one and son I was home in reasonable time. Lorraine and Beth had been snacking quietly in the Preston Park Tavern.
A selfie of Mum, Toby and me; Mum in the Tate; mum's shot of Toby and I, a Harry Harryhausen skeleton and a still from Dream English Kid.
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