Hello All. I hope that you are well. We are just back from London after a jolly few days away. I think I left you with a cliffhanger vis-a-vis the train overtime ban. Well, I am sure that some people were inconvenienced etc. but I couldn't see anything cancelled at all. So getting there and back was incident free. We had booked a hotel very close to Paddington Station and Hyde Park because that was where Bruce Springsteen was playing. The hotel was absolutely fine, run - as far as I could make out - very efficiently by the Turkish Mafia. They were all a bit scary but very polite and the place was very clean so what they do with thumbscrews on a Saturday night is none of my concern. They were also very reserved when a young American gentleman had four (yes four) boiled eggs for breakfast so everyone had to wait while they ran off and got some more. That lad will end up being egg bound and our budgie died of that. (Stop Press. Apparently those are completely different things). On a not very interesting side note - are hotel toaster machines not actually meant to toast the bread? You can feed the bread in, stand there for an age and still all you get is tepid bread. Is it a cultural thing? Is that what people from many lands prefer? We should be told.
We ran off to the National Portrait Gallery first to see the Paul McCartney exhibition. There were several rooms full of photos of the Beatles and Co, just as they were coming into their world domination phase. I have to confess, I thought it might be a couple of old rolls of film that Paul had found in an old suitcase and has printed up at TruPrint. But actually they were (a) excellent and (b) there were loads of them. Paul really is very good at things isn't he? If you are in London, would really recommend it. (Perhaps, only if you like the Beatles. there's a lot of them in it and it might be a bit tedious if you are not so keen).
A couple of points, National Portrait Gallery.
1) If you sell tickets for a 5 O'Clock entry and say you can come in up to 5.15 pm. I don't expect to be greeted on the door (at five to five) with "We will be closing in the next half and hour". Also, not thrilled by being followed round by security chivvying us up. Have an earlier last entry time.
2) I think you will find that it's Dora Bryan not Dora Brian. Do you think it won't matter because she was from the North of England? I mean, obviously, I'm not the one with the degree in curation but I'm pretty confident.
Still, next day, I went back to have a look at the re-hang in the NPG while HOH and FOW2 went to see Bruce Springsteen in the park. I probably won't talk too much about that because - I wasn't there and also, it's been pretty much Bruce Springsteen this and Bruce Springsteen that and I'm really ready to hear about someone else now. He was, apparently, outstanding.
I usually start a trip around the NPG in the Tudors and Stuarts Room. I like a bit of Henry Vlll. (Well obviously, I don't like Henry because he was a psychopath but it's a classic kind of thing). I always think that these are not the actual original portraits and they are locked away in the Tower of London. I mean, would you risk such valuable things in front of thousands of people gawking every day? Maybe you would. My dad always used to say that he didn't think the Crown Jewels were the real Crown Jewels. Same reason. No. I haven't been watching GB news.
I'm not often enough at the NPG to judge the changes. I think they are supposed to make it all a bit more "woke".There were a lot of portraits of women - I really liked the photographs of contemporary actresses and performers but there was a lot about slavery. Most portraits had explanatory notes about what this person had done about slavery - goodie or baddie. Slavery - obviously a scourge on humanity and it was certainly interesting to learn about how many people had thought that this was an acceptable way to live. However, I did feel a little bit harangued by the time I left 18th Century room. God Bless William Wiberforce. Not perfect but still heroic.
We are due another holiday this year - a mini cruise to Amsterdam. We have always wanted to go to Amsterdam and we wondered if we would like being on a cruise ship. This will kill two birds with one stone and, if we like it, we may go further afield. For those wondering if we have won the pools, we had saved up for a decent holiday this year but we didn't know how Aged Parent was going to be and we didn't want to risk being away for too long in case there was an emergency, so we used the money on smaller holidays. Not that we do the pools by the way. Do they still do the pools? Or Spot the Ball? My Auntie Vera (she's not my real Auntie, she used to look after me after school until my Mum came for me. It was supposed to be my Nana but she hadn't really adjusted to living in flats and was very nervous about having me there. She kept tying the doors and windows closed with old tights so that I didn't go over the balcony). Anyway Mrs Cullen (my Auntie Vera - see above) won Spot the Ball. I don't remember how much it was but it was a life changing amount of money. The problem was that she had put one too many crosses on the form so her entry wasn't valid. I have a vague memory someone from Spot the Ball coming out to see her and her crying. Gambling. The table always wins.
After all this action, I skived church this morning. HOH was on the door as they say so he had to go in. Duty calls. Apparently the sermon was based on a question asked by a church member "Can you lose your salvation?" That's a meaty one that I have no intention of tackling here except to say that I am the daughter of a man that thought Calvin was a bit free and easy on his doctrine around the permanence of salvation and that has influenced me more than is probably wise but either way, I think it is unlikely that you can lose it for playing hooky from church so that is ok.
Have a good week.
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