Anniversary

 

Hello All. I hope that you are well. I am sorry that this is a bit late. I have been away for a long weekend for our wedding anniversary.  I never like to put that sort of thing in the blog before I go, in case international jewel thieves are reading and they know that we are out of the house. (If you are an international jewel thief, it would be slim pickings in here, I can tell you.) Anyway, this will basically be "What I did on my holidays" Sorry.

So, we went to London (surprise) to see a couple of exhibitions that we had been really looking forward to. We had considered a play, but the one we wanted to see (Giant) was £156.00 for a matinee ticket! Each! London theatre - pricing normal people out of the market. Bless them. I know that you can get in to see a musical for a lot less than that, but, as you know, I'm not that keen on musicals, on stage anyway. (Honourable exceptions. - Hello Dolly, Hamilton, Operation Mincemeat and Les Mis). Also, thinking about it, The Commitments was very good. But that was basically a really good band blasting out Motown for an hour and a half whilst half-heartedly trying to fit a bit of story in.  

So, we did some art. We saw Siena - The Rise of Painting at the National Gallery. This was about the seismic change in painting in the period 1200 - 1250. For the first time, faces had emotions, and figures had realistic movements.  There was an awful lot of Christ on the Cross (or being taken down from the cross or being put on the cross). Also, a lot of Mary being anunciated to and being upset at the bottom of the cross. Also, there was a bit of back story for Mary that I wasn't aware of. Who knew her mum was called St Judith?  Personally, I struggle a bit associating all this with my own faith, but I am aware that this kind of thing is a useful focal point for many people, and it was exquisite. 

Also, we went to the Courtauld Gallery to see (deep breath) "Goya to Impressionism. Masterpieces from the Oskar Reinhardt Collection." Look, I don't pretend to know very much about any of this, but there are paintings in there by Degas, Van Gogh, Renoir, Monet, etc. All really famous but also breathtaking. I don't get it. But I love it. I only cried once. (Degas, ballet dancer sculpture. Just beautiful.)

We also went to Battersea Power Station, which is now a sort of high-end shopping centre. It's very well done but a bit posh. However, we did decide to go up the Battersea Lift. This goes up one of the famous towers (eventually - there's a lot of wanging on about how much coal they used to use, etc, before you go up in it. )  I'm not terrible with heights but I was a bit unsettled by the way they sort of shoot you up this tube like a torpedo and then you come out at the top and it's VERY high. I think you get about 15 minutes up there, which was more than enough for me, but it is certainly spectacular. Hopefully, the little video above works so you can get an idea. We were all very "ooh look at that". You did feel for the chap who was just pressing the "up and "down" buttons, who spent most of the time checking his tattoos and shouting "five more minutes". (Please excuse the pudgy face on the photo above. I didn't know HOH was taking it and forgot to do the chin lifting thing that women of a certain age are supposed to do on all photos at this time of life.)

Then on to Soho to find a record shop for HOH. I thought that Soho was all artisan now with green bean noodles and hemp blouses. All I'll say is that we seemed to pitch up in a different part of Soho than that. It was all life-size photos of men stripped to the waist with only towels to cover their modesty, and other things that I will not be describing on this blog. I usually wait outside record shops if HOH goes in because the people in them are usually annoying, but I stuck pretty close to him here. In case you are worried about him, he left with a Motown Demonstration copy (or something) and was very happy. 

We also tried a quiet walk around Covent Garden, but chose the weekend of the FA Cup Final, and a good proportion of Crystal Palace's fan base had decided that Covent Garden was the ideal place to meet up and consume vast quantities of alcohol and let off smoke bombs. No trouble or anything, just a bit loud. 

So we are back now. My feet have stopped hurting. (19,000 steps in one day - ridiculous behaviour), And I am trying to raise the courage to look at my bank balance, but we had a lovely time, and, just to take your mind off the very round face above, this is me and HOH in our "going away outfits" on our wedding day. Do people still wear going-away outfits? I loved that suit so much. Laura Ashley, it was. What a slimmo I was. Never mind. Have a great week.