and before i start an apology about the lack of capitalisation etc. i am using a poxy english keyboard and some of the keys are in teh wrong spots - and i accidentally hit a wrong key the other day (y'day??) and lost an entire post - so i'm not trying that again.
more photos coming soon - but the hostel computer doesn't seem to have usb ports - so you'll have to wait til i get to an internet cafe. maybe tomorrow.
jeanie - no, nisa is no longer there - its now a tesco and the smell of jam doughnuts is no longer in the air. but the boots chemist is still on the corner and whiteleys is still as glamorous as ever and the flower seller is still there and so is the dodgy old post office - and i dont think it has had a paint job since 1989... there are more of the junky touristy shops - and i still managed to buy postcards for 5p. and the arabs are still there begging on the streets and the block of flats wwhere we lived on Queensway now has a starbucks on the corner!!!!
yesterday i went back to the national gallery for a proper look at caillebotte's a man at his bath 1884 and the rokeby venus - adn the Arnolfini Wedding by jan van eyck - and botticelli's venus & mars - such wonderful stuff. then to the Courtauld Institute gallery where they hold Manet's Bar at the Folie Berege and a beautiful modigliani nude and cezanne's the card players and van gogh's self portrait with bandaged ear. and i caught an old fashioned red london bus with the running board at the back and the tiny twisty staircase to the upper level. i dropped by the national portrait gallery and had a fun time trying to guess the sitters - and recognising some if not most - lots of british politicians .... then i met up with Ingrid & her husband (!!!!) Jensen outside the Palace theatre where I was off to see Spamalot. Great to catch up with them and hear about some of their travel stories and about househunting here in London (hope that worls out soon!). Sadly i wont get to see them again before I leave - but we had a good gossip in an irish style pub. Spamalot was fun and very silly and my seat was so high up in the threatre that i was beyond 'the gods' and in the lighting gantry!!!! good thing i dont suffer from vertigo!!! Alan Dale is currently playing King Arthur - and he was great - but i still think Peter Davidson would have been better!
Today - Friday - I met up with Naomi. She's now staying here at the Holland Park hostel - and is fresh off a 24 days bus tour around Europe. Great to see her and soooo much to catch up on. And we went to the Tate Britain - saw a great exhibition of British Orientalist Art from the late 1800s onwards as well as the main collection - including Millais' The LAdy of SHallot. and gorgeous stuff by the pre raphaelite brotherhood - rosetti, byrne jones... and lots of turners etc. then we caught the ferry down the Thames past the Houses of Parliament and the London Eye to Tate Modern and the Globe Theatre (which we saw from the outside but couldn't get inside of..) Tate Modern is fabulous - a great re-use of an old factory building - and such a great collection .... Rothko, Turner, Anselm Kiefer, Jackson Pollock, some amazing - ack - no not lucien freud - the other english bloke - the one who did the screaming popes series - you know who i mean.... ack i've gone blank.... got it - FRANCIS BACON!!!! and jospeph beuys and .... its all just so amazing seeing these in the flesh ( or should that be teh oil and pigment???) and them being bigger or smaller or more colourful in reali life.
Tomorrow Nomes and I are off to Portobello Rd markets and to have a turn on the london eye (the giant ferris wheel thing) and possibly to do the Jack the Ripper walking tour - and maybe back to the Natuional Gallery... and Nomes thinks she might come across to Paris with me next weekend....
Anyway havign a fab time in London - and it really does in many ways fell like home. Hope you are all well and over any lurgies and that winter isn't too horrible. Did i mention that its 10pm here and still light - and it has beenr eally warm - although cooler and greyer and even a bit drizzly today....
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