a little knowledge…
Home again after a very pleasant time in London – (as many of you know, I always enjoy travelling South), and after a particularly charming assignation on Friday evening was left with Saturday free to enjoy the city; a rare event indeed as I generally wind up spending the majority of my trips exclusively in more private surroundings!
I took the opportunity to visit the Royal Academy’s Summer Exhibition and was especially looking forward to seeing Jeff Koons’ Cracked Egg (Blue), a beguiling object so beautiful that it defies description altogether; think giant shiny blue empty boiled egg with lid and you will be either on the right track or completely missing the point (probably both). Apparently it took eight months relentless polishing of the high chromium-stainless steel to produce the most reflective surface imaginable (or at least since my Mum last got down to some proper spring cleaning) and the result is truly fabulous; fortunately for me it was not for sale and I left having instead chosen a very nice (and far more appropriate) piece by Sue Whale called ‘The Entomology of Love’ whose fun and fragility will benefit far more from being seen than described by a philistine like me – hopefully it will soon be gracing my new place! (yep, still no moving date).
I also took advantage of my day out to visit (as I always endeavour to but usually with limited success) the Natural History Museum, which turned out – unbeknownst to me, to be only five minutes walk from my lovely hotel on Cromwell Road. The current temporary exhibition comprises a tropical butterfly house set up in the grounds; unfortunately the interior, by virtue of necessity, is far more hot and sticky than anywhere I would choose to spend a sunny day, and whilst I am not normally averse to such conditions, it helps if (as is more usual) I am rather less formally attired, or indeed, not at all. Anyway, the dinosaurs are my perennial favourite, although a wrong turn on the way to Marine Invertebrates took me to the Human Biology section, which held my interest for long enough to fill the gap until hometime (I’m sure my new-found knowledge of hormone distribution will come in handy, although I think I can probably keep my burgeoning interest in mitochondria safely to myself).
This week – Dublin! I am looking forward very much to my first visit and will tell you all about it; I am meeting my companion at Gatwick on Wednesday and will be away until Saturday evening, meaning that the next couple of days are shaping up to be hectic at the very least! Unfortunately it is impossible to please all of the people all of the time (plus I really don’t have the space) so have regrettably been turning down some potentially delightful offers – to those of you among these callers; please do keep trying! Also, to those of you who see fit to telephone me at 4 and 5am, ring asking if I can ‘pop over’ to Sheffield/Doncaster/Surrey ‘tonight’, send illiterate, anonymous and unseemly text messages and whose general lazy, ill-informed and ill-mannered ‘enquiries’ are wasting ever more of my valuable time, please STOP trying – I have blacklisted more numbers this week than any other to date! Being courteous and well-mannered costs nothing whereas any of the above only results in 1: a cast-iron guarantee that we will never meet and 2: that for the first time ever you will have letters after your name – in my contact list!
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