A BIG adventure

I'm listening to the workmen outside the window and now there's a train wizzing past.. it's ain't like life in the country down here! I'm down in the BIG city and wondering how people get used to this noisy life - or, perhaps they become accustomed to it and filter it out? I'm sleeping on the sofa (thanx IKEA) at Liz's and it's the start of another day in the BIG city. I came down on the train yesterday from Kemble. I got the train with about 1 minute to spare! A couple of hours later and I'm here in the apartment and it feels like summer has arrived. The sun is out and it's very warm, oh how I wish I'd packed a dress and sandels! We took ourselves off to Covent Garden and sat outside on the terrace of Chez Gerard, which used to be one of my favourite places in Bristol until they closed it down. Had a glass of chilled Kia and sea bass with green beans, prawns and spinach - yum! Next we went down to the Thames and just walked and walked. The Houses of Parliament, Big Ben, BlackFriars Bridge, St. Pauls, OXO Tower.. all icons that mean you are in no doubt where you are - well, that's what Liz says anyway!

I have this theory that as there's a big, fat river flowing through most capital cities and those cities are all populated by people in search of their fortune. They are all cosmopolitan in choices of restaurants, people, entertainment so the only thing that sets each one apart from another is the view, the landmarks and often the temperature. London, particularly the Thames, is like no other city if you're in sight of one of it's famous landmarks. If you're not then you could be in Paris, Budapest, NYC because the mix is similar for all big cities.

This big city of London has one of the most well known modern art galleries in the World, Tate Modern. I've not visited before and I was impressed by the scale and style of the inside of what used to be a electricity station - the turbine room with all the big equipment is on view on the ground floor. I always believe galleries are only memorable by the pieces in them. If I can't remember them then I'm not into them. Liz laughs at my 'arty' approach to things. In fact, I'm now 'a media type' according to Liz! Memorable moments in the Tate Modern were the Mondrain, a Picasso, Miro, Monet and something entitled '30 pieces of silver'.

The entire room was devoted to this one piece of art/sculpture. The artist, Cornelia Parker had taken over 1000 pieces of silver from junk shops and boot sales including spoons, cutlery, candlesticks, cigarette cases, teapots, a flute, laid them out on a road and flattened them by getting someone to run over them with a steam roller! She them grouped them into 30 circular arrangements and suspended each item on a wire from the ceiling so they hang about 10cm from the floor. We both thought it was a clever, humorous idea that made us smile. We were too late to get tickets to one of the galleries so we'll be going back!

We then legged it over to Leicester Square for a quick milk shake in Ed's before going to see 27 dresses at the cinema. We almost had the screening to ourselves, just 2 other girls in there. Not a brilliant film really, very slushy and not a particularly strong storyline. But hey ho, it was reasonably entertaining. Oh how my feet were aching by the time we got back to the apartment just around 10pm!

Let's see how they fare today on our trip to the Tower! X