Russian Art and the Scaffold

Yesterday, I had a trip to London, to meet my friend, who lives an equivalent distance in the opposite direction. We had decided to go to the exhibition at the Royal Academy (From Russia) and since there was likely to be a queue, my friend, Pam, got there ahead of me and bought the tickets, while I kept in touch on the mobile. It was a very varied exhibition, including French impressionist paintings, moving on to modern stuff (I mean in terms of art) - Picasso, Gaugin, cubism followed by constructivism and abstraction. Very interesting. Of course, we also sat and lunched and chatted in a café in Piccadilly and then moved on to the National Portrait Gallery for a second cup of tea. En route to the NPG, we passed by the new construction on the fourth plinth in Trafalgar Square. One can only call it that; frankly I wouldn’t dignify it by the name ‘sculpture’. I thought was some scaffolding that had been set up in order to carry out some work, until Pam reminded me that that was the work.

On the train, I continued with my short story about bullying. It is my intention to have my hero stand up for himself and for a weaker person, but, as I commented to Pam, this is something of a fairy story. It no longer seems a good idea to defend yourself against bullies, or, more particularly to intervene on someone else’s behalf. There are too many reported stabbings where just such a situation has occurred. Alas, my story probably contains some left-over Enid Blyton philosophy which no longer exists.

Just heard from the Son&Heir tonight that he and his brood are coming for Easter - followed, the following week, by the ProdigalD. So after a long run of leisurely weekends, when other people have entertained us, it will be back to work for me for that couple of weeks.