New Years Resolution
Our New Year's Resolution was to get out and see more of London and we've made a good go of that over the last couple of weekends. Last weekend we went out to the Tate Modern and were pleasantly surprised by what turned out to be a very interesting art gallery, and one with a great view across the Thames to St Paul's. The Tate is divided into four themed galleries, all of which contain some of the best modern art on the country. Modern art can be somewhat confusing and confronting (as in 'Why is this stack of newspapers considered art?' and as illustrated by the garbage men of Frankfurt accidentally throwing out some artwork last week) but the Tate Modern solves this problem with great information plaques and several very interesting listening posts. At the top of the six-storey converted power station (and it still is a power station, you can hear the turbines humming in the basement) is a great bar with amazing views across to the City, and had we had any money we would have stopped for a drink!
This week bought great excitement with the arrival of Andrew's first paycheck since October and with it the opportunity to do more than just the free things. We celebrated by going out with Rob and Lorayne Oldham for Lorayne's birthday drinks on Friday night, and on Saturday night by seeing a film and dining out. We feel part of the London scene now as we've finally eaten at Wagamama, a chain of Japanese restaurants. It's not as good as Chocolate Buddah but not bad. We also ventured out to the Natural History Museum and looked around the Wildlife Photographer of the Year awards, which we can only describe as 50 of the most amazing shots we've seen for some while. Sadly the escalator through the centre of the earth didn't really live up to the hype but we do plan to go back for a tour through the specimen collection to see pickled animals and plants, some of which where collected by Banks and Cook themselves. The Natural History Museum also has an obscene number of dinosaur fossils, all collected by the big men and women in the field, and a very cool life size model of a blue whale. That whole Jonah story seems more plausible now.
This week has brought sadness too, with Kate's beloved grandfather, Ray, being admitted to a hospice. Our thoughts are with her family and especially her Nana at this very difficult time. Being halfway around the world seems to have several enormous drawbacks that we hadn't really considered a problem until just a few days ago.
- 16th January 2005
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We caught up with Debbie, Andrew, and Catrin at this fine pizza restaurant! |
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