So that was it now, my two nights alone in London. And tell you what: after all that whining in the last post, I didn’t miss the Mimis one bit, and that’s the honest truth. I was far too busy to do so actually. And see, that’s why I sometimes need a little shove to get going. Because afterwards I enjoy it immensely.
London has kept me very busy
First of all I slept until 10 AM UK time on Friday, which means 11 in Swiss time. Something that hasn’t happened to me for ages, since my body just got too used to get up at around Mimi #1 o’clock… Maybe it was due to last weeks’ broken nights. Or my beatiful room on the top floor which I’ve had far too little time to enjoy properly.
Therefore I had a bit of a late start into Friday but since there’s no crying over etc., I just decided to go with the flow. So I was late at Tate Modern, plus it turned out that they only let people in to the exhibition in badges since it is still so popular. I was in complete awe of the fact that even now you have to queue up for it. I only had to wait for a good 30′ however, and this actually gave me time to explore the building a bit. And what a building that is!
Kunsthaus Zürich go home, hide and cry
I’ve visited Tate once but only stood in the big hall and wasn’t really interested anyway (teenagers, I tell you…). It is absolutely jaw-droppingly HUGE. And what I liked about it particularly was the massive carpet on the entrance ramp down, where plenty of children tumble about, what a great idea! It makes the whole place feel really cool in an including way. I still wont bring my kids into the actual exhibition (or let alone to London) for some years though. A decision that was being backed-up as I saw one woman with two kids in the exhibition and she ended up sitting on the floor with the kids, holding the iPhone with kiddie videos on it to keep them entertained…
Toptip for all of you who have kids who are into books, there is a great selection of children’s books in the museum shop which will also make adults happy, so I spent a bit of money there….
View from the tenth Floor is amazing… btw. someone still owes me a night in The Shard I believe…
The actual
exhibition was great in the sense that it manages to really convey O’Keeffe’s life (and contradict the sexual interpretation of her work, for all of you out there who just think of lady bits when they hear O’Keeffe!). It didn’t feature many of my favourite pictures, but that didn’t matter to me. I spent a good hour watching and reading and just really BEING there, completely immersed in a different world. I forgot how great it is to really just take stuff in wholeheartedly, rather than trying to do five different things at a time. I think it has given me a sense of how O’Keeffe has led her life and how this has contributed to her art.
Coming out again was as if coming out of a tunnel, so I took some time to stroll over to St. Pauls, and then tried to find my way to Covent Garden. Since I am a very half-hearted user of Google Maps, I kind of meandered a bit through fleet street and found the house Dr. Johnson lived in, and a very green place, which is what I like about meandering. You find stuff you didn’t look for and it is a luxury which costs time, so I hardly ever do it nowadays.
Top left: Covent Garden!
The Shopping bit
Finally I did find Covent Garden though (evil people hid it, see picture above), had lunch and the went proper shopping. Yes, I mean proper shopping, and I will not tell anybody how much money I spent (probably not even myself). I have found that I am at an age (ugh, even just writing this makes me feel old), where I can’t be bothered to buy the really cheap stuff. If I make the time to go shopping and find something which really fits, I want it to last, so it’s not cheap anymore. Worst thing was that I kept telling myself that the pound was so low, basically everything is a bargain. We’ll see when I get the actual credit card bills. I’m really apt at lying to myself when it comes to these things.
Heading Out
Anyway, then I rushed back to the hotel room (hello beautiful room!) to offload the bags and set off again to meet a dear friend in Surbiton. A train journey, you will be surprised to hear, I managed without getting lost (for those of you who know me, I’m talking about the “Grange-over-Sands” incident).
Some More Shopping
Saturday morning I made sure to get up early to get in 1.5 hours of very successful powershopping before making my way to the airport. Sweating along on the Piccadilly line of course, always part of the experience.
The Places I want to see…
So oh, how I could’ve stayed on!!! So many things I would’ve loved to see too, and what I also truly missed out on was to just sit in a coffee for an inappropriately long time, staring out the window. I had been hoping for a bit more idling, but that’s just not possible in 1.5 days. And I kind of also missed TMD, since he is my fellow London-traveller and companion and I have kind of grown used to him being around. Weird, right?
I’m looking forward though to a.) hugging the Mimis tight tonight and b.) coming back at some point, and this we will!
P.S: I discovered there’s something even slightly better than shopping:
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