Oh bother. A whole week seems to have slipped by like a knob of butter across a hot frying pan. And what have I got to show for it? A bottle of whisky and a pain behind my eyes? Well, yes and no, but I have been a busy bee. In fact I'm busier now than I've ever been. How did that happen?
The week started off sedately enough. Monday and Tuesday I was incredibly st-st-studious and spent the entire time working on my essay. It's meant to be 5000 words but I'm already well over 6000 - better to edit down than to pad out is what I think. By Wednesday, the walls were coming in at me, and as I gazed in a boss-eyed fashion at my laptop screen, dazzled by the sun reflecting off it, I thought bollocks to this. I need to get out of here. So I grabbed Jude (who up until that point was gently napping on the sofa and was slightly puzzled as to what was going on) and we headed along the riverside to the Greenwich foot tunnel, emerging by the Cutty Sark and than spending the next two hours larking about in the right-royal park. There was an abundance of squirrels and Jude was in her element. Unfortunatley the little icon which enables me to post pictures here seems to have disappeared - hopefully temporarily - cos I've got some loverly snaps so I have.
Anyway, I'm giving away the plot. But it's all done in the best possible taste. Thursday I packed my satchel and spent the day in the British Library doing research for my essay. The British Library is just brilliant - I love it. You just look up books on the internet database, request them, turn up and there they are. If you order more a little sign lights up on your desk when they're ready - how cool is that? And it's free.
The evening lecture was about gothic architecture, based around Prague and Prague Cathedral and Charles IV. Most interesting - as was the discussion in the bar afterwards. Stayed too long, which led to...
...bleary eyes on Friday. But I was up with the lark and off to the Chola Sacred Bronzes exhibition at the Royal Academy which is fascinating, although I would have liked to have had a bit more information (6.5/10), then on to Kensington and Leighton House. What an intriguing place - not what I was expecting, although I'm not sure what I was expecting. Not a fountain and a stuffed peacock in the hall that's for certain. Amazing decor, and amongst other things, stuffed full of Burne-Jones paintings, and of course Leighton masterpieces. The exhibition of drawings (A Victorian Master) is well worth a visit.
Afterwards I returned, after a five year absence, to my old stomping ground: Local Government House in Smith Square for my successor's leaving drinks. Great to catch up with everyone again - before I knew what had happened it was 11pm...and I had had too much Kronenberg. Doh!
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