A good day - London

Stan was at a loose end yesterday and I thought we should go and do something. So we agreed to go to London. Caught train easily, walked over the Hungerford bridge, down escalators to Villiers Street. I really like Villiers street. Went into Gordon's Wine bar which is in a cellar and sells nothing but wine. Obviously I really wanted beer but behind the bar, instead of a range of drinks, there are 4 large barrels of sherry. I do love sherry. We had a glass of water and a schooner of amontillado, which we shared, it was not any more expensive than wine and was really lovely. We sat in a candlelit thieves' den and listened to the trains rumbling. This cellar is quite an institution; Hillaire Belloc and GK Chesterton also drank there. This fact is kind of wasted on Stan as he knows nothing about literature: but he likes looking at people and is brilliant at sizing them up.

For food we went to the Pret near St Martin in the Fields. Then to the National Portrait Gall for the annual portrait exhibition. This is so interesting - so many styles of portraiture - I liked the mass portrait of Yorkshire Hell's angels, the triple portrait of the magician (Drummond Money-Coutts, whose stage presence came across, and the movements of his hands)  and some of the more classically-styled portraits. The winning picture was plain boring. The second placed one was better but not particularly memorable. The one on the poster was brilliant - a man looking in a series of mirrors.

Walked a very strange route to the Tate on Millbank which is being "done up". A good selection of pictures is still on view and we just enjoyed having a good appreciation and discussion of the pictures that took our attention. I tend to be interested most in our wonderful history of crazy artists, and their remarkable visions, e.g. Blake, Dadd, and Spencer. I particularly love Spencer's conviction that heaven is actually Cookham. I sometimes think so myself.

Probably Heaven

Cain and Abel

Dadd, fairyland

Stanley Spencer - the resurrection in Cookham churchyard

A strange film installation was in the main rooms with the most bizarre creepy noises as the soundtrack. Apparently the creepy noises were made by the motor of the camera with which the piece was filmed. It was very interesting. Stan was riveted as he loves film.

He said: "can we go to that little DVD shop?" he meant the shop in the British film Institute. The cinemas and bars and restaurant seemed to have escaped his notice. I like the BFI and one day I will go there and see everything I have missed.

On the way back we tried to take some artistic pictures with Stan's phone, as after looking at art everything looks like art, even the paint on the road.