A pleasantly random series of encounters
Yesterday, I finally got out of the house properly and wandered around town in the sunshine. I met a couple of my former classmates at the Royal Academy, and we all went to see the Peter Callesen exhibition, I think I've linked to his website before, but in case I didn't, he makes lovely, fragile cut-paper sculptures. There is a small selection of his works on display until October 27, at the Tsingou gallery, 10, King Charles II Street (just off the Haymarket). No photographs allowed, but the pictures at the website are pretty good. The actual objects are fantastically delicate, and mostly made out of single sheets of A4 printer paper, mostly with silhouetted cut from the flat surface, with the paper removed used to construct the 3D sections. I especially liked the large piece in the basement, where the outline of a baroque church yielded a delicate model of the ruined end-wall of the same church. Well worth seeing if you are in the area, and free.
After that, we headed up towards the big Waterstones on Picadilly, intending to have lunch in their top-floor bar, but the shop was closed, because Bill Clinton was doing a book-signing. Since he was due to leave, we hung about the back-entrance for a few minutes with a bunch of other idlers and the builders from the site next door. marvelling at how much the security men looked like the ones in films (black suits, somber demeanour, hands clasped in front of waist). Clinton finally emerged, signed a few autographs, chatted a bit with the construction workers, and drove away. Being short, I managed to get an excellent photograph of the back of his head and his left ear. Upstairs, the bar wasn't doing food, so we had a drink. Lauren gave me a lovely book of patterns for Japanese clothing, so I can make my own kimono, and I succumbed to the 3 for 2 on paperbacks downstairs (Ladies of Grace Adieu, The Cloud-Watcher's Guide and a book about popular entertainments of the Victorian era). Lunch was salad (for me) in Pret a Manger, then I headed off for the bus, passing a huge statue of Anubis that has appeared in Trafalgar Square, apparently as part of publicity for a new Tutenkhamen exhibition to be held at the old Milennium Dome.
I'm in two minds whether to visist this - I'm not at all sure the Egyptian government should be hoicking such fragile objects around like this, especially since conservation standards at their home museum are not so hot (according to my niece), but maybe they need the money. The terracotta warriors at the British Museum are quite another thing, since no only is terracotta much more robust than gilded wood and mummies, but the Chinese have hundreds of the things to spare, while the Tutenkhamum stuff is unique.
Back home, I was really tired, in a healthy sort of way, and the hip, which had been very painful in the morning, was much better, so perhaps I should make myself walk more. Lauren has a stick too, at the moment, so we were both hobbling amicably about Pall Mall, but her ankle is very much better, although she has lost such a worrying amount of weight that we spent some time discussing the possibility of a combined liposuction/fat transplant operation for the two of us.
Here are some pictures - click on them for enlargements and titles.
After that, we headed up towards the big Waterstones on Picadilly, intending to have lunch in their top-floor bar, but the shop was closed, because Bill Clinton was doing a book-signing. Since he was due to leave, we hung about the back-entrance for a few minutes with a bunch of other idlers and the builders from the site next door. marvelling at how much the security men looked like the ones in films (black suits, somber demeanour, hands clasped in front of waist). Clinton finally emerged, signed a few autographs, chatted a bit with the construction workers, and drove away. Being short, I managed to get an excellent photograph of the back of his head and his left ear. Upstairs, the bar wasn't doing food, so we had a drink. Lauren gave me a lovely book of patterns for Japanese clothing, so I can make my own kimono, and I succumbed to the 3 for 2 on paperbacks downstairs (Ladies of Grace Adieu, The Cloud-Watcher's Guide and a book about popular entertainments of the Victorian era). Lunch was salad (for me) in Pret a Manger, then I headed off for the bus, passing a huge statue of Anubis that has appeared in Trafalgar Square, apparently as part of publicity for a new Tutenkhamen exhibition to be held at the old Milennium Dome.
I'm in two minds whether to visist this - I'm not at all sure the Egyptian government should be hoicking such fragile objects around like this, especially since conservation standards at their home museum are not so hot (according to my niece), but maybe they need the money. The terracotta warriors at the British Museum are quite another thing, since no only is terracotta much more robust than gilded wood and mummies, but the Chinese have hundreds of the things to spare, while the Tutenkhamum stuff is unique.
Back home, I was really tired, in a healthy sort of way, and the hip, which had been very painful in the morning, was much better, so perhaps I should make myself walk more. Lauren has a stick too, at the moment, so we were both hobbling amicably about Pall Mall, but her ankle is very much better, although she has lost such a worrying amount of weight that we spent some time discussing the possibility of a combined liposuction/fat transplant operation for the two of us.
Here are some pictures - click on them for enlargements and titles.