All Arted Out

Another Monday, another vast majority of people working. I set off for the National Gallery and National Portrait Gallery on Trafalgar Square since it wasn't all that nice a day out.

I love Trafalgar Square. It is large compared to most of London's other squares with two large fountains and, of course, Nelson's Column. To my utter shock the enormous hordes of pigeons that were there last time have managed to be eradicated and only cling in small groups to the fringe. Maybe that is the 500 pound penalty for feeding the pigeons in play. There were also three ducks in one of the fountains, which was precious but also slightly strange. How on Earth did they manage to make it all the way to Trafalgar Square from whatever mallard place they came from? I also really enjoy the enormous phallus, I mean Nelson's Column, with its four gargantuan lions. Watching my fellow tourists struggle to climb up to take a picture with a lion was quite amusing for a few minutes.

I first hit up the National Gallery. Wow. So many paintings. Seriously. I didn't even go to an entire wing and I was still fatigued at the end of about an hour. The important thing was I got to see my favorite painting The Execution of Lady Jane Grey again. Really other than that all the art tends to run together in my mind even though I really did like most of it. I have to give it to painters of the Virgin, don't like their subject matter but the blues they are capable of producing to clothe her are amazing. I wanted them horrendously. I didn't like the swarms of schoolchildren everywhere in their school uniforms and stupid voiced tour guides. Ick.

No children at the National Portrait Gallery right around the corner. It is basically British history presented in portraits from the Tudors to modern day. It was interesting at first, love the Tudors, but eventually once people stopped beheading their wives and waging wars about roses, things get boring. It all becomes a portrait of an old dude with a beard. I did a lot of skimming as I went through, though I immensely enjoyed the portrait of the Bronte sisters, though I have to disagree with the description's assertion of Emily as the most talented Bronte sister. I am on Team Charlotte all the way. There was also a visual orgasm photograph of Dan Radcliffe in the modern section where he was wearing Chucks, thus further imprinting him in my mind as my one true love and future husband.

Returning from the galleries I was starving because their cafes had horrendous fare (egg and watercress sandwiches? seriously, who eats that?). I stopped into Spar to get more cereal and then due to my roaring stomach made the decision to try a 3 pack of sausages wrapped in puff pastry. The first two were a good idea but by the third things were turning bad. Way more pastry than sausage and not very good sausage at that. I felt slightly ill after consumption and thus didn't eat for a further few hours. My buttered pasta with Parmesan cheese was so much better.

We finally had our Paris powwow to iron out a lot of the details but I will write about all that when we have actually been to Paris. Needless to say, I am pretty excited, though we are going to be jam packed for the 2 days we are there. Need to brush up on my French so I can attempt communication in a pinch. Bonne nuit mes cheres!