Bob & Betty go British

The crack

On Saturday I went to see a big crack in the concrete floor of the Tate Modern. One would think that something had happened, like an earthquake, or something equally catastrophic, but no, it was art! The crack is known as Shibboleth by Doris Salcedo who is making a comment on "the shaky ideological foundations on which Western notions of modernity are built". I'm not normally that intrigued by modern art but I saw a picture of the crack on a friend's flickr account and decided to go and see if for myself. I was surprisingly interested in it depsite the vast number of people milling about. I even went so far as to get an audio guide and find out a little more about the permanent collection.

You may have noticed that I said "I" rather than "We". Yes, I went alone to the Tate Modern. Robert had to work on Saturday so I went wandering about all on my lonesome. I have these sudden fits of ability to be alone, usually fuelled by necessity. I did however catch up with Jackie in Soho and then went back to London bridge to catch up with Yash as the sun was setting over Borough markets. We had coffee in Cafe Nero then went back to his place for some dinner before Robert joined us after he finished up at work. So it was a good day.

Saturday was just another day where I had to entertain myself after Robert was whisked off to Paris for two nights for work. I stayed with Caitlin and John on Wednesday night and then with Sarah on Thursday night and met Robert after work on Friday as he got off the Eurostar. He was lucky to escape from Paris after 3 days of public transport strikes.

On Sunday we went for a bicycle ride; the first one in many months. We did the River Wandle ride from close to where we live all the way along the banks of the river, south, to Mordor (ok, so it's Morden really, but we prefer to call it Mordor). It was a beautiful sunny day (with a top temperature of 14 deg) and aside from a few metres of busy road to cycle on the hazards consisted mostly of crazy kids on scooters and parents with strollers walking in the cycle lane. It was a 20km round trip which is never very taxing in London due to the lack of any sort of hill.

Last weekend we went to see The Four Season by candlelight at the Royal Albert Hall. The Orchestra was dressed in 18th Century costume and wigs and the conductor conducted from his harpsichord just as Mozart would have done. It was a mixed program of pieces by Vivaldi, Hayden, Mozart and Pacabel with the Four Seasons taking up the 2nd half of the program. The violin soloist was very flamouyant and very entertaining.

On the Sunday we went to the Victoria & Albert museum. Robert checked out the Asia section while Sarah and I went to two of the special exhibitions - the Life of Lee Miller (a photographer) and The Golden Age of Couture 1947-1957. Both were very interesting even if the fashion exhibition was badly layed out for the amount of people in the space at anyone time.

This Thursday we are looking forward to seeing Max and Jo who are on their grand tour of Europe and the UK (as all Australians should do at least once in their lives). Looking forward to getting out of London for a long weekend and taking lots of photos of autumn colour. Good thing Robert and I are coming down with a virus now and not at the end of the week... Speaking of which, it's time to make some honey and lemon drinks before we go to bed.

posted by Elisabeth @ 9:34 PM 0 comments

New arrivals

So what's all this about me keeping you more up to date? I'm sorry but life just hasn't been that exciting. Robert has been on call and working hard for past 2 weekends and so we haven't ventured far.

The most exciting news has been the arrival of my new niece - Natalie Rose - on Monday 1st October. First child for my brother and his wife and first grandchild for my parents. She arrived a few weeks early but all is well and they are at home and settling in well.

Since I wrote last we've made a few purchases. Robert has been lusting after a new lens for the Nikon so he finally bought the 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6G IF-ED AF-S VR DX Zoom-Nikkor. For those who don't speak camera geek it's got 11.1x zoom and has vibration reduction. It's a little heavier than the one we got with the camera, and a little longer, but only slightly so it still fits in the camera bag. Robert really wants his own digital SLR but I think one digital SLR between the 2 of us is probably enough. We thought about getting a new compact digital camera but now that we've seen the quality from the Nikon it is hard to go back to a compact. Perhaps we'll just have to learn to share.

I also bought a sewing machine (Janome Sewist 521) in a fit of enthusiasm for altering the clothes I bought last year that are now too big for me. So far I've managed to ruin one skirt and am reluctant to attempt to alter anything else. Perhaps I'll just use the machine to hem the new jeans I bought. Shopping for clothes is a bit of challenge at the moment due to the lack of inspiring fashions on offer. It's rather depressing wading through the racks of leggings and tunics. While I'm thin enough to carry off the look I'm sure they are only designed for teenagers. And don't get me started on the colours! I'm becoming difficult like my mother...

While sewing has been a bit of a disaster I have had at least one success on the knitting front. The blue cardigan in the photo is for Alex in Switzerland. Hopefully he isn't too big for it just yet. Just have to hope the postal strike is resolved so I can send it off in time for the beginning of winter. I did have to do a lot of un-knitting to get this finished. (I got confused with the sizes and was knitting it all out of proportion!) I now have grand plans to knit something for my new niece in time for the Australian winter.

On the work front I've decided to stop looking for a new job and stay for the fireworks. I just wasn't coping with the grueling schedule of interviews and decision-making. I really don't have a clear idea of what I want out of my new job and while there is grass on the other side it is usually just another bit of the same grass. I feel more settled now even if the situation at work is no different.

We haven't been out much lately although we did do Yum Cha with the Australian contingent a couple of weeks ago. We managed to get 10 people together which was great. Another Australian friend, Jackie, has moved over to London as well. Jackie and I went shopping Thursday night while Robert went out for a curry night with his team from work.

Our focus now turns to the end of the year and the coming ski season. I won’t mention the C word as it's still over 2 months away and I'm in denial as usual.

posted by Elisabeth @ 11:23 AM 0 comments