Busy Summer Outing

We set off on a cool but dry June morning and soon we are on a train to Paddington that can't quite keep to time.  The first stop is the Royal Academy Schools Show 2017

This year it is particularly fun with lots to see, entertain and intrigue.  

From the brilliant and scary Richie Moment  to Zsofi Margit's  Cabinet there is much great talent.  

Next is lunch with the lovely Art Historian who is bouncy and happy, just what we want.  

Next stop is Bedford Square Festival

We have tickets for In Pevsner's Footsteps: 'A perambulation of Bedford Square' led by

Charles O’Brien  from the Yale Univesity Press.  It's an architectural tour of Bedford Square, which  Sir Nikolaus Pevsner rightly described as ‘without any doubt the most handsome of the London squares’. The tour examines the history of the square’s development, its occupants over three centuries, and visits the interiors of several houses, concluding with No. 47 - a famous publishing address, now occupied by Yale University Press - where there are nice cakes and cold drinks and merchandise!  Interesting to learn

 that aristocracy in the form of Lord Bedford was behind the initial build and the risk was taken by the architects.  Also the square was meant to be a crescent as we see in Bath but the curve only persists in the corners of the square.  

 

Next we walk in the sunshine to the  Square Pig at Holborn  where we are entertained by the Hopstuff brewery . After a cup of tea, I am soon drinking delicious Freudian Strip amid great company.  

Next it's a quick bus then train from Waterloo to Egham where we enjoy great ales and the company of chums at S's 50th bash.  What a delight is the multi award winning    Egham United Services Club

Home really late via Reading Station.  I manage the hill on Phyllis and it's a hot bath and the Archers at midnight.  What a day! We loved it. 

A lovely summer Sunday

I awoke feeling jaded.  But following the flower communion, I returned feeling spiritually refreshed and valuing people and the planet again

Norbert Capek  was a liberal theologian who invented the Flower Communion. 

He was charged with the capital crime of listening to froeign broadcasts during WW2 and sent to a concentration camp where he was deemed unworthy of life.  Just over seventy years ago.  In Europe. 

Culture in Reading

For some reason I am off for my fourth echocardiogram today.  Swoosh, Swoosh.  No waiting. 

If you have to go to the Royal Berks take advantage of MERL,  The Museum of English Rural Life, which is owned and managed by the University. It was established by academics in the Department of Agriculture in 1951 to capture and record the rapidly changing countryside following World War II. In 2005, the Museum moved to its current premises in St Andrew’s Hall, next to the RBH, a building designed by Sir Alfred Waterhouse in 1880 for local businessman Alfred Palmer of the Huntley & Palmer biscuit company.

The Museum was awarded £1.8million from the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) in 2014 for the redevelopment of the galleries, reopening in October 2016.

Quoting from their web site

‘It uses its diverse and surprising collection to explore how the skills and experiences of farmers and craftspeople, past and present, can help shape our lives now and into the future. The Museum has worked alongside rural people, local communities and specialist researchers to create displays and activities that engage with important debates about the future of food and the ongoing relevance of the countryside to all our lives.’

It has the following great features

• Free entrance
• Free lockers
• Free wifi
• A great simple high level time line
• Shop with high quality products, cards mugs scarves bags
• All walls covered
• Projected animated photos
• Simple messages which engage and also highly interactive ipads
• A friendly curator wandering about. 
  For more info click  here
  
  
  Back at the station it's well worth heading up Thames Tower to view the small exhibition Crash, A better Britian
  
  

I

Britlins is the vision of The Conglomerate, a select group of maverick MPs, self-made businessmen, and ageing celebrities, who want to turn back the clock on Broken Britain and restore it to the magical days of their youth.  It's a light hearted take on how Britian is NOW and makes you think.  The views are good too.

And later I go out for dinner so it's been a perfect day

Memories of the Norwich Weekend

  

Day trip to Great Yarmouth

It's still boling hot.  I'm doing some research at the Nelson Museum.  This hero dominated Georgian Britain.  He was a complex and flawed character but clearly very brave. How difficult life was then.  We are all inspired. The museum communicates well with us. P walks the plank.  Read more about the museum here.  

And about the intriguing character, Horatio, here

Then we head off for the beach.  There are some architectural gems

And the beach is quite something

But Great Yarmouth is struggling to be somewhere and is very run down.  What a contrast with Margate.  The Tate needs to appear!  

This says it all 

At least there's a brewery but it's shut today 

We walk along to the Britannia Monument. 
In the Victorian era a dare devil tried to scale it but fell to his death on the way down. The view from the top must be great but it's not open today.

The youngsters visit for dinner

Music amongst the roses

It's really hot and there is an open day at the gaden centre and R's band is playing

Later, it's quiz time

No, we didn't win!

Off to Norwich

Newbury in bloom has hit the station! 

It's a warm Saturday and I'm off to see the family in Norwich.  A chance to meet the lovely daughter at Carluccio's near Liverpool St

The Underground was like a sauna but the trip to N was fine and a nice garden and a patio umbrella rescued from a skip awaits me!   The brother in law is hard at work in the distance.

We're all dismayed to find that the Whitehall study has shown the alcohol related cognitive decline is dose dependent and kicks in from zero upwards.  We have a beer and decide to worry about that afterwards. Forget the BMJ.

The post GE 2017 outing

The election is over, we came second and increased our vote share but the Tory domination of the area is depressing.  Perhaps it's time to move to Eastbourne.  Perhaps it's time for the LibDems to be more radical. Mrs May is seriously weakened.  I would rather see Corbyn in no 10 than her.  He appears human and caring.  Better still a progressive alliance but that won't happen because of the tribalism of all parties and FPTP. 

So back to normal and I am off to Harris Manchester Chapel for the Unitarian service. Today the focus is on sustainability.  This is an area I have neglected since my 20s.  

Richard refers to the seven deadly things in this article by John Vidal.  

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/dec/19/seven-deadly-things-trash-planet-human-life

We have a discussion over a sandwich lunch and I decide to 

Try Almond Milk

Get a compost bin 

Not go on holiday (I mean it) (visiting loved ones or study breaks doesn't count) 

Next stop is the Raphael Ex at the Ashmolean.  I love the drawings though the presentation is rather dull.  Amazing to think these works are 500 years old 

http://www.ashmolean.org/exhibitions/raphael/

Raphael, who was born in 1483 was an Italian painter and architect of the High Renaissance.   His work is admired for its clarity of form and ease of composition, as well as his depiction of human emotion.  Together with Michelangelo and Leonardo, he forms the traditional trinity of great masters of that period.

Raphael was enormously productive, running an unusually large workshop and, despite his death at 37, leaving a large body of work, much of which is in the Vatican.