A late night in the offing in SW19 tonight: Andy Murray slugging it out under the roof at Wimbledon as the rain falls elsewhere. It wasn't like that last night as I strolled along the South Bank under a crimson sunset, glinting off the London Eye and the Palace of Westminster.
This quick list is little more than information masquerading as literature, for these are some of the things I did:
- British Museum: when I was very young I once asked my mum why there was so little of Britain in the British Museum – little has changed in two and a half decades. This was my first visit in a while though and I'm a fan of the central courtyard, which is a very large space indeed. The temporary exhibition on Australian art was good and took me back to some of the galleries I visited in Australia – I like a Sydney Nolan from time to time. The Parthenon Sculptures are still there, despite my measured analysis as an undergrad that they should head back to Greece. The rest passed in a blur, the continents and the centuries passing in as many paces as I tripped through the civilisations.
- Apple Store Covent Garden: the biggest such store in the world I believe, a temple to the brand and the products. And what do you know, it's a very pleasant place to spend a little time and a lot of money.
- National Gallery: Cardinal Richelieu's eminence... say no more.
- Eli Pariser at The RSA: it's only a few days since I wrote about Pariser's work on the 'filter bubble', so quite a fluke that my day in London coincided with his talk at RSA House. The material had developed a little since his TED talk, but the basic premise remains and there seems to be greater appreciation of the consequences it heralds. A treat however: this lunchtime talk was hosted by Aleks Krotoski, who sat three seats along from me when she wasn't grilling the speaker on stage.
- Scotch Malt Whisky Society, London: when in London why not call in on a society you're a member of? Lovely stuff.
- E4 Udderbelly: ...where I spent a very pleasant hour with my friend, the general manager. Just as I used to get mighty confused when visiting the Famous Spiegeltent in foreign cities so it is with the purple cow: current residing near the South Bank Centre. (And to think Sarah's first festival job was selling tickets for Jo, Laura and I at the Bedlam Theatre in 1998.)
London remains a city that will strip your wallet as soon as welcome you to its institutions and winding streets. But it's a fine place to be... right down to running for the last train.
