Thursday 26th Tate Modern

I have forgotten to mention the flowers and trees. When I got here, 10 days ago, most of the trees and shrubs were still bare. Now, many of the trees in the street are flowering. – not the great big trees yet. On the way to Portsmouth I saw lots of daffodils on the banks near the train line. Around the corner there is a medium size magnolia that is just coming out. Many people have cyclamen in their window boxes.

Today I caught the bus to St Paul’s and walked over the Millenium Bridge to the Tate Modern. I havenot quite got the hang of looking out of the correct part of my multifocal glasses in the top decks of buses. It is quite hard to see things near to the front wheels of the bus. I find sitting on the right side of the bus better than the left. Took me a while to work out why I felt a bit odd though. I quite liked the Tate Modern building – an old power station was converted to a gallery. They kept the chimney stack and the huge turbine room has been kept as a large space.
I have never tried to understand ‘modern art’ apart from the odd painting. There were a few Picassos that were OK but not that I would not want to put on my walls. I could not understand the rather odd themes of the different rooms ( tho I didnot try very hard - I am almost at painting saturation point) – apparently they change the themes and shuffle the paintings around quite regularly.

I walked to Waterloo railway station and wandered around looking for the bus I wanted to get on. While the map is waterproof, it is still hard to see out of glasses covered in rain. I walked around 3 sides of a rectangle by mistake but stumbled on a lovely wool shop. I went in, dripping water, the lady behind the counter said hullo and added I was allowed to touch in a friendly voice. I told here that I would be back – it was lunch time. We got talking - I said I was from Australia and we could get nice wool but.. and then she filled in .. not pattern books – just what I was going to say. They had a huge range.

I bought some nice lunch on the way home from a little shop nearby that has prepared food. I am having the afternoon off to get up to date with photos and plan my remaining days in London, besides its cold and raining outside..