Saturday – A ‘ never mind’ day , a better day

This morning, I resolved to laugh when things did not go to plan.

I left here at 7.45 to find that the nice coffee place did not open till 8am. Never mind, laugh number 1. I found somewhere else. I caught the train to near the Capitol, queued up ( the guy I was talking to in the coffee shop yesterday did not know the word ‘queue’, so I should say ‘I lined up’) , waited, moved to an auditorium with the 50 or so others in my group (4 groups every 10 minutes, an awful lot of people ) . The ‘short’ movie started, we could hear Woopi Goldberg ( I think) ( she narrated the film I saw in the Planetarium in the Natural History Museum in New York) but there was no picture. That was an easy one to laugh at. The tour lasted about 30 minute and they took us into the Rotunda – the round room underneath the dome. Right up under the dome there is a picture of George Washington ascending into heaven. Paintings and sattuues round the edges. It is only used now for important ceremonial occasions like funerals of important people. They took us also into the Old Senate Chamber, with 2 statues per state around the edges. I did not think too well yesterday. It would have been better to come on a weekday. There is a chance you can be taken into the current chambers, but no chance on a Saturday.

Today was good weather and bad weather is forecast for the rest of the week, so I thought that after I had been to the Capitol I would walk thru the statues of the Art Gallery to the Vietnam and Korean War Memorials and look at the other Memorials. However at the last minute I decided that I would catch the bus to Georgetown and go on a boat trip.

Georgetown, just west of the centre of Washington is quite old with narrow streets and small houses now done up. It has a reputation as being a trendy area with lots of small clothes shops and restaurants. Nearby , on the river, is an area that has been significantly developed over the last few years - think Kingston foreshores. There has been a nice restaurant there for a while, but others have sprung up. Today, when I arrived at 11ish, there more people milling around than I expected. Quite a few middle aged people had set up seats along the waters edge. I saw a girl walk past in a zoot and knew that there was a rowing regatta on. There were a few little booths of the river cruise people, but not open until 12. I sat for a while on a stone wall wondering what to do. I decided that a nice meal was appropriate. I managed to stretch it over a couple of hours. I had an excellent view through the tables of 4 next to the window and over the heads of the people outside right down the river . I had nice fish soup, followed by delicious scallops. I decided that I would only have desert if fruit was available. I have never seen fruit on a desert menu in USA. Guess what , they had fruit. Trouble is, it was sorbet and fruit – never mind and laugh. I enjoyed it, and I could sit for more time. Then I went back to the boat place but there were too many people, the boats were a bit muddled by the rowing course, noone seemed to know what was going on.

Never mind. Laugh. I left there and walked through Georgeton. The restaurants and footpaths were all overflowing with people, but it looked like quite a few of the small boutiquey shops had fairly recently closed. I walked NE through the residential part of Georgetown. The quiet streets did have a nice feel to them – the houses were are well cared for and I was enjoying myself. I got to an area between Dupont Circle and Kalorama Heights where there are lots of big houses and embassies. There were suddenly people lined up and milling around everywhere. Many of the embassies were open to the public – hence the queues and /or had displays of dancing in their (smallish) front gardens – hence the milling around. Never mind, laugh. I had to negotiate my way through several blocks of this till I got to my destination – the Textile Museum.

This was most enjoyable. There have a huge collection but only display a bit at a time in special exhibitions. There are 3 on now. The first was called ‘Sourcing the Museum’. The organiser asked 11 contemporary artists to find an old piece or a few old pieces in the Museum’s collection and make something new, inspired by the old. There were some interesting woven pieces. There was an old Burmese shirt covered in little writing, apparently to invoke the good spirits and to try to appease the bad spirits. A 79 year old weaver, who had competed in many marathons wearing a variety of different shirts, made an interesting garment with modern slogans and diagrams. Another artist used 2 pieces of very delicate Phillipine lace as inspiration for a 3 dimensional work . On one wall was a circle about 1m in diameter and on the wall adjacent at right angles was an elipse. These 2 were joined by many fine steel threads. The lights were directed onto it in a way that made a very interesting pattern, depending on where you stood, like lace work can do.

There were another few rooms full of beautiful cloths and kimonos made in Japan’s Tawaraya workshop, renowned for supplying the Imperial Household with very fine silks. There were several modern copies of garments made 500 years ago. Apparently silk worms have evolved in a manner that makes their silk have less protein and is more difficult to spin or something like that, I meant to go back and write down the details but forgot.

There was yet another room full of textiles from South East Asia featuring dragons or nagas . It is the year of the Dragon, and according to the Burmese system of ascribing an animal depending on the birth day of the week, I am a dragon. According to this system I share attributes with other people born on a Saturday. The materialswere interesting , but I had seen enough.

After spending more than a little time in the gift shop, I set off intending on catching a bus or 2 to get home. I could not easily find the bus stop. Never mind, walk.I went through the Dupont Circle area – one of the fancier places in Washington to live. Big houses, flash cars on the street, well-tended fronts.