Camper Van Pilot

The camper van is booked for a week in July , starting in York , first night in Bronte country ( Howarth ) . Given that we will have greyhound with us and it will of course be hot and not raining ( ever ) we plan to have Alice with us at all times ( too hot to leave her in the van and besides she might be too silly ) .
So tomorrow is a pilot . After her walk , en route back through the village , we will stop and order breakfast at Luis and sit outside under the canopy for huge lattes and sausage baps complete with HP sauce , rain or shine . Alice has not practiced the art of sitting and watching yet .
Following this a day trip with picnic and an attempt to simulate van conditions .....while its still not too late to cancel ...!

Alice goes for the duck

Click to enlarge ... duck is a blur .....

Alice contemplates a duck .....

... in the background at the sailing club

The List

For years I have quietly mocked the list makers and the planners . My sister and D always have to have a plan in their heads of how the day will pan out whereas I like to wait and see , play it by ear and take what comes . I especially loved to titter when my sister took her small bag out of her larger bag and from that produced a list ... ah the list !
Exhaustion last night however got the better of me and as I sat in bed at midnight trying to collect my thoughts I found myself playing the horrifying what if ? game . What if , for the sake of argument , I forgot to feed one of my cats at the appointed time purely because I was out of synch having been away all day .
Hence this morning's list , started at three minutes past midnight and assisted by Kitty , read thus
Dog Walk
Soft Play
Books
CatCall ( all fairly pedestrian and largely unforgettable as they are the stuff of my everyday weekend life )
PlayMobil-Kate Muir
Andy Merrifield The Wisdom of Donkeys
Collect Nat
Turkish Delight .

You can see where it all starts to go downhill but I must confess I found the list comforting as the day wore on ( until I misplaced it in the dogwalking coat pocket with disastrous consequences as it had completely replaced the memory which I now regard as a thing of the past , so was the key to the address from where I needed to collect Nat who was taking us to the soft play with D's grand daughter .......)

Playmobil? Kate Muir? What on earth is this ? And Donkeys ?
These two list items hark back to my pre breakfast still in bed early morning reading of the papers and things I found of interest and therefore added to the list . Usually ( in real life, and thus with no memory ) I read something and broadly speaking within minutes it is gone , nothing left but a glimmer of happiness left where perhaps a donkey passed by , or a Playmobil piece , as was the case this morning . But having the list meant I could revisit my morning's doings at various points during the day , as I reminded myself of my various tasks . Interestingly I had and would have had no difficulty remembering to do my CatCall , a new venture with three delightful Siamese cats ( one oriental ) , one of which a petite kitten who loves to be picked up and cuddled and immediately purrs gratifyingly .

The donkey article notes a forthcoming book of the forsake the rat race and go on a pilgrimage with a donkey persuasion and has much to recommend it The Wisdom of Donkeys - Times Online and as for Kate Muir , what can I say , its now a full 14 hours later but I can still remember laughing out loud though if I had to describe in detail what about I would be hard pressed .I 'll leave it to you to click the link .The dark ages - Times Online

St Paul's Cathedral

Details to follow . We walked by St Paul's on our way to the Tate , where I wanted to see the art of the three men who dress as ladies in their spare time , ( as I called it, needing a shorthand way to nail it , my memory being so hit and miss these days ) otherwise the exhibition linking the work of Man Ray , Picabia and Duchamps .Adrian Searle on Duchamp, Man Ray, Picabia at Tate Modern Art & Architecture Tate Modern Current Exhibitions Duchamp, Man Ray, PicabiaDuchamp, Man Ray, Picabia, Tate Modern, London - Reviews, Art & Architecture -
Photographed just before the rain , which arrived as we settled relieved in the members' gallery .
Food and coffee and a view is always necessary before the exhaustion of the art .

My favourite moment was probably spotting a very elderly lady carrying a shooting stick reminiscent of that my Grandma used to take with her to the Hexham Races , and Deb and I exchanging envious glances over her head .
And then an even older stooped man very smartly but casually attired peering at the "dust growing in the corner of a glass " or some such , with his brand new iphone dangling on a string round his neck . He must have been in his nineties .

Part of the charm of seeing art for me is the consideration of how this is achieved . People vary so much . I prefer to be alone whilst wandering though is it useful and fun to have someone to compare notes with and have a giggle with at intervals . Galleries are the funniest of places I reckon . Anyone following mine and Deb's progress would have been forgiven for wanting to give us a kick up the backside half way round ... having looked forwards to this trip for weeks we then spent a good two hours in the coffee and lunch areas ( for both of us food being half the battle ) , and many of our comments being of the " God I feel quite dizzy " and " This space is enormous .... kills your feet ... " variety , interspersed to be fair with some knowledgeable asides ( mainly Debbie , who is herself an artist ) and one or two opinions " Aren't these paintings simply vile " ( mainly in the vicinity of the eroticism room ).

My favourite was of a geometry book hung out on a balcony by way of an experiment . Of course this was one of the works of which it was impossible to buy a postcard . Too quirky I guess .

Once we were done with the three men , I was confident that I was done full stop , ( having frequently before made the mistake of trying to see too much on one day and causing sensory overload and a delightful migraine to travel home on ) but spurred on by water and a reviving chat with a Greek engineer whose children were studying in London and who was fascinated , (as are most Europeans ) by a previous encounter with Girls from Newcastle upon Tyne wearing very few clothes in the Bigg Market on a Saturday night , was able to glance briefly into the exhibition on the third level and to discover the most sublime painting of a woman with a cello by an artist whose name I have now forgotten though the Christian name was almost certainly Meredith .
I'd still given a choice have rather had a postcard of that geometry book though . Maybe I can do my own though ... if you see an odd looking book dangling out of a bedroom window and intereacting with the elements , say no more .

Trip to London coming up tomorrow to see some Art .
Thoughts tonight of Rachel and Tim and Fred ( whose first anniversary will come by tomorrow ). Fred We Love You Freddie
Also remembering Madeleine McCann missing for almost one year .