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 .