London Calling

The view from here

So asking a security guard where the art exhibition was only to be told it was next week wasn't in the least embarrassing, not a hint of feeling small there then, so with tail firmly placed between my legs I slunk onto a bus to....

Sloane Street

I had nothing planned, no idea of what was on and worse no money, so what to do? Where to go? A light bulb lit up when I saw a bus going to Sloane Square, I remembered I had not made it to The Saatchi gallery before Christmas, now was my chance especially as expecting to spend the day under cover I was woefully under wrapped for a walk around town. I did walk little though, how could I not, the photograph above was taken on Sloane Street, a real blast of colour on what was a really dull miserable SOB kind of day.


My Friday at work was horrible, I wanted desperately to stay in bed, my cold had turned into 'man flu' but I had agreed to teach some sixth form workshops so crawled in dosed up with Lemsip. One of the discussions of the day centred around how much the students look forward to wearing there own clothes once they are in the sixth form. They enjoy a sense of individuality denied them by other local sixth forms that insist they wear a suit. I agreed and described the various tribes the students fall into.


One tribe you will never ever see in my school is this one.


All across SW1 this is the uniform of choice, as is this one.

Seen outside the Saatchi gallery.

No tribes here though!

If my body is ever scraped off the floor after an accident you will always be able to identify it by these three rings, one for each of the insignificant men in my life.

Me and Idris Khan

These amazing pieces below were all in a vitrine by Tessa Farmer, such exquisite cruelty!

That I got these images at all is a testament to how amazing the lens I use is.

Maurizio Anzeri

I discovered this artist's work last year and I used it to inspire some year 11 students with surprising success. They really love his work and relate to it easily, I had only seen images on the Internet so was amazed when I saw that Saatchi had bought some, rude though it sounds I never had him pegged as some one with any taste what so ever, his choices of art are bold but rarely focus on quality such as this. In the flesh so to speak they are even better than I had anticipated, the delicacy of the threads over the aged images is so beautiful and complex, oh to able to afford one myself!

So not such a bad Saturday after all then, the only down side is going home to the 'house of gloom and doom'.

Friday was a triumph, we went to see A Flea In Her Ear, very, very funny and despite the loss of its main 'star' vehicle, brilliant. We had been upgraded, I, being a complete cheapskate had bought tickets hanging over the balcony of the gods, however it had rained so hard that our seats were wet from a leak in the ceiling so we were moved to the stalls, seriously, my arse has never been so royally pampered by a seat in the theatre before, 8 rows back we were, I could even see the spittle fly! Leyla did struggle to see despite sitting on both our coats but truly loved every moment despite some of the humour being rather close to the edge. So I guess with some judicious choices she will be a great theatre buddy.