A Varied Weekend

Well hello everyone. I thought a quick update was in order starting from last Friday. We spent the morning checking out The Hayward Gallery to view the recent works of David Shrigley known for his very witty & shocking works  and Jeremy Deller who happened to arrive just in person as we were leaving. The exhibit gave us a good laugh, which is always very satisfying. Friday night was another wild and crazy evening at Ronnie Scotts. This time we had the pleasure of that soulful singer Ruby Turner. In short she was big, black and beautiful who can belt out hits like 'I would Rather go Blind' in memory of lost friends including Amy Whitehouse which left me tingling & tearful. This lady has class. She did mention that she had spent some time in NZ and had made a recording there. She then attempted to do the Haka, (whilst at the same time stress testing the stage floor boards) which drew roars of approval from the audience. My reaction was altogether different and I had to restrain myself from rushing on stage tackling the hefty singer 'Doooonnn'tttt  doooo   ittt!' because my personal experience (twice) of attempting this war dance in front of enthusiastic French rugby supporters was abysmal. Of course, back then I had been primed by French wine so at the time I didn't care but the next day had felt women should never do this action song in public. Take note. Saturday morning was spent tootling about 'Borough Market' sampling cheeses & enjoying the whole bustling market day experience. Good stuff! That night was spent at Southbank soaking up a glorious Bach concert. If Bach wasn't happy with that perfect performance,then nothing could satisfy him. Just thought I would happen to mention that John and I are a little tentative about attending certain concerts as we have had some rather unpleasant smelly evenings. The worst was at the Royal Albert Hall when the stench from the itinerant who had sneaked his way into the row in front, nearly knocked us out before we were seated. Whooaa...this guy was high!  At first I thought someone had wet themselves on the seats but quickly realised when he rustled about that the stink came from him. Then, this beautiful young girl arrives to sit next to  'said smelly fellow' and I nudge John to say 'watch this'. Two seconds later her delicate little nose is twitching and she is taking a good long peek at her neighbour with despair. I felt for her. She then spent the whole concert with either her green scarf or her blonde pony tail across her nose while gagging. A very sad sight, not. Well, we couldn't take it anymore and at the interval we raced to change our seats explaining to the ticket staff the situation. Their reaction was fairly  casual and indifferent. One young guy said we should talk to the stinky fellow. Pllleeeaasse!   Can you just imagine the outcome? I thought concert halls should install 'smell-o-meters' when passing through the front doors. When stinkos set off the alarm they are sprayed with some deodorisers & disinfectants, then they can make their merry way to mingle with us cleanies. This is not the end of this story, because our new seats in the next section placed us directly behind another old guy, where if you did the cartoon there would be flies and squiggles emanating from his entire person. J and I just looked at each other and rolled our eyes. Not again and accepted the fact that we were going to watch and listen to 'Jerusalem' through some invisible haze. We diplomatically shuffled down a few seats to limit the damage and to enjoy the remainder of the concert. Sunday was another one of those gorgeous spring days so we decided to walk along The Mall as this is closed to traffic on Sundays. Well, were we in for a surprise! It was the 'Sports Relief Mile' a fun run to raise money for disadvantaged people in the UK and poor countries. It was like a mardi-gras, festival, pantomime-city rolled into one. Flags, banners, music, celebrities, fancy-dress, steel-drum bands and of course the runners most of whom were dressed up. The British love a party!  We saw competitors dressed as bananas,  gladiators, Supermen, Where's Wally's, ballerinas, a bride, kids on stilts and a group doing a very slow Tai Chi exercise along the one mile route. I managed to get a handshake & quick cuddle from a rap band member (lucky me,being in the right place at the right time) while all the young girls around were swooning and squealing. I asked them who the gorgeous young dudes were, as I had no idea who had just given me a squeeze. It was something like MSC? or Bovril Head ??  Also came across Richard Hammond from Top Gear but wasn't close enough to get cosy. Damn! We got down to Buckingham Palace and I was convinced I saw Mrs Kravitz (aka The Queen) taking a sneaky peek through the curtains to see what all the fuss was about in her front yard. John said it was just the wind blowing the curtains back and not Gladys gawking at us peasants. The afternoon was spent at 'The Prospect of Whitby' in Wapping sipping chilled Pinot Gris, our current preferred plonk of choice, the best bang-for-a-buck, darling. This early summer weather is just exceptional. We want a refund for our thermals.