Yet again South West trains are totally messed up for no apparent reason. I’m sure my friend Sarah must be feeling rather paranoid as it literally always happens when I am heading to Raynes Park. Eventually I caught the train before mine that had been delayed but arrived a few minutes later than mine should have arrived and it was packed.
We met on the platform and caught the next less crowded train into London where we headed to the Royal Academy to see the Anthony Gormley exhibition. We had nit booked tickets but were able to buy them for half an hour later which handily gave is time for a coffee and shared cake.
The exhibition was excellent, even better than I had hoped. Every gallery was fascinating. The sheer logistics of curling over 8kms of aluminium tubing into a single room or suspending over 6 tonnes of steel from the ceiling were mind blowing. My favourite exhibit was ‘Lost Horizon l - 2008’, a 'field' of 24 cast iron figures suspended invisibly from the walls and from the ceiling as well as standing upright amongst the visitors. The figures are stunning and despite very close inspection and trying to interrogate one of the RA wardens invigilating the exhibition, we are both still none the wiser as to how he achieved this effect. We even secretly tapped and touched the figures to confirm that they were in solid iron and not as I thought they could be - fibreglass replicas - they were not replicas!
Afterwards we needed sustenance to help us recover and discovered a very good Cafe Nero around the back of St James Church in Piccadilly with comfy chairs upstairs. On our way home we stopped at my favourite (for browsing only) Fortnum and Masons. Sarah wants to buy some thank you presents for Izzy’s teachers so we spent an enjoyable hour or so choosing lots of tins of biscuits and packets of tea.
Needless to say the trains were still troublesome on the way home but I managed it after a change at Raynes Park… again. Feet tired but a great day.
