Adventures in the Mouse House

Took the day off on Friday, and drove to our usual parking place in South Ealing[1] to get the Tube to the National Gallery to see the Rebels & Martyrs: The Image of the Artist in the 19th Century exhibition. There isn't an awful lot to it, but it was well worth the trip - I thoroughly enjoyed the paintings on display, particularly Gustave Courbet's self portrait, which is the one that was thought to be lost. Not only is it not likely to be displayed in public again soon, it's a rather fine painting. Sadly, because it was only added to the exhibition at the last minute, it does not feature in the exhibition catalogue. I was also disproportionately excited that The Death of Chatterton is included. I am such a goth.[2]

It's on until the 28th of this month, and is worth seeing if you get the chance.

Eventually we fought our way through tourists & pigeons in Trafalgar Square[3] & found our way back to the car[4]. Doubled back on ourselves, and then moved very slowly along the M25. Thankfully we'd made up some time in London and I'd allowed for getting stuck on the M25, and in the end arrived in Canterbury an hour earlier than I'd estimated. Wandered around looking for something to eat and found a Wagamama, and thus ate far too much very good food.

Fell asleep at 7:30, which though disappointing (I was nearly finished a good book), was welcome as I've not been sleeping much lately. Unfortunately I woke up in the middle of the night & didn't get back to sleep.

On Saturday, I thought it would be a good idea to drive up to the seaside. It would have been, had it not been for the hideous weather. We did at least establish that both Herne Bay and Whitsable Bay are lovely seaside towns that we would quite like to spend some time in, when the weather is less awful. There's an offshore wind farm in Herne Bay, which does not lead one to believe that it's often less windy.

Drove back into Canterbury to meet up for Dr T and Dr K's Frightfully Interesting Historical Visit. The excellent company (you know who you are) made up for the quickly worsening weather. Much less walking was done than planned, but we did visit the Roman Museum and Canterbury Cathedral, for both of which Dr K and Dr T scored us excellent group discounts. The highlight of the visit for most of us was the discovery that there's a honking great Zombie Jesus above the main gate.

By that time we were all cold, wet and under-caffeinated[5], so we adjourned to a Costa Coffee for snacks and hot drinks. Shortly after that, everyone else ran to catch a train or turned into pumpkins. We vegetated in the guest house for a bit, and then ventured out in the elements (did I mention the cold?) to find food. Stumbled across an Italian restaurant in a Tudor half-timbered building which turned out to be reasonably priced with excellent food.[6] Went back to hotel, collapsed.

We'd been hoping for better weather on Sunday to visit either St Augustine's Abbey or some National Trust property on the way home, but it didn't stop raining all night & we drove back to Bristol straight after breakfast in zero visibility. Thankfully it was less wet in the West Country, but no warmer. Cleaned out the rabbits and made it to the Bristol Bibliogoth meet for a discussion of the works of HP Lovecraft.[7] Given the subject matter I'd even convinced Jason to come along. He seems to have had fun & has showed an interest in the next one.

Today was my birthday. Still haven't had any substantial sleep, so have spent most of the day sitting at my desk counting the minutes till I could come home & fall over.


Notes
[1] Not an auspicious start to the weekend - most of the M4 had construction and was down to a 50 mph speed limit. Also, apparently it was National Drive at 50 in the Middle Lane Day everywhere, which did not make for a smooth travel process.

[2] I would really, really have liked to spend more time in the exhibition, and indeed visit on a day when my mind was less fuzzy. Since neither of those conditions is likely to be fulfilled before the exhibition ends, I'd rather see it under less than ideal circumstances than not at all.

[3] I thought Ken was supposed to be getting rid of the damn pigeons in Trafalgar Squre. Clearly that is not the case.

[4] Nothing in the world, not even flying, dehydrates me as much as Tube journeys. I remembered to bring water this time, but still had to run across the street to the Co-op in South Ealing as soon as we got off the train to get more water.

[5] Admittedly, some of us were feeling the effects of under-caffeination more than others. But we were about to collectively become very unpleasant to be around.

[6] Any semblance of eating sensibly and healthily was shot to hell this weekend.

[7] By this point I wasn't feeling much better than Zombie Jesus looked, as I didn't sleep again on Saturday night & being out in the elements can't have done me much good, but I figured I would either sit at home & get depressed about feeling like poo & not being able to accomplish anything; or go out and make an attempt to enjoy myself.