Thursday 31st Mar 2016
Woke up at 5.45 AM after a good nights sleep. Listened to The World Service all night on my ear phones - just the same as if I was home. Its already mostly light at 5.45 AM. The days are much longer than I hoped. I like it when it gets dark at 4.30. The seasons are so much more pronounced here. We left home at 10AM and took the tube to Westminster. Heard Big Ben strike 10.45. Walked along Southbank to Borough Market. Had lunch in Southwark Cathedral cafeteria. Saw the man who volunteers looking after tourists having his lunch. He was reading The Bridge which I presume is an Anglican Newspaper. He lives in Croydon. He has relatives in Cairns. He volunteers every Thursday. He comes to services at Easter and Christmas. He is not a parishioner of the church - but lots of people live in the area and the church has a sizable congregation. The cathedral is older than St Paul's but of course does not have any of St Paul's glamour. It has to pay its own way. But it does have its own interest. Shakespeare's brother is buried in its grounds. The Cathedral when it was an Abbey was surrendered to Henry the 8th in the 16th century. Etc. Lots of people buried in the floor of the church. Rather than famous people the majority are ex office holders or parishioners. Well worth the visit. In May they are having a night of Vivaldi and Mozart similar to what was recently in St Josephs. Unfortunately we wont be here otherwise we would go. Saw 2 buskers of note. One a Scots girl playing a Swiss violin with keys for the left hand. Very nice girl. The other a bloke who could sing and had some good songs of his own. Extremely good sound system. Better than sound systems in the 70's and probably more powerful. All on one battery. I noted than none of the buskers I saw were making much money. Not even enough to pay for lunch let alone the trip home. Went to The Tate Modern. Disappointing. Only 1 room with any decent paintings. Most other paintings second rate or worse. Very derivative of other works. The first rule about art is that it should have some recognisable meaning. Difficult if not impossible to understand the majority of paintings in the Tate Modern. Lots of installations scattered through the rest of the building. Hard to fathom how anyone could judge whether they are art or not. I suppose the artist themselves consider their product art and somehow others agree. What is art and how do we recognise it? That is the question. Cannot help to note a preponderance of female artists. The major exhibition on at the moment is a large sculpture/installation consisting of wooden triangle boxes containing waste dirt in which weeds have been allowed to grow. This is the art. We watch the weeds grow. The boxes are watered and have solar lights to make the weeds grow. Reminds me of a Yoko Ono installation that came to Australia a few years ago. Not that it was any good either. The one room with good paintings is good. Makes the rest look bad. Who picked the good paintings? And who now picks the bad paintings and installations? Visited The Globe to see what was on and collected a programme for April. We spent some time at The Borough Market. Sat and watched a woman demonstrating how to make Rarebit out of Spider Crabs. Also Gnocchi Rarebit. I sampled enough for a small meal. She was also spruiking a new beer and I washed the various Rarebits down with beer samples. All very enjoyable. More people at the market than last time we were here if you can believe it. Our soup woman from last time no longer in attendance. Large queues to get food. Bought some cheese from a bloke who originally worked with someone from Milawa Cheese. He volunteered this info. Jenny asked him if he could tell where we were from and he told us. Small World. He was from a small country that is within Spain. I cannot recall the name. Walked across Millennium Bridge then along London Wall to Moorgate Station which of course is being refurbished. Typical London. So much is being refurbished. I have been in London long enough now to make a statement. I am pleased to say that English Girls still wear stockings. It is a pleasure to look at nice legs instead of the acres of flesh that has been shaved to within an inch of its life which is the norm in Australia. I have a painful right hip. Kept waking me up through the night. The main difference between now and 50 years ago is that I could walk or jog all day and all night then. And frequently did. Cant do that now. Finally met Tosan who changed our TV. To bed at 10.00PM Wednesday 30th Mar Arrived 5.15 AM after long trip Melbourne Sydney Singapore Heathrow. Jenny ill for the Sydney to Singapore trip. So much so that the crew threatened to not let her back on the flight from Singapore to London. After some discussion they asked her if she felt she should get on the plane. They carefully put the question - are you willing to make the decision yourself? Jenny said she would continue. This did not generate a lot of confidence in anyone who heard her or could see her. But she got better and survived the 14 hour trip without any further vomiting. She actually got some sleep and came off the plane OK. I had coffee and Jenny had tea and we shared toasted wholemeal bread at Heathrow for breakfast. Took the Piccadilly Line to Kings Cross. Went up to the Concourse to have a look around. Then went outside the building to have a look at both Kings Cross and St Pancras Stations. Sunny day with just a hint of clouds. But it stayed more or less sunny all day. Finally made our way to the Metropolitan Line and came to Preston Road. Found 42 Whycam Hill without too much trouble. Tina who is Nigerian was waiting for us and made us very welcome. Tina is Posan's mother. Loft is small but it has everything we need and what we don't have we will buy. It could do with an armchair though. The television doesn't work so far. We have spent the day walking around the Preston Road Shops. Lots of Polish retail shops of the grocery/delicatessen type. Actually quite a lot people who appear to not speak English. Shopkeepers even. Took the bus to Wembley Central but found that even though there were bigger and more shops than Preston Road they did not sell anything that was not on sale at Preston Road. Lots more people though. Jenny thought they looked more run down in the Wembly Central area. A much more variation of ethnic people. Lots of people with dark coloured skin. Came home at 4.45 to have an OK meal of fish and chips. Plaice and chips with salad. We were both wanting to have a meal of salad - not having eaten anything except Airline food for 2 days. I am quite confident when I say that airline food is nowhere near as good as it was years ago, Neither is the service. Only some of the attendants give the impression of being sincere. First impression is that London does not look as romantic as the last two times I was here. Maybe it is the long hard trip and I am tired. Maybe I am getting over London. We shall see. To bed at 9.30PM
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Cbus Exhibition at Benalla Gallery
The Benalla Gallery is currently hosting an exhibition of paintings from the Cbus Super Collection. It is interesting to reflect that one of the largest Trade Union has made the pragmatic decision to have its Superannuation Scheme invest in Australian Art and our gallery is benefiting from this desision. This exhibition attempts to show the development of colour and movement in Australian paintings. The U3A Art Appreciation Group listened with rapt attention to Bryony Nainby give an interesting review of some of the paintings on display. Examples from late colonial through to early Impressionism through to early attempts at cubism were discussed. And because of International Woman’s day Bryony also compared the development of some paintings done by women - some from the Benalla’s own collection and some from the Cbus collection. Bryony left the review of some of the CBus paintings until a later date. This exhibition is well worth viewing and is recommended. There are two standout paintings. One by Nolan from his early riverbank period titled “River” which shows a woman recently removed from her horse when crossing a river with a naked Ned Kelly watching from up in a tree. The real standout of the exhibition is a Tom Roberts painting titled “Portrait of a Young Girl”. This portrait of a young girl can only be described as a beautiful painting. This shows just how good an Artist Roberts was and it’s difficult to understand why this painting is not included in the retrospective currently on display in our Nations National Gallery in Canberra. In the other rooms in the Gallery there are two excellent Tuckers from the Galleries own collection on show. There are also several very interesting Nolan prints displaying examples of his Kelly Paintings. There is also on view a very modern looking installation in the shape of a cube titled “No Entry-Staff Only”. I did not witness the death of my Aged Aunt Rose Gibb nee Rose Porter. She died in Wangaratta Base Hospital. I was on a boat going to England when it happened. What happened the last time I saw her is the subject of this piece.
In my family it was not uncommon for two members of one family to marry two members of another family. This happened twice in my family. Two sisters married two brothers. And a brother and sister married a sister and brother. But this long before my time. Rose Porter married my Grandfathers brother. She was also my Grandmothers sister. She was a widow with one child when she married my grandfathers brother. She went on to have several more children. She was my confidant. Of course I was not totally honest but I felt comfortable with her. I had long talks with her. I once heard that she described me as her favourite nephew. I was flattered. I felt she liked me and did not judge me like others did. |
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