Barcelona Aug 12

El Gotico, Barceloneta playa, Fundacion Antoni Tapies, park de la ciutadella, Caixa Forum, el raval, pintxos bilbao, MCAB, run up Montjuic - hellish hot, cerveza moritz

Grant had a beigel

Grant came to London and loved the brick lane beigels

Medoc 12

H&J, Brer Paul, Peta & Rick, my fionce et moi, convicts, hot hot hot day - fierce
>1 kg steak inhaled in following 24 hrs

New York

Alphabet City, Loisaida, 9th St cafe, soho, tacos on the Bowery, Chelsea, High Line, Jimmy's Diner, Coney Island, little Odessa, Prospect Park, Brooklyn Museum, fernet branca shots, too many craft beers, Nick Cave at Grand Central, Train to Beacon, Dia, Sigur Ros at MSG, les Halles, Egg, storefront for art and architecture, roof terrace

A long time

5.5 years ago for a post... I reckon I can do better... But all this is going to be used for is light reflections and memories

One of the joys of living in London is that i can mosey about galleries at a leisurely pace rather than having to gallop about in once-a-month gungho extravaganzas as when visiting from the country. I've been trying to get to more of the smaller trendier places rather than just the big name institutions but, that said, have caught some really cool exhibitions at both types of venue in the last few weeks.

Gagosian put on a very nice show Giacometti/Serra/Fontana/Twombly - all sculptures in metal, with a rich diversity of styles from Serra's brutal minimalism to Giacometti's organic expressive almost grotesque figurines. I met this Argentinian architect and had a jolly fine old yarn which extended into a 90 minute coffee after the gallery closed.

Anthony Gormley is a bit of a British icon and certainly the creator of some, so his exhib at the Hayward opened to great acclaim. MJ and I like to keep our fingers on the pulse so were dutifully queueing up on the opening weekend. It is good - see it. The box of smoke is "the new tate slides" - very interesting and fun:

More little man statues - this time all over the Festival Hall and various neighbouring buildings rather than a beach in Lancashire.

The Unknown Monet at the RA with Freja was very splendid, and an excellent opportunity to rant on at length about the Musee Marmottan and the last Monet exhibition i saw which was at the Neue Staatsgalerie Stuttgart, oh you really should get there, it's an iconic building, that's right James Stirling, the same chap who did the Judge Institute, blahblahblah... Surprisingly Freja put up with me for long enough to go to the How We Are, photographing Britain exhib at the Tate Britain - very interesting.

The following day i maintained my role as selfproclaimed mr zeitgeist by catching the hoxton square half of the Damien Hirst exhib - he is very opportunistic but good to see continuations on his earlier themes. The guy in the fluffy dog costume hat streaking across Hoxton Square afterwards was pretty funny too.

OK so i've been a bit off task blogwise. I shall make amends. It seems like blogger is being a touch more cooperative in uploading photos which had been one of the sticking points for moi in recent months, but i shall focus on regular bitesize snacks with limited picturage.

That said, here's me on my first day at work in London:

It's a cool job - a staunch, yet vigorously welcomed, contrast to the rarified cloisters of bucolic academia up the M11, or indeed down Anzac Parade. It's mainly about Excel, which i incorrectly thought i had some idea about how to use in late March.

Other news, in increasing order of importance:

Went back to Sydney (again, for three days this time, ouch) and gave a speech. If you thought the pic above was pretty silly, try this on for size. As an added bonus, i got to see Vero distinguish themselves for probably the last time in the BRW triathlon :

Loving London life: the buzziness, the morning rush, feeling like you're right in thick of it, sunny afternoon beers outside City pubs, hunting out trendy art galleries in dodgy industrial estates, the laaate night bottleshops, the mix & unpredictability. Back into running so have been exploring the burbs round us; haven't mastered commuting, or indeed "routines", yet so have been exploring the train, tube and bus timetables from 7:20 to 10:30 am.

Living in Souwf Lundun with these champs:

They're talking on the "telephone" to the "magical aliens" orbiting the "moon". They like to do that sometimes. I do too.
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Tate Tracks

Only just online today, here's the latest (and best, I opine) installment in the Tate Tracks series of musical pieces created for and inspired by artworks at Tate Modern: Union of Knives "Four Seasons" after Cy Twombly's Quattro Stagioni

Have a listen.