Back in Britain

The Big Trip concluded for me, though Maarinke continued her Really Big Trip, with safe arrival back at Stansted and return to Cambridge. My box of posters, however, continued their train trip to Birmingham, where they dematerialised - I am an idiot and the train lost property services are not worth the paper their number was dutifully copied onto during my futile efforts to regain the posters. The Evil Train to Birmingham, from whose clutches I had narrowly escaped on my outward journey, finally got its revenge.

Maarinke spent a couple of days in Cambridge, where i introduced her to the joys of drinking warm ale, curry houses and the hallowed inner sanctum of the Pembroke graduate parlour, before venturing further north, leaving me to make a start on the year's work at the office.

Still all amped up about art and travel and stuff, i went to London that Saturday to catch the last day of the Derain exhibition at the Courtald Institute. First stop, though, was Lincoln's Inn Fields,

site of the Sir John Soane's Museum,

That is a real gem, definitely worth visiting if you're in London. John Soane was Professor of Architecture at the Royal Academy and architect of the Bank of England, Number 10 Downing Street and the Dulwich College Art Gallery, and is now regarded as a progressive and influential architect in the context of the neoclassical style. His house, which is packed to the rafters with antiquities and artifacts, paintings (esp. Hogarth's 'Rake's Progress') and Soane's own architectural and furniture designs, was opened as a museum during his lifetime and has been maintained in that state since. It rocks.

Moseyed south toward the Strand, pausing for a patriotic moment outside Australia House,

then, blinking back appropriately patriotic tears and humming "I still call Australia home", on to Somerset House, where an ice-rink has been set-up,

I wasn't there for frivolities like ice-skating so i marched purposefully into the Courtald Collection, flashed my academic staff member card: free entry - yes!!! (consolation for my choice to pursue the ascetic, almost monastic lifestyle of the academic) and charged in to see the Derain exhibition. Comprised of his paintings of London from 1906, when his Fauvish tendencies were in full effect, it provided an interesting counterpoint to the, probably more famous, London paintings of Monet.

It was real good. Also good to check out the collection there of Kandinskys, Jawlenskys, Mackes and Munters, given i had become a (self-proclaimed) expert in Expressionism whilst in Germany.

Went over to the Hermitage Rooms to have a look at an exhibition of watercolours entitled Gainsborough to Turner: British Watercolours from the Spooner Collection. That was very good also, and allowed me to reminisce on my recent tour:

This is Turner's painting of Drachanfels - remember that from my last post? It was the mountain next to the Rhine near Bonn where the dragon lived, the one that Siegfried (remember him? that's right, he was the hero of the Nibelunglied, on which Wagner's Ring Cycle was based, good, you were paying attention) slayed.

This is Cozens' picture of Castel Sant Angelo in Rome, which we saw when we were there. Naturally, i loudly pointed out to most of the other people in the room that "yeah, i've just been in Rome actually and seen that, yeah, just this month, looks even better in real life, went to Munich as well actually, and Florence." They applauded dutifully.

Went outside to get comparison of real Thames and surrounds with Derain's efforts.

Yep, London, if not looking quite like Derain's paintings, was looking good. It's a shame this shot was ruined by an idiot getting in the way just as the camera went off.

Still full of enthusiasm, i went to the Gilbert Collection to have a look at some Russian Avant-Garde photography,

a recent montage of Yorkshire landscapes by David Hockney

and some micromosaics.

A diverse selection indeed. Met Kylie and Anthony at Covent Garden and had a bit of high tea at the third oldest fish and chip shop in London, followed by a few beers then headed back to Cam and my aforementioned monastic existence there.

Met Maarinke in London the following week (what she did in the mean time shall remain a mystery until she starts her own blog), for her final day in England. Having sustained ourselves with pasties, we strolled from Waterloo down the Thames

to Tate Britain,

had a look there at the Pre-Raphaelites et al, then caught the Tate Boat,

(We were pretty excited)

all the way to Tate Modern, to have a quick look at Rousseau and some of the recently recurated main collection.

Dinner with Kylie & Anthony and MJ & Kieran in Clapham, then beddybyes. Saw Maarinke off the following day, after an heroic but unsuccessful attempt to consume a celebratory Australia Day beer with M's friend Joel (thanks a lot Walkabout Covent Garden, you pricks, for the false advertising regarding opening times), then scampered back to Cambridge to teach dynamics to second years (having taught it to myself on the train). After six weeks and seven countries, Maarinke returned to beautiful, sunny, summery, warm Sydney and i stayed here in the rain. I remain ambivalent on the virtues of sacrificing climate for career.