I spend my whole life in London

My metropolophilic side is taking over: apart from the obligatory office time during the week (those sudokus don't solve themselves!) and a few trips to the gym for gun-sculpting, most of my life seems to be spent in the train to and from Olde London Towne. A general overview & certain highlights follow.

Trip to East End to MJs new digs:

Dinner in Hoxton. Kieran admits defeat at the hands of his fish.

Post dinner boogying (all in the one entertainment complex - mighty convenient!)

Taxi discourtesies

Bar fun in Battersea

Sprang up for a bit of Borough markets, and a trip to the London dungeon... funny, but probably not worth the effort, to be quite honest.

Seeking cultural redemption, went to Tate Modern to drink wine and coffee on the balcony for 90 minutes and look at paintings for 15.

Snuck back to Cambridge and was dragged kicking and screaming to the Pickerel and so on and so forth...

Had a bit of an incident on my bicycle the following week:

And here we are the next day, where we can see some fine scab formation and an increased swelling of the upper lip, trout-pout style.

Not one to be held back ny a few injuries, met up with Dad and Amanda in South Ken the next weekend. Tate Modern with Dad - Albers & Moholy-Nagy exhibition again.

Moseyed past Hanover Square, as featured in "Mr Norrell and Johnathan Strange",

on way to drinks with KnA, for their friend Nishali's birthday - it was a dress-up and I went as Charlie Chaplin.

British Museum to see Rosetta Stone, Mexican carvings, marbles, mummies, etc

Surrealism exhibition at Hayward Gallery focussed around the publishing efforts of one Georges Bataille. Then to dinner with KnA - a bloody impressive bangers'n'mash, might i add.

Next weekend, dinner with Dad and Amanda in SK, out for drinx with Ant to celebrate his end-of-work in Pimlico. Modernism exhibition at V&A museum - very very good exhibition! Saw Blue Man Group. Out to Garlic and Shots in Soho. Run round Kensington Gardens next morning. Visit to Queen's Gallery.

Next trip down: Saw Hybrid DJ with KnA at Inigo.

Next trip down: Talk at Chicago GSB, then dinner with Tam and Ben.

Next trip down: Job interview & Constable exhibition at Tate Britain

Next trip down, some weeks later:Dinner with Tam & Ben

then Summer Exhibition at Royal Academy

Also saw Modigliani exhibition. Here's the amazing Damien Hirst sculpture in the forecourt:

Pierre Huyghe and Kandinsky exhibitions at Tate Mod with MJ. (I got busted for taking this shot...)

Managed to sprain my ankle on Piccadilly near the RA (see, art appreciation is an extreme sport) and thus spent entire next day lolling on MJs couch. My one amusement in convalescence was seeing Kieran mid-haircut (sorry K - i just had to post this) - suffice to say he looked much better once the job was finished.

Quick trip down for job interview & visit to Museum of London - very interesting history of the city with lots and lots of maps.

Went down the next weekend with Cousin Emma and her boyfriend Ben.

Here they express their professional aspirations of one day performing at Wigmore Hall:

Wallace collection for Rococo art and, more importantly, dress-ups:

Lunch at Hyde Park

Outside Buckingham Palace

Reading from the scriptures of Secret London on Cleopatra's Needle:

Tower of London:
Tower Bridge

As if that wasn't enough, we also squeezed in a beer at Bankside, a visit to the Tate Modern, dinner at Southbank, and not one but two bottles of wine on the train back to Cam. After all that busy-ness, we needed to wind down with a quiet drink in a quiet bar,

followed by a light supper.

Two weeks later: summer exhib at RA again, Constable at Tate Britain again, Kandinsky at Tate Modern again, Kokoschka at Courtald Institute and "Rebels and Martyrs" at National Gallery. I won't bore you with jpgs of paintings - you can look them up on relevant websites if you're really keen.

So, in conclusion, a lot of trips to London, a lot of art exhibitions, a fair bit of carousing.