David and I had a
brief break in London this past weekend. We had originally hoped to visit
Cambridge but Alison et al were going to the Lakes to watch her father in law
do the Iron Man challenge. Joanne was able to come from Cambridge to London to meet up with us. In the end, Alison
and Steven called off their trip to the Lakes and Alison and the boys came down
to Helen's on Saturday evening.
On Friday, I visited
the Mary Quant exhibition at the V&A. I am a little too young and lived too
far away from anywhere to have been a Mary Quant girl. Then I was a student and
couldn't afford the prices. I do remember buying a Mary Quant lipstick which I
loved and I probably have her to thank for introducing tights long enough for
my long legs - and of course I did wear mini skirts and dresses. I didn't wear
her platform shoes though as I didn't need the extra height.
I really liked some
of the designs. I was surprised by how expensive some of these clothes were -
it made sense as to why I never bought them. Interestingly, I’ve spoken to a
few people since I got back, many old enough to have worn Quant clothes, and
they all said they simply couldn’t afford them. I had thought that Mary Quant
was aimed at the masses but it clearly wasn’t.
I had a couple of
definite favourites from the exhibition and hope my photos have come out well
enough.
Interestingly, while
watching one of the videos, the stylish older lady next to me told me that she
had been a Mary Quant model in the 60s and we had a chat about that. She looked
younger than her years, that's for sure. She hasn't yet been to the Dior
exhibition but was hoping to pick up tickets one morning in the daily release
(tickets are sold out).
Friday evening we met
Helen and Anthony who took us out to Fish! at Borough Market. I'm still recovering
from dental surgery and am not allowed to eat hard food so fish seemed ideal. I
ordered their classic fish pie which was delicious.
We were staying in
Greenwich. I hadn't been before. We visited the various markets, saw the Cutty
Sark but didn't have time to go to the astrophotography exhibition, though I’ve
seen the short-listed photographs online. We walked under the Thames through
the pedestrian tunnel to the Isle of Dogs.
On Saturday, I met up
with Helen and we went to the Christian Dior exhibition. Helen and her friend
hadn't been able to get tickets but because I'm a member with a plus guest
membership, Helen was able to accompany me and we could choose our time. The
early members' hour on Saturday was just too early for us though! Helen hadn't
been keen to go to the Quant exhibition as she saw those clothes as everyday
and she wanted to see couture clothing.
I was surprised at
how much Helen enjoyed the sparkles and feathers on some of the gowns! We both
really enjoyed the toile room and the dressed miniature models. I’m not showing
many photos since they don’t do justice to the garments and have been shown
many times before
Meantime David was
looking at some of the photography exhibits
Afterwards we met
Joanne and went for lunch in Chelsea at The Phene and had a nice chat over a
light lunch. I was exhausted by the time we got there as we had walked from the
V&A so afterwards we took a taxi to Helen's flat. This took an hour
(public transport was quoting 80+ minutes) and was proportionately much cheaper
than the taxi we took from the station to our house 5 minutes away.
Anthony prepared a
lovely vegetarian chilli in part to cater for my older grandson who has become
pescatarian and my requirement for softer food. Alison and the two boys arrived
shortly after we got back; Steven took the opportunity of their cancelled
weekend to catch up on some work so didn't come through.
We had a lovely
evening. Joanne had been going to stay with Helen and travel home the next day
after brunch in Greenwich but decided to go back in the car with Alison.
On Sunday, Helen
wanted to take her Dad out for brunch for Father's Day. She and Anthony drove
to Greenwich where we had a lovely brunch in The Royal Teas. Greenwich was very busy and lots of places were full. This place was so busy - turning away lots of people and was great even if not very salubrious looking on the outside! They were then
going on to Anthony's parents and we were going home.
I took the
opportunity of the train journey home to do some reading (The Secrets of Colour
by Kassia St Clair) Marianne pointed out some factual inaccuracies in the
account of the colour orange so while I’m enjoying the book, and it appears to
be well researched, perhaps I need to read it with an element of scepticism?
I also did some
catching up with blog posts - I hadn't realised just how many I had missed. I'm
still not caught up - probably never will be.
I’m just about to
embark on a journey to learn how to use Lightroom and Photoshop which I’ve just
subscribed to. I’m attending a photography club with David and over the summer
there are a number of classes. Flash photography and the use of layers in
Photoshop. So you need to excuse my current photos - but perhaps my future
photos will be better!!
