Went to the Van Doesburg exhibition at Tate Modern

Some awesome stuff in there, but unfortunately they had major fail when it came to providing seating for the crippled – enormous exhibition, only 2 benches in the whole thing, as far as I could see. I didn’t quite get halfway through it so will have to go back again. At least once. Possibly twice in order to get through the whole of George Antheil’s Ballet mécanique. Why oh why include the whole of a 16-minute film, with only two sets of headphones and nowhere to sit down???

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Nico Muhly concert!

I thought I’d missed them all, but no! Superb performances all round, brilliant programming, wonderful music and I can’t wait to hear the new Muhly piece again. I also stayed for the after-gig, Nico, Pekka Kuustinen and friends – deeply, deeply awesome.

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Walked in the snow

OK, so I wasn’t really supposed to do any walking, but it was SNOWING and the air so crisp and fresh and people were out in it and there were shops and stuff going on and I’ve been cooped up at home for three weeks now. Ankle hurts now but good grief it was lovely.

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Went on a tour of the Tate Modern’s oil tanks

Yup. Oil tanks. They’re going to be part of the new development there and this was the last chance to see them before building starts. One of them’s going to be an auditorium – will be interesting to see how that turns out – interesting acoustics! We weren’t allowed to take any photos but I took some hopefully nice shots of St Paul’s etc from the balcony of the members’ loung afterwards. Also went to see the Pop Life exhibition which was pretty interesting.

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Took an artist date afternoon

Found myself in Covent Garden after being brutally but necessarily squished by my osteopath so I decided to take an artist date – I bought the coffee I’d gone there for, swung past Neal’s Yard Dairy where they were giving out free Cheddar samples outside, then went for a browse in the London Graphic Centre. Wandered up Charing Cross Rd via Konig Books and Foyle’s (but didn’t buy anything). Lovely!

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Played tourist in Dundee

I went down to the Firth of Tay to see the Discovery, Scott of the Antarctic’s ship, which was amazingly awesome and interesting. They had an harmonium on board! I was most impressed. Freakin’ freezing outside though so I didn’t linger in inspecting the ship itself.

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Video evening in

Another birthday treat – there wasn’t going to be anyone to do anything with, so I figured I’d treat myself to a proper video night. I went out to get a takeaway pizza from our local shop, which has just been taken over by new people – and they gave me a free coffee, a little biscuit and a mini KitKat while I waited! AND it was a great pizza when it came. And the bear had given me Quantum of Solace on DVD, so everything was set

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Went to the Sisley in England and Wales exhibition

At the National Gallery. Interesting. I didn’t really know his work, but some nice stuff there. He seemed a bit uncertain as to what to do with the English light or lack thereof in the earlier ones, but the later Welsh seascapes are beautiful.

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Another art day

Only had the morning really in Brussels before needing to get lunch and go and check-in for my train, so I went to the Royal Museum of Fine Arts of Belgium, which was absolutely fantastic and huuuge and worth a good deal more than the measly €5 they charge to get in. Had a last wander round the Grand Place with my lunch when I was done, then bought specaloos and some PIMs for John from the supermarché near the hostel before collecting my bag and heading to the station.

Knitted on the Eurostar on the way home and a French lady opposite told me my scarf was “très jolie” and that she’d always wanted to learn how to knit, so I told her it wasn’t very hard – only 2 types of stitches to be learnt. Nice to have a good exchange in French, however small.

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Had an art extravaganza day

Went to S.M.A.K. (contemporary art gallery) and then the normal art gallery in Ghent. I wasn’t that taken with anything much in S.M.A.K. but it was marvellous to see a gallery devoted entirely to the work of living artists, and there was a very nice wonky stool made by some Italian chap which I rather liked. The other art gallery was fabulous, especially the modern section – mostly Belgian artists I’d never heard of, but some beautiful pieces there.

Had frites for lunch, then boarded a train back to Brussels and went and wandered around the Grand Place for a bit, visited the Manneken Pis to see what he was wearing (nothing at all, but apparently earlier in the month he’d been dressed as a dentist) and then went and indulged in a hearty and not too expensive spaghetti bolognaise for dinner. Yum! More knitting when I got back to the youth hostel.

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