An arty wander

We attempted to see the Basquiat exhibition at the Barbican, but the only available time slot was 7.30 (it was 2.30 when we were there). So much for being spontaneous and expecting London to be quiet on a dreary Saturday in January. We'll book for an evening sometime next week. In the meantime, we contented ourselves with this Basquiat LED display in the hallway. The walking white cat was a highlight.

There's a small free exhibition about the Barbican conservatory with various architectural 60s drawings that are quite fascinating in their style and detail. The conservatory is open to the public only on Sundays so we were out of luck with that, too.

Fancying a bit of a walk, we headed down past St Paul's and across the Millennium Bridge to the Tate Modern. Fred spotted Hugh Grant in passing on the bridge and I missed him because I was looking at my phone. I saw the back of him but that doesn't really count.

The Tate was the busiest that I've ever seen it. Is there are holiday in Europe that we don't know about? Mind you, the Members' area was so, so busy, which points to Tate Members coming en masse to the gallery. Fred showed me his favourite exhibits that he discovered from his lunchtime musings. He's lucky that he can visit in his lunch hour. The extra photo shows Babel by Cildo Meireles. The radios were talking in various languages – the broadcasts are different throughout the day and between days, so "no two experiences of this work are ever the same". I was mesmerised.

Garden notes: busy at feeding time with the regulars, but the pigeon population is perhaps too large. The word has got out!