To the Turners

We eventually managed to get to the Turners. Both of us headed up to Princes Street, and thank goodness we went earlier than we had originally intended. There were already plenty of people in the queue outside the Royal Scottish Academy building before us, and we joined at 9.30. Apparently some had been queuing since 9am.

The really aggravating thing was that some sort of tour group was let in before us despite arriving later, so despite people having queued 30-60 minutes outside, we, and the people in front of us, did not go straight in. I think both of us took a while to calm down from that aggravation until we settled in to enjoying the rather overcrowded single exhibition room (and the lovely selection of paintings therein). Overall, I'm glad I've seen the "Irish" Turners, but I think the NSG could do a much better job of organising access, by having a proper booking system and even charging a token amount for people to come in to cover the costs of having such a booking system, provided they then managed to provide guaranteed entry times. At present, they are just wasting people's time. If it is like this on 16 January, what is going to be like on 31 January?

Afterwards, we went for a coffee (and a bun) on George Street before Mr A headed home and I went in to the RSE, to spend part of the time in meetings and part of the time surmounting my email mountain in the splendid surroundings of the Kelvin Room. I'm starting to see some other parts of the building and reaching the conclusion that the toilets in the staff part of the building are a great deal nicer than the ones I've traditionally visited downstairs... I won't ask why. (They are also much, much nicer than the ones in the part of OC where I work). There are some stunning rooms and some interesting vistas out of the windows. Some will doubtless feature over the years. I think it is safe to say that I am the first elected officer of the RSE to be a blipper!

I walked home, and rather collapsed. I had a bad night last night, because of some rather tricky issues that I'm dealing with at present and the fact that some people, me included, are quite conflict avoidant and so certain meetings (of which I had one yesterday) can inevitably impose costs on that type of person.