Finally, some sun!

I ambled around the cemetery today at lunchtime and saw the squirrels bouncing around the gravestones carrying last year's pickings. To the purring delight of the guinea pigs, I came back with a bagful of freshly cut grass - my own bounty from the cemetery.

The rest of the day was work, work, work, with Whisky positioned between me and the keyboard. A powercut put me out of action for a wee bit. I considered going to a cafe or into the city to plug in my laptop and then thought better of it.

Later on, I met Fred and we went to dinner on a London bus that's been converted into a vegan restaurant. It's parked in an NCP car park in Soho and from the top deck of the bus we enjoyed views of the XXX DVD Ben Dover signs around the doorways of the buildings opposite as we scoffed our risotto and coconut leek pancakes. We were observed as much as we were observing - copious amounts of people stopped to take photos of the bus. I wonder how many there will be on flickr of me stuffing my face with food. It's not an attractive prospect.

Stomachs full with savoury, we walked to the Nordic Bakery for hot cinnamon bun pudding, which we nibbled on the way to the Royal Academy. It was a bit of an experiment - the Academy is open late on Fridays and we hoped that it would be less busy than a weekend. We have now discovered that the best time to view the exhibition is at 9pm. We arrived earlier than that and had to wait a while before we could realistically see the pictures in any detail. The current exhibition is Van Gogh - the man and his letters. It's incredible. The letters are by no means a secondary part of the exhibition - there are tiny pen and ink drawings on them, of such intricate detail. They are breathtaking. I enjoyed his earlier works, the charcoal studies of peasants, and his experiments with colour, just as much if even a wee bit more than his later pictures. His use of colour is so vibrant and uplifting. I'm so glad I went to see it and would gladly go again.

Happy weekend!