all that lacks is sleep

The past few days have been so hectic that I wont bother with the details. I have spent the days trying to entertain my mother in London, and the evenings trying to keep paul entertained in Cambridge.
My mother and I have done a round of shopping and museums, paul, iain and I a round of pubs.
So rather than recount the tedious details of all that, I will note the highlights.
First, the TTB update for those of you hanging on every detail: TTB has had a mini crise of nerves (ok, that’s what she claims, I have serious doubts) but the good news is that, unable to handle the stress of sticking around, she has voluntarily fled the country. Rumour has it that she has gone to Atlanta. But the key is that this has bought paul desperately needed time to strengthen himself. But the past weekend has been a struggle, everything was closed, we are out of term; so lots of people are gone, and a lot of places closed. Iain has been taking him out on invented excursions to keep his mind occupied….i think this has included a tour of all the antique shops between Cambridge and Brighton, and the medal collection in paul’s library keeps growing, but hey, whatever keeps him functioning…. All of TTB’s little presents and pathetic letters have been put in a black rubbish bag, but no one has decided what is to be done with them, so they are decorating the hallway at the moment, waiting a better time to be incinerated.
On a more cultural note, there is an EXCELLENT expo on at the V&A on modernism. It is really well conceived and assembled, and definitely worth the obscene 9 pound entrance fee. It traces the origins of the movement from the post world war one period, and then looks at how the movement developed in Russia, Italy, Germany and so on. But it takes a thematic approach to the movements conception, so there are parts on modernism and health and sport, modernism and architecture/ urban planning and so on. This really helped me to put everything together in my brain, far more so than the Bauhaus expo at the Tate Modern, although the V&A expo had a lot on Bauhaus as well, since there is a fairly clear overlap between the two. I also really liked the decoration of the expo: following the ideology of modernism into a practical application, all the rooms utilise sparse, industrial design, coloured exclusively in red, grey, white and black, just as the fathers of modernism would have wanted. Brilliant.
there is a lot going on at the natural history museum also, as you can see in the picture.
On a less serious note, there are mid season sales on everywhere, and I got two pair of boots at Harrods’s and two suits on Oxford street. KASHMAR….