Summer in London

Sometimes I feel that the worse place to be on an unbearably hot and airless day is in a city.
However we took the train to London and walked through St James Park feeling sad for the ducks and birds sitting in the parched scrubland next to the algae covered lake.

We met up with Gloria Patricia and Jack for a lovely lunch and good catchup in Cote Brasserie . Our meal was delicious but the rime went far too quickly and Gloria and Jack had to dash off for their train not realising what a horrendous journey was awaiting them.

It was far too hot to walk around Covent Garden and we found a lovely French wine bar where we spent a couple of hours keeping cool inside.

Our next venue was Burlington House, home to the Royal Academy, where we visited the annual Sumner Exhibition. This year, it was curated by Grayson Perry and we had watched a TV programme on the submission/acceptance procedure. Noting that it takes about 5 seconds to judge a piece of art I just wonder how they made the decision to display what was on show.

To say I was disappointed is not an understatement. Was it the heat and being so tired that affected my judgement. Or was it the fact that a painted cardboard box or a bag of cement with some 3D boxes and bits attached (years ago at primary school, this was known as box modelling) were priced in tens of thousands of pounds - and sold. One of the exhibits is a painted wooden pallet. Why was it there? See my collage extra.
I liked the Banksy Brexit poster. But at £350m I'll give it a miss. Perhaps Nigel Farage could buy it as it wasn't sold. There was a portrait of him that was an accurate likeness but I can't imagine why that had been chosen by the comittee. The Banksy one is also an extra.

I know you shouldn't judge a piece of art by its price but I failed to see the originality and talent in a lot of the exhibits and models on display.

After hour and half we decided we had had enough and did not see the works in the other rooms and galleries.

We found a cool (both weather and environment ) organic and wholefood eatery in Victoria . Great coffee and a light mung bean salad before catching our on time train home. Unlike Gloria Patricia and Jack - see her blip.

If anyone is interested the Summer Exhibition continues until August 18th and is £16 a ticket.

I have backblipped this as I was too hot and tired to do it last night. Hope everyone has a good Saturday.

This is a p.s. It has just occurred to me why the Banksy UKIP print was priced at £350m. This is the amount UKIP and Boris Johnson told the gullible public that the UK would save per day by leaving the EU and that money would be spent on
The NHS. I think the Royal Academy and Banksy had the last laugh here. Us remainers, however, are not laughing at the continuing expensive fiasco being conducted by Mrs May.