Port

Train down to London, a really s-l-ow train that went some places I've never been before in countless trips down that east coast. It all became apparent after crossing the Tyne and I saw The Sage and then The Baltic in much more detail than normal as we seemed to turn left on the tracks rather than going straight on. And so for the next couple of hours I got to see the likes of Sunderland, Hartlepool and Stockton rather than that straight rush through Northumberland and North Yorkshire that usually happens. Still, got there in the end...and I did have some tunes to keep me going.

Met by my pal off the train off and whisked off for my first ever visit to the National Theatre to see this cracking play followed by some Mexican market eating nearby. Which just left a stroll across the river and through a buzzing West End for the last tube home from Leicester Square.

Finished off the night with a look at the site of the stolen Banksy just round the corner from my friend's flat. Bit of a strange one that story, I'm not a fan of his stuff myself but the whole way that the council is now up in arms and basically wanting its graffiti back is an interesting situation which would never have arisen until recently. There's some real validation there it seems. Anyway the damaged wall in question now seems to be a bit of a graffiti shrine, with at least one message to 'bring back Banksy' stencilled next to the absent presence. And just to the left of this reverential monument to urban art there's the work of someone who obviously cares very little for the cult of Banksy, preferring to voice their opinion with a rather large, neon pink cock'n'balls. Nowt fancy. Just your regular depiction, you know the one.







[Elsewhere]