Fun Sunday

Had a fantastic time yesterday. Jenny & Kieran came down with Jack and Kate and the boys went off to watch the rugby while the girls had an afternoon out in town. It was Toby and Jack's first time to go to a big sporting event and they had a great time. It was the Heineken Cup and London beat Leicester. Hooray! (Can you tell that I know nothing about rugby??)

While the guys were off watching sports the girls went to lunch at The Texas Embassy and Rosie had her first taste of Tex-Mex. After her most recent allergy appointment we've been able to explore some new tastes and add some of the forbidden foods into her diet. So far she's been fine and it's a huge relief and pleasure to me to be able to introduce Rosie to new tastes. She loved her chicken taco, beans and rice but she especially loved the sopapillas with lots of honey.

After lunch we went over to the Hayward Gallery to see the Antony Gormley exhibition. We had been planning to go see Kylie at the V&A (could you possibly get more girly than that) but the Gormley statues on top of the buildings in central London are so mesmerising that we decided to go and see the whole exhibition. It was fantastic. Elizabeth had told me about the statues, 30 of them, placed on rooftops throughout London all facing the Hayward. Standing in the rooftop sculpture garden at the gallery we could only count about 20 of them, some on nearby buildings and some quite far off in the distance. Quite an amazing and haunting image.

The other highlight of the exhibition was Blind Light. The artist describes it best:

'Architecture is supposed to be the location of security and certainty about where you are. It is supposed to protect you from the weather, from darkness, from uncertainty. Blind Light undermines all of that. You enter this interior space that is the equivalent of being on top of a mountain or at the bottom of the sea. It is very important for me that inside it you find the outside. Also you become the immersed figure in an endless ground, literally the subject of the work.’

It was extraordinary. You walk into a big glass box full of cold white mist with only about 18 inches of visibility. I was carrying Rosie so I stayed close to the perimeter for fear of getting lost in the middle and not being able to find my way out! People were lining up around the piece for their turn and as we worked our way around we would get up close to the glass and be able to see people outside but just one step back would make them invisible again. Rosie loved it and I think people were surprised to see such a sweet little face smiling out at them from the mist. People in the queue were putting their hands on the glass for Rosie to touch and she was laughing and reaching out into the mist. When we finally made our way out again Rosie turned around and started shouting "Again! Again!". Definitely a big hit with her. There are some good links on the Hayward site with images and videos. Nikki would love it so we'll definitely go again next month.

After our days out we all met up for coffee and the train ride home. After a dinner of toast and cheese Jenny & Kieran left for the drive back to Cambridge and the children finally crawled into bed after 10.00. That could be why we all overslept this morning and jumped out of bed 45 minutes before Toby had to be at school. I'm hoping for a slightly calmer morning tomorrow.