Sometimes you need
to get out of your comfort zone, and remind yourself why you live on
the edge of Dartmoor where people are still occasionally scared by
horseless carriages and elastic-trickery or whatever it is called.
Last month, I did just that and went to that hive of scum and
villainy they call London for three days. I found the place more
absurd than ever, and came home to discover that I had made notes
about it. Some of them were still legible, after all, when cider
costs a fiver a pint, your handwriting stays that little bit more
legible than usual.
The first two
delicious slices of irony hit me as soon as we checked into our
reasonably priced Premier Inn room in Waterloo. The windows were
sealed, so no fresh air (or naughty cigarettes) allowed in this room.
The air conditioning, however, was permanently on, so in the event of
a power outage, everyone would probably suffocate. Maybe it is more
economical to circulate air in a room this way than by simply opening
a window? Maybe it was actually an aeroplane rather than a hotel? I
was glad, however, that this room actually had a window, and enough
floor space to walk around the bed, unlike the terrifying scifi
nightmare hotel we stayed at in Peckham back in June. I'm pretty sure
the breakfast we had there, in a dimly lit cellar, was mainly
composed of Soylent Green.
The second of these
ironic slices was that once I turned the data on on my phone, I was
hit by a 4G signal, not a thing I have come across before (I know,
get with the times grandpa) suddenly my phone was faster than it is
on my wifi at home. In fact it was faster than the free wifi at the
hotel was. Isn't technology marvellous? I know this paragraph is
superfluous to you city dwellers out there who get it every day, but
to me it was fucking witchcraft ok?
We hit the
galleries, and the differences between London people and normality
(for a given level of normal that includes me) began to open up
immediately. In the Tate Britain I was amused to see a small boy
(though not so small that what followed was necessary) being
manhandled by his mother into the disabled toilets after his abortive
attempt to go to the gents on his own. There may have been a genuine
reason for it, maybe he had a pocket full of cherry bombs? Maybe his
mother felt the gents was not safe for the kid on his own, after all,
a sketchy looking bloke in a tricorn hat had just come out, and was
now leaning against the wall, looking furtively at them while
scribbling in a notebook.
Then I saw another
mother, telling her 4 year old (probably 4, I didn't actually check)
all about the app on her phone that they could use while they went
around the gallery. Awesome, a day out staring at a screen rather
than having to talk to your kid about art, well done you, and I think
the phone belonged to the 4 year old rather than the mum. Modern
parenting baffles me, and it is only a decade since I dragged my own
kids around every art gallery in London until they wanted to kill me.
We had no apps, I like to think they remember it fondly, and none of
us can remember which bits I made up and which bits are true.
Lunch in the
National Gallery cafe is always entertaining, and quite apart from
the couple necking in the corner like it was a teenage party (which
my wife assured me was actually a good thing, despite my natural
English reserve finding it rather exhibitionist, I mean I'm all for a
public display of affection, but they didn't come up for air for very
nearly half an hour) there was a group of what can only be termed as
media wankers sitting next to us. I don't know if they actually
worked in media, but they certainly spoke in slogans, one of them
assuring another that you only get one shot at life, and all of them
talking about how quickly they actioned the emails on their phones.
Yep, they used action as a verb, out loud, in public and without
shame, and all held their phones in front of their faces as they
conversed. As I said, wankers. Again, you city types might be used to
this, and you may even use action as a verb regularly, I apologise to
you, a bit, but you are wrong, and this is not right.
Then back into the
National itself (where incidentally, the Viking looking booby lady
just inside the main entrance seems to have disappeared, which makes
me sad) where any attempt to look at the Van Goghs would require one
to fight through a crowd of arseholes waving their phones around
(maybe they too had an app?) Luckily, I've seen them before, and I
don't like Van Gogh, so I could have a leisurely view of the opposite
wall, which had a very interesting George Bellows I had never seen
before. Along with some far superior Cezannes.
Then, after
chuckling at a really tiny dragon in a painting of St George, who
seems rather less heroic when fighting an oversized Gecko (I can't
remember the artist, but I fear Smaug the Magnificent has ruined me
for other dragons) I wandered into a dark room claiming it had a
Leonardo cartoon in it, and was saddened to find a rather dull black
and white drawing of Jesus and John the Baptist, nary a turtle in
sight.
A small confession
here, while I'm talking about Art (and bear in mind I will never let
the truth get in the way of a cheap gag before you accuse me of
philistinery) I like my Art to pass what I call the Richard Scarry
Test, which my wife resoundingly disapproves of. I like there to be a
lot of different things to see, and plenty of smaller stories going
on, for example, Canaletto, who put lots of different little groups
of people here and there, allowing me to make up who they might be,
and what might be going on. If you don't know Richard Scarry, then
google him, and you may see why I call it that.
I also realised that
I am part of a long tradition that will never end, that of the
long-suffering chap being dragged around art galleries by a girl
(insert the partner of your choice/sexual persuasion here). I am
currently in the middle-aged section of this tribe, and can recognise
those in the same position, the shambling walk, as they try to keep
up with their partner (probably a teacher, almost certainly wearing a
scarf of some description, and faintly bohemian) while trying to
gather enthusiasm for pictures which have been dulled by familiarity.
I can see the younger versions, still pretending to care, or even
genuinely enthused by their new partner's passion, as they are
dragged unrelentingly by the hand by some absurdly beautiful art
student, who this season will almost certainly be wearing a faux-fur
coat, an absurdly large floppy hat, and full thigh high
fuck-me-harder boots. And then I can see the ghost of
gallery-visits-future, in his long coat and trilby, resignedly
sitting on a bench, waiting patiently for the Psychedelically dressed
granny who is squinting through bottle thick glasses at an
explanation of a pile of bricks and nodding sagely. He seems to be
happy, the future looks bright.
The next morning I
had to navigate my wife across the city (4G is genuine fucking
witchcraft) who was on a course near the Barbican centre for the day.
This meant that we could either get on the tube at rush hour, or take
an early morning stroll through the bankers. We opted for the latter
(obviously, tube at rush hour? Not if I don't have to thank you, and
I haven't done it since the 90s, I hear it might have become busier)
and nothing has made me appreciate my own usual walk to work along an
empty, pavementless country lane more. The cyclists looked suicidal,
the traffic barely moved, the hordes of people in shoes that probably
cost more than my car looked anguished, and rushing. No more the
bowler hat, umbrella and briefcase of my father's daily commute,
everyone has a rucksack now, some of them are jogging to work in
lycra, none of them seem to have ties on. I did not envy any of them,
not their casually ruffled designer suits, their heart rate measuring
watches, or their almost certainly cocaine-fuelled, shallow,
self-hating, loveless, paranoid, early stress related heart disease
expecting lifestyles. Though some of them had quite nice coats...
After dropping Netty
off, I wandered the city aimlessly, and if you ignore its
inhabitants, it is a beautiful place really. Among other wanderings I
went all round the river path from St Pauls down to the Tower and
back (I do not like the bits where you have to go inland) and
eventually found myself having a pint of eye-wateringly expensive
cider in Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese just off of Fleet Street, either
because it had been recommended to my by one of my cousins, or
because I read about it in a book somewhere, I forget which (if you
are that errant cousin, do come forward and tell me I didn't imagine
it). I sat there, drawing inspiration from the supposed history of a
pub that had been there since just after the great fire, that can
count Charles Dickens (definitely) and Samuel Johnson (probably, as
his house is just around the corner) among its former patrons.
At least I would
have had there not been a very loud voiced American gentleman sat in
the next room from me (I was in the cellar, as it felt more
romantically Dickensian to me than the snug bar, which was filled
with arseholes, even on a Monday afternoon) who was talking endlessly
about himself to some poor woman who could barely get a word in. I
found it almost impossible to stifle a laugh as he told of his
amazement at there being no wifi on a train from Paris to
Switzerland, meaning he couldn't do any work for four hours.
Apparently this was unacceptable. As a chap who was aimlessly, and
quite deliberately, whiling away a whole day with no plans
whatsoever, I found it very hard to sympathise with him. I do realise
that your priorities may differ from mine, and I (almost) mean no
disrespect. It takes all sorts to make a world, apparently.
Eventually I
realised that despite its having been there for so long, and with so
many distinguished former regulars, the Cheese was just a rather
overpriced tourist trap (almost a literal trap, those steps would
probably be lethal after a few more pints) although quite fun.
Ironically, my local pub, I am assured by an archaeologist friend of
mine, is probably three or four hundred years older than the Cheese,
and thus has seen a lot more history. Less important history
certainly, but more of it. While I can seek inspiration sitting in
places where far greater minds than mine have discussed it in depth,
I am much more likely to find it in a much older (and more pleasant)
establishment, where I will more than likely find people I like.
People who don't action anything (unless Agadoo comes on the jukebox)
are unconcerned with wifi signals on trains, don't feel the need to
spend their weekends running past human statues and buskers in lycra,
and, most importantly, do not bat an eyelid at a man doffing his hat
to sheep, cows and chickens and bidding them good morning on his way
to work.
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