Out and about

On Saturday I ditched Adam and ventured off to London on my lonesome. I had a plan: some time at the Tate Modern, followed by the matinee of The Philadelphia Story, finished off with some food shopping in Chinatown.

I squeezed in an hour at The Tate Modern, enough for one gallery. The building is amazing. A renovated powerstation, with massive light, open spaces. The galleries are really well spaced and organised into interesting groups of artworks. Such as the degenerate art: artworks that were 'condemned by the Nazis as morally and socially subversive', so they collected and exhibited them (well at least those that they didn't torch) along with sarcastic commentaries. It was the best-attended exhibition of the century.

The Philadelphia Story was amazing. I have loved the film for sometime, so I jumped at the chance to see the stage production especially since it had my beloved Lizzy from Pride & Prejudice in it (Jennifer Ehle). Actually jumped might be an exaggeration since it opened in May, but I did make the effort to get there before it ends in September. The sets and costumes were gorgeous and elaborate, and the production was fantastic, one of the highlights of which was Kevin Spacey as CK Dexter Haven, whose inflection created a modern feel to the 1930's dialogue. And of course there was the interval sugar rush provided by Ben & Jerry, which would turn any day into an event.

And shopping, with a bit of sushi on the side. So we had the ingredients for rice paper rolls with sweet soy dipping sauce for lunch on sunday, a super-duper red curry last night, and rice noodle stirfry with peanut sauce tonight. Yummy, yummy. Now there are two places where you can get great east asian food west of London: at our place, and the all-you-can-eat chinese that serves Adam's favourites crispy duck pancakes and mermaid's tresses.