The Sneaky Magpie

The cold dragged on and on and turned into a chest infection so most of my plans for the week off went out of the window. I was tired and to keep the bub happy I wasn’t allowed to take any medicine, not even cough syrup!

- I sold our glass table on ebay which means the desk is now our table till we find a new one

- I am enjoying Justine Picardie’s Coco Chanel biography, it is a very informative, well researched and written book

- I have iron deficiency so I have to go heavy on red meat and broccoli, I am fan of neither. I have gone through few recipe books and picked some exciting looking stews and roasts, beef ragu for dinner tonight

- I am craving sweets, I could just eat ice cream and chocolate but that would be silly. Instead I reminded myself of semolina, I used to eat a lot of it as a child, this time the recipe is slightly adjusted, I make it with soya milk and water with addition of vanilla beans and honey. For the topping I stewed white peaches with a bit of sugar and vanilla bean. Delicious!

- I managed to spend proper quality time with few of my friends, a huge bonus!

- went to see Muybridge at Tate Modern which is a very good exhibition, history of photography fascinates me and Muybridge was a big part of it, more of a scientist and explorer than an artist. Besides, he was a rather interesting person, he shot his wife’s lover and got acquitted of the murder, apparently back in the days this was considered a perfectly reasonable behavior.

- watched another episode of Nigella Kitchen and now she is just irritating me, what she prepares is one step up from student food, I do get amused by her fake friends though!

- I finished a baby jumper but it came out so wonky hubby and I had a good laugh about it. I need to redo it else my baby will look like a right old hippie.

- this is the bump week 28, I can’t believe I am in my last trimester. the baby likes all sort of classical music especially clavichord, he goes crazy when I play tunes from Barry Lyndon, in particular Funeral of Queen Mary

- I didn’t go to all the other exhibitions I was planning to go to, I missed Exposed altogether (I did manage to catch Sargent on its last day though)

- I didn’t go to the cinema once, this is a bummer, I love going to the cinema in the afternoon

- I didn’t go to First Thursday

I just hate being sick.

I was supposed to go out of town on Sunday but the weather was so dreadful I decided to stay and see what London has got to offer.

First stop was The British Library to see Points of View exhibition. The exhibition covered 19 century photography from William Fox Talbot’s beginnings through documenting the first hippopotamus in Britain, practical and spiritual use of photography to Eadweard Muybridge’s motion pictures and the birth of Kodak.

Talbot’s early picture and the famous hippo.

Everyday life.

Exotic travels.

Portraits.

Science, medicine, criminology and progress.

Journalism.

Every area of life got examined, new animals and lands were seen by all, people became travelers from the comfort of their own sofas, ‘ghost pictures’ were all the rage along with séances, catching criminals got easier, world became a smaller place.

A very good and broad exhibition, well worth a visit.

Next stop was Wellcome Collection, the current exhibition is about identity however it failed to engage me, I was much more into Medicine Man which is a bit like a smaller and tidier version of the Pitt Rivers Museum in Oxford. It had a selection of various medical objects as well as curiosities like Darwin’s walking stick, Napoleon’s toothbrush and King George III’s lock of hair. I had a lot of fun and highly recommend it.

I really must mention the cafe at Wellcome Collection, it’s run by Peyton and Byrne and the cakes were amazing. They also have the nicest crockery and glasses with embossed bees.

Both exhibitions are free.

I also read The Diary of a Nobody. Mr Pooter, the protagonist, is the Victorian version of one of my favorite literary characters – Adrian Mole. He leads a happy life, doesn’t like changes, makes a lot of jokes and finds them hilarious, offends his friends and makes up, gets into uncomfortable situations and struggles to understand his son, he is a middle class city clerk desperate to be recognised by the upper class.

The tone of this book is very light and funny, it’s a satire on all the Victorian diaries that became so easy to publish everyone did it, it is also a satire on people who take themselves too seriously. I enjoyed it tremendously.