I feel like wilted cabbage in this heat and not even hilarious headlines such as "How To Survive Sunburn" or the irony-free Red, Amber and Sun-kissed Brown (ok I made the last one up) alert levels for the recent extreme temperatures can off-set the heat-induced torpor that is London Without a Sea Breeze. Seriously. Kill me now.
The parentals, having left 7 degree Sydney are in the throes of delight. I am whiney and hot and bothered. Thank goodness for air conditioning, cold showers and beautiful big green leafy trees. And air conditioning.
It really has been unbelievable weather over the last week and it's added to the novelty of having lovely parents in town to do fun things with while my head is resolutely buried in sand about the shambolic state of my dissertation. (Fingers are resolutely in ears. lalalalalalalalalalalalalala.)
Mum and Max haven't yet been here a week but it feels like they've been here forever - in all the best senses of the word. LB, with only some gentle coaxing and an analogy from me that meeting the parents is like ripping off a bandaid (just do it quickly and get it over with) came with me to Paddington to meet them off the Heathrow Express and, despite turning up minus a suitcase (thank you Qantas), they were nevertheless in good spirits and we spent the day meandering through London. Breakfast in Covent Garden, a walk along Southbank for brunch at Borough Market before heading east to my little house and lunch from Broadway Market on the grass under the trees in London Fields. It was a very genial day.
On Sunday we took them out to Richmond for Pimms and gentle strolling along the Thames before a film (and air conditioning) at Leicester Square. It sounds hideously touristy but in fact was all rather civilised and the days have been punctuated by stops for coffees, late afternoon wines, cake breaks, late lunches in Soho, shopping and aimless wandering. Am just loving having them here.
We had lunch at Harvey Nicks on Tuesday (excellent opportunities for people watching) and an afternoon at the Tate Britain yesterday to see Eva Rothschild's installation in the Duveen Galleries, called Cold Corners. This is a press photo because I lent my camera to the parents who had forgotten theirs only to find they had left it behind yesterday... Clearly not tourists in the real sense of the word.
Anyway, it was a pretty fabulous work and the Richard Long exhibition, "Heaven and Earth" was also brilliant. I saw it last week and it was just as meditative and beautiful the second time around. A land artist who came to prominence in the late 1960s, Long goes on (long) walks - he describes it as "art made my walking" - recording thoughts and sounds or arranging stones, wood, ash - ephemeral natural items he comes across on his strolls - into silent contemplations on time, geography, space and the elements. His work is unpretentious, transient, human, holistic and vulnerable. I loved it. This is A Circle in Alaska, Bering Strait Driftwood on the Arctic Circle from 1977:
We're off to Berlin on Saturday and I can't wait. Mum has never been and the last time Max was there it was 1969 and you know, there was a wall. And communists. It should be fun. I just hope the heat doesn't follow us.
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