Two Tates and a Boat

Made good use of my Tate membership card: got a bus to Tate Britain where I saw the Hogarth exhibition, which was excellent, and some more modern bits and pieces such as the Mark
Wallinger exhibit of the Brian Hawes antiwar stuff. This looked somewhat tattier in the gallery than it had looked on the grass outside the Houses of Parliament which seemed to be its more appropriate place in my humble opinion.

A few months ago my ex husband told me how he had approached Mr Hawes to congratulate him as a fellow sympathiser upon his anti-war stance, which caused a look of terror from Mr Hawes who had immediately summoned a policeman. My ex husband does look a bit dishevelled, but he explained to the copper that he had been attempting to convey only good wishes to Mr Hawes. The policeman advised him that Mr Hawes was ' a bit strange, sir' .

After seeing the artwork I had lunch at the Tate and caught the boat over in the sunshine to the Tate Modern, where I saw the Gilbert and George exhibition. This is absolutely huge, and rather a lot to take in, so may visit again.

I remember when at a local Art college we used to have lunch at the Market Cafe which was then sponsored by Gilbert and George, although we did not realise it at the time. It was a greasy spoon kind of establishment with terrific old fashioned English food - you had to arrive early to get fed: around 12pm was the best time. The form seemed to be to go straight into the kitchen and choose which of the roasts or other main courses you required then wait for Phyllis to serve you. This was followed by equally old fashioned puds with custard. I enjoyed many meals at the market cafe, the place was often full of local artists, including G & G . One day a friend of mine insisted on bringing her infant daughter, who unfortunately peed on the upholstered seat of a chair. Phyllis was horrified as it was the chair of either Gilbert or George (can't remember which). We were somewhat persona non grata after that episode.