Haywood Gallery with Katie

View from the balcony at Tate Modern
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Went to see my sister Katie and we visited the Haywood Gallery and other places in London.  The day started early I had visited my friend Andy and his wife Monica the night before.  I drove a large van with a table and various bits of HiFi to Wood Green at around 7.30am.  I wanted to be in Wood Green by around 9am so I had a full day with my big sister.

I arrived on time and did some dodgy parking so we could unload the furniture with the minimum of laking distance.  Despite this there was a good 200 yard walk and then 5 or 6 flights of stairs.  We certainly needed a cup of tea when we finished.  I set up the table and the HiFi kit had some tea and set off for the Southbank.

gave even the most cynical adults a real sense of fun and glee

Katie with her head in the clouds
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We traveled by Tube to the Embankment and walked along the South bank having crossed the river.  The Southbank is a busy and colourful place and the sun was shining.  There were street performers and food being cooked on charcoal barbecues and buskers.  We stopped at Gabriels Wharf for a sandwich and a drink.  I can recommend the "Sarnies" sandwich shop interesting good value food.

We then walked on to the Haywood, the first thing we saw was the queue, the next more subtle thing was the bronze figures dotted around the surrounding buildings.  The slightly eerie prospect of life sized figures simply sitting or standing on the edge of tall London buildings.  Were we looking at them or were surveilling us ?

Katie saying "Hello London"
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Having waited to get in for around half an hour we were confronted by a huge steel cube like structure similar to a Borg Cube ship (for all those Treky fans).  For everyone else the best description I can come up with is sculpture cuboid in shape made up of many smaller cubes of varying sizes.  Very impressive and gave a sense of being dwarfed and possibly squashed by it as it was sat on one corner. One feared it may fall over turn us to mush.

The next main exhibit was the famous Cloud Chamber.  There was also a queue here around the outside of this large glass walled structure filled with mist.  Every so often a face would appear out of the mist and press his or hers face or hands against the glass.  Eventually we made our way around to the entrance, when inside the world became very small and infinite all at the same time.  Small because one could only see around one meter or so in front and infinite as the mist could go on for ever without walls. An unnerving and fascinating experience, gave even the most cynical adults a real sense of fun and glee.