It’s been a grand week – apart from the weather and the plague which infected me early in the week. Other than that, . . .
We were up in London on Monday to the Cezanne exhibition at the Tate Modern with our good friends the Waltons and Kelly-Browns. The Tate Modern itself is a fabulous gallery and the Cezanne exhibition was outstanding. Eleven rooms of paintings from galleries all over the world covering the whole of his career and, while I’m not an “expert” (in any sense or, come to think about it, anything), even I can see the “different” way he constructed his paintings to create something “new.”
Paul Cezanne (1839–1906) is one of the most highly regarded and enigmatic artists of the late 19th century. By approaching painting as a process and investigation, where uncertainty plays an integral role, he gave this medium a new lease of life. Cezanne linked the formal process of art-making he called ‘realisation’ to his personal experiences, or ‘sensations’. His work has always strongly resonated with other artists, and this legacy continues into the present day.
Some of my favourites:
On the train home from the Cezanne exhibition the trivial sniffle I had been incubating developed into a full-blown raging head cold. I was coughing and sneezing and spluttering and my nose started running like a faucet. All much to the chagrin of those sharing the railway carriage with me. Tuesday was grim – man-flu, I guess. But Wednesday and Thursday brought incremental improvements. So, I guess it wasn’t the plague after all.
We’ve had Daisy’s boyfriend Bertie over a few times recently. His owners had to go up to London a couple of times over the past week so he’s come for a couple of visits including, on Tuesday, an overnighter. This might have been problematic as Daisy is just coming to the end of her first season. Thankfully, however, Bertie has been “done” so he’s not remotely interested. All they do is run around frenetically together, tearing around the kitchen and dining room, bouncing off the walls and then, when they get booted outdoors, tearing around the garden. I do not know where they get the energy.
We awoke to snow on Wednesday morning, the impact of the “Arctic Blast” which was expected to persist until the weekend. We had just a smattering, of course. About a centimetre which had mostly melted away by about 10.30 in the morning. But then, it decided to keep snowing! Overnight we had about another two to three centimetres and the same again on Thursday night. Lovely to look at but thankfully insufficient to cause any real disruption in our neighbourhood. The kind of snow which suits me fine but frustrates the kids – not nearly enough to prevent the school bus from getting through! Parts of the north, though, were blanketed.
We have a Zoom session with my brothers and sisters most Saturdays (when I remember). Last week the meeting coincided with a sourdough session so I “treated” them to a live-stream of the first stages of the process. Sunday was baking day so I took some photos to share with them demonstrating the rest of the process. Here you go!
And, it was delicious.
We were at a loss for something to watch the other day so Penelope found The Father on Netflix. I had seen a review some time ago in the Guardian which pronounced it as pretty decent. And it was. It stars Olivia Colman and Anthony Hopkins and both were, as you would expect, outstanding. Hopkins plays Colman’s father who is suffering with dementia (or is his daughter playing tricks on him in an attempt to drive him crazy and acquire his London flat)? Hopkins won the best actor Oscar for his performance and Colman’s performance as the daughter struggling to provide care for her increasingly disoriented father was outstanding. Definitely worth a look if you’ve not seen it.
And then we watched The Menu the other evening which had been recommended to us by someone (I suspect it was Ben and Brex-Anna but apologies if it was someone else). Really good, we both enjoyed it thoroughly. If you’ve not seen it, I won’t give anything away – you’ll have to watch it yourself.
YCNMIU – the government’s latest attempt to pander to their more racist supporters by banning refugees from seeking asylum in the UK. Unless they travel by legal, safe routes of which there are none. Unless you are from Hong Kong, Afghanistan or Ukraine and have sufficient funds to get yourself here. Or you’re a Russian oligarch who donates to the Conservative party. The proposals breach international law, won’t stop desperate people attempting to reach the UK and will probably never be enacted. All an attempt to keep their loonier fringes onside in the upcoming elections. As usual, John Crace hit the nail on the head:
If insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result, Rishi Sunak and the Conservative government must need 24-hour psychiatric supervision. There have been dozens of initiatives and six new bills aimed at stopping people entering the UK since 2015. The most recent one, the nationality and borders bill, promised to end small boats crossings once and for all. That went well. Last year saw a record 45,000 arrivals.
John Crace, The Guardian
And, if there was any doubt that the proposals are nothing more than dog-whistle politics, it soon became apparent that, if enacted, it would blow apart any relationship we have with the EU, including the PM’s recently hard-won negotiated settlement concerning Northern Ireland. If the UK were to leave the European Convention on Human Rights (which would be required if the proposals become law) the EU would have the right to immediately terminate the 2020 Trade and Cooperation Agreement with all sorts of pretty dire consequences. For the UK, that is.
Yep, you would really struggle to make this all up – you negotiate a crap settlement with your largest and nearest trading partner. You then negotiate a revision to the original agreement to partially fix the parts you utterly messed up. And then, you announce new legislation which would enable the EU to unilaterally tear up the agreement you originally negotiated and just recently revised. Madness.
Meanwhile, keep happy, keep smiling, be careful, wear a f**king facemask in crowded places and keep your distance. And keep safe. And be gentle to wasps and bees.
Lots of love to you all,
Greg