26 again
As I’m finally starting to recover from my birthday celebrations, I ought to post something about weekend. It all started on Friday night, when we concentrated on trying to find the most hangover-inducing combination of drinks known to man. I think we came close — Simon’s choice of Polish vodka being particularly inspired — but at least we had a splendid curry from Tandoori Nights to soak up the red wine, Guinness, G&T and Kingfisher.
Saturday started, well, late. Eventually managed to get over to Notting Hill for the table we’d booked at Osteria Basilico, a great little Italian restaurant which does what must be the best spag bol in London. In retrospect, seven courses was perhaps a little Homer-esque, even with food that good. Once the fire brigade had been called to prise our bellies out of the restaurant, we were ready to hit Soho — which is where it gets a bit hazy for me…. Champagne, more wine and lots of beer, with Troy’s camera there to capture our best Blue Steel looks every few minutes (some photos now uploaded). By the time the bar we were in closed at 2am, I was ready to call it a night, but apparently that made me a lightweight in Simon’s book, and I was forced to carry on drinking in some extremely dodgy club in Chinatown. Eventually stumbled out of the cab back home at 5am. Not big, not clever, but great fun.
Sunday was a little more highbrow, thanks to Rob & Emma, who bought me a ticket for the Hopper exhibition at the Tate. I thoroughly enjoyed the show, although I have to say I haven’t quite made up my mind what I think of Hopper’s work; some pieces were wonderful, but others left me feeling a bit “Hmmmm…”.
Didn’t think some of his landscapes worked so well when compared to those depicting more urban settings (although if Steve Martin wants to give me the lovely Captain Upton’s House, I could probably find space for it on my wall). And for someone who spent decades painting people, Hopper seemed surprisingly ill at ease depicting human anatomy. It’s nice to know I’m not the only one who has trouble drawing hands and feet! One of my favourite paintings in the exhibition was Sun in an Empty Room, although whether I liked this one because of its simplicity, or because it didn’t distract me with any deformed hands or feet, I don’t know.
Still, most of his work was cracking, and it was almost impossible not to feel a bit excited about seeing the too-popular-to-admit-liking Nighthawks, which was worth the price of admission alone.
So with a bit of culture under our belt, Rob, Emma, Troy and I wandered down to Gabriel’s Wharf to grab something to eat and drink, which was a nice relaxing way to end a very enjoyable birthday weekend. Oh yeah, and Rob decided it was time World of Badger had its own domain name, so got me worldofbadger.co.uk for my birthday too — I’ll be moving everything over sometime this week.
Hmm…just wondering when the new URL’s going to go live actually? Sounds lik something that needs doing toute-de-suite to me ;)
As soon as I’ve finished the new look to go with the new domain. Currently knee-deep in CSS…!