Hypatia Avenue

"Yes, but is it art ?"

Well, not in the strictest sense - it's the Turner Prize, which I saw on Sunday and was quite impressed by the maturity and substance involved this time round. Grayson Perry's pottery required some actual skill, Anya Gallacio's natural and not-natural sculptures instantly captured all our senses and made us walk around the room sniffing the smell of dying, rotting apples as we watched them decay in front of our eyes and the Chapman Brothers... well, they were just doing what they always do and making us laugh out loud. I recommend a peep if you're in that part of town - there's some kind of emphasis on craft as well as substance this year and that is a rare thing (consider last year's winner with the lights flipping on and off... yawn).

Also recommended, while I'm rattling on about visual arts, see the display on Trafalgar Square and some Heroes and Villains in the same venue. Good stuff - go see!

In other news... not much news. I'm enjoying a week off before going back into full-time work and avoiding any firework displays this evening, I've had my haircut, I've finally taken some clothes to be dry-cleaned which I've avoided for longer than I care to discuss here, I think I'm taking some relatives on a tour of Oxford tomorrow which I know will be agonising and fun in alternating amounts, dance classes have started again and we're learning some very nice sequences where we're doing some steps off-balance and lots of floorwork and I made a paper boat complete with rowers, a cox and very accurately proportioned and positioned blades for Boatie Flatmate as luck for a race last week with much-appreciated input from Taxloss who knows everything about everything. And I've got The Ambassador's Reception to look forward to this weekend. Raaah and gold-foil wrapped chocolates all round. Ole!