MY SON, ME AND TRAFALAGER SQUARE

I'm back and have I had a wonderful time!

Got to west London, where Kit lives mid afternoon, a few cups of tea and lots of chat ensued. Followed by my doing three haircuts, as in son and his house mates before we two set off for dinner. Fantastic Sri Lankian restaurant within walking distance. The food was wonderful and the restaurant got jam packed withing 30 minutes of us getting there. Don't think it was that word went round that we were there though, more the quality of the food!!

Next stop was the pub, with the house mates and one girlfriend of a housemate. Sort of pub that has board games lying around, so there was no choice but to get the Scrabble out. Now I'm no slouch at Scrabble, but playing it with four Cambridge graduates, well lets say I held my own but only just.

Saturday Kit went to the local bakery for fresh croissants. My perfect breakfast coffee and warm croissants, my idea of heaven.

Exit housemates, and then we set off to Leicester Square tube, to go to the National Portrait Gallery to see the Annie Leibovitz exhibition.

An amazing exhibition, the juxtaposition of her astonishing professional work with small snaps of her family, and some of her best friend Susan Sontag's struggle with breast cancer and eventual death.

There were many breath taking photos, but the ones that particularly touched me, were two small snaps of Susan lying in the bath. She has had a mastectomy and has her hand over her scar, so that you see her the rest of her naked in the bath, as you would expect. For me it echoed the photograph that I have put up on my blog of my showing my scar as a badge of acceptability and my hand over my breast as I didn't ever want the picture to be seen as a sexual come on.

The power of photographs really resonates with me. Not that I would in anyway compare myself to someone of Leibovitz's skill and wonderful talent. It was just the irony of our perceptions. Both very valid and pertinent and saying something about the people involved.

From there it was round the corner to the National, the rain had stopped and we stood on the steps admiring Trafalgar square with the view down to Big Ben and the Palace of Westminster. So photos had to be taken!

In the National Gallery, Kit and I are of the same mind, and go straight, and only to the Impressionists. And then we narrow that down to Monet, who we both adore. They have some very fine paintings of his there.

After some lunch we go to Foyles bookshop, made famous by the film Charing Cross Road. About the woman who started the shop, Christina Foyle and her correspondence with an American for many years. I bought books and went for coffee to start reading one of them, whilst Kit continued his perusal of all things literary.

Charing Cross Rd is one side of Soho, so we went further down into Soho and on to Covent Garden and watched the street entertainment there. A guy in a kilt, juggling three massive knives, whilst balanced on the top of a ladder that he maneuvered around to stay upright, after first, or course making music by blowing through one of the holes on the side of the ladder!!

Then to the days final activity, Leicester Square Odeon for James Bond. This cinema is the most famous in England, and is where, if they have film premieres they will happen there. So the seats are leopard skin print.....

James Bond, was good enough, but that's all. Kit was disappointed with it. We both agreed that the story line was weak, in that it's about getting revenge for the death of Vespa in Casino Royale. Daniel Craig was needless to say gorgeous and Judy Dench was very good. It seemed to have messy fight scenes. Don't get me wrong I was entertained by it, but it wasn't the nearly as good as Casino Royale.

Then tube home to sit around with milk and biscuits.... me, and wine and garlic bread.... Kit. I know that's sad, but I had drunk enough the night before and I was too knackered to be able to enjoy drinking.

Today I took Kit to Richmond Park to see if we could spot any deers, which we did. And in the way of these things I said 'Hello Deers' to them and they of course replied, 'Hello Sweethart' to me. Think about it!!

I've been invited to go back soon, not only by Kit, but also his housemates, which I think is really lovely. And so we have planned to go to the Bodyworks exhibition next, followed by Kew Botanical Garden when the weather warms up.

How lucky am I???

Now I've just got to hang around for a couple of weeks before I go to New York for Thanksgiving, to stay with an English friend who's having a sabbatical over there for 4 months.

It's a tough life......