On the Sunday after Christmas we headed into London to take in an exhibition at the Royal Academy of Arts and to meet up with Charlotte. After parking the car Andrew took a picture of the hotel we were not having lunch at........ The Ritz. Apparently, they had a fake sea gull flying on a bit of wire on the top corner of The Ritz. OK... so did you go park the car or were you drinking in a pub Andrew?
But back to the exhibition. Called "The Wild Thing" it was a collection of sculptures and drawings from 3 key artists - Jacob Epstein, Henri Gaudier-Brzeska and Eric Gill. Their work was produced around 1905 to 1915 and it's the first time all 3 have exhibited together in Britain.
Here are a couple of my favourite pieces from the exhibition.
The courtyard before you enter the Royal Academy provided an opportunity to exhibit a large sculpture from Anish Kapoor. it can only be described as large ball bearings!
Our reflection in the giant ball bearings.
We quite conveniently ended up walking down New Bond Street where every second shop is an expensive jewellers. The majority of them had dished out huge doses of the festive spirit by dressing up the outside of their shops and the Cartier display was one of our favourites.
But it was like keeping up with the Jones's as you turned the corner into another street. Shops all over the place continue to look for novel ways to "christmas-ate" their shop windows. This one was quite funny....... it had what looked like a giant snowball stuck to the front window.
And another shop filled the window with decorations from an old show ground.
But the top place in the city to see decorations each year has to be Carnaby Street. Once again this year they put up something rather special.
And just as your eye grows accustomed to the flower power and peace messages on the hearts you get a surprise of a giant pink reindeer...........eh....... why not?
Straight laced Regent Street adopted a more traditional theme.
But you didn't expect the giant toy emporium Hamleys to hang up anything less than............ GIANT GOLD gingerbread men!!! I so want one.
Naturally the more eccentric stores went for window displays that .... well had nothing really to do with Christmas. I mean what is going on in this shop? I'm thinking ..... orange is just so not the polar bear's colour!
And then there was the orangutang with the swanky panama hat. hmmmmmmm. Oh and did I mention the dummies' blue hair?
And a stroll through London is just so not a stroll through London without window shopping in my favourite shop.......Tiffanys. ahhhhh......
But back to the exhibition. Called "The Wild Thing" it was a collection of sculptures and drawings from 3 key artists - Jacob Epstein, Henri Gaudier-Brzeska and Eric Gill. Their work was produced around 1905 to 1915 and it's the first time all 3 have exhibited together in Britain.
Here are a couple of my favourite pieces from the exhibition.
The courtyard before you enter the Royal Academy provided an opportunity to exhibit a large sculpture from Anish Kapoor. it can only be described as large ball bearings!
Our reflection in the giant ball bearings.
We quite conveniently ended up walking down New Bond Street where every second shop is an expensive jewellers. The majority of them had dished out huge doses of the festive spirit by dressing up the outside of their shops and the Cartier display was one of our favourites.
But it was like keeping up with the Jones's as you turned the corner into another street. Shops all over the place continue to look for novel ways to "christmas-ate" their shop windows. This one was quite funny....... it had what looked like a giant snowball stuck to the front window.
And another shop filled the window with decorations from an old show ground.
But the top place in the city to see decorations each year has to be Carnaby Street. Once again this year they put up something rather special.
And just as your eye grows accustomed to the flower power and peace messages on the hearts you get a surprise of a giant pink reindeer...........eh....... why not?
Straight laced Regent Street adopted a more traditional theme.
But you didn't expect the giant toy emporium Hamleys to hang up anything less than............ GIANT GOLD gingerbread men!!! I so want one.
Naturally the more eccentric stores went for window displays that .... well had nothing really to do with Christmas. I mean what is going on in this shop? I'm thinking ..... orange is just so not the polar bear's colour!
And then there was the orangutang with the swanky panama hat. hmmmmmmm. Oh and did I mention the dummies' blue hair?
And a stroll through London is just so not a stroll through London without window shopping in my favourite shop.......Tiffanys. ahhhhh......
