Arms and the woman

My colleagues and I had a team lunch today for one of our number who is just going off on maternity leave for a year. She'll be much missed by one and all but we're looking forward to meeting the new addition to her family very soon!

We went to the café at the World Museum - mostly because it's only a 5 minute walk from the office, handy for the heavily pregnant amongst us.

Also handy because I managed to sneak away from the lunch table for a few minutes to visit one of my favourite exhibits in the 'World Cultures' section. This is a 14th century Japanese bronze image of Kannon, The Bodhisattva of Compassion (also known as Guanyin in China).

A Bodhisattva is an 'Enlightened One' - someone who delays their own attainment of nirvana to help others along the path to enlightenment - and Kannon is an important figure in the Mahayana Buddhist tradition. She comforts, heals and protects and her 24 arms symbolise her many powers and attributes. Quite a gal!

I don't know whether someone had slipped something psychedelic into my lunch but I came over all trippy for a moment when I was taking this...

I'm off to Cambridge for the next few days but back-blips and comments should appear early next week!