The Royal Acadeny of Arts

"Life is the art of drawing without an eraser."
John W. Gardner

A trip to London to visit K and R, for my Christmas present - more of that tomorrow.  Today it's a relaxed trip by train, arriving late morning.  I don't wander far from the platform; I'm getting a reputation for wandering off, in search of adventure and the exotic.  K arrives breathless, delays on the tube with Easter maintenance work.  I've forgotten it's Good Friday; nobody's told the weather either - it's chucking it down.

Best thing to do in weather like this is an early lunch and catch up, so we head up Piccadilly to Paul, the French chain café restaurant in a coffee shop.  Great  timing, as we manage to grab a space before all the tables are taken.  After all it is London, lunch time and Easter - so it's busy!  Time passes so quickly and before I know it K is checking her watch - time to go.  It's literally across the road to the Royal Academy; I've booked timed tickets for the Charles I exhibition at 1pm.  

My first visit to the RA and I'm suitably impressed with the exhibition, although despite the incredible artwork and sculpture all around the most memorable  for me was the "simple" sketch of Charles I by van Dyck.  I suspect this may be something to do with the "theme" for this weekend.

Back to Mile End for the evening; it's a 15 minute walk to K's place so we get the bus, this after seeing the huge "waves" thrown up by the traffic ploughing through the pools of water covering the roads.  It's still raining too.  The recommendation for the evening is a takeaway pizza from a nearby pub, so we have a pint while we're waiting.  We get back with our booty to find the wrong order, so I head back down to the pub [any excuse].  No problem sir, apologies, would you like a drink while you're waiting?  I weave my way back up to the flat, anything more than a pint is a heavy session for me.  A grand start to the weekend.