11 October 2022
I met Steve Weiman at Pinner as he came into London on the Met Line on our way to Tate Modern. I had arranged to meet Jon Hills at Moorgate and we arrived there at 11:25 and Jon surpassingly had arrived before us. We walked through to the Millennium Bridge.
I was very happy to see both of them as I hadn’t seen anyone to talk to since Saturday morning when I had dropped Maggi and Alex at Heathrow Airport for their flight to Seattle.
Jon gave us a running commentary as we walked through the city which with him is usually very entertaining. Steve and I had already discussed Arsenal extensively on the train into town.
I thought there might be timed entry even for members so I asked that we all queue up at the kiosk. It turned out that members could just show up at the door. There was a small line to get in only to find inside it was a lot busier. The first room of all these exhibitions is always the fullest.
Jon’s thought at the end of the tour, “a bit second rate. Many of his most famous paintings weren’t here.” My knowledge of Cezanne and in fact all other artists is extremely limited. I thought that he had been a much more radical painter than these images portray. However I was impressed that both Picasso and Matisse had bought his works. Jon pointed out that none of tables were square and the perspective was all out. I replied that perhaps this had been a deliberate policy and symbolic that all life which seems to be on a solid basis is purely delusional. He scoffed.
After our cultural tour we left to find a place to have a sandwich and a pint. We ended up in Nicholson’s Free House just beside St Bride’s Church. The beer was ok but the cheese and chutney sandwich made me feel ill. We carried on talking and the next thing we looked at the time and it was 4:30, which was definitely time to head on home. We left Jon at the end of Fleet Street and walked up to Farringdon.