Day 17 - Studio Visit, V&A and Camden Town

Feets rested, we slowly got up the next morning.

I practised using my new Muji toy - if a thing's like binoculars, but with a single barrel, you'd call it a monocular, right?

Gareth's backyard as viewed with monocular vision.

Gareth, as viewed with monocular vision.

We eventually got up and walked through the grey but flower infested neighborhood...

...to the Brockley station...

...and onwards to The Studio.

We got to meet Thomas...

...and listen to a few tracks the dudes had crafted...

..and got to see the various sceneries.


And then some snacking! A Moussaka that I could wholeheartedly stand behind!

Evan got his wish for an English breakfast granted.

Gareth returned to the studio to meet Guy and get some work done, and we wandered around the neighborhood for a bit, poking our heads into some galleries and a small bookstore that seemed to have a thing for judo.

On to the V&A for the exhibit on hats! Yes, hats! Hats: An Anthology by Stephen Jones to be precise. There were queen mum hats, origami folded paper type dealies, overwrought numbers from the 90's, etc. My favorite part of the exhibit, though, were the videos. One was on the process of making one of the hats in the show. Others were old film reels showing women from the 40's or 50's shopping for the perfect, most flattering head toppers - complete with newsreel old timey voiced corny jokes about women not being level-headed, etc. Sigh - the sexist jokes of yesteryear. We wandered back past the museum shop to the gallery with the busts.

Where I found the backs were actually more interesting than the fronts.

Then we strolled through the fashion section and took off to meet our host for grub! The Brazilian place Gareth had seemed sort of keen on looked suspiciously empty to his highly trained gastro eyes, so we walked along and ended up at this Vietnamese place.

Serious studying time.

We attacked the spring rolls like vultures with chopsticks and opposable thumbs.

Then the gelato place for some vitamin C!

We had to run to the gas station mart to pick up some things, so after touching down briefly at the Coach House, we took a brisk walk through the 'hood.

The blossoms were even more dramatic looming in the darkness.

I was very pleased with my purchase of off-brand chocolate covered digestive biscuits, and a box of some very exotic "Man-Sized" facial tissues. These things were the size of proper handkerchiefs - perfect for a very thorough honk during a full blown headcold.

Tea and biscuits were scoffed, and it was time for bed.