Monday, Apr. 11, 2005 - 7:45 p.m.
I got down on my knees, and I began to pray
Well, I didn't really get down on my knees and pray, but when I walked towards St Paul's, the bells were ringing and they called me in. I joined with the tourists - both the faithful and the unwilling - and entered the cathedral. The bells were calling for evensong, and while the people were streaming in for it I stood and took in the building, trying to guess how many stories of office floors would fit into it. Guessing whether Christopher Wren had OK'd all of the little details on the roof, or even done them himself. And liking how it's plain stone at the back, with the gold details increasing towards the altar. It's a brilliant building, I think. Neither austere nor gaudy, it's just the kind of grey, beautiful thing you'd expect from Britain, which is by turn grey and beautiful itself.I was a bit aimless that day but that kind of set the tone for a good riverside ramble and it occured to me that I should do some thinking. Although, I seem to have lost the ability to think in my advancing years - I'm not the cerebral thing I used to be.
I visited the Tate Modern to hear the turbine hall shouty thing by Bruce N@uman. It's a big old hall and there are unobtrusive speakers stationed regularly down the hall, saying allsorts of disconnected things. It's a metaphor for the world, so says the blurb. I see what it's doing but funnily enough, in London you don't need a metaphor for crowds and it's not something that I've never thought about, either.
So I walked on east to the Design Museum, hoping to pick up a tea and flapjack, but Sod's Law being what it is, I got there as it was closing. I didn't really mind though because all along I was just thinking how brilliant London is. Ooh, I guess I am cerebral after all.