pumpkinstrokemarrow

I was suprised how small she looked on top of this plinth, presumably intended for a larger than life size equestrian statue, although I ought not have been, having seen the life size human statue they had on it a few years ago. And pretty naff it looked too. Plinth made to look even bigger by strapping a steel framed safety net around the thing. But presumably a plus that you can move about. Not everybody would be very comfortable standing on top of a pillar, even if there was the potential to look rather better. Very natty little loader on hand to get you on and off the plinth.

Then onto the Nat. Gall. Ext. to see a freeby exhibition of French landscapes, with a lot by Corot, from the nineteenth century. Not too crowded and a lot of good stuff. Made the amateur stuff at Bourne Hall look a bit thin.

Then, prompted by the TLS, onto the church of Notre Dame just off Leicester Square, having taken on refreshment at the Leicester Square Wetherspoons. Not too impressed by the Cocteau mural, apparently knocked out in something of a hurry, and heavily populated with a fly motif, some of them serving as virgin tears and some of the others serving as drops of blood from the stigmata. TLS was sniffy about the guide book they were noticing describing Cocteau as a film maker, artist and designer, but that is, I think, how he was described in the label to the mural. Clearly the guide book writers were content to lift their words from the label, rather than doing too much research into who Cocteau really was. Interesting that the managers of churches do not generally think that such a thing is complete without a label explaining its provenance. The thing itself does not stand on its own two feet without a puff of this sort. Perhaps recognising that many of their customers are tourists like myself. And what would be the point of a fancy treasure chest containing some of the mortal remains of a saint, without a label explaining which saint was in the chest? Did the golden calf of yore have a brass plate on it somewhere explaining where it had been made? Church itself circular with a dome over most of it and rather impressive. Unusual tapestry with the virgin in a wood full of birds and animals behind the high altar. Must have cost the French a packet when it was built, by the look of it in the fifties, although their web site (http://www.rcdow.org.uk/frenchchurch/default.asp) says built in 1865 and consecrated in 1956. Do we have a confusion of sixes and fives here?

Then onto further refreshment, mainly in the Coach and Horses, the ambience of which has so far survived the retirement of its most famous tenant. To the extent of my being offered a box of 25 very flashy looking cigars, maybe coronas or toros in cigar speak, down from £120 to £100 when I said I had not got the money on me. If they were what they appeared to be, maybe £20 a pop, bought single from a cigar shop. Maybe stolen goods and maybe not in very good condition. But did not think to sniff or sample and didn't buy either.

Excellent baked cod today, despite it being the day after it was bought. Cod has been good for the last few weeks with the man from Hastings having big fillets, a good white colour and with lots of yellow spots on the skin. By the by, he told me that a lot of the fish sold in restaurants on the quay side of quaint Portuguese fishing villages actually comes in by air from, say, Egypt or Iceland. Not from the quay side at all. Which reminded me of the occasion when I saw this makeshift wooden crate in a Brick Lane grocery, maybe a metre square and two thirds of a metre high, packed with straw, ice and whacking great fish. Presumably they had been air freighted in from Dacca.