Alexandra Palace, Kensington & Tate Britain

Pleasant weekend. Trip to Alexandra Palace for the Antiques Fair. A reasonable indicatiion of the recession to my mind. Basically the ultimate in luxury shopping, ie there isn't a single item that could genuinely be described as useful. But the place was full, so things can't be too tough for everyone.

And you do get nice views across London.

Then next day onto a walk from Paddington down to Chelsea following the course of the Westbourne River (which is now basically an underground sewer marked now only by streets with names like Spring Street, Conduit Street and Pont Street to denote previous water features). But the walk does take one down by the Serpentine in Hyde Park, across Kensington with its fine Georgian Terraces and little mews houses and through the Chelsea Hospital - a great Georgian building. And midway had lunch at a lovely little pub in a back street in Kensington. Little back room with roaring fire. A nice welcoming spot for a couple of ales in a gusty day under leaden gray skies. Glad of the frequent "No Bathing" signs by the Setrpentine or I would have been tempted to strip off layers of coats and jumpers for a refreshing dip (not).

Then since it wasn't far, I decided to have a potter around Tate Britain. Constantly revolving the collection and it seems rather a lot of emphasis on the modern. Which means a mix of some very striking stuff, like Gabo and Riley, and bits of emperor's new clothes, Emin, Hirst etc.