BIRTHDAY GIRL!

© jijislief

GAUGUIN

© tate

I have been looking forward to seeing the Gauguin exhibition for many months. Finally I have been and I was not disappointed. Eleven rooms of journey, colour, humour, imagination, exoticism, tales, and, in the words of one of the Rooms: 'making the familiar strange'. You get a sense of Gauguin as a man, an explorer, dreamer, traveller and see the development of the motifs which occur and recur in his works. For once, the 'must-see' title is not inappropriate.

WEDDING DAY

© bridgewater

I have, up until now, quietly been minding my own business, aware of, in a background-sort-of-way, but not paying very much attention to, the forthcoming royal wedding. That is, until today, when The Date was announced and that special day will be .. royal fanfare .. ta da da da da da daaaa .. 29 April! Yaay! The whole world (allegedly) in a good mood, lots of partying (apparently) and a National Holiday (undoubtedly) to help celebrate. I'll probably be off elsewhere enjoying a long birthday week-end but thank you, William and Kate!

BEST OF GAMES, WORST OF GAMES

© telegraph

From the sublime to the ridiculous, England swing from 'dozy' to 'awesome' to 'sleepy' in three test matches. The only good things really about this week-end are that: they won and: Nick was captain. Meanwhile, Italy trundle on their losing way although it's always nice to see lots of camera close-ups of Mirco now that he is kicker. I only wish the commentators would learn how to pronounce his name properly. At present, he is rather unappetisingly known as 'Murco' ..

REMEMBRANCE SUNDAY

AUTUMN INTERNATIONALS

© standard

What is it with the AIs? The northern sides start off admirably, giving us bright, false, hope, only to fall away, nod off, fluff up, call it what you will and finish up on the end of a yet another beating from the southern sides, with the usual trite comments/excuses post-match. It is all very frustrating. At least Nick Easter had the decency to admit the 'dozy' performance wasn't good enough. Here's hoping for better things next week-end against Australia.

HAPPY BONFIRE WEEKEND

BIRTHDAY GIRL!

NOV-EMBER

© nwnm

So it's November, the clocks have gone back, little trip to France been and gone (although not quite Monop' in St. Germain-des-Prés, it still satiates my hunger) and the assignment nears completion - on time, without too many tears and within word count. Unfortunately, I wasn't able simply to write: 'Danger: red flags - refer to GP' and had to pad it out for another couple of thousand words, and top it off with those damn primary sources.

Anyway, November, as well as being Rugby Autumn International Month (be warned), is also National Month to Write a Novel, indeed the 'Great Frantic Novel' according to the website. Hmm, could turn out to be 50,000 words of utter nonsense or of exquisite eloquence.