Another tippity top weekend!

It was a busy week for us, Filling in endless adoption forms - YAY, we are at last able to start the assessment phase, and with any luck, they will actually let us adopt someone in a year or so's time! Lots of work, college (yes I did do my references - and a pile of personal statements and I even went into college to work on some stuff for my lovely BTEC firsts!) and for me, screen printing galore and for Ivan (Mr Bicknell) some desperately needed garden stuff - AT LAST our humongous cherry tree has been pruned (massacred), so we don't feel at all guilty about heading up to the big smoke and having a fine old time! So this is what went down....

First of all, while Ivan (Mr Bicknell) headed off to some boring rock climbing shop to indulge himself, I headed over to the V&A to indulge myself! I have wanted to see the Power of Making exhibit since I first saw it advertised, but it was an ex-student G, who prompted me to go on Saturday following her post about it - http://itsatextilesthing.blogspot.com/2011/10/oops.html - so in I went. I can thoroughly recommend it - it's brilliant, so inspiring and so interesting, so go!

This Gorilla is made solely out steel coat hangers and sculpted by David Mach - one of the artists who we will be seeing in the flesh later this month - I have loved his work for a very long time!

If you look closely, you will see that the nibs of these pencils have been carved into letters of the alphabet - Dalton Ghetti

Life-sized crocheted bear

"Voidness" woven audio-tape dress - Alyce Santoro

"Makerbot, Thing-O-Matic" 3D printer - Bre Pettis, Adam Mayer & Zach Smith

"Widow dressmaker" pin dress - Susie MacMurray

"Anemone" hat - James Lock & Co. Ltd

I missed the cafe at the V&A by about a minute - so feeling aggrieved I headed out into Kensington and fell into a Paul's bakery - would have been rude not to have a Rhubarb tart alongside my Earl Grey tea.......

So time to meet up with the boy for a night out in Camden at the Jazz Cafe - Ivan's (Mr Bicknell's) Godfather, Tim Goulding, used to be in a band in the late 60's called Dr Strangely Strange and have come over to London from Ireland to do a few Reunion gigs! We hooked up with Renchi and Ness, Ivan's (Mr Bicknell's) Dad and step mum and had a fine old night - great, if not a little mad, music, lovely food and good company! Camden on Halloween is also a sight for very sore eyes!! Tim is also an artist - check him out here - http://www.timgoulding.com/ and here.... http://www.therudrachronicles.blogspot.com/

Tim - in fine fettle!

Rench and Ness enjoying the music

Chatting with the band

in full swing!

The great thing about having a sister in law in London is that you can crash overnight for free! Beyond that though, I am very lucky because she is a total sweetie!

Sunday saw us all going out for brunch at a place called Gail's in Exmouth market where we met Ned and Michelle and baby Merryn, who is actually parked under the table fast asleep!

 we left Annie, Ned, Michelle and Merryn and headed over to Tate

Modern, passing the protests at St Pauls as we went.....

But I did have a tantalising peek through the window of this shop - just as well it was closed, it was right up my street!!

Up onto the millennium bridge and straight into this guy - or well, I think he was a guy......

so into Tate for Tacita Dean

And Gerhard Richter - the Dean is O.K. but I loved the Richter, so varied and so technically proficient, but don't expect a lot of heart and soul - he is German after all.......!

Bye bye to Rench and Ness and onto the best bit - Zoonation's Some Like It Hip Hop! It was MAGNIFICENT - made me feel old and fat, but a tremendous show, not only this, but Ivan (Mr Bicknell) got to be a hero too............... So off I go to the loo at the end of the shop - too much fizzy pop - and have to queue for ages but when I come out, he is nowhere to be seen, blimey I think, he's got fed up with waiting and left for supper already....but no, he's only rescuing some poor disabled lady who has become stuck in the lift! According to onlookers he was like spider man scaling the glass cubical! OMG, I am never going to hear the end of this!!!



Back over the bridge after taking the obligatory photo and into Ping Pong on the southbank for Dim Sum and fizz! And a fine time was had by all, back to work today and it feels like we never went away!!!