Textick

If you’re bored on a Sunday (and you happen to live in London or Bristol), then why not spend the afternoon ‘Banksy Hunting’? Banksy is a superb graffiti artist, who stencils spray-painted images of acute political wit and vision onto public areas. He occasionally signs his work, but often doesn’t, but his style usually involves small rodents with some from of weapon, or something as simple as a humorous phrase such as ‘this is not a photo opportunity.’ James and I spent Monday afternoon walking along the Thames spotting Banksy art . We ended up 4:4. For awhile it looked like James was going to win the Banksy spotting competition, but I clawed my way back up to bring us up to a draw.

The atmosphere along the Thames on the weekend reminds me of Fremantle; lots of street theatre, artists and musicians all busking and adding a really vibrant, buzzing vibe to the riverfront. Bars that go right to the edge of the river are relatively affordable and ‘The Founders Arms’ serves a really good pub meal, with St. Paul’s and the Gherkin in perfect view. In addition, you can wander to a number of close museums, such as the Imperial War Museum, Dali Universe or The Globe.

So this is what James and I. We wandered, took photos, watched kids skateboarding, watched some teenagers break-dancing, watched a guy with a tricked-out BMX working the crowd with offers of the chance to win £10 if someone can ride the bike five metres. We walked hand-in-hand, browsing a large paperback sale, pointing out Banksy art, gazing up at the London Eye, stopping for an ice-cream outside the Imperial War Museum. I tested James’ bizarrely good knowledge of planes and war vehicles (he didn’t disappoint!) and we zipped through the war museum (James had been there before, and I get bad ‘museum fatigue’ in history museums). We queued up for the ‘Blitz Experience’ (and what an experience it was!! [she says sarcastically]). Then we trooped back to the river and had a plate of traditional English grub (I had roast guinea fowl, James had bangers and mash), and admired the lovely view from the river. However, it occurred to us that London doesn’t have much of a skyline, unlike Perth. From Richmond, we could see the London Eye, but aside from that the skyline is pretty average. No R&I skyscraper here!! It was a lovely way to spend the day, though. Hmm. This was a pretty boring blog entry. I wish I could have made it more interesting, but I guess I’m just trying to convey the chilled-out pleasantness of the day, and of the weekend in general. Oh, James punched me in the face on Sunday, though, hence why all our Richmond photos are of me side-on. Okay, not strictly true. I attacked him with a running jump, and smacked my jaw on his shoulder and got an instant fat-lip, but it’s much more interesting if it sounds like he hit me. In truth I’m more likely to beat him up than he is to beat me up. Seriously.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, May 2nd, 2006 at 7:55 am and is filed under Journal. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.