Mini-culture jaunt

I had a 3/4 hour window yesterday (babies fed, asleep, D watching them, curly haired beauty with childminder, all bottles washed and in steriliser) so off I hopped onto the 12.06 train from deepest suburbia and exited into the centre of London and bombed straight to Trafalgar Square,  to catch the last day of The Tournament , centre piece of this year's London Design Festival. Spanish designer, Jaime Hayón had created a giant interactive chess set inspired by iconic London buildings. I had to say the setting was amazing and the giant chess board looked very impressive set against the back drop of Nelsons column. No one was given much attention to the lady standing on the fourth plinth.  There were representatives from the Chess Federation running commentary on the players moves and I thought it was great the public could participate. The match I saw was England Vs Spain (although the Spaniard had lived in Wood Green for ages and was part of the local chess club). It must have been a bit nerve racking with a big audience, the wind howling and directing the volunteers to move the pieces about. 

Afterwards I headed to the National Portrait Gallery to see a few iconic photos of Twiggy on the second landing. The accompanying book was more fascinating so I had a good browse in the book shop before heading over to the Future Gallery to see Lee Broom's Heritage Boy collection. His designs are really quirky and fun and very clever use of old meets new idea. I got talking to a student who had been helping him out during the summer break. She was about to go back to Falmouth to do her final year in Product Design. We kept being interrupted by people looking for the Photographers Gallery (which used to be at the same address)  and its really funny because inside it still resembles  the old gallery as they have kept the loos and old counter where the coffee was served.  I then did a quick pit-stop at Carluccios for lunch, Milanese di Pollo, before getting the 14.56 train back to the 'burbs'. OK I admit I managed to also squeeze in a bit of shopping at Top Shop - got to check up the  Christopher Kanescollection (OK if you like rivets) and bought 3 things that came to a total of 50 quid. Not sure if that was money well spent but hey I don't get out much these day.