V & A

Breakfast

Lunch in the Members Club Room V&A

Digital Printers

Very weird exhibit at V&A

Lights in Hotel Bar

Early in the morning the Hotel Doctor appeared. He asked all of the appropriate questions and issued Cathy a generic prescription for the missing medicine. Meanwhile, to be double sure, Scott stopped by our house and picked up the missing pills. He is meeting us in Berlin and Cathy can revert to her original prescription rather than the generic we were issued. I will modify my pre-travel check list to include the actual name of the prescriptions we take.

The day time was dominated by visit to the immense, sprawling Victoria and Albert Museum, known by everyone as The V&A. It  is filled with all kinds of crafts and art. Michael and Tamara had gifted me a Membership that gets us into the Members Room where there is a full bar and delicious food. It is a great respite from the activity within the museum. The main show running is “The London Design Festival 2018”. Located in various rooms within the museum, it covers a wide range of design.

Of interest was the Digital Market  exhibit where they had a series of Digital Printers flawlessly creating objects to sell. We had never seen digital printers before. They were fascinating to watch and clearly the wave of the future.

Two exhibits to us were the highlights. They had an extensive Freida Kahlo show, with paintings, photography, clothing, etc. It went on for room after room. It really captured her life and what Mexico meant to her.

The other fascinating show was entitled “Fashion from Nature” and spread over two floors. It was about how fashion interacted with nature, both the materials taken from nature, wool, cotton, feathers, and the replication of nature in fashion with leopard prints, feather hats, while also highlighting the efforts of contemporary designers to limit the pollution caused by textile manufacturing. It was all very well documented.

After our museum visit we returned to our hotel, a very quiet yet vibrant hotel smack in the middle of Soho surrounded by theaters.

After a quick drink at the bar we taxied over to the Groucho Club. Our friends Anil and Richard who we met in India are members and invited us to dine with them. The Groucho Club members tend towards being in the theater and arts. It was an experience dining there. I did make the faux paux of taking my iPhone out to take a picture of my Dover Sole. Whoops  I was quickly informed no pictures can be taken inside the club. We had a long dinner with 3 bottles of wine for the 4 of us. Promises to visit us in the States were made. We know we will see them in India in January probably in Bhubaneshwar, Jaipur and Mumbai as our paths keep crossing.

We taxied back to the hotel and promptly fell asleep (although we a woke with Jet lag at 3am.