Tags: Ship of Fools, Museum, friends, Glasgow, food
Date: 20 February 2006 20:18:01
Well what a fantastic weekend I just had! I had a lovely visitor staying for the weekend, and we headed out yesterday afternoon to the museum described by Bill Bryson in "Notes from a Small Island" as "one of the finest museums in the world". And it's literally just down the road from the Stately Pile! I'm talking, of course, about the Burrell Collection, about which Bryson goes on to say that "Among the city's many treasures, none shines brighter, in my view, than the Burrell Collection." It's the private collection of Sir William Burrell, a shipbuilder who left the entire collection to the city of Glasgow in 1944 with the stipulation that it be displayed in a country setting within the city's boundaries (in order to be accessible to the locals but avoid the damage of the city's air pollution). No suitable place was found until the present purpose-built building was built (that's a lot of builts and buildings in one sentence!) in the 1970s, so for a long time the collection was just packed up and sat in warehouses, which is amazing when you think that it includes Rodin sculptures, incredible Chinese pottery, amazing huge tapestries and all sorts of random stuff. It was great. I liked the Islamic art section a lot, and also the Gothic religious stuff (especially the five nuns, who looked like they were about to burst into a bawdy rendition of something rude). I also really liked the current exhibition of paintings by Joseph Crawhall. I'd never heard of him but really loved his paintings - simple, but stunning (the exhibition is on till mid-April, so get in while you still can - and what's more, amazingly, the whole place including special exhibition is totally free!). It certainly lived up to the hype.
Last night we had a meal out with some Ship of Fools friends at my local Indian restaurant - I was worried I'd never find anywhere as good as the Babur (Brockley's finest) when I moved, but this place was great, the food was just lovely, not at all expensive and it's about a minute's walk away. And they do takeaways :) Yay.
[Forgot to add the quote of the evening: "A fish supper isn't a proper fish supper without Irn-Bru in a glass bottle" (strathclydezero)]
And according to the scales today I've lost about half a stone, so tomorrow I'm going to attempt the jeans that I've not been able to do up this year. Very happy about that.