venta

Trotted down to London last night to see the preview of the V&A's Gothic exhibition. Having made the error of trying to use the Circle line, I was slightly late to meet

snow_leopard, who very kindly let me piggy-back on her V&A member's right to go to previews.

And, it transpired, very kindly put up with me making facetious comments all the way round the exhibition. It's not my fault - the armour-for-horses did have a distinct look of jelly-mould about it.

I also commented repeatedly on how many things just didn't look like they were 500-600 years old. Now, I'm quite prepared to believe that it's my concept of gothic art that's at fault, but many things looked to me like modern art, done along slightly traditional lines. In particular, there was a large, gilded eagle lectern whose stylized bird and uncluttered pedastal looked to me as if they'd been designed in the last 20 years or so. Shows how much I know.

On a sort of related note, a lot of the objects on show weren't "real" ones - instead of swords used for fighting, for example, there were a number of ceremonial swords. I guess the objects which were used every day wore out, and weren't preserved. This meant that a lot of things looked like romanticized copies of themselves - pretty to look at, but slightly disappointing. I also would have liked to have seen more furniture: I like wood.

There were, however, large numbers of beautiful illuminated books. I'm a sucker for a nicely done capital, me. And as ever, I'd made the same mistake - that of thinking that before the days of synthetics and the like, bright colours simply weren't that bright. So the displayed pages of books of hours, prayer books and charters amazed me with the vividness of their colours. And, as ever, staggered me with the intricate details that went into every last curlicue on the page. Makes me think that Messrs Penguin, Puffin and Faber just really aren't trying.

For people who read the small print, too, the labels on the exhibits also had a strange aspect of history to show: huge numbers of the artifacts were found in, or washed up by, the Thames. (No, not including the books :) I suppose it just made me think that London's been there for a long, long time, and sooner or later, everything fell in the river.

I just had time to be immensely confused on the way out. Various web sites describe Fairford Church as "the only church in the British Isles with an almost-complete set of 15th. century stained-glass windows". Why almost? you might ask. Well, it seems to be "almost" because some bugger at the V&a has half-inched the West window, and bunged it in an exhibition. I'm sure this can't be the case. But the little card by the large, stained glass panels in the V&A did certainly suggest that they'd been borrowed... have they lent Fairford a big lump of perspex or something ?

Surprise event of the evening goes to

addedentry and I doing a simultaneous "are you who I think you are?"-style double-take. LJ-ers out doing things in the real world ? Who'd 'ave thought it ?

And, in attempt to be organised, I'd consulted the London Compendium (or "Joe", as he's better known), and got a recommendation of a vegetarian Chinese restaurant just down the road. Only it wasn't any more. It had turned into a largely carnivorous Thai restaurant. Its location is sufficiently out-of-the-way that the proprietor demanded to know how we'd found it, but did give us nice food. Must remember: "with Thai herbs" is a euphemism for "slightly more chilli than you expect".