Supernatural Superserious

Everytime I spend a weekend indulging myself in London, I end up questioning myself yet again : why do I not apply for a job down south and enable myself to be exposed to all the cultural excess that is on display? The answer is quite convulated, but I found myself pondering the same issue last weekend.

I do tend to go ahead and catch things myself, as it's often difficult to get someone to share all the different interests that you might have (another reason for missing Sweetie!). This time round, I really did end up splurging on my more artsy urges.

Upon arrival, I made my way to the British Museum to catch the Hadrian exhibition and spent a good couple of hours wandering around the inside of the modified reading room; having a think about topics that ranged from human sexuality, the timelessness of good marketing and its correlation between business and politics. I also had a lesson in Roman architecture, learnt the origin of the word 'graffiti' and was left quite amazed by jewellery boxes that wouldn't look out of place in a shop at the high street.

It is actually quite interesting to observe the people who visit such exhibitions too; the vast array of them with their myriad forms of expression and comments. I must confess to eavesdropping every now and then to bits of conversation; being mildly amused to a child's comment about how the statues would be prettier if they were painted (there is actually evidence that all the whitewashed statues we see were originally painted rather vividly) to more serious conversations about anti-semitism.

The afternoon was spent with WK, which included a lesson on Leukaemia and Lymphoma 101 over a rather scrumptious korean lunch and a visit to a photographic exhibition, which is naturally made better when you visit such places with an enthusiast.

And that visit was followed by a concert, which seems to be a fixture prior to each part of the MRCP I sit. This time round it was REM at Twickenham, a band that I have been listening to since childhood for its mixture of fun tunes, political proactivity and angst-filled lyrics. With this, I think I've seen most of my fav bands from high school in concert. The big 3 are the Smashing Pumpkins, Green Day and the Counting Crows, and if all goes well, I'll be catching the latter later on this year.

REM was definitely everything they've been made out to be, and it's primarily down to the skills of Michael Stipes in getting the crowd going. Pretty much all my favourites were performed live, with the notable exception of Everybody Hurts and Shiny Happy People (the very first REM song I listened to). But I can't really complain though; you do have to make omissions when you have such a long list to choose from and he pretty much had the crowd eating out of his hand with his camped up demeanour throughout the playlist of 30 songs (I think) - can't think of that many bands who can crank up a crowd to an almost party-like atmosphere when singing about losing one's religion and the end of the world.

Sunday was spent lazing around and chilling with the newlyweds (which included a trip to the Chealsea market for pizza and yet another indulgent trip to extremely seductive Whole Food store). I must say they look very happy together, and I'm very happy for them. Although it did induce a moment or two of MURSOS.