So sorry for changing such a well known quote in my title, but I just couldn't help myself! You see I recently went to the Turner Contemporary, the new art gallery in Margate. I have to say that poor Margate doesn't have much to offer - and I stand by that even after seeing the gallery. Let me explain.....
My friends and I (three females, all of that indeterminable age) took ourselves off, primarily to see Rodin's The Kiss before it was shipped out to probably somewhere a bit more exotic - or at least exciting. The gallery is literally right on the sea front and on the day we chose, the wind was so strong that it was almost blowing me off my feet. I have wondered, on occasion, how people manage to get swept into the sea, and now I know! Gosh one must be a little short on the grey cells to go walking right by the sea on days like that. It did make for impressive pictures though; the tide was on its way in and the waves were crashing up and nearly over the sea wall, spattering us with almost imperceivable drops of salty spray.
Our first obstacle was how to get inside the place. One of my friends uses a wheelchair, so before we even started we found ourselves floundering (no pun intended). The disabled and pushchair ramp, when finally discovered, forced us to walk in the road before we could access it, which hardly helped my first impression of the place. But once we had overcome that hurdle, there were still more to come. Call me a cheapskate if you will, but I do object to having to pay for the privilege of a greater understanding of what I am looking at when I am perfectly able to see and read and make up my own mind. Unfortunately that was made considerably more challenging by the fact that much of the artwork was not labelled. Cunning ploy to get me to spend my money or what? Still I took this all in my stride as I am not the greatest lover of contemporary art (perhaps more of that later). What threw us all was our inability to find anything much to look at! And we completely lost our way in a building that has only two floors and a lot of space! We went through a door marked "exit" because we couldn't see anywhere else to go, only to be reproved by one of the assistants who told us that we could not have possibly missed the huge doors that led from the gallery we were just in. Can we have been the only ones that couldn't see those doors, or a directional arrow to lead us through the place?
To be completely honest, I am not sure that I would go again. I didn't like the main exhibition at all (luckily it is moving on and they are having someone different - apparently they change the main exhibition gallery three times a year); my opinion of it doesn't really matter and it differed markedly from my companions (who both have artistic talent whilst I can only appreciate it - or not). Probably the colour scheme of "dentist" green didn't do it many favours in my estimation either! If I say this quietly, maybe people won't notice, but the best part of the whole experience was being able to look out the rear of the building (although strangely the gallery called it the front side) and watch the sea. What an admission to make; sad but true.
After we had gone around the place one of my friends wanted to sketch The Kiss. This gave my other friend and I the opportunity to slink off into the town and find hot, greasy doughnuts, fish and chips and rock, along with the normal seaside tat. In my opinion these three things are staple in any trip to the coast and whilst I did forbear on the rock, the other two did not escape my attention! Totally ruinous to ones health, but so deliciously scrummy! And I was going to be good and only have one doughnut (they were honestly not very big!) but my friend insisted that we had six (cheaper that way and we actually got seven as one was sadly mis-shapen); this should have meant that we had two each (and would have to fight over the last one) but as our other friend didn't want her share, it was expedient that we had to eat them all ourselves (three and a half each in case your maths head is not functioning.....). I justified this by saying that I would go back to healthy eating the following day - as you do.
All in all, I had a lovely day out with great friends, made all the better by not having to drive. Glad that I went, but as I said before, in no particular hurry to go again. Now if we had gone to London and visited The Tate (not Tate Modern) or the National Gallery I would have found it difficult to leave. In fact going back to the National is still on my "to do" list as I only saw a smidgen of it last time I went and absolutely fell in love with the place.
That is all I have time for at the moment; other less exciting things beckon me, but I will give a little positive thought at the end.
Take care until I come back again with another inane and eclectic barrage of events and opinions that are all mine.....
Susan :)
This little idea is simple but very effective. Write a "to do" list every evening so that you know what you need to accomplish the next day. E.G. if you don't like housework but know that it needs to be done, then write "thirty minutes" or however long you want to give yourself to that task. That way it doesn't become a chore and if you do a little every day, by the end of the week you will have cleaned your whole house. By giving yourself a time limit you feel that you have accomplished much more. Tick every item off as each is completed and you will be surprised and proud that you have done it rather, than guilty that you have prevaricated and done something else instead. This also gets you into the habit of making lists and sticking to them.
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