London baby!

Saturday was spent in an enjoyable fashion, visiting my sister Annika in London with Alpha male, Camille and kids. First we gate crashed the Tracey Emin retrospective at the Hayward, which left me more bemused than ever by the career of this controversial British artist. Having always admired her ability to address subjects we normally try to hide or keep under wraps, I left with a sense of there being somethinmissing, a little too one sided perhaps. Her quilts were amazing, especially Hotel International, the quilt containing her thoughts and expressions about her childhood growing up in Margate where her father ran a large hotel. The business collapsed and the family became very poor so it documents a difficult time in her life. There were classic comedy moments when we were all watching one of her films entitled 'Love is a strange thing'. The kids were especially drawn into the tale of Tracey walking in a park and meeting a talking dog until the dog said 'fancy a f**k, Trace?' Que exit the Stubbs family at great speed. The next film had a similar effect where she described the first time she was asked to hold a man's balls, the kids were most displeased at another early exit. Soon Alpha male had removed himself and the kids from the gallery so I got a few minutes to take in the things I was most interested in including some fabulous appliqued antique chairs.

The second half of our visit consisted of a walk down Brick Lane and a meal at Pelluccis, a highly original, very retro 'East End meets Italian' cafe. Pellicci's has been warmly welcoming customers since 1900 and the venerable marquetry-panelled interior is cramped; sharing Formica tables is to be expected, nay, relished. Annika is a regular and is greeted with great warmth by various Pellucci family members. The food was excellent, both in value and taste and I highly recommend it as both a cultural and a child friendly experience. Easy to find you just head east down Bethnal Green Road from the top of Brick Lane. What a fantastic day, Kat x