Easter Saturday

The only disadvantage of my rooms position becomes obvious at 3 a.m when a drunk standing on Tower Bridge decides to give everybody a very loud time check.

I'm up at 7:45 and down to breakfast. Having been given a table by the waiter I choose the continental breakfast option - again the quality of the food is a let down, if you are going to serve corn flakes at least serve Kelloggs. My back was fine during the night but the hotel chairs are so low that when I stand up my back is really painful and sore.

Todays the day of two exhibition visits, Gilbert & George this morning and Hogarth this afternoon. I'm going to jump on a river boat between the two and go down to Greenwich so that I can film the return up river to Tower Bridge.

There's something great about London in the morning before too many people are about, the clean air, the warm sun, the lack of traffic. I stay north of the river as far as London Bridge then cross it to walk through Borough Market, past Southwark Catherdral and the Clink and on towards Bankside.

I arrived at the Gilbert & George exhibition with my only thought being that I found them slightly facisistic in their work. I have to say I found the exhibition a complete revelation, it does everything an exhibition should do in my opinion. It makes me laugh, makes me think, I find some pieces fascinating, some childish and some pointless. I can't see the point in their obsession with bodily fluids but love the way they attack the absurdity or orgainised religions - they direct their anger at Christianity and Islam with the same irreverance. The six large works called 'Bomber 2006' are a real eye opener. Firstly because of their stark simplicty but also because by using the headlines from the Evening Standard they expose the power of communication when you only have a maximum of four or five words to fit into the small space on the front of a newspaper vending machine or street vendors sign. It is tabloid journalism in its purest form.



After Gilbert & George I buy a 'roamer' ticket and catch the Catamaran from Bankside to Tower Pier and then onto Greenwich. Having come back up the river I walk from Waterloo Pier along the front of the County Hall towards Westminster Bridge. On a wall outside the London Aquarium a woman is sat in a short skirt giving everybody a view of next weeks washing, I can't decide whether she knows or not, I suspect somebody in the crowd is filming her for one of those 'gonzo' type films.

Anyway back to the main event and having walked across Westminster Bridge, down Millbank to Tate Britain I walk into the Hogarth exhibition. Oh boy. Now I know I'm going to annoy and maybe upset some people but talk about after the Lord Mayor's show. Where G & G were innovative, challenging, annoying and exciting poor old Hogarth is just plain dull. If you exclude the Harlot and the Rake and Gin Lane then it's so samey. Yes I know he's the greatest chornicler of his time and yes he's obviously brilliant but it's so dull, dull, dull.

I eventually get back to the hotel, switch on the T.V before running a bath and think I'm hallucinating when the football scores show Arsenal 0 West Ham 1 (Zamora 45).