I celebrated my birthday with a visit to London to see the Velasquez exhibition at the National Gallery and Monty Python's Spamalot at the Palace Theatre.
It was a most astonishing experience to see faces dead for hundreds of years staring at you as if they were alive. Velasquez had extraordinary skill at capturing expressions and painting them with just enough but not too much detail, so that you engage with the painting and fill in the rest. Whether it's the mesmerising portrait of Pope Benedict as frightening as a cornered rat or the immense sadness in the eyes of Kingh Philip IV, it was hard to break off one's gaze.
Spamalot on the other hand was a laugh from start to finish- a very funny spoof on stage musicals combined with the familiar Python comedy about class. Tim Curry is superb as King Arthur, darting between naive enthusiasm and lugubrious resignation.
On my deathbed I may look back and think of all the time I have wasted, but I could never include the time spent in art galleries or theatres.
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