Grays Inn Road

I loved passing this building today at Kings Cross. I've passed and admired it many thousands of times and been intrigued and fascinated by it's nautical turret. It's looking a bit derelict and sorry for its self though these days.

Baselitz and Twombly

I really enjoyed seeing new work by 2 great old painters today. Cy Twombly, 'The Rose', at the Gagosian in Brittania St. and George Baselitz, 'Mrs Lenin and the Nightingale' at the White Cube, Mason's Yard.

It's exciting to see 80 year old Twombly taking a diversion in style and working on a monumental scale and I loved, 70 year old, Baselitz' intense, repeated, reworkings of an image of Lenin and Stalin, seen through Otto Dix.

The pictures, taken on my iPhone, aren't too hot.

Also good to see this rusty old Richard Serra at the Gagosian. Beautiful surface, like a Gerhardt Richter.

These were a couple of the new Baselitz'

Eye-popping

What a great album cover! From the new album 'Zero' by the Yeah, Yeah, Yeahs

Pork!

Until today I thought the best roast pork I'd ever had was by my Brother-in-Law, Matthew H, about 4 years ago. However the roast pork served by Rupert and Helen, for today's Sunday lunch, was truly sublime, as was Helen's equally delicious pear and berry crumble.

A completely useless 'Pork' footnote is that the very day I thought I'd had my best ever roast pork, at Matthew H's, I met Rupert for a drink in Hammersmith, that night and got very drunk.

We had such a lovely afternoon at Rupert and Helen's house and felt honoured to be there on the 1st anniversary of their moving in. We also loved meeting their gorgeous young cats, Bow and (Captain) Jaffles.

The Diner

The Greyhound pub, on Chamberlayne road, has now become a American themed diner called 'The Diner' and we were there this morning for our Valentine's Day breakfast. And it was pretty good. We had eggs Benedict and Royale, with coffee and a stack of pancakes in butter, sugar and maple syrup. Altogether, The Diner is a very welcome addition to the area.

St Valentine's Day

It's St Valentine's Day! And so good it falls on a Saturday this year so I can spend the day with my gorgeous wife and wonderful little daughter.
Today, we're going for breakfast at The Diner, pop to Sainsbury's, will give the house a little bit of a clean, interview a potential au-pair, cook a romantic steak dinner, watch Clint Eastwood's profile of Tony Bennett and perhaps even have time for a romantic movie?
I wish, though, I could get the spacing between my pictures, as I want them, for some reason, they won't behave.

Bathtime

Ruby and Josie just being adorable at bathtime last night.

Ruby Goes to the Cinema

I'd originally planned for Ruby's first experience of cinema to be last Monday, at the Lexi, when as a family, we'd watch Part 1 of Steven Soderberg's epic account of the life of Che Guevara, a film that couldn't have been more perfect or ideal, in so many ways and one I've waited most of my adult life to see.
Sadly, the snow put pay to that and Ruby had to be content with the mother and baby showing of Frost/Nixon, at the Lexi, without me.

Ruby meets Grandpa Nemeth on Skype

After meeting Granny Nemeth last week, it was Grandpa Nemeth's turn to meet Ruby on Skype. Such an amazing thing, it reminded me how lucky we are to have such technology to communicate like this. It also reminded me of Heywood Floyd promising to buy his daughter a bush baby over the video phone in 2001.
We also had another landmark at the weekend when Ruby, after returning from a wonderful lunch with Sarah in Richmond, finally took a bottle of expressed milk from me.

SNOW!

I LOVE snow and I still get as excited about snow as I did when I was a little boy. It was doubly exciting as it was Ruby's first experience of snow and it was severe enough to bring London to a complete standstill. I love a bit of chaos too.

This is Sebastian, one of the lions on our front door step, looking like a sheep.

12cm of snow had fallen on our garden table

Roundwood was amazing. Full of incredibly happy people, building snowmen and sledging down the hill. This was a very large Brazillian snowman

Ibolya and I built this snowman for Ruby. I think we've forgotten to give him a mouth?
This was Hyde Park this morning, back on my bike, looking absolutely stunning.

Ruby in the Snow Part Two

Ruby in the Snow Part One

Waking up with Ruby on Sunday Morning