Pageant Day

The day started well enough. Yes there was rain in the air but everyone seemed to be happy enough. We walked along the street to Westminster Bridge and made our way through the security cordon and onto the bridge itself. All the spaces along the bridge edge had been taken by people looking like they had come prepared to withstand Armageddon itself, we had two weedy umbrellas between the four of us barely keeping the rain off one shoulder each. Westminster bridge with no traffic on was a very surreal experience. Every time I stepped from one side of the centre line to the other I couldn't help myself from turning my head to see if there was a red bus zooming head long in my direction. There wasn't of course, only damp people quietly biding their time. We were in no fit state to be waiting there for five and half hours so we decided to take a walk down to the Tate Modern and check out the Damien Hirst exhibition.

From side streets and main streets along the way more and more people were arriving by the minute, more and more rain was being dumped on central London and we were getting soggier. The Tate was like a refuge for us, a big warm welcoming place where we could spend a few hours drying off a little.

After spending an arm and a leg for tickets to the Damien Hirst exhibition we made our way into the Turbine Hall where the Diamond Encrusted Skull had a room all to itself. The room in question was totally dark with the skull illuminated in a glass case. It was a spectacular sight. The four of us were totally alone in their with it. Just as I got my camera out to take a sneaky snap a torch burst into life from one of the corners and the face of a black security guard, dressed in a lack suit was lit up saying "NO CAMERAS!" to say that we shit ourselves was an understatement! Needless to say that we high tailed it out of there without a picture.

The third floor exhibition had all his famous, shocking macabre items such as the sheep, shark, cow and her calf split down the middle as well as some of his less well known stuff.

For me the giant ashtray with thousands of used cigarette butts made me feel physically sick. The stench was overwhelming and would be a welcome addition to the governments war on the smoking fraternity. The severed calf head and thousands of flies landing on it served to shock and disgust the kids too, but I guess that is what his intentions are. For me I do not see it as art but who am I to judge, he is the one with hundreds of millions in the bank and no wonder when he is charging £36 for a crappy black T-Shirt with a print of the skull on it. The rest of the Tate exhibition pieces managed to capture our attention for an hour or so and when we emerged from the building the weather had improved dramatically and the crowds had swelled exponentially.

When we got back to our hotel and the London Eye area the crowds were thirty deep and every conceivable vantage point was taken. The cheering grew as the boat with the bells clanging passed and we saw bugger all. The pushing and shoving got so bad that we decided to go back to the room and watch from there. It wasn't exactly how we had intended to watch the spectacle but at least we got to see the Royal Barge float by. Then all of a sudden the heavens opened again with a vengeance and we ended up watching the rest of the pageant on the telly with the sound of the hooters coming in through the open window.