Undressed at the Victoria and Albert Museum and another family dinner

Yesterday we went to the Victoria and Albert Museum in South Kensington and it was special.  Full of surprises and absolutely alive despite being made up of things from the past.  Eddy, as a little boy had what he called “a collection of collections” and this is very much the V and A.  Every exhibit had the flavour of its chooser – an abolitionist perhaps collected a little statue of maternal Nature with babies Africa and Europe at her breasts. It was created in the early 18^th century when France became the first country to abolish slavery.

 A spinner maybe found a lap sized ornate spinning wheel the like of which apparently were used by fashionable ladies at social gatherings.  How funny it must have been to see all the ladies in their gorgeous gowns winding their little spinning wheels and making lumpy homespun thread as they gossiped.

We darted like bees from one intriguing thing to another and discovered facts like the bedroom was once the main entertainment venue and no, not for what springs to mind but for social gatherings - hence huge lavish daybeds with gleaming and ostentatious upholstery.  There must have been a lot of sprawling at these events.  I can’t think how one could sit nicely on one of those beds.

All the while there was rather beautiful almost monastic chanting coming from down the way.  As we got closer we could hear the lead singer who had a lovely tenor voice.  He would speak the words of the chant which would then be intoned by the choir.  As we got closer we saw the singers were seated round the edge of a spherical dome which was a Cuban artist’s interpretation of the enlightenment.  There was a passivity about the singers which emanated peace.  Gradually I realised that many of them had Downs Syndrome.  They had lovely voices.  Their leader led them out of the dome and they circled it singing the same strange melancholy tune, each time with different words called by him.  They came back into the globe and I crept in behind and sang quietly with them.  I was uplifted.  I asked afterwards who they were and it turned out they were from an organisation dedicated to the propagation of learning through visiting museums and galleries.

There was a special exhibition called “Undressed” dedicated to underwear over the centuries.  We bought our saucy tickets inscribed “Seniors Undressed” and saw fascinating stays and bustles and what lies beneath a crinoline.  There was information about particularly hazardous corsets that endangered the reproductive organs (the S corset which squashed your tummy and exaggerated your bum). Jaeger made good shrinkproof woollen undergarments.  One panel made the thoughtful observation that whilst revealing one’s underwear has always been fashionable, only in modern times has exposure of flesh been respectable.

There was a titillating S and M case

and a film in which fashion designers spoke about their views.  One French lady said “The thing I like about a beautiful women is they she is always trying to be more beautiful.”  I thought that was a puzzling comment and I’m not sure I agree.

We had such a lovely evening with Frank and Julia, Jake and Lizzie at a Greek restaurant called Daphne.  There are nights when pleasure seems to overflow and this was one of them.  So much to say, lovely food and warm friendly service from the family who run the place and have known Frank and Julia for many years.  I had lemon poussin which I called, in my Australian way, spatchcock, and was corrected by my English family. I insisted on my choice of word.  No right and wrong just GB and Australia.  Funny how languages split off from each when they are spoken in different places. Tea and dinner and all that.

All in all a lovely day – ten plus on my happiness scale, or just a little bit more.