Yet another jolly, this time to London – to the Tate, to be precise.

In my position as programme planner for the local Nadfas, I do a bit of research into forthcoming exhibitions, particularly London ones and, of course, I trot along and visit them. We went to the Expressionist/Blue Rider one at Tate Modern back in April. Yesterday, we went to the other London Tate to see the John Singer Sargent portrait exhibition and the one of women artists in Britain over the centuries – though women were largely prevented from painting seriously, there were some very determined and talented ones whose works, while often not well known, are very worth seeing. The lecturer we had, back in the spring, had helped to curate this exhibition and it was good to have had some foreknowledge.

We didn’t really make the most of it however, so I hope we’ll have time to go back while it’s still on. Our lovely friend in Kent wanted to join us, but she’s hopeless at time and we spent far too long waiting for her, which curtailed our time at the exhibitions – we had to catch the 4 o’clock train back, which meant us leaving at 2.45, to be safe – and more of that in a minute. We said we’d wait for her and go in at 2 – we’d missed each other at the Sargent one as she was so late – but we had to give up and start without her, which only gave us half an hour. Wink has promised never to tell her about anything we’re doing, in the future, unless we have limitless time. We love her dearly, but she’s completely unaware of other people’s needs. Though she’s always apologetic, it doesn’t stop her.

Anyway, we left with plenty of time to spare, because you never can be entirely sure with public transport. The bus took nearly 10 minutes to come, but that was fine and we got off at Charing Cross, walked down to Embankment and got onto the Tube platform. We needed a Circle line train and all three on the board were District, the last arriving in 11 minutes. We were a bit worried at that point, as there was no guarantee that the next would be Circle. So I suggested we took the next train, got off at Monument and walked through the convenient underground walkway to Bank, whence it was one stop on the Central line to Liverpool Street Station. With me so far?

I said, when we get to Monument, we can look at the board and see if there’s a Circle train soon, when it’d be worth waiting. There wasn’t. That meant there must have been at least 5 District trains and over 15 minutes – might have been longer – without Circle, at the start of the rush hour on a Friday. Not vastly impressed. Anyway, all went well. We got to Liverpool Street at about 3.45 and were able to go straight onto the train, which left and arrived on time and we were home by 6. Lucky with the weather, it’s bucketed down today, with thunder and lightning at one point.

Back to London again next week, for Wimbledon. We’ve got off-peak tickets this time, no particular train, so can leave when we want. If it’s peak time, we’ll have dinner somewhere on the way back.