Quick change in the UK ...

Under the Wave off Kanagawa (pic from Wikipedia)

After our five months in South America, we did a quick return to the UK. We only had a couple of weeks, so it was a bit of a flying visit to family and a quick stay in London, but we managed to get done what we needed to.


That included a bit of shopping for new clothes in smaller sizes, in particular, gym and running gear, that we would be taking to Canada.



Despite the expected slowdown in Argentina, During our time in South America, I had managed to lose 2 stone 13 pounds (which for non-UK people is 41 pounds or 19kg) and Nic had done even better at 4 stone (56 pounds or 25kg).

So while I still have a long way to go to get to my target, I was still pretty pleased, and there was a noticeable difference. Nic had of course got much closer to his goal already, and the effect was probably best described by the fact that when his mum first saw him, her response was an exclamation of "Oh my God!"

We didn't fit in too much during the fortnight, but aside from family, a couple of friends, and shopping, we did get in a visit ton the theatre. We had booked tickets for the last night of Don Juan in Soho, staring David Tennant. We thoroughly enjoyed it.

We also went along to an exhibition at the British Museum. We didn't have time to look around the rest of it, so we'll have to go back again sometime, and this time also take some photos of the impressive inside of the building.

The exhibition we saw was Hokusai: beyond the Great Wave. It was about the work of Japanese artist, Katsushika Hokusai - though he went by various other names during his lifetime - whose best known work is Under the Wave off Kanagawa, and is of a huge, frothy, blue wave, with Mount Fuji in the background. It is one of those pieces that you may never have heard of, but you would probably recognise.

It isn't a painting though. It is actually, in my opinion, more remarkable for being a woodblock print. What this means is that Hokusai did the initial drawing, but then a specialist woodcarver had to use it as an outline to create wooden blocks that would then be inked and printed. It is all a highly skilled process, but very effective.

The exhibition contained many other pieces by this prolific artist, and was well worth going to see. We found his work really interesting and enjoyable, but I'm afraid I still like the classic The Great Wave, the best.