Day Eight from Miriam

We went to the National Gallery!!

I saw Monet's The Water-Lily Pond, which is probably my all-time favorite piece of Impressionist art!  Monet's works often fill me with a sense of peace and calm, and this piece in particular brought peace to my troubled heart at a time when I needed it.

We also saw Van Gogh's Sunflowers, which was lovely!  Supposedly it stands for for peace, joy and gratitude.

We also saw this lovely old piece with Mary and Jesus that I've grown up seeing, so that was exciting.

If you look at the top of the tower in this next picture, you can see Bobby Malone.

Bobby Malone was a brave, brawny man
Rolled a keg faster than most people ran
He loved a man's sweetheart, did Bobby Malone,
And hatched a terrible plan.

He climbed up a tower, one day, to the top.
Planning a keg on his rival to drop
He waited, breath baited, did Bobby Malone,
To see the man's bowler top.

The man came below, so sleek and so fair,
The barrel went over toward said man's hair.
Then Bob saw his sweetheart aside of his foe
And scrambled to catch keg midair.

The keg could not falter, the keg could not stop
Poor Bobby could not cease the barrel to drop
But Bob, he went with it, and down they both went
And crashed on the pavement kerplop!

The story, they say, is a lesson to all
Love her alone or don't love her at all
Else you'll paint pavement like Bobby Malone
At the end of a terrible fall.

No, there was no plaque sharing his story.  But I know it.  Because sometimes, I just understand pub signs and can feel their history.

(Ok, so Bobby may or may not be my own creation.  But later we saw an actual man rolling a barrel down the street, and we decided he must be Billy Malone, Bobby's descendant.

Because, of course, Bobby didn't die in the fall.  He just broke a few ribs and smashed a keg and learned his lesson.  He married Arabella some time later, and they had fourteen children.

Ok, enough details.  Only lies have details.  And, of course, this story is totally true...)

That night, we went to Matilda!!  It was... very Roald Dahl.  I loved "When I Grow Up" - it made me cry.  There were some fascinating props and sets and special effects.  I love musicals!