Turner The Sea

Albert Dock with the Liver insurance building

I have not been cheerful recently (think depressed) and we needed a day out. Lynne and I visited Albert Dock, Liverpool, today it has a Tate gallery and as I reminded Lynne on more than one occasion it ought to be good as we pay for it in various ways. John Lewis is a sponsor and more of our money has been going that way recently.

I was pleased to hear on the radio as we drove there that someone had failed to collect their lottery winnings of eight million plus, I suspect and hope the Tate galleries will be beneficiaries.

We timed our arrival and departure to fit in with the football programme and enjoyed ourselves. I did not however get off to a good start. We had sat down in the café and I was attempting to read the leaflet that described the exhibitions, but I couldn’t, in fact it was giving me an instant headache trying to decipher the fist sentence. I took my reading glasses off and looked for mist or dirt that might be the cause of the problem, nothing. I put the glasses back on and attempted to read, again I experienced an extremely unpleasant sensation and could not focus on the text. Lynne was talking to me, I was not listening my mind was racing.

A sensible reaction would have been to think through some obvious causes. I was having none of that and was reminded first of passing out in Kashmir when I had hepatitis, then of the conversation with the neurologist of a couple of weeks ago. He asked me questions about whether I had any difficulties with my eyesight as he eliminated various “nasties” as he attempted to find a cause of my “foot slap” and other neurological inadequacies. About two minutes had passed since I had identified the problem and already I had resigned myself to being disabled for the rest of my life. Lynne had stopped talking by this point and was giving me that look (you have not listened to a word I have said). I took off the glasses and looked at them again, it was then that I smiled at Lynne and showed her that they were broken and a lens had dropped out! She offered to lend me hers. I went back to the car and got the spare pair. We had an enjoyable day the highlight being
Turner the Sea a set of sketches and finished watercolours of the sea.

A liverpudlian amphibian

I think I need to get out more. I am going to Wales tomorrow to spend some time with my mountain bike.

Looking across the mersey from the Canning dock