The Daily(ish) Millbrook: Hobnobbing and walking through clouds

In common, I suspect with most Millbrook dwellers, I couldn't even contemplate living in London; noisy, busy, smelly, impersonal.... just keep adding your own adjectives.

But the occasional day out can be rewarding and Tuesday just gone was about as rewarding as it can get.

Cousin Dave managed to get us invitations to an award ceremony at The Palace of Westminster because he's designed and made the awards.

Dave and his mum, Auntie Sheila, along with us two caught the seven forty-seven up to the smoke and spent a very pleasant time in The Hayward Gallery at 'Blind Light', Antony Gormley's current exhibition. It's been well documented in the national press - so I won't bore everyone rigid with my uneducated comments.

The exterior part of the exhibition, called 'Event Horizon' features 27 of Gormley's trademark body-casts on roof tops around the South Bank and is very effective. The much vaunted cloud chamber where you walk through a brightly lit cuboid shape filled with water vapour (and are therefore completely unable to see more than a foot or so ahead) is quite an experience and very disorientating even with a white stick. If I had a penny for every time a complete stranger came up to me in the gallery and said "you'll have a advantage in there", I'd have tuppence.

We dined al-fresco at a nice little restaurant not far from the gallery and then it was time for the main event.

In the photo above: Cousin Dave made these. Each from, I believe, six sheets of glass fused together (he did explain the process of getting the colours in there as well, but it went over my head). There were seven of them in all, but three had already been presented as the recipients couldn't attend the presentation (these were two Arctic Monkeys and someone who chairs a Plc).

The other recipients included a one-armed celebrity chef (apparently he's on the telly, but as we don't have one I've never heard of him), a choreographer, a woman who designed the computer game 'Halo' and Hazel Blears (front bencher, deputy leadership contender, very short person).

Sitting on the House of Commons terrace was a tremendous experience, and we're all very grateful to Dave for getting us invitations. I've decided I have to become an MP and I'm going to stand on a ticket of nothing more than I want to be able to sit on the terrace and sip wine at the taxpayers' expense for the rest of my days.

There's a full set of photos on the link "complete photo sets" on the right. To read the full caption of each photo simply move your mouse pointer over the photo. For those who would rather just stick with the main blog here are a couple of decent ones of us hobnobbing with the great(ish) and good(ish). Firstly, the award winners who were actually present: