Art and Sushi

Friday we again skipped off work in time to be on that 4:15pm Cambridge Cruiser train to London. This time our destination was more central as just five stops on the tube brought us to Piccadilly Circus where we surfaced and strolled along to the Royal Academy (of Art) to take a look at this year's Summer Exhibition. With the best part of a thousand exhibits this annual extravaganza is pretty much a case of Art Overload but great fun for all that. Apart from some amusing and witty video installations, the vast majority of my favourites were among the flood of paintings in the first few rooms. The obvious "star turn" of this year was the 50-canvas Hockney behemoth, Bigger Trees Near Water, that filled an entire wall but there was lots more to appreciate: too much to enumerate and, frankly, probably too much to remember properly, even with the help of the RA's illustrated "Best Of" guide.

Before heading for home, we wanted to eat and soon settled on sushi at a branch of the Yo! Sushi chain of "conveyor belt" sushi bars. This was the first time in several years that we'd had sushi in one of these places. When we lived in Harlow we were often to be found in the Moshi Moshi Sushi bar in Liverpool Street station which was my first introduction to the conveyor belt principle. It was fun to do it again and we piled the plates high as we tucked into a selection of favourites!