London Olympics 2012 and Grayson Perry The Vanity of Small Differences

So I did it! I bit the bullet and headed into London at the peak of the Olympics. We mostly went to see the Grayson Perry exhibition at the Victoria Miro gallery but, since it's the Olympics and all, decided that we might as well pop over to Hyde Park too.

Before heading to the Victoria Miro, we built up our energy with a Nando's stop-off. The Charing Cross restaurant is my favourite, mostly because it's in Chandos Place and that makes me laugh since Charing Cross Nando's can be shortened to Chando's.

Since we were so nearby the National Portrait Gallery, we figured we would drop in and see Marc Quinn's Self (after a quick photo opportunity with my new mate Wenlock, above). This is one of my favourite sculptures because I love seeing people's reactions when they realise it is made out of blood.

Marc Quinn Self (left) and Sarah Sze Model for a Twin (right). The Sarah Sze piece is from her exhibition at the Victoria Miro. I love these lines of coloured thread.

After a fairly long walk from the tube, we finally found the Victoria Miro down a little anonymous side street with nothing of note except a McDonald's. In fact, there's a danger of walking straight past it since the entrance is just a little door in the side of the wall.

The Grayson Perry exhibition is called The Vanity of Small Differences. If you haven't heard of it, I'd recommend watching the Channel 4 series All in the Best Possible Taste, in which he explained his process. It's a commentary on class and taste in England, told through a series of six tapestries. I have a bit of a chip on my shoulder about class, so I very much connected to these, specifically the two that examine the working class, The Adoration of the Cage Fighters and The Agony in the Car Park.

The tapestries are insanely detailed. Each time I looked at one, I noticed something else that I hadn't seen before. They are just so clever. I was completely in awe.

"A normal family, a divorce or two, mental illness, addiction, domestic violence... the usual thing"

The Adoration of the Cage Fighters

The Annunciation of the Virgin Deal

#Lamentation

There was also a collection of 3 pots and a drawing. This was a pleasant surprise since I was only expecting the tapestries.

(Left to right) Voting Tactics, Work in Progress and The Existential Void.

The Existential Void

Red Alan Measles!

Work in Progress

Voting Tactics

I was just typing to say I recommend it and to visit whilst you still can since it's not open for much longer. I looked up the dates and discovered that the final day is today. So I am extremely glad that I got to see it just in time!

Then it was time to head to Hyde Park. I thought they just had big screens to show the events. I had no idea that they were putting on free concerts! Yesterday was Feeder and a couple of people I've never heard of so we didn't hang around for that (Can anyone name a Feeder song other than Buck Rogers?) but it was still great to sit in the sun and watch the diving.

I couldn't resist a little gold Wenlock!

The Sun garden was great. Deckchairs, bean bags, cheerleaders... I found this Union Jack flag so I got to wave my colours with pride!

Watching the diving. Is that a massive Topshop bag? Erm... no. I didn't get sidetracked by the sale. Not at all. (As an aside, props to the Oxford Circus Topshop team. We weren't given our free scarf at checkout so we asked customer services about it. We ended up getting the scarf and two free tote bags. Result!)

A beautiful sunset to end a great day.

I truly love London. I'm so glad that I got the opportunity to experience the Olympics there, even if I didn't have tickets for the actual games themselves.