Turmoil and Tranquillity

No, not my account of every­day life at num­ber 70, but a reminder that there is a fas­cin­at­ing exib­i­tionat the Queen’s House, next to the National Mari­time Museum, Green­wich.  The exhib­i­tion is called “Tur­moil and Tran­quil­lity: the sea trhough the eyes of Dutch and Flem­ish mas­ters, 1550–1700.”  It’s the most won­der­ful col­lec­tion of mar­ine paint­ings from that period, cov­er­ing everything from ship­wrecks real and ima­gined, illus­trat­ing life’s uncer­tainty and brev­ity, and usu­ally with some icon to encour­age view­ers to turn to sal­va­tion, to scenes of ships­be­calmed, fish­ing, or fight­ing.  There are some inter­est­ing themes drawn out about trade and explor­a­tion too.  It’s on until Janu­ary 11^th 2009.

And it’s always fun to go to Green­wich, though this time I didn’t have spare time to enjoy the fore­shore, the park, or the town itself.  But South East­ern Trains got me there and back exped­i­tiously.  It’s strange to see com­muter trains in York­shire of 2 or three car­riages when the stand­ard in so much of the Lon­don com­muter net­work is 12, or 8.  And then there’s Vir­gin Cross Coun­try (of blessed memory) who thought it was a good idea to replace 8 coach HSTs with 4 or 5 coach Voy­agers. Don’t get me started.