Chinese New Year

Chinese New Year is an annual event in London and one which I've been to before, but this year was supposed to be bigger and better than the previous ones.

It started at 10.00 a.m. in the morning with a parade, but I couldn't get there until about 1.30 p.m., by which time the opening ceremony with all the dignatories was long over and the entertainment in Trafalgar Square was in full swing.   There were also events in Shaftesbury Avenue, Leicester Square and Charing Cross Road.

Fortunately for all the singers and dancers, they were performing on a covered stage, but the audience was not so lucky.   Normally, Trafalgar Square would have been packed, with thousands of people sitting and standing all afternoon, and the crowds carefully controlled by the stewards.   Today, however, the stewards were largely unemployed; the crowds were small, and there was absolutely no need for any control. 

And what was to blame for this?   Nothing except the weather!   From early morning until late evening, it rained.   Not heavy rain driven by strong winds, but rain nevertheless; light, but constant.   I had taken a plastic mac, which kept me dry, apart from my feet; there was nothing I could do about the pools of water on the pavements.   But everywhere you looked all you could see were brollys.  

I watched the performance on the stage for a while, before going to get some lunch; it was impossible to get into a Chinese restaurant, as there seemed to be queues outside all of them, but I found a very nice little Italian cafe in Moor Street which served delicious food.

Back to Trafalgar Square to watch some more of the entertainment and to visit all the stalls around the edges, and learn  more about the Chinese community in London - it goes back a long way, but it is only recently that the Chinese have come here in any significant numbers.

The day ended in Trafalgar Square with a fireworks display, with lasers lighting up Nelson's column.   It was such a pity the weather was so unkind, because such a lot of effort had obviously gone into making it a real day out for all the family - there was entertainment in Leicester Square as well and street entertainment.

Whilst there, I took the opportunity not only to get warm - it was quite cold standing outside - but also to visit an exhibition in the National Gallery entitled "Through American Eyes: Frederick Church and the Landscape Oil Sketch", which consisted of 25 small paintings he made, not only in America, for instance of his house Olana, but also in the countries he visited - Jamaica, Germany, Austria, Canada, to name but a few.   Frederick Church was born in Hartford, Connetticut, and lived from 1826 - 1900. During a trip to England, he studied the works of J.M.Turner in the National gallery and this influenced his later work.   Some of the paintings were not particularly inspiring, but others, such as his painting of the Niagara Falls, stood out, as did one of the coastline of Jamaica, Salzburg in Austria and Konigsee in Bavaria.   He was obviously a very talented artist, and in some of his paintings one could see the influence of Turner in the way he used his colours.