On the Town and on our Way

This morning, all four of us--Karin, Susan, Bob, and I--walked to the Wallace Collection, a nearby museum that I last visited nearly fifty years ago. It has aged much better than I have. Almost all the rooms in the mansion have been refurbished with period cloth wall coverings and gold accents on the elaborate moldings. If only grants from large trusts and wealthy donors

could do the same for me, I might get over my distaste for fund raising.

The collection houses a lot of romantic and sentimental paintings I don't care for, but then you notice a Velazquez portrait, Hals' The

Laughing Cavalier, Fragonard's naughty The Swing, and, of course, half a dozen or so Rembrandts including an early self-portrait and one of his son Titus.

Like most museums in the city, this one is free, and always, you run into small groups of school children on tour with note pads and teachers. Despite the economy, England still treasures its art.



Unfortunately, it no longer treasures theater the way it used to by underwriting ticket prices, but on this trip, we did not let that stop us. Already we've seen Sondheim's 'Merrily We Roll Along' (magnificant), 'Billy Elliot' (tired), and, tonight, Alan Bennet's 'Untold Stories.'

For lunch today we were guests of Sandra Soriano, a friend of Karin's, at a restaurant in town, and tonight, our friend of almost fifty years, Tosh Lee, is joining us for dinner and the play. Sadly, we'll have to say goodbye to Tosh tonight and tomorrow morning to London itself. We leave for the airport fairly early, so this may be our final post on the blog--or maybe I'll add a P.S. when we're back in Tucson.