One of the easiest things to do when you’re absorbed in something you find fascinating is to lose track of time which is exactly what happened to me during my visit to see the Neanderthal exhibition at the Gibraltar Museum. One minute I’m standing agog, mouth open amidst a group of children looking at an amazing exhibition and the next minute I’m still standing agog looking at the same exhibition on my own as a curator lady politely coughs to let me know it’s six o clock and the museum is closing.
As I slowly came to my senses I thanked the lady for her patience and on leaving the building said to her that one day I would make a painting of the mother and child as part of a collection I was planning; she smiled, nodded and closed the door behind me – (I think she thought I was a little eccentric).
*
When I left the Museum I suddenly remembered I was under a strict promise to be back at the Bristol for 6pm (latest) to make sure everyone was up (after their siesta) so they had plenty of time to get ready to go out to the Moroccan Restaurant Marrakech – and I was already late. Good job the Bristol was only next door although as it turned out everyone was up and about anyway (‘No thanks to me’ it appeared).
“Anyway where’ve you been this time?” I was greeted “Oh never mind now you can tell us all about it at dinner and hopefully you found somewhere nice for us to visit too. Come on, Sheila and Joe are ready”.
This (non) conversation reminded me of that old TV programme with Hyacinth Bouquet in it where she asks her hen-pecked husband questions then answers them herself and because of my (warped) sense of humour (even though I’m not hen-pecked) I loved it – and thought it was hilarious that because of my silence Carol did indeed come across like Hyacinth Bouquet (although I’m not sure she saw the funny side of that). Heh heh.
*
(Gibraltar Art Gallery)
*
After strolling down Main Street we turned right up towards the Art Gallery because I knew everyone wanted to visit it – particularly Carol who is a very arty, creative person. As mentioned previously in these memoirs she spent a lot of time making lovely clothes for both herself and the children when they were little; indeed she has made me quite a few designer clothes too from patterns by the likes of Izzy Myaki (very probably a wrong spelling that). As time has gone on she’s also dabbled in photography, life drawing, tile craft and more recently painting and so she was keen to see what was on display in the Gibraltar gallery.
*
Of all of the paintings on display I particularly loved the ones of the Rock and those of other scenes around Gibraltar, in fact it was looking at them during my previous solo visit that inspired me to decide to take up painting again (in 2017) to illustrate some of my RockHeart memoir. Carol too really loved the paintings depicting local life and landscape and although I told her I was going to do some ‘Gib paintings’ in the New Year I didn’t tell her they were to compliment RockHeart (because she doesn’t know I’ve been writing RockHeart 🙂 ).
*
Dinner at the Marrakech was everything one would expect from a Moroccan dinner, flavours, spices, colours and all; fortunately for me the food wasn’t too spicy (I hate spicy hot food) and in the main everyone enjoyed it. Our conversations during dinner tended to be around how much everyone was loving their holiday (Yessss!!!) and how they would like to come back again next year (Yessss!!!); they all agreed there was so much more to see that they hadn’t had the time for although after I’d told them about the Neanderthal exhibition they immediately decided that they would be visiting that tomorrow. Speaking of which Carol added ” So don’t plan any walkabouts in the morning because after the Museum we’re all going to see the Glass-blowing in Casemates; I’ve seen a leaflet in the Bristol and it looks great”. Brilliant, I thought, that works for me – I’ll do that in the morning (then Europa Point in the afternoon).
*