More than any other place in the world I find the contrast in this city incredible.

From Graffiti to Great Expectations.

I'm situated in Chelsea, not far from Harrods, the V&A, the River Thames and beautiful buildings.

Today, I visited the Victoria and Albert Museum
and the National Portrait Gallery. Oh, and Harrods.

I will do a movie on the V&A, so for now I'll just write about  the Portrait Gallery

It was my first visit  and if you ever get a chance to view it, it's an amazing experience.

You walk through corridors of creativity. Every painting expresses hours, days, months of work. The personality of the painter is obvious to the viewer.

The eyes seem to follow you as you walk through the room and the personality of the subject remains on an inanimate piece of canvas for ever and ever and to me, it's  a miracle. 

I was privileged to view the BP Portrait Award 2010. I was in awe, there is something about a portrait  that makes my heart beat just a little faster.

I couldn't take photos, but in a way I had to work harder at looking at the photos because I needed to commit them to memory.

The streets around the Gallery are teaming with workers, tourists and shoppers, I strolled through lanes lined with bookshops selling all manner of Antique books and prints… it was fascinating.

I had dinner at an Indian Restaurant and then played the Bus and Metro game to get back home….. 

Oh, I was on the escalator, sort of 1/3rd of the way up and it stopped. It never ceases to amaze me how long and tall these things are…. now I wished it was smaller. There were 100's on it and it caused a little panic. Elderly people had to be rescued and the rest of us had to walk up about 200 steps….!!!