Venus Overlooks St Patrick's Day

Travelled into Trafalgar Square today to check out the St Patrick's Day parade. We ended up missing it because one of the helpful information type people told us it would arrive in the square at 2 o'clock. So very helpful!

We went off to have lunch only to be told as we were ordering that the parade had actually just finished.

Murphy's Law I suppose.

We went back to have a look. It was busy and there was some Irish music playing but we felt a little deflated so we went home.

On a more interesting note, the fourth plinth of Trafalgar Square has been filled with this wonderful statue, Alison Lapper Pregnant by Marc Quinn. When I first saw it when I was here last year I thought it was a brilliant expression of life, age and beauty. Little did I know that the statue is far from symbolic, it was actually modelled on a real woman who was born without arms and truncated legs.

Alison Lapper's story is quite amazing. You don't need to hear me blather on about it; there is an extract of her life in her own word over at The Guardian's site. Nowadays, inspired by the Venus de Milo, Alison uses photography and her body to create artworks exploring the notion of beauty.

All in all a worthy guardian of London's heart. Oh, and here is a pic of the green fountains.



Tags: Alison Lapper, Trafalgar SquareLondon, St Patrick's Day