Today was all about Tate Modern. We were going there for class to give presentations about two installation pieces. I decided to run there. It was only 3 miles but it took me 45 minutes because I had to slow down to a walk to maneuver large crowds of people.

The pieces we looked at were very cool. The first was made to look like the detritus of a studio or construction site but all the pieces are actually hand sculpted out of polyurethane. It is hard to discern this, the objects look so real.

Then we made our way down to see 'Sunflower Seeds' by Ai Wei-Wei. This was incredible. There are 100 million 'seeds' all individually handcrafted from porcelain. They covered the entire floor in this large hall, about 3 inches deep. Pictures do not do it justice. You can't appreciate the sheer quantity unless you are in front of it. It is a shame that you can't touch it. It was originally intended that people could walk, touch, throw, roll in etc. the seeds. The museum stopped this practice after 3 days because there is some problem with dust that they believe will cause problems after prolonged exposure (i.e. The employees). It really defeats the purpose of the piece. I have never been more frustrated when prohibited from touching a work of art.

After class I decided to walk back instead of taking the tube. Man was that a long walk. Luckily I had my sneakers on from the run there so it didn't cause me any problems.

Back at the flat I spent the evening doing research and booked some stuff for Dublin, Windsor and Edinburgh. I got an email from Michael with a lot of advice about what to do in Dublin as well as what I am going to do with the family (who none of us know how we're actually related) on the Sunday of my trip.

Since there is another tube strike tonight and tomorrow I may not have work tomorrow. Felicity told us to check with her in the morning. I have some errands to run in the area that I was going to do after work so I told her I would stop by and if she wasn't there then carry on with my shopping.