In which Tony finds another way of avoiding work.

LaFlamme had a notion that we should visit an art gallery this afternoon. It was a grey-ish kind of day and I was probably going to do something pointless anyway, so I thought why not. Crucial to this decision was the fact that it was free, something that would not have been lost on LaFlamme as she, like myself, was often short of cash.

I was disappointed to see so many pieces by Damien Stirrup, the controversial conceptual artist, as I had a feeling he inhabited a talent-free zone. Stirrup was well-known for putting dead animals in formaldehyde and recently surprised no-one but himself when he picked up a paintbrush and discovered painting was more difficult. This inspired one of LaFlamme’s finest newspaper headlines of recent times: ‘Formaldehyde boy tries painting – gets in a pickle.’

The fact that he was over-represented, not just here but in any gallery, didn’t really bother me but it tended to mean there was less room for people who weren’t complete twats.