Yesterday, I looked into the eye of a terracotta Chinese soldier who was supposed to be guarding the First Emperor before the chinese dug him out and flew him to the British Museum along with a dozen mates. Over 2,200 years old he’s life-size and lifelike – amazing. He gave me a stony stare back but I swear I detected a glint. A spirit lurks. While in the British Museum I meandered among the other exhibits. I searched for prehistoric representatins of the human form because the large reclining women statuettes found on Gozo maybe unique. I ogled naked women and men in the ancient Greek and Egyptian rooms and admired the outer space aliens that seemed to have landed on Cyprus two thousand years ago. The humanoids forgot to take off their helmets when the local sculpure created their effigies. With some surprise I couldn’t find any exhibits from Malta or Gozo in the museum. Maybe they have another building.
I’m revving up to attend the World Arts Festival in Groningen tomorrow in order to collect my book award. Hot Air might be the name of thriller I wrote, but I’m feeling really cool and calm at the moment. I wonder if when I visit Amsterdam too, that I should take a copy of Escaping Reality & persuade a bookshop to stock it?
Funny how many of the gawkers in the First Emperor exhibition seemed to be Chinese tourists…
Tags: Escaping Reality, Groningen, Hot Air
