Happy We Made The Colonies Independent and Let Them Spell Colour, Axe and Aluminium with Missing Letters Day*

*(c) Mr Neil Gaiman

Being a Brit in America on Independence Day could have been problematic.
After all, we lost. And some of us (and he knows who he is) are not quite over that yet.

In the morning, I went to the Walker Art Center, and was happy to find that as it was the 1st Saturday of the month it was free to enter.

As it was the 4th of July, there were also various activities going on, and the grass around the centre was full of tents selling hotdogs and burgers, there were hoards of hula-hooping kids, decorated bicycles and many other traditional celebrations of the revolution.

I enjoyed the museum.

I particularly admired the wallpaper which they had in one of the lobbies.

The views of the city, both directly, and reflected in the windows, were dramatic.

I also liked the big Zorb balls with grass growing in them, although I don't recall the name of the artist.

The jars of decomposed and disinterred lemons were fun, too.

I had intended to then go and spend some time in the sculpture garden, but unfortunately it became a little damp,

and then it got really quite wet.
Having carelessley omitted to take a diving suit with me when I left the hotel in the morning, I was forced to return to the hotel to change. It was unnerving to discover how few of Minneapolis's drivers seemed to feel that torrential rain and masses of surface water should affect (for instance) the amount of stopping distance which they allowed themselves. Still, it did mean that I reached the hotel with a new appreciation of the sweetness of life.

After wringing out my trousers and drying my hair, I made my way to Gayle's where I met many of her friends and relatives (none of whose names I am able to recall) and have beer and barbeque and fireworks and sparklers, with the kind of long and relaxed conversations that happen at the best of such events.

And I decided that, on the whole, the loss of the American colonies was something I could learn to live with...