RCA Secret 2006, 25th November 2006

Every year, the Royal College of Arts in London, right next to Royal Albert Hall, sells original artworks (this year 2,500 of them) for £35 each, with some of them being college students work, and others being of more famous origin such as Damien Hirst. Some people line up over night for the right to get an early shot at these, with some of the famous originals said to be worth up to £5,000, but with Diana, I lined up in the cold wet London morning at 6am. After the first hour of rain, and general misery, it was lucky we didnt leave. The night before, we had viewed the items and Diana had 10 in mind that she had hoped might be left once we got inside, but as it was, even with a 4 picture per person limit, it seemed unlikely as we were about 250th in line, and really some of the artworks were so bad we couldnt imagine anyone buying them! (as before you buy them you have no idea who they are by) Thanks to some very amusing English lads who had dropped down to the same event, in between their free weekend motivational conference (yes really, they told some hiliarious stories), we made it through the waiting and got our chance. Instantly checking the big "bingo" board to see what had already been bought, we realised only 3 out of the 10 on the list were left, and by the time we got to the front only 1 of the original list remained. Luckily we got that one before anyone else snapped it up, and I bought a different one, as in the end I had to have something from the whole event, and I liked the painting. Sounds weird I know, but it was all strangely interesting and intriguing.