Monkeyshines

Inspired by the recent anniversary of our first date at the Manchester Art Gallery, Mrs. Monkeyshines and I took the Little Monkey into town to visit said gallery for his first bit of culture. It was also Toby’s first bus ride, having previously had the luxury of a chauffeur-driven automobile or a mum willing to push a pram for many miles at a time. He mostly adopted his disconcerting, unblinking stare for the duration of the journey; we like to think that his brain was working so hard to process the avalanche of novel stimuli that he had no spare capacity for smiling. Either that or he has nothing but withering contempt for the great unwashed masses who use public transport.

The Manchester Art Gallery mightn’t seem like the first place you’d take a young Little Monkey, but they have a rather nice interactive gallery, where grasping little paws are welcome, and mirrors and colour combine to capture interest. They also provide bags of stuff for kids to take and play with as you go around the gallery; Toby’s bag had a ‘texture’ theme, and he had a lovely time messing around on the floor with fabrics, and a feather, and a lumpy rubber ball. Mrs. Monkeyshines and I alternately watched the boy and wandered around a gallery of curious, spooky photos by Roger Ballen. All in all, a splendid (moderately cultured) family day out…