Retiring, as we are,gracefully,we went to a private view of"Unknown Monet"at the Royal Academy last evening. We stood with half of Middle England, queueing in the courtyard with a freezing wind buffeting us- when who should come slowly down the steps towards a waiting car but Lady Antonia Fraser,glorious in a purple pashmina, and Harold Pinter, walking with a stick, looking very frail. How amazing to see them in real life - they had obviously had a REAL private view-- Anyway, we held back in the queue to let them pass by us-funny how one really admires true talent, not all those B-listers. What a great exhibition too! The value of these Times-organised private views is that, for a relatively small sum, you get a v.good talk by someone passionate about Monet, the ability to see the exhibition 1 person deep, (instead of 4 or 6 deep,as at the Tate's Hogarth exhib.,) and you get to drink wine and eat nibbles in two extraordinary golden gilded rooms which are re-hung each time we go. And you even get a goody bag at the end-one of whose contents was a special Monet oyster card holder- Liz has bagged mine already- she is like a child in her glee!One of the ARTS of the private view , apart from admiring the paintings obviously,is to move nearish to the wine waiter- if you just happen to be standing near one you can certainly get a nice full refill,(or two!) making your ticket even better value!Home to smoked salmon/philedelphia rolls and another glass of white wine-- v nice evening!