Unable to process pages of stuff in the newspapers about parliamentary larceny - including a Scot who claimed 7p for a plastic bag - we headed off early to meet some painter friends at the V&A's Baroque exhibition.

The first item is the most spectacular. A tiny Moor sitting on a camel made from a misshapen pearl cluster- roughly the meaning of 'baroque'. My painter friend Paul reckoned the Bernini terracotta sketches were pretty good, although we both agreed that a Rubens painted sketch for a silver platter was superb. Only the architectural room was a bit of a disappointment, but I suppose how do you convey the sweep and scale of Bernini and Borromini just through models and a few drawings? Wax was used on an especially horrid little southern Italian momento mori with little rats crawling around between the viscera and bones.

The idea of going was planted by the BBC series on English Music which started last night with a superb programme on Purcell. It included some wonderful music played by the band of the Grenadier Guards which I realised is played every Remembrance Sunday, as well as some taltalising snippets of 'Winter' from his masque King Arthur. However, the highlight was a baroque theatre in Sweden (?) where the camera showed you the ship-like rigging which made rocks come up through the stage, together with wooden waves to accompany a ship. Terrific stuff, and all the haunting music done by a man who was dead (in 1695) at the age of 36. Do go to see it soon.