Awesomeness At The British Museum

A couple of weeks ago I took myself up to the British Museum in London to see the Pompeii and Herculaneum Exhibition. I've been to Pompeii three times, Herculaneum once, the museum in Naples where the exhibits were from, and even watched the Curator discuss the objects and exhibition at a cultural cinema showing - but I'm fascinated with the place so had to go the actual exhibition as well.

The exhibition was finishing at the end of September so I needed to get my ticket fast. Nobody else was that fussed about going with me but, to be truthful, I often find that other people ruin experiences for me even if they are interested in the subject. Friends often make the experience of course, but man can some of them take the edge off!

The whole thing was great of course. It's hard for me not to get excited about things that are 2000 years old whether I've seen them before or not; but I hadn't at all anticipated how freaking awesome all the other things in the British Museum would be. The place was incredible - jam packed with historical wonders that would take you months or years to explore fully. And it doesn't cost a penny to get in.

I peered into glass cases stuffed full of such incredible sights that I was giddy with awe - a word bandied around to describe such banalities as a sandwich, but awesome was in fact the literal description of the things I saw there. I'm sure my eyes were big and round with amazement. It was incredible.

Look at all the wonders in here!

Wandering from room to room, I saw the Rosetta Stone, Egyptian hieroglyphs and embalmed Mummies in ornate sarcophagi, Aztec stone carvings, rusty Viking shields and helmets, marble Roman statues and busts, the Sutton Hoo Anglo-Saxon burial hoard, delicate ancient manuscripts, beautiful pieces of jewellery that were once symbols of great status - and at one point I peered into an innocuous half-hidden display at a tiny statue of two people getting it on and read that it was eleven thousand years old - it was just in a corner!

It was all really impressive even though we're used to seeing ancient architecture here in the UK. The Tower of London is 1000 years old and you can wander all over it for £25 (click the link to read about my visit). We have castles and Roman ruins and all sorts in Britain and even Brighton has a Neolithic mounds dating from 3500BC that you just walk past without realising they're there because they just look like tufts of grass. I love history and old things so I was in my element in the British Museum. And these were just images of the small number of things I managed to see in the short time I was there.

 I can't WAIT to go back again!

Waiting For Henry

I had a fabulous day of culture on Friday; although it meant going to London it was well worth it. Firstly I met Star Trek Girl and we went to see the Henry VIII 'Man & Monarch' exhibition at the British Library - I love history and my speciality is the monarchy; in particular the Tudors, so I had been looking forward to this since I heard about it.

In one room were these paintings, books, tapestries and effects that I had seen time and time again in books but had never seen in real life. One huge tapestry was so magnificent it was hard to imagine how anyone could physically create such a beautiful item. There were so many original sources there - paintings and drawings that were nearly 500 years old; that had survived wars, plague, fire and flood. To read the last letters of men pleading for their lives in The Tower, or to see the writing desk of a man who has been dead for half a millennia and who changed the course of British history for love, is really something.

The exhibition is narrated by David Starkey, who is like a God to me - on this subject he is the most knowledgeable man on the planet, and if I could have anyone else's job then it'd be his! The exhibition really was something special and I highly recommend it if you can get to see it; it was only £9 and well worth it. There's loads of Henry events around at the moment as it's 500 years since the accession; I want to see the 'Dressed to Kill' at The Tower of London next - can you imagine; a history lover who has never been to the tower?!

After we left Henry we headed for the Theatre Royal Haymarket to see Waiting For Godot; although we were up in the gallery and the sound didn't carry too well, I really enjoyed it. Patrick Stewart, Ian McKellan and Simon Callow are all brilliant actors and it was a compete privilege to see them at work - I had absolutely no idea what was going on, but I liked it anyway!

The Path Not Often Travelled

Setting off - Brighton is cold with a whitish grey sky. The taxi driver is quiet and I am glad. It is the perfect day for travelling.

Coffee and papers - obligatory for a journey, I complete my first crossword in ages. Sudoku is next whilst the bare skeletons of barren trees rush by and all that can be seen is an embankment occasionally strewn with rubbish and an illegible meaningless graffiti tag. Tunnels make my ears tickle as Fleetwood Mac go their own way.

The man opposite me turns down the offer of the sports page as he read it earlier, and now his head is nodding. The man opposite on the left is reading a book - he is using his fingers to follow his place. I know he's doing this as I can see him reflected in the partition door behind whilst Johnny Cash sings Rose of my Heart.

Approaching London; a huge ugly tower block reaches into the white sky, dotted like acne with satellite dishes. I can see the Gherkin like a giant torpedo on the horizon and I know I'm almost halfway. A yellow balloon is tied to some railings and is struggling to free itself from the grey, metal, depressive carbuncle it's attached to.

We cross the river - cranes are juxtaposed with St. Paul's. in the hazy distance London Bridge isn't falling down but the citizens of the capital walk by expressionless like a T.S Elliot poem. A couple of 40-something media-types get on; he's on his phone, she's wearing bad shoes and speaking fast. Her conversation is boring and she chews gum whilst she talks at him. He looks disinterested - I turn up my MP3 player so Jimi Hendrix can shout her down.

The stations are whizzing past; London is behind us and green starts to reappear. There's a man on his mobile in a field by a river. His 2 Doberman dogs are sniffing this way and that - the man is somewhere else and doesn't look at them or us.

The sky turns blue; newly ploughed fields are lit by the sun and we thunder by churches and farms only a stones throw away - we are loud and unwanted as we blast through their once idyllic setting. The media couple get off and Vivaldi escorts me to Bedfordshire where my father will be waiting to meet me in the place that I come to visit but no longer want to live - The place I used to call home.