I've lost track of days a bit, especially as it is now 4.30 in the morning so it isn't really Tuesday or Wednesday in my books, just that in between time when everyone this side of the world should be asleep, and those of you on the other side working hard to make up for my abscence and the effect that has on GDP.
Anyway on that clever thought, I've now realised it was Monday here in England (another bank holiday, I wonder how that is effecting the English GDP- they have had 3 bank holidays since we've been here, and Good Friday just before we arrived!!! In fact I know how it has effected their GDP because on BBC 1 the other day they were lamenting that the extra holiday for "The Royal Wedding" was costing the economy 6 billion pounds!!! That's enough to fix Christchurch just about. Why didn't all those Brits just go to work and donate their pay and production to Chch I ask!!!? Anyway it was May Day on Monday, so they got another day off! It suited us because it meant the underground was cheaper as it was "off-peak" other than that, when you are permanently on holiday, one day just blends into another. So Monday, we got our cheap(er) metro tickets and headed into London town to the British Museum. I really do enjoy the public transport here, it has been really efficient each day, so easy to use, a bit pricey (7.30 pounds each day per adult off-peak- 10 pounds if you travel before 9.30am). That does give you unlimited use for the day though, on buses or the metro/trains within zones 1-4. Certainly well worth it if you are travelling around a bit, and as I said so easy to use and if you are well organised involves very little walking other than from one escalator to the other. Anyway I digress.
Monday we went to the British Museum, a very impressive place. Not just the exhibits, but also the building, huge, white, clean and airy inside, with excellent well laid out displays. We spent quite a few hours there, especially around the Greek area. I particularly enjoyed the sculptures (do you call them that?) the sphinxes, and people (both the ancient and the human torsos/forms)
Two of the sculptures.
... also the Pantheon/ Elgan? marbles.
Some of the Elagan/Pantheon Marbles
I was fascinated but a little disturbed by the mummies and dead people (leathery corpses preserved in hot sand) and piles of bones in wooden boxes and baskets showing the different results depending on burial method). Even I didn't take photos of those, though the mummy I did take a photograph of was less recognisable as a human.
Mummified cats and fish
Mummified human
Burial box
I'm a bit hazy now, but I think we had a coffee at McDonalds, yes we did, near Holborn tube station, I did some blogging, and then we caught the Picadilly Line to Hyde Park Corner because we had some more "free" activities planned thanks to our English Heritage passes, (which must have just about paid for themselves by now). So at Hyde Park Corner we first scaled the Wellington Arch, (inside there are stairs rather than clambering up the outside). Good views from the platform, though if they chopped down some of those huge bloody trees blocking the best bits of the view life would be easier!!!
The view towards Hyde Park from the arch
The arch from below. The viewing deck is under the horses,just above the ornate lip.
From Wellington Arch we crossed the roads of Hyde Park Corner to Apsley House, another English Heritage building which was partially donated by the Duke of Wellington to English Heritage. I say partially because his descendants (the current Duke of Wellington) retain and use a portion of the building. I didn't realise there were no photos, until after I had taken a few and then a very polite young man told me so. The reason is that there aren't the proper copyrights on the paintings (or some of them), so once I knew that (that it was only a copyright issue) I was more discreet!!!!
Apsley House from Wellington Arch
This is a silver table piece, again the photo is a poor representation of how it really looks (but it was clandestine). The scale isn't clear either but there are 10 chairs either side of the table so it is pretty massive (and beautifully polished).
Inside the house.
After Apsley House we caught the tube back to West Finchley and had dinner.
I haven't been keeping you up to date with the fox saga. Every night Yvonne and Hilary put his dinner out and every night I sit in wait with my camera. It's pretty dark out there at 9.15 p.m. give or take a few minutes (he is a pretty reliable time-keeper), he eats his dinner down out of sight, then makes a brief appearance from behind the toi toi, before leaping over the fence and running across the road, out the back of an empty house and back tothe golf-course where he plays tag with his wife who we think has kittens in the den. Then she makes an appearance, she is much smaller, quite thin (I presume from feeding a litter) and a little mangy around the tail. She comes closer to the house to get whatever delights Yvonne has put out, last night it was sausages and a hen's egg (whole) which she crunches up. Last night Yvonne put out some bread and honey after the boy had been, because she wants to dose the female with an antibiotic for her mange,and apparently that's what you do,get them used to bread and honey and then in a few days put in the mediaction, followed a week later by another dose. We'll see. Anyway, I've been out-foxed. I see the fox/foxes each night but as soon as I pick the camera up, (or if I have the camera ready they don't show) they disappear. They are very attuned to movement apparently, and obviously can spot that very well in the dark, I guess that'swhy they are still alive living amongst so many predators of the two and four leg variety. So that is why I don't have a photo of the foxes, and I suspect that will be why I never have a photo of a fox, but rest assured I am enjoying watching them and learning a bit more about them and why they are referred to as cunning or sly.
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