To answer several emails, day one was departure day and I wasn’t actually here. The first day here was day two even though it wasn’t a full day. Day eight will be boring too as it will involve waking up and going to the airport. It just made the trip seem longer 🙂
Now back to the events so far. Woke up, got out of bed, dragged a comb across my hair… Oh wait, that was the Beatles A Day In The Life. Never mind.
Left, ate at the cafe across from Gloucester Road tube because it was convenient, and hopped on the tube to Waterloo (cue Abba) and changed for the Bakerloo to get to the Imperial War Museum. The purpose was to visit the special Ian Fleming exhibit. Mr Fleming is the author who created James Bond if you didn’t know. It was quite fascinating. Karen also wanted to visit the Holocaust exhibit which I had previously done with Jan. I cannot begin to tell you how disturbing those images (film, photos, first-hand stories) were the first time. The second time they are no less disturbing. We left emotionally drained and then went off to the newly relocated Photographer’s Gallery. I would love to tell you how brilliant the new exhibit space was, and I will. Lovely compared the old cramped one. Sadly, the images on display were just bad. Nothing of interest. Some really bizarre transsexual twins who posed to the detriment of the audience. No idea what the photographer was trying to say except “this will warp your brain” — many people left after seeing the second (nude) one. The first one was ugly but not repulsive. The nude one wasn’t repulsive but very, very odd.
We walked down Great Marlborough Street for no particular reason other than it was there. I am still trying to find a UK sized chequebook cover here. Since so few people here write cheques, they’re relatively uncommon and the few shops that stocked them were out due to Christmas sales. The bank had none and isn’t getting them anymore. It’s really bugging me. Any leads from my readers on one would be brilliant. Leather, plastic, anything. Not having one is a pain. For my US readers, UK checks are longer and less tall, and they tear on the left side.
We tried the Natural History Museum, but it was crowded beyond belief and the queue to get into the dinosaur exhibit was thousands of people long. The ice rink was open, so we watched a bit, popped back to the hotel. Karen had tea and I had Advil. I called the office and woke everyone up.
At 430 we left for Rules (yay) and then to a play. Rules was very good, but it wasn’t excellent as it usually is. The food wasn’t flawless though the service was better than usual. The dessert was wonderful — Golden Treacle Pudding. We took our damn sweet time and then went to pick up our tickets to 39 Steps — which was moved from 1930 to 2000. Yeah, the Hitchcock movie rendered as a play. A comedy to be exact. It was funny but not great. Just an evening’s diversion and quite short. Took the tube back and here I am.
I will report on tomorrow but not sure when. I am not sure if I will have update time beyond that. The rest may have to wait until I return. Lucky you. We’re off to see a concert at the O2 tomorrow evening and won’t be back until 2am approximately and then we’re up at 730 to eat and go to Heathrow.
I do hope this day-by-summary interests you all.