Just what is the deal with Barbican?
After my simulated post-apocalyptic trip to Barbican the other night, I decided to venture back there on Friday because the
Museum of London was there and I wanted to see the remnants of the Roman Wall that was built around the city (that were also at this site).
The guidebooks were right about saying this is the most inaccessable museum in London, but having been in this part of town earlier in the week I was prepared for the convoluted walk up three flights of stairs to a flyover of a deserted road that then took you past a walkway and into a side entrance that then led you to the museum. To be fair, they have thrown a lot of money at revamping the site, and the new entrance opens on Tuesday. But all that new entrance will do is cut out the last side entrance. But anyway, inside there was fascinating stuff about the Roman settlements, and the periods since.
It is surprising how much history has been lost over the years. There are gaps of hundreds of years where very little evidence of life in the city exists. The museum ends at the Victorian era which was just as well as there is only so much one can take before getting information overload!
TV night
That night caught up with the aussies and watched Sex and the City and ate pizza. It was my first chance to catch up with Yvette. She had been touring Africa and Spain and the rest over the past few months. We agreed to go out one night as Yvette seemed to know the town well... She had also seen more celebrities than I (well actually she had only seen Sophie Dahl take money out of an ATM) and so I thought she could point out where I was going wrong. Maybe celebrities dont hang around those shops full of Turkish men at Haringey I don't know.
By the sea...
Saturday I decided to leave London and head for
Brighton. It was a real treat, although walking on pebble beaches is a lot harder than I thought. Good leg workout perhaps. Had fish and chips on the Brighton pier and dodged the seagulls before making my way back home on the Brighton Express to Victoria station. Nice clean airconditioned train with a buffet cart should you feel a little peckish... Mind you at a 50 minute train ride how peckish can you get?
Calendar Girls
Caught up with Skye Saturday night and we decided to go and see
Calendar Girls. Leaving the story out of it, it was the first film I saw where some of the little cultural references were known. Set in Yorkshire, it is a fictionalised account of a group of middle-aged women who take their clothes off for a calendar to raise money for Leukemia research. It was Skye's choice of film so it was a girly film but it was amusing and well-acted.
It was also my first foray into a Leicester Square cinema where I noticed a few things:
* The cinema was really nice and you have reserved seats
* There are really daggy ads to tell you to keep your hand on your valuables otherwise they might get knicked.
* The popcorn is served without coconut oil
* They give you drinks in a bucket
On that last point... Skye ordered a diet coke in a bucket and couldn't drink it all by the end of the film. As the credits started to roll she offered it to me but said, "It is hot and flat..."
To which I responded... "Well you are what you drink..."
After that we searched for a cafe and settled on belgian waffles at a nearby venue.
Be alert not alarmed...
With the amount of reality television on the box and number of CCTV cameras on the streets you could wonder if anything could happen in the Greater London area that wasn't caught on camera. But today a
mock terrorist attack was staged at Bank station in The City.
Midweek touristing
Comes to an end for now. I have taken a temp job that will keep me busy for the next couple of months. Will wait and see after that! The days are getting shorter now anyway. It is now basically dark by 8pm!
