a rainy museum day

This morning we ate breakfast and lay around reading the newspaper (Russell went out and got a latte for him and a copy of the Guardian). Since we were going to museums there wasn't a need for an early start. We both wished we were able to sleep in. At 9:30 we headed off in the grey and misty morning to the Victoria & Albert Museum. My sister Martha had some questions about the Tristan Quilt and I asked the fellow at the desk if there was someone I could talk to regarding textiles. I got just the right person and got what information was available. And her email so Mot can talk to her directly. Martha does wonderful medieval recreations and is working on a period quilt. I also looked for pictures of a particular woodburned medieval chest for her but without success.

Russell and I went to some of the 20th century gallery as he wanted to see the exhibit on hearing aids. It was very strange. It wasn't so much about hearing or current hearing aids as designing hearing devices between 2007-2012. One I liked was called TableTalk that used ear buds and a band around a table (say in a noisy bar) to allow the people at the table to hear each other. The exhibit was very strangely constructed, a lot of the signage was at about knee level and not tilted so I had to sit on the floor to read about things over my head. What were they thinking?

About lunchtime we wandered down Brompton Road and ate at a pastry/restaurant. I had a lovely goat cheese with red pepper, tomato and arugula salad and Russell had croque monsieur. When we got out it had changed from misty rain to downpour and I grudgingly went next door and bought an umbrella. *sigh* I would have been soaked to the skin by the time we got back to the Science Museum without it, but still! Bah!

We tried unsuccessfully to find an exhibit on the materials science of agriculture and wandered through various galleries together. Then I watched WWII video whilst he went through the spitfire exhibit. And then the history of computing. They are building another difference engine, this one for an American museum (though they didn't say which one) I realized I was just bearly tracking and decided to head home to bed. Instead I am sitting here writing this. Now I am going to nap!

One must see a play in London

After a nap of about 1-1/2 hours, Russell came home with Indian take away. He had bought a bag of potatoes at the beginning of the week and and we're running out of time to eat them. So we had koorma over potato. Yum!

Russell had picked up tickets to "What the Butler Saw" at the Criterion as he passed through Leicester Square on his way to Neal's Yard for his massage. Off we went to Piccadilly Circus in the drizzle. The Criterion is underground, down lots of stairs. It is an attractive theatre but I could do without the stairs! The play was a farce and quite funny. The playbill says "A psychiatric clinic becomes a world of carnivalesque chaos when rampant libidos, mistaken identities, undressing and cross dressing add layer upon layer of mischievous confusion to Orton's farcical masterpiece." At the interval I wondered to Russell if we'd actually have a butler and he explained the phrase just means something scandalous. He said we saw a mechanical peep show of the same name in the York museum. I hadn't remembered or been familiar with the phrase. The play had no butler. *grin*

On the way home we stopped off at the Goat Tavern near our flat (the oldeset tavern in Kensington, there having been one by that name on the spot for 300 years) and I had my 1/2 pint of Strongbow. It was good but I found my stomach hurt afterward. I have convinced my subconscious that drinking is bad evidently. That should make continuing not to drink for the next couple of months easier. *laugh*