Welcome to Friday. Sleeping patterns seem to have normalized and last night was the first night at I slept a good portion of the night time instead of early evenings. The major task for today is to deal with the bed/mattress as it’s a bit too soft and unsupportive for someone with an old back 
Wednesday was planned as Museum day, but got off to a slow start with a leisurely bowl of cereal and the morning television (nothing worth blogging about) before heading out for bacon at (The Breakfast Club Cafe here in Spitalfields after which is was back on the tubes towards Holborn.
Heading out was relatively slow due to my major walk on Tuesday and the resulting blister on my right foot, but it was actually nice to be forced to slow down and not power walk everywhere. Arriving at the British Museum soon after midday, I spent the next several hours walking around the upper floors, concentrating mostly on the Roman, Greek and Egyptian rooms. It was walking through the Greek artifacts that I took particular interest in the marble statues, as I noticed that several looked like more recent people. It all started with this one who I thought looked like a portlier version of Prince William:
Then O’Brien from Downton Abbey:
Hamish in some sort of costume from Hamish and Andy:
There’s approximately another 12 photos I took of the various statues mainly due to the facial features and expressions that I imagined were a good likeness for the person/figure they were representing over a thousand years ago.
This picture reminded me of our Prime Minister. It must be the red hair!
I also saw some Australian paintings and Aboriginal artifacts, some amazing Japanese glazed pottery (the colours on some of the works, being hundreds or a thousand years old were amazing), amongst lots of other things.
The museum is so big that there’s a whole section/sections on the ground floor that I am yet to see, including The Elgin Marbles, so I’m going to have to go back again before the end of the trip to finish the rest of the museum.
Tiredness started to set in, so it was a stop for a coffee opposite our first client site, Great Ormond Street Hospital, before heading back to sleep. I fairly much passed out on the bed around 6pm, awaking up again around 9pm.
The interesting moment from Wednesday wasn’t actually the walking or the museum, but the slight flood of emotion that I experienced traveling down the escalators of the underground when I heard a busker playing some music. Now I realise that buskers play music in Melbourne, but this is London!
Thursday was mostly Geek day, as it was time to head off to the Doctor Who Experience at Kensington’s Olympia. I put my new special t-shirt on, which received a few comments and admiring glances throughout the show and headed out.
My arrival at the exhibition was a bit late because I mixed up my right from left and east from west and went the wrong direction on the tube, and on the wrong line too. Oops. A quick platform change and a line change later, I was walking up to the exhibition centre. Look, there’s a TARDIS (or The TARDIS) on the roof!
Without going into heaps of details, apart from the being lots of School kids, the exhibition was rather cool for a Doctor Who geek, although I was surprised that I’d been through the whole thing in just over an hour. The best bit was the interactive bit at the front, helping to fly the TARDIS, and the 3D bit in the Pandorica. Seeing some of the props and creatures was quite amazing too and I was surprised at the detail in some of them.
Most enjoyable: seeing the Daleks. They were all so short, not just the ones done to match Rose’s height. The old Cyberman helmets were great, as were the costumes of the Doctors and companions, but standing next to both Tennant’s and Davison’s consoles was pretty neat as well.
Once I made sure I’d taken photos of nearly everything, and decided there was nothing really worth buying in the shop, I headed back to West Kensington tube, and decided to stop off at Harrods on the way home. The next several hours were spent wandering around the shop, buying tea bags, red socks, cupcakes and having a late lunch of Spinach & Ricotta Ravolini with basil pesto, button mushrooms, green beans and potatoes served with a delightful Italian Chardonnay.
I must say that the Lola’s red velvet cupcakes don’t hold a candle to those back home, as they’re too sweet and less about the contrasting flavours.
I got back to the hotel around 5pm, and downloaded photos and had a quick nap on the bed before settling down for the first episode of Torchwood: Miracle Day with a large bowl of grapes and a very tall PIMMS and lemonade. Even on the smaller screen, it was very exciting to see the new episode again, and I found the writing so much more cohesive than the current series of Doctor Who. It was also great reading John Barrownman’s (and others’) tweets as the episode was actually on.
Funny moment from Thursday: a lovely sales assistant trying to sell me every iPad case in Harrods.
Now, it’s 10:30am on Friday, and I’m finishing off this blog post while watching some of the morning television. According to my holiday calendar, today is a visit to St Paul’s Cathedral, so I’ll head off down that way after I finish my toast and attempt to deal with this soft mattress.
