Tuesday Trip
Right, Tuesday. BIL and I decided to take in a couple of London museums, as we do occasionally. Having looked at the weather forecast for the day (warm, main warm even. I don't do 'main warm' very well) I looked out a cotton/linen blouse, a cotton skirt and stocked up with 500ml bottles of water. Yes, Dear Reader, I know places in London sell them, but the word there is 'sell'. I already have several plastic water bottles (which I bought during exceedingly thirsty times last year.) So I filled two sturdier ones from our tap and took them with me. Ok, they made my bag a tad heavy, but they'd only lighten.
I'd bought the train tickets online. Two singles. One from Fratton to Clapham Junction and one CLJ to Fratton - £13 apiece. I bought them separately. The website then gives you a code which you enter into one of the ticket machines at the station. You could print this out, or download it to your phone - if you have a suitable one. I don't. I wrote the codes carefully onto a small piece of paper and double checked them (see weight considerations, who wants a sheet of A4 for a couple of numbers anyhow?)
Knowing how slowly I walk I set off for the station in plenty of time (allowing the best part of an hour. H generally covers the distance in less than 15 min. 10 if he's running late.) Arrived, entered the codes, got the return ticket. Machine didn't recognise the code for the 'up' ticket. Too late to go home and check on this computer. Thinks: can I access my email account from a computer at the station?
Chap at Passenger Assistance: 'Which provider is your account with?'
Dur? I know our son arranges such things. So I phoned him. Yay mobile phones! Explained problem in terms I understood and that he (technomancer that he is) also understood.
'I'll phone you back.'
'Fine. The train leaves in fifteen minutes and I have to catch that one.' (So much for cheap tickets)
As 'twas he got into my email account, read the email, phoned me back with the correct code (I'd been reading what actually was a T as a 7.) I got the ticket and had time to get a cup of coffee before the train arrived. Many thanks to the Technomancer! Oh, and the Passenger Assistance guy.
Arrived Clapham Junction, met BiL, got next train to Shoreditch (?) then waited for a bus - supposedly every 10 min, but there was evidently traffic. Thinks, when isn't there traffic, it's London!
We arrived at the V&A Museum of Childhood in Bethnal Green, which was loud with excited Infant School children, in pretty desperate need of a coffee. Particularly BiL who, feeling several glints short of a full twinkle Monday afternoon had had a double esspresso, and still been awake at 3.45am Tuesday morning!
We looked around the general exhibits. They've a pretty good collection, going back a couple of hundred years at least. We saw toys our grandparents might have played with, toys our parents played with (and subsequently passed on to us), toys we'd played with (which BiL found somewhat disturbing, but he's only in his early 50s and has still to come to terms with his 'past' being 'museum worthy'!) We even found things S and D had played with (remember the Brio railway and Sylvainian Families?) We didn't find anything dedicated to video games, x-boxes et al, but we didn't 'do' the upper gallery. Heat rises.
The reason for our visit was to a) check out the rest of the museum, which we'd not done when we'd visited last year to see the Oliver Postgate exhibition. It was just too hot. Note: should you wish to visit for yourself, Dear Reader, the Museum of Childhood gets very warm/hot very easily. Why they don't insulate the roof and open windows all round . . .
and b) to see Place (Village), an installation by Rachel Whiteread an arrangement of of dolls' houses.
This we thought interesting (for a given value of 'interesting') but were very glad we'd not been charged to view it!
Then it was definitely lunchtime (2pm!) So we availed ourselves of the salads etc in the cafe, which were pretty good too.
To the bus stop and, two buses later (or was it a bus and a train?) to Hoxton, where we saw the sign saying Geffrye Museum, but didn't notice the arrows <<, both times. We thus went >>, the long way round. The Geffrye Museum has very nice gardens, which show occasionally through pretty iron, but definitely locked, gates in their high brick wall. Eventually we found the front and went and sat a while in the garden. Blow the fact that it was now 3:30pm and the museum closes at 5pm.
The Geffrye Museum of the Home (and Garden) inhabits a set of very pretty 18th Century ex-Almshouses, which are arranged in a C shape around a central lawned area with mature plane trees. The front garden was cooler than the street outside, shaded and very pleasant. Then we went in. I'd come all the way from Portsmouth to see this, after all.
The Museum houses a series of Period rooms, from around 1630-1998. These were interesting (see link), but we got as far as 1790 and decided a cup of tea/coffee was more important. You have to get your priorities right. I had a pot of tea (2 1/2 cups), BiL had a single esspresso (I reminded him about 3:45am). We forwent the cakes, which looked pretty good.
Then back to 1790, and so on to the loft apartment, 1998. Apparently they had a 'Teenage Bedroom' exhibit too, but that was downstairs and I still remember what S and D's teenage bedrooms looked like!
There was also a collection of pictures of gardens of ordinary houses from mid -1800s to today. They were good too. They were in a climate controlled part of the museum. We didn't notice the difference that much when we went in, but boy did we notice it coming back out! So we went and sat in the front garden again until the man came round ringing a bell, then locking the gates.
We took the more direct route back to Hoxton Station, where we caught a train to Clapham High St. This being BiL's old stomping ground he found a pleasant little branch of Strada, where we had salads and I had a coffee (train at 7:52pm). Then quickly (hah!) to the bus stop and a slightly nervous ride (somewhat added to by the fact that it was a 'Boris Bus' where the engine cut out every time it stopped) to Clapham Junction station across the Common, which was alive with people jogging, people cycling, people doing all sorts of organised physical jerks and even people just out enjoying the warm evening.
Fortunately we got to the station, even onto the correct platform, with time to spare.
And that was our day/afternoon-early evening in London. Fortunately, for us, the day was somewhat overcast and there was a pleasantly cooling breeze. I'm not sure I'll be venturing Londonwards until autumn. Not unless it's to a museum or gallery which doesn't reflect the outside temperatures anyhow! There is the Wildlife Photographer of the Year at the Natural History Museum, which is big and solid enough not to get too hot, which we'd like to see. BiL says when they have something special on at the actual V&A, which is just across the road, (not a retrospective of Pink Floyd) he'll let me know.
Right, it's shaping up to be main warm, if not warmer, today. I'm off to raid the market before all the vegetables get too limp.
Y'all have a good day now!
I'd bought the train tickets online. Two singles. One from Fratton to Clapham Junction and one CLJ to Fratton - £13 apiece. I bought them separately. The website then gives you a code which you enter into one of the ticket machines at the station. You could print this out, or download it to your phone - if you have a suitable one. I don't. I wrote the codes carefully onto a small piece of paper and double checked them (see weight considerations, who wants a sheet of A4 for a couple of numbers anyhow?)
Knowing how slowly I walk I set off for the station in plenty of time (allowing the best part of an hour. H generally covers the distance in less than 15 min. 10 if he's running late.) Arrived, entered the codes, got the return ticket. Machine didn't recognise the code for the 'up' ticket. Too late to go home and check on this computer. Thinks: can I access my email account from a computer at the station?
Chap at Passenger Assistance: 'Which provider is your account with?'
Dur? I know our son arranges such things. So I phoned him. Yay mobile phones! Explained problem in terms I understood and that he (technomancer that he is) also understood.
'I'll phone you back.'
'Fine. The train leaves in fifteen minutes and I have to catch that one.' (So much for cheap tickets)
As 'twas he got into my email account, read the email, phoned me back with the correct code (I'd been reading what actually was a T as a 7.) I got the ticket and had time to get a cup of coffee before the train arrived. Many thanks to the Technomancer! Oh, and the Passenger Assistance guy.
Arrived Clapham Junction, met BiL, got next train to Shoreditch (?) then waited for a bus - supposedly every 10 min, but there was evidently traffic. Thinks, when isn't there traffic, it's London!
We arrived at the V&A Museum of Childhood in Bethnal Green, which was loud with excited Infant School children, in pretty desperate need of a coffee. Particularly BiL who, feeling several glints short of a full twinkle Monday afternoon had had a double esspresso, and still been awake at 3.45am Tuesday morning!
We looked around the general exhibits. They've a pretty good collection, going back a couple of hundred years at least. We saw toys our grandparents might have played with, toys our parents played with (and subsequently passed on to us), toys we'd played with (which BiL found somewhat disturbing, but he's only in his early 50s and has still to come to terms with his 'past' being 'museum worthy'!) We even found things S and D had played with (remember the Brio railway and Sylvainian Families?) We didn't find anything dedicated to video games, x-boxes et al, but we didn't 'do' the upper gallery. Heat rises.
The reason for our visit was to a) check out the rest of the museum, which we'd not done when we'd visited last year to see the Oliver Postgate exhibition. It was just too hot. Note: should you wish to visit for yourself, Dear Reader, the Museum of Childhood gets very warm/hot very easily. Why they don't insulate the roof and open windows all round . . .
and b) to see Place (Village), an installation by Rachel Whiteread an arrangement of of dolls' houses.
This we thought interesting (for a given value of 'interesting') but were very glad we'd not been charged to view it!
Then it was definitely lunchtime (2pm!) So we availed ourselves of the salads etc in the cafe, which were pretty good too.
To the bus stop and, two buses later (or was it a bus and a train?) to Hoxton, where we saw the sign saying Geffrye Museum, but didn't notice the arrows <<, both times. We thus went >>, the long way round. The Geffrye Museum has very nice gardens, which show occasionally through pretty iron, but definitely locked, gates in their high brick wall. Eventually we found the front and went and sat a while in the garden. Blow the fact that it was now 3:30pm and the museum closes at 5pm.
The Geffrye Museum of the Home (and Garden) inhabits a set of very pretty 18th Century ex-Almshouses, which are arranged in a C shape around a central lawned area with mature plane trees. The front garden was cooler than the street outside, shaded and very pleasant. Then we went in. I'd come all the way from Portsmouth to see this, after all.
The Museum houses a series of Period rooms, from around 1630-1998. These were interesting (see link), but we got as far as 1790 and decided a cup of tea/coffee was more important. You have to get your priorities right. I had a pot of tea (2 1/2 cups), BiL had a single esspresso (I reminded him about 3:45am). We forwent the cakes, which looked pretty good.
Then back to 1790, and so on to the loft apartment, 1998. Apparently they had a 'Teenage Bedroom' exhibit too, but that was downstairs and I still remember what S and D's teenage bedrooms looked like!
There was also a collection of pictures of gardens of ordinary houses from mid -1800s to today. They were good too. They were in a climate controlled part of the museum. We didn't notice the difference that much when we went in, but boy did we notice it coming back out! So we went and sat in the front garden again until the man came round ringing a bell, then locking the gates.
We took the more direct route back to Hoxton Station, where we caught a train to Clapham High St. This being BiL's old stomping ground he found a pleasant little branch of Strada, where we had salads and I had a coffee (train at 7:52pm). Then quickly (hah!) to the bus stop and a slightly nervous ride (somewhat added to by the fact that it was a 'Boris Bus' where the engine cut out every time it stopped) to Clapham Junction station across the Common, which was alive with people jogging, people cycling, people doing all sorts of organised physical jerks and even people just out enjoying the warm evening.
Fortunately we got to the station, even onto the correct platform, with time to spare.
And that was our day/afternoon-early evening in London. Fortunately, for us, the day was somewhat overcast and there was a pleasantly cooling breeze. I'm not sure I'll be venturing Londonwards until autumn. Not unless it's to a museum or gallery which doesn't reflect the outside temperatures anyhow! There is the Wildlife Photographer of the Year at the Natural History Museum, which is big and solid enough not to get too hot, which we'd like to see. BiL says when they have something special on at the actual V&A, which is just across the road, (not a retrospective of Pink Floyd) he'll let me know.
Right, it's shaping up to be main warm, if not warmer, today. I'm off to raid the market before all the vegetables get too limp.
Y'all have a good day now!