Evening at the British Museum
One of the other benefits of being British Museum members is that four times a year they open the museum in the evenings just for their members. In addition to having free run of the galleries and exhibits with significantly fewer crowds than the usual day, they also run a pretty good range of talks.
We went to our first one on Monday and had a really lovely time. We started off with a nice, leisury dinner in the Court Restaurant. The menu was based on their "Kingdom of Ife" exhibit, and so featured a variety if African inspired dishes including a main of Springbok, which tasted a little like a cross between venison and pork. The best bit was the selection of ices for dessert (banana/coconut sorbet, guava granita, pinapple ice cream with a black currant coulis) and the wine list, which featured several really unique selections including an Indian Merlot/Shiraz blend (we didn't get to taste it as they had sold out) and an English sparkling. I'd had one from a different vineyard and both were surprisingly good - light in colour and body with very fine bubbles and pear and apple blossom flavours. It was a perfect match for the springbok which had a chili sauce.
After our lovely dinner, we did another object out of the History of the World radio series and then just wandered the galleries for a bit before dashing off for a talk about the recently opened North American gallery. It wasn't quite what I thought it would be (I had expected less of a general overview and more tied in with the Warriors exhibit), but it was sti really interesting, especially getting a chance to chat with the new curator (she's only been in the post 6 months!).
So all in all a really nice, laid back evening. I must say that it was nice to enjoy the museum in such a semi private way. Such things could spoil us rotten!