Don't get me wrong, I have had a wonderful trip to London, but I am really not a city mouse.
I have done little formal exercise this week but I can't begin to calculate how far I walked in the last two days. All I know is my legs are really aching now.
Early start on Thursday - I think we were both pretty giddy to have a couple of days off work and to be going somewhere and as such we were both awake WELL before our 6am alarm. We were parked up and waiting for the Natural History Museum to open at 9.50am - gave me time to marvel at what a truly beautiful building it is. Once we got in we headed straight up to the mineral display. It was truly amazing to have the entire, vast room to ourselves when we could hear the mayhem in the main gallery.
Julian, engrossed.
After that we needed some food so we headed to Kensington High Street and found the coolest hippy veggie shop in the entire universe. I can't believe I got so giddy about a food/cheese/'stuff' shop but it really was ace. http://wholefoodsmarket.com/stores/kensington/
Then we headed off to see Mark and Meg in Tonbridge. We've met Mark before, but never Meg. They are lovely people and have the most chilled out dog I have ever met. He's called Sumo and he's fab. Mark's the guy who rode the John O'Groats to Lands End ride last year with his sister Laura and friend Jay. Jay and Becky joined us that evening and we had a real laugh. Considering we had met only two of the people for about an hour they made us feel so comfortable and welcome.
Mark took us into the basement and showed us his porn. Yes, I know that sounds sordid. It wasn't traditional porn though, it was bike porn. I am not sure J appreciated or understood much of it, but I had to wipe a little bit of drool from the side of my mouth more than once. It's not that he has FLASH bikes, just a fantastic variety and a very clever storage system. Yes, I AM that sad!!
Mark left very early the next morning to go to the Royal Marsden Hospital to receive treatment for his angiosarcoma and then on to the school he teaches PE at. He is a perfect example of someone pissed on by cancer and just getting on with it. People like him and Julian - and every other individual who has had to deal with this bastard disease - just show why the human body is so amazing.
We had breakfast with Meg then she went off to work and we headed to London Docklands to dump the car, check into our proper bargain hotel (a £300 room (which I think is disgusting!!) for a far more palatable £74). I have never stayed in such a posh hotel - valet parking for our shabby blue Japanese car (there was an abundance of shiny black Bentleys, BMWs and BIG Audis), the most lovely concierge and a room with a bathroom larger and lovelier than the one at home. As tempting as it was to run a bath immediately, we headed to the nearby DLR station and headed into London for day two.
J was very amused to have walked me along New Bond Street (I think) to point out the very flash jewellery shops and I was more interested in the bikes chained to the lamp posts. I think he was also pretty relieved to know his wife has such cheap and simple tastes. :-)
And next, the most highly anticipated of all the museums - the Royal Institution.
http://www.rigb.org/contentControl?action=displayContent&id=1871
I cannot describe how emotional I felt to be able to go in there and see all the apparatus used by Faraday and other ground breaking scientists.
I was also quite emotional watching J leaping around to this song:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m8dtquYDXEU and matching the elements on the Periodic Table. It was an entirely different emotion, however. ;-)
You had to identify the 10 elements discovered at the RI as they were mentioned in the song.
And then, to top it all, we got to go into the Faraday Theatre. I was in complete geek heaven.
Julian in a very familiar looking auditorium
We then headed off to the Forbidden Planet for a bit more geekiness and then back to the hotel for that long anticipated bath. Oh. My. God. I will NEVER ever take having a bath for granted again.
Food at Jamie's Italian - it was nice, but there was a lot of sage involved - and then back to the room for another bath and a shower. No, not really, but we WERE tempted. :-)
This morning we headed back to Kensington for a shopping spree at the hippy shop, then a wet and mentally exhausting drive back up the M1.
I am going for a bike ride tomorrow, whatever the weather - my bike is totally shite, but my god I have missed it.
But the best bit? We managed to guilt the plumbers into coming on Monday this week instead of next week. Assuming they turn up. Bastards.
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