Museums

Looking out the window this morning, it didn't seem like a particularly good day for catching a boat down the Thames to Greenwich, so with a bit of itinerary readjustment, I set myself up to go and see some of London's museums. Shortly after deciding to do this I unceremoniously smashed my small toe into one of Les' industrial strength metal cases which wasn't too fun. After a lovely chat on the phone with Stephanie and Bennett, and a cracking organic breakfast courtesy of Les, I set off in the rain for the British Museum. This museum is excellent. It's got old relics from various civilizations, though I don't recall seeing anything Australian there - a couple of boomerangs might have been nice. It also passed what I consider to be a very important test for a museum and that is that the museum itself is actually old. The building itself is very old and beautifully laid out. There weren't too many kids there, despite it being school holidays and a Sunday, presumably because the other museums are of more appeal to the young ones.
I quite liked the South American section with all the various sun gods on the like. I've always quite liked the old South American stylings, though I'm not altogether why. Sure, I love Mexican food, but there's something a little more to it too. Maybe it was from watching Cities Of Gold as a youngster. That really was a great cartoon - fun and educational. The sections on Asia were really good too because there were a lot of Buddha rupas. Most of the ones I took where in portrait mode, rather than landscape, so I won't show any of those ones here because I've not worked out how to rotate images on this computer. So here's Amitabha Buddha (or Amida Buddha in Japanese) who is the Buddha Of Infinite Wisdom and Light according to the Mahayana Buddhist school. Rupas of Amitabha are usually discernable from his chubby cheeks. Walking around the rest of the museum, I had a great appreciation for how old and important the relics were but it was a little bit of an overdose. However, having seen the Buddhist artwork I can now appreciate how people with specific interests must really enjoy the detail and depth of works available at quality museums like the British Museum.

On the way to Holborn station I picked up a cheap lunch at Sainsbury's consisting of a sausage roll and a litre of chocolate milk and trained my way down to South Kensington.
Unlike in Donovan's song, South Kensington was far from sunny today, but I did take Donovan's advice from the song Museum and check out the Natural History Museum. It's a beautiful building, both inside and out and it's got a lot of interesting things on display including this rather large dinosaur skeleton. If there was a downside to it, perhaps it was that I had a feeling I'd seen a lot of similar displays before at different museums and centres in Australia. A lot of the displays were about ecology and the environment so whilst they were really interesting and educational, there was nothing specifically unique about them.

I then set off for the Science Museum and managed to take the longest way possible but eventually got in and as you can see from this picture, also managed to get myself on CCTV (closed-circuit television). CCTV is rather ubiquitous here in London and whilst I quite like the security it affords (or more importantly, a deterrent for idiots who might want to whack you), I can see how people are justified in thinking it's a violation of liberties and an increasing movement towards a police state. Once inside, an Indian feller asked me to take a photo of him so once I'd done that he was happy to return the favour. The Science Museum has a very strange layout and the first parts I saw left me decidedly unimpressed and sometimes going around in circles or walking up stairs that didn't actually go anywhere. However as I came across some of the dodgier and less kid-friendly retro sections I was much happier... such as these polyhedra! There was a lot of interesting stuff including retro computers, space related paraphernalia such as spacesuits, spacefood etc. as well as a whole lot of really detailed displays with gemstones, and the evolution of Earth and its lifeforms. Not all of it was entirely serious, such as this car stuck to the roof, which I hope Bennett will find to be thoroughly hilarious. That sort of stuff appeals to his sense of humour - he finds it amusing to read books upside down and make up silly stories... I wonder what he would make of that car!
There were also displays of aircraft ranging from Wright Brothers style efforts to fighter planes, spitfires and helicopters. They were pretty cool, though my toe was giving me a bit of grief by this time and I wanted a sit. Despite the confusing layout of the Science Museum, I finally found my way through to levels 4 and 5 which were nearly completely devoid of children because they were full of fuddy duddy things. Perhaps my favourite thing of all at the Science Museum was the History of Medicine section which on one level had a whole lot of old-fashioned hospital equipment and on the other floor a series of brilliantly constructed medical scenes, ranging from apothecaries to operating tables, to medieval men trying to surgically remove flint from the brain of one of their colleagues. Some of it was really dark, both in terms of subject matter and lighting but I found it fascinating, which was good because by that stage anything less would have had me heading for the door, or at least a seat. Basically, that was three quality museums and neither cost a penny to get into.

I left the Science Museum after that and via the wonders of the Tube got myself from South Kensington back to Brixton where I've had dinner, put a load of clothes in the washing machine and tied up a few loose ends like charging phones, batteries, the iPod shuffle, paying Les for the new Carter DVD, picking up my ticket for the Brixton show... and of course, updating this blog. The weather looks like being a bit better tomorrow so I should end up in Greenwich after all, even though the markets won't be on. I don't see that being a bit drama though since I didn't even buy anything at Camden Market... where would I put it?!