Unexplorable

After our first visit to the British Museum, we realised we'd need to shuffle our schedule and make another trip there.  We planned to arrive bright and early so we could power through Greece & Rome, Assyria and Mesopotamia, and see a little more of the Age of Enlightenment room.  We did a tour there with a friendly old lady who told stories of King Henry III's collection of objects and antiquities which were donated to the museum by his son (who replaced his library of curiosities with a new kitchen).  We also had a feel and play with a few objects, including a calcite makeup pot from 3000BC in Egypt.  The even friendlier, even older volunteer who was showing them to us explained that it would have been part of a travelling set of makeup pots.

"For a very long journey," she insisted.  "The longest journey.  They wouldn't dare go to the afterlife without some makeup to doll up for the gods."

Nicholas exploring objects from the Parthenon 

Making friends with 'unnamed Homeric figures'

Looking at all the representation of gods and monsters, particularly in the Greek and Assyrian art, made me feel really connected to these ancient civilisations.  It was like I was part of this long line of artists trying to depict and understand monsters, and the role of animals and people together. 

That night we went to Forbidden Planet, a huge comic book and popular culture shop, before heading to a vegan cafe in Covent Garden.  We chatted for a really long time with Lena and Oliver, who are a really, really sweet couple.

The following day we had intended to go back to the British  Museum, but we didn't actually make it.  While we were demolishing raw vegan cheesecakes the night before, Oliver stressed the amazing-ness of the Hunterian Museum.  They house most of John Hunter's surgical specimens there, including many a foetus, a giant skeleton and heaps of other 'anomalies' including a two-headed sheep and conjoined baby skull.  Oliver insisted we would only spend an hour there.  We spent three.

We had a few precious hours in London left and I was desperate to visit a little shop I had seen online called Hoxton Street Monster Supplies (why I wanted to go there should go without saying).  It was perfect.  Upon entry, you could hear the purrs and mews of an invisible cat and see collections of curious-looking wares.  They were almost all food products, with the actual ingredients listed underneath.  Many contained stories by professional or amateur horror writers, and all proceeds from the shop went to an afterschool creative writing program for local kids and teenagers.   It was pretty awesome.

Nicholas had been expressing a pretty solid desire to go to a rave shop called Cyberdog (???) which was near Camden markets.  Everything was lit up under blacklight and glowed and they had the craziest clothes, but we couldn't take pictures.  Nicholas bought some socks and a t-shirt.  He wanted a lot of other (very impractical) clothing items because - and I quote - "They remind me of the future."

We said an extremely hurried goodbye to Lena, who performed some songs and a monologue for us that she had been preparing for her audition, and went to get the overnight bus to Edinburgh...