Cambridge 2010: Three Months On The Trot

I went to the British Museum today. They had a lot of cool stuff there from all different cultures but I feel a little bad because to get it all in one day, I had to sort of just keep walking and glancing at things instead of actually reading everything. They had this exhibit in the main room of all the pills an average person takes in their lifetime. They had two people, both a male and a female, and their life stories...along with what happened and why they had to take what. The pills were sown into filament and it looked really cool. Looking at that exhibit made me think about how much we go through in our life and how our bodies have to take us through it all. Interesting indeed.

I went to this one area with all sorts of cool things from different places like Greece, Rome, and Egypt. I found some little terracotta figurines of zebras, from the Boeotian city of Tanagra, so I knew I had to take a picture for mom. She loves all sorts of exotic animals like that. To be honest, she just loves all animals...except skunks. My dear little Alf was a curious little Scottish Terrier puppy and thought he could play with a skunk. Oh that night. By the way, tomato juice does not work. We used some sort of combination of Dawn dishwashing liquid, hydrogen peroxide, and I cannot remember what else. It took washing him down a few times, but he was eventually clean...and his brindle was showing through.



I did not forget about dad, of course. I found a little baboon for him. I never knew why, but dad likes all monkey-type animals (orangutans, monkeys, gorillas, etc). This little glazed stone baboon, fashioned after the Egyptian god Thoth, is from Naucratis in Egypt.



Then I found something that I did not realize until looking for pictures for the blog just now...a terracotta vase with a person playing the lyre! The mindset when I took this picture was more for a creative shot than the subject itself. Under the vase is two pictures of what I thought was a "viola da braccio" (thank you music history), but is actually a medieval citole. The first picture is of the whole instrument. The second picture is to show you the detail on the side of it. Very intricate!



The British History Museum also had an extensive collection of clocks and watches. For example, they had this really cool clock that was set in a ship.



Another cool clock was the rolling ball clock. As you will see in the video below, the ball zigzags back and forth across the horizontal plane until it reaches the end. At the end, it hits a metal piece that shifts the angle of the plane; thus making the ball roll back. Over the period of a year, the ball is said to roll over 2500 miles! Here is the video for you to see yourself...



After the British Museum, I stopped into a little cafe and had my FIRST Cadbury's hot chocolate. I decided to get a brie, chicken, and tomato panini as well. I know the two does not sound all that great ordered together, but that does not mean I put them together. Haha!

I came back to the hotel and worked on some homework before getting ready for "Les Miserables." London truly is a great city. There just SO much to do here! The weather has been very nice to me. It rained for a couple of hours on the first day, but it has only been 5 minute "mist" drizzles for the other days.

"Les Miserables" was amazing. I watched the anniversary video in my high school chorus class about 4-5 years ago (have I really been out of high school for THAT long?!), but it was nothing...NOTHING like being there in person. They had me totally intrigued. I also feel like I understood more to it seeing it in person. After the play, I went around to Cinnabon and had a "chocobon" RIGHT OUT OF THE OVEN! Oh my goodness, I cannot even begin to describe how yummy that was. Upon reading this paragraph, I am sure that my best friend is now contemplating on going to get her a Cinnabon. Haha!

I left and came back to the hotel for bed. It was late when the play let out anyway. I ended staying up for a little while finishing up the paper I had to do over Shakespeare's "Twelfth Night", then it was time for bed. Oh glorious sleep!




Cheerio poppets!