Mike's musings

"Why's that man got a gun, Mummy?"

These are not words you want to hear on a tube in London. We were stopped, with the doors open, at a station, and Jo and Moo were facing the platform, while I was facing away. You know when the adrenalin suddenly kicks in, and you start thinking very, very quickly? One of those times. Moo, answered, rather calmly, "he's in a film, Jo," and only then saw my reaction. It was, of course, just a poster, and a significant relief...

We were in London because Jo wanted to go to see the dinosaurs at the Natural History Museum. Unluckily, Jo wasn't the only child to have this idea, and we weren't the only parents to agree to the plan. South Kensington tube station was closed due to over-crowding, so we got off at Gloucester Road tube, with hundreds of other people, from whence we walked to join the queues the stretched from the entrance, down the ramp, snaking round the grounds, and for about 100m on the pavement. It moved fairly quickly, and we decided not to join the queue that wound round the main hall towards the full dinosaur exhibit: another 150m or so, at a guess. Instead, we wandered round some of the other halls, saw some aquatic fossils, had some lunch (expensive, but good food), and then looked at the evolution exhibits. I gave Jo a quick lecture on evolution and how Charles Darwin (whose statue now sits on the stairs overlooking the main hall) is a hero. I'm not sure how much she understood about Australopithecus' relationship to modern humans, but she seemed interested and took some of it in.

Went home (via Gloucester Road again, as South Kensington tube was closed again), and Jo, who was on her knees with tiredness, fell asleep in the car. Back home for fish and chips with Miri (who was very pleased to see us!) and Mel. The girls fell asleep very, very quickly, and we've spent the rest of the evening to now wrapping presents, baking muffins, cakes and the rest and preparing for the party tomorrow. How can it be so much hard work?

A tiring day, but a good one.

Labels: Jo, London, science