Heavenly Things

On Thursday I went to the British Museum to see a friend tell some more stories.  One of their major

exhibitions is called Treasures from Heaven and so she was telling stories of saints, pilgrims and miracles.  The room she had to use was awful - a through way with lots of noise but she still did a brilliant job.  The kids got to sit on a kind of 'magic carpet' at the front and it was wonderful to see their faces as she spun her tales of dragons, St. George, gold and other stories.  She will be there every Thursday during the summer holidays so if you have a young child that likes that sort of story it would be a great place to go.  There were other activities going on in the Great Court to do with the exhibition such as making pilgrim badges so it could be a good escape for a couple of hours and, of course, there are always the mummies.

I must admit the British Museum is probably my least favourite of the 'big' London museums - don't really know why.  I saw a brilliant Cartier exhibition there once and they do have some amazing things but it's just not somewhere I think 'Oh yes, I'd like to go there'.  But as T rightly pointed out to me, I had just done a course on the Greeks and Romans so I wandered through those galleries.  They were very busy with tourists (great for the museum) but I did see some things I thought might be interesting so I'll try and go back on a drab November morning when it should be a lot easier to look around.  I wanted to look in the Reading Room  but they have been using it for the Treasures of Heaven exhibition so I

just in fact climbed the stairs went around it and came back down the other side.  In this picture you can see the reading room on the right, the staircase and the roof of the Great Court.  Thursday was hot and humid in London and, of course, the Great Court acts as a big greenhouse so not very pleasant to be tramping around in there.

After that I went back over to the City to meet some friends and attend a leaving 'do'.  It was really hard to realise that I left work seven weeks ago.  Talking to people you realise how little things really change, people come and go but organisations don't change much other than in real upheavals such as mergers.  It was so lovely to see them and hear their news (some very exciting indeed!) and also to chat to people whilst waiting in reception.  Did it feel strange to be back in the building - not really.  I'm not sure if I felt that it was part of my life at all so that's got to be a good thing, right?  Anyway we went to this restaurant off Borough High Street whose main features was a 'Frank Sinatra' character - whilst I don't think our 'Frank' will be playing Las Vegas any time soon it was just lovely to be with them all again!

It's killing me waiting for my results for my Myth course.  I have to get at least 40% in my End of Module Assessment (or big essay) and if I can achieve that the degree is passed and I'm off to King's.  I have started to try and think of options in case I don't achieve this - I suppose I could try and do the OU MA (which I really am not that keen on) with my existing degree but it would take 2 years and throw everything out.  We should get results this week so please keep your fingers crossed for me.

I'll do a book update in a few days time.  I have finished the Evelyn Waugh biography and am currently reading Forty Rules of Love so I'll let you know how they both go.

Thanks for reading.