hmmm museums

So what have I been doing with my time your wondering. Well being the frugal person that I am I like doing things that are cheap or even better free. It just so happens that all the museums in London are just that i.e. free. So naturally I wanted to make the most of it and check them all out. Just abit of a recap first…On the friday of our first week matt was quite ill, even to the point of fainting in Dan and Alice's kitchen. So afterwards he promptly went back to bed. Not to be seen again until 5.30pm that afternoon. I killed the time by making use of the free wireless internet matt and I had discovered in Dan and Alice's lounge room. I eventually left the house and made my way to the internet café across the road. I printed out a cover letter and a CV for position at a bike store in fulham I had found. After doing that I walked down the road and handed my CV and application form into the bike store. I don’t think I gave the man a good impression as he pressed upon the need for being ‘passionate’ about cycling, which I am to a certain degree. Ill admit though that I don’t know a huge amount about parts and components etc but I was very keen to learn. He then muttered something about there being no actual positions at that store despite it being advertised to the contrary. I left feeling slightly down however I knew there would be more jobs out there for me. I got some lunch and headed down to the nearest job centre plus to inquire about applying for a NI number. I was told you needed a job first so that turned out to be a short visit. In case you don’t know NI stands for national insurance and you need one to be able to get taxed at the right rate and claim any tax back. After that I went to the local library and browsed the net briefly until I went back to find alice and matt eating lunch.

The next day was a similar state of affairs with Matt not feeling very well and thus confining himself to bed for the day. I decided id go somewhere and since Alice was heading into town I tagged along with her on the bus. I got dropped off at a stop close by to the museums, well at least three of them anyway. I thought id check out the V & A or Victorian and Albert today and maybe go to the science museum as well. Wed beeen to the v &a previously but only seen the photography section. I went to the medieval sculptures room and was confronted by huge plaster-casts reaching to the very high ceiling. It was quite impressive at first, as it took me a while to figure out they were just copies and not originals. On display were several coffins, walls, and tombs amongst other things. I preceded to the iron section after that for all things made of iron i.e. locks, keys and anything else you can think of. Adjacent to that were little bronze statues approximately 20cm high that were still quite detailed, there was little 5 min movie being displayed of the method used to make such a statue. A little further along there were stained glass windows which were quite good I thought, Again there was a short clip of how they were constructed which I found interesting. There was a large area full of silverware which had many interesting treasures in it such as goblets and miniature castles. Things you might find at a banquet would be an adequate description. That was about it for the V & A.

The science museum was the next on the agenda. Walking in i came across to me a different vibe then the museum previous, as this was certainly more children friendly. I looked at a temporary setup on penicillin at first which I found quite informative and insightful, I was not aware that pharacueticals and anti biotics came about through this drug. I went upstairs and saw large red plastic strips draped from the ceiling for the plastics exhibit. I didn’t find it all that interesting to be honest even with my little bit of knowledge of plastics through having studied chemistry. The exhibition next to it was on everything to do with ‘time’. In other words the history of clocks, watches etc. It was cool to look inside watches and see how they function. I was oblivious to the fact that quartz watches measure the time though the millions of vibrations recorded every second in the stone. They even had an atomic clock on display. On the main floor was a huge room full of objects and information on space travel. I learnt about the V2 and the space race in the 1950’s between the USSR and the U.S. The huge room at the end contained all sorts of pieces to do with the modern world.

The last and in my opinion the best museum I last saw was the British Museum. The ‘wow’ factor when gazing at the entrance to the building was most definitely bigger here then any of the previous museums I had seen. I knew I would be in for a treat. The main hall with the information desks in it was a pretty awesome sight. Matt got hold of a tour book and we headed off in the direction of ancient Egypt. It was really good despite as i got to take it all in while Matt was in the final stages of securing a job. We did however visit the museum twice over the next two days and got to see a good portion of what it had to offer. The mummies section was cool with lots of interesting stuff to see and read about. A slight annoyance was the large number of school kids who were present so it would probably be wise to go when its not so busy. I am so far behind in my blog its getting out of hand... hopefully soon ill have an update of my experiences of working in London. Till then Bye!