London

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I was quite restrained, I thought. I only took 544 photographs. Would have taken more, actually, but my battery died and - muppet me - I forgot my charger. That is the only thing I forgot, though. I'm quite good at the old packing these days. That said, both of the dear ladies I stayed with found something I'd left behind at theirs!

I did a lot of culture and a load of walking around, nice food, and cracking weather.

The British Museum was great, as was the Tate Modern. Quite amazingly, you're allowed to take pictures in the museum, which I thought was odd. But welcome, I suppose. I'm a little conflicted on this piont, to be honest. On the one hand, it's a museum, not a gallery. No-one is losing out and nothing is being devalued by their being a lot of images of the exhibits. On the other, there's what I suppose is a very British attitude. "Photographs? In a museum? Why, you might as well talk in a library or walk on the grass!"

I actually went in twice. It's nearby to the Royal College of Surgeons (RCS) where lovely Jane and Clare work, so it was a convenient place to fill time. The Enlightenment rooms were astonishing. I just kept thinking of that famous quote. "Beautiful things!"

"Icky things!" was another phrase I could have used. Went into the Hunterian Museum at the RCS and there are some crazy, crazy things in there. In jars yet!

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I was a bit of a miserable failure as far as the night of debauchery in Soho went. *laughs*. I went into town with Jane on Friday, when she went to work, and spent the day walking around town taking pictures, which was lovely but left me a bit footsore. By the time we'd dropped in on a leaving do south of the river (check me with the London turn of phrase), walked back over to Soho, and got some dinner, it was 11 o' clock and my head was nodding towards the table. So, when Jane said, "We can just go home, if you like," I was all pathetically, "Ooh, yes, please!". Still, it's hard to do a full day and a full night, especially when I was up at 4.30am the day before to get train down!

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Weather was lovely pretty much the whole time. I've actually come back with a bit of a burn. Silly boy going out without the SPF.

Photos will be uploaded to Flickr, for the most part. I chucked a couple up this morning, just to be able to salt this post with them. I'll do a proper sort this evening. Maybe. I've got rehearsal till nine, though, and I am still a Tired Boy. Should have taken today off too, really. Had some 'me' time.

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There were a couple of really perfect moments while I was down. Had a quite blissful small nap in Lincoln's Inn Fields after striding around all day on Friday. I don't think I was actually asleep. More eyes closed and dreaming, but the sun was belting down, the grass smelt good and there were some kids playing far enough away that their shrieks were present background noise rather than something that went straight through one's brain.

Second one was on Saturday night. Julia, the second friend I inflicted myself upon for the weekend, has a whole load of scaffolding up round her flat. After she and Mathew (her partner) had dodged off to bed, I climbed out on it and sat, listening to the city for a bit. Nice to take a breath and just be in the place. And, yes, that is a bit wanky, but still...a perfect moment.

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I bought myself a particularly fine hat. :) A trilby, in dusky rose. It's lovely. LOVELY, I say!

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More to come,

C