Not "Egg"xactly! . . . Day at the Museum . . . Prime Line Viewing! . . . Show Me

Phase 10 -- Phases of Living in London --Experiences


Not "Egg"xactly What I Expected!

OK.  I'm all for fresh food, but when I opened a carton of eggs  I was met with a bit of a surprise.  Now, I know the eggs here are:  brown,  larger than in the U.S. and not ever refrigerated in the grocery stores -- they just sit on the shelf next to the peanut butter or some such, but I wasn't expecting to find several of the eggs covered with smatterings of dirt and clinging to few bits of feathers, as well.   Can't get much fresher than that, I suppose!  Ha!

Day at the Museum 

The Museum of Natural History was a wonderful place to get lost for an afternoon!  My exploration buddies (Ashley and Jackson) and I strolled through the impressive displays of mammals and dinosaurs.  Jax was wide-eyed with wonder at the dinos, some of which moved through animatration, others whose reconnected bones or those fossilised in stone told their tales.  

The building itself is amazingly beautiful with details in practically every stone arch and stained glass window.  It is a huge undertaking to begin to explore it all, but we covered those areas well and would love to go back to see the other zillion exhibits!

Unbelievably, incredible museums like this one are FREE here.  You simply pay a donation, if you like.  This is true for the British Museum, the National Portrait Gallery, the Victoria and Albert Museum, etc. just to name a few.  What a deal!  My thoughts:  SO many museums, so little time!  I know where I'm headed  soon.

Prime Line Viewing!

Timing is everything it is said,  and this week "timing" was certainly something!  Ashley, Jax and I popped over to the Royal Observatory in Greenwich (about a 30 minute bus ride from the flat.  We rode on top of the iconic commuter -- not tourist -- double decker bus for the first time:  very cool view!).   

Greenwich Park, where the observatory is located is gigantic and full of verdant, massive lawns dotted with a playground here and there, rose gardens, and ponds.  Along one side of it runs the maritime museum, as well.  Views of a skyline beyond the park were picturesque and the little town of Greenwich looked charming. (That will be an adventure for another time.)

After rope-walks, sliding, and climbing at the kid's park, we hiked the hill to the observatory, only stopping every little bit to throw rocks in a pond or admire and pick a dandelion or grass daisy.  Jax was our tour guide on those activities.  ;)  He ran with happy abandon and kept us laughing all the way.

Then, we took in some "prime" viewing . . . the prime meridian line that is and checked out all the clocks, history and science behind Greenwich mean time.  It was fascinating!  We were intrigued by the way past royal astronomers calculated, charted and unravelled the mystery of measurement and finally arrived at the way to ascertain longitude.  That discovery changed the world, navigation, trade routes and how we tell time.  Quite the story and a delightful field trip all around!  We had quite a "time" (sorry, couldn't help that one)!

Show Me

TV shows do not necessarily start on the hour or half-hour; sometimes it’s 10 minutes or 20 minutes after the hour.  Not exactly sure how that works.  Good thing we’ll be too busy exploring, etc. to need much time on that. . . . Browsing the SKY (like Comcast) TV guide, I did find British TV includes shows such as “Save My Country Home,” “Rosemary and Thyme” (British lady detectives) and something called “Snog (kiss), Marry or Avoid” (a makeover show for those who are wildly made up in day-to-day life).  Many American TV shows are also shown here.  The finale of Downton is not available though (as it’s already finished showing here months ago).  No, don’t tell me what happens!  IPad here I come!