hello 2012

January 2 2012.

What a beautiful blue sky day. Hardly a cloud in sight. So what are we going to do today dear?

Well how about a run into the city for a walk around and perhaps a visit to the odd museum. Sounds like a plan Stan.

The sun is out but it is quite cold in the shade so we walk down to the station at Crystal Palace on the sunny side of the street, well you would wouldn’t you. With our usual good timing we only have few minutes to wait for the oveground train into the city. Off at Shadwell; hang on to me That Man, as we stop at Canada Water (that’s where I get off to get the Jubilee line to work). At Shadwell we were going to get the DLR (Docklands Light rail), but the station is closed. No service today due to planned engineering works. Ho-hum, nothing unusual in that, so we walk around the corner and get on the replacement bus service to Bank.  Staying on the sunny side as much as possible we meander between the highly mirrored tall buildings interspersed occasionally by the odd building site or elderly church. It really is a bit too chilly to eat our lunch outside so we catch a bus heading to Oxford Street and get off near the British Museum. Once inside we find a comfy seat and munch our sammies while people watching. As it’s still relatively early we decide to have a wander around and discover a Greek themed display, absolutely huge, showing off panels and statues from the Parthenon in Athens. No replicas here, all the real stuff. I took quite a few pictures that I would love to be able to share with you, more about them later. It really does make you feel small standing against these amazing carved stones, and the highlight is seeing the real Rosetta stone. After a leisurely wander around we needed coffee and I had spotted a Starbucks just opposite the entry gates of the museum. Lattes in hand we again peopled watched until it was time to go and *&%$***£” where’s the red pack? The one with the new iPhone in it and the camera, remember I said there were pictures I would have liked to have been able to show?  We had been sitting with the pack at our feet, securely we thought, and hadn’t taken any notice of the little Asian girl sitting directly behind us playing in her computer. We probably should have done because when we discovered that the bag had gone, so was she. Good thing I hadn’t put my wallet in there after I paid for the coffee.