Museum. Robin was very excited about seeing an exhibit about the North West Passage and we are always keen to tag along to things. The North West passage is a sea route around the frozen north above Canada. Pretty rugged looking stuff especially with all the 1800s exploring gear. We also managed to check out some man made whirpools, hundreds of minature models of ships and a man dressed up as Neptune....After that we journeyed next door to the Queen's House which is a house originally built in the 1600s for Queen Anne of Denmark. It has since served all sorts of purposes. It is now an art gallery with all sorts of maritime themed art, including some distinctive pictures of what could only be New Zealand.We also managed to catch up with Tom and Gini again at Portobello Market. This time it was to get some Christmas shopping done. Luckily Marcus got himself a good winter coat that morning as winter sure as on its way. The beer at the pub at the end of the day was well earned.
Now that the weather was getting colder it was time to start visiting some museums again. This time we decided to go to the Natural History Museum in Kensington. The Natural History Museum is the home of Dinosaur skeletons and we certainly saw plenty of those. Even though we were basically shuffling along with the crowd all looking at the same thing it was still pretty cool. The rest of the museum was not quite as exciting. There was a moa skeleton which was pretty cool to see, but the balance of the museum was mostly stuffed animals and "interactive" exhibits which basically involved pressin a button so that a light lights up. We didn't go to the Darwin Centre, so there is a good reason to go back but I don't think we need to see the rest of it again. The highlight was actually the building itself. It is a huge old Victorian Building but what is really cool is that throughout there are animals carved into the building itself. From monkeys to vultures to snakes to dolphins. They were all there.
We also journeyed out to another show. This time it wasn't a classic, rather a more modern show called Avenue Q. It is basically Sesame Street for adults. Definitely not one for kids. Very funny but quite odd watchin puppets dancing around on stage.
We had a couple of birthdays to celebrate too. Amy Cole had drinks at a tasty cocktail bar (which even Marcus managed to make after spending another week working in the outskirts of London). The next week we had Katie's birthday at an old electric goods store converted to a cool bar in East London. This time we were joined by Christian who was in London for the weekend for his friend's 30th birthday. It was our first chance to host some while they passed through London. We spent some time with him again on Friday with a trip to Spitalfields market for some more shopping and some Fish and Chips, a traditional English meal, at the request of Christian. Not as good as NZ fish and chips but not much is eh? Was really good for Marcus to catch up with him again and for Jess to meet him. Marcus' German is pretty rusty though. Need to brush up before travelling there.
The next day was a family affair, with a trip out to Leigh on Sea for Karla's Baby Sho
wer. Karla and James were there, Greg and (an also pregnant) Nicole and Emily were there. And also Chris and Debbie had made the trip over to be there for the births of their grandchildren. Marcus thought he was going to the pub, but turns out males were welcome at this baby shower so he joined in too. There were baby dummies worn, baby food eaten and plenty of New Zealand lollies (courtesy of Chris and Debbie). That was the only time we managed to see Chris and Debbie but luckily they were around for the births of both Karla and Nicole's baby boys a few weeks later.http://picasaweb.google.com/JessicaLMcMillan/October#
