I Am Only Making One Post Today, Again!

as we took so many photographs, 

first thing it was a grey day, and we had a visitor,

or at least the next door neighbour did, the duck was back on the roof,

it was Diana's day off,

we were out, 

to the Natural History Museum, Diana had treated us to tickets to see the biggest known dinosaur, after a long queue in the rain which went from Exhibition road to the museum, 

we were finally inside,

no Dippy the Diplodocus in the main hall,

its place was taken,

by this huge blue whale, 

at the rear of which, the cathedral like windows,

a quick pose,

before going upstairs,

we made our way towards the main exhibit, 

through the fossil hall,

and one that I still remember as a kid when I first started going to museums,

and perhaps the lady that started it all Mary Anning,

well I had to have a pose!

Diana had already bought tickets, but we were a tad early,

and this is what we were going to see, 

the Titanosaurus exhibition,

as we were early we had a quick look around the Titanosaurus gift shop,

we were tempted,

to buy a mug,

there was so much Titanosaurus merchandise on offer,

naturally we wanted to buy a refrigerator magnet,

but we both found them remarkably ugly, so did not,

but this is one for my Christmas stocking! we have not played Monopoly in such a long time, and this looks like fun, 

as did this pop out book,

the amount of work that must have gone into making it,

it really did work too!

time to see the exhibition, we queued near another exhibit I remember form my childhood, a huge case of humming birds,

 their colours have faded over the years,

the description of the case,

it was a long queue,

these are the prices of admission, although admission to the museum is free, it is just the Titanosaurus that you have to pay to visit,

I had to have a pose,

a few notes,

about what we are about to see,

Diana was amazed at the size of the creatures femur,

it was huge,

to give an idea I am 5 foot 11" the last time I looked,

and imagine how big these would have been when covered in flesh and muscle,

as it happens the Titanosaurus was so big you could easily miss the tail end of it as you passed underneath it,

a fascinating look at what the creatures skin texture may have looked like,

with this exhibit,

about the specimen above

there was a number of displays before the main hall,

considering its size, the eggs were really very small, especially when compared to say an ostrich,

and there he was,

in one word, enormous!

a formidable set of teeth for a plant eater,

a pose from Diana under the exhibit,

the skull of the Titanosaurus,

those teeth look more like it eats tree trunks rather than leaves!

Diana between the front legs,

then it was my turn,

the rear legs equipped with claws, it is thought they were use to scrape a furrow to lay its eggs,

big though it was, it still had enemies,

like this Tyrannotitan, 

those teeth could give a nasty nip!

and it was big,

a couple more from Diana,

it is still amazing how big this thing is,

on more from myself,

and a last look at the behemoth from the past,

and a note, 

we found ourselves back in the Titanosaurus gift shop, 

by now we fancied a coffee, so into the T Rex restaurant passing a animated display on the way in,

a table over there,

drinks ordered,

this one for Diana,

for myself a latte coffee,

£8.25, I am not sure if that is expensive or not considering where we are,

the wall decoration on the way out,

refreshed we passed the display and explored the main gift shop,

as soon as we went inside Diana found this cutie,

the shop was huge,

and packed,

it took a time to take a photograph with no people in the frame,

sometimes impossible to exclude everyone,

we made our way upstairs,

one from Diana,

easy to miss, the building has treasures everywhere, like these big eared desert foxes,

at the top of the stairs,

and then a few more photographs,

looking across to the whale,

down,

and up,

one of the many exhibits here, the history of animal and plant classification,

we made our way into the geology gallery,

diamonds, a girls best friend!

we headed for The Vault, 

watching Outback Opal Hunters pretty much every night,

we had to look at the opals,

on display,

and a little about them,

we also had a look in case 20,

that had a nice display of opals,

like this one,

that one will do for us!

I mentioned before about the buildings treasures it is easy to miss, like these engraved fish on a support column,

looking down,

and an exhibit about my name sake,

Captain Robert Falcon Scott,

who I have to thank for my middle name,

we started on our way back downstairs, passing a real Indian Jones, Captain Frederick Courteney Selous DSO, I am tempted to say they do not make them like that anymore, more is the pity,

we continued down stairs,

into the now packed entrance hall, we were hungry, 

and in no time we were in Chinatown,

we stopped off at the restaurant we usually go to Four Seasons, but it was packed, we had to wait for a table,

we started with prawn crackers, 'Cheers!',

followed by a quarter duck,

for our main course 3 types of pork and duck,

with egg fried rice and beansprouts,

plus chicken and cashews, Diana also had a coke, the bill came to £103.00 eating out in London is not cheap!

then a few things to take home,

a bag of Taiyaki,

then to the small street,

that has the Filipino ice cream shop in,

and here it is, surrounded by scaffolding,

the shop Mamasan,

I waited outside,

Ta-Dah!

ice cream bought, and we were on our way,

passing this very colourful shop display,

with its waving cats, 

I just had to make a video of them,

we made our way into Leicester Square,

past the burger shop,

and into the square,

"What's up Doc?"

a nice display of daffodils,

but this is what we had come for, a take away Jollibee for Diana,

whilst I waited I noticed this,

I had always thought the founder of Kew Gardens was white, Queen Charlotte, but apparently in this PC age she is black, I guess this means when The Queen gave birth to her first child, The Prince of Wales, who would later become King George IV, he had black parentage? as it happens in the course of their marriage, the couple became parents of 15 children: George, Prince of Wales (b.1762), Prince Frederick, Duke of York and Albany (b.1763), Prince William, Duke of Clarence (b.1765), Charlotte, Princess Royal (b.1766), Prince Edward, Duke of Kent (b.1766), Princess Augusta Sophia (b.1768), Princess Elizabeth (b.1770), Prince Ernest, Duke of Cumberland (b.1771), Prince Augustus Frederick, Duke of Sussex (b.1773), Prince Adolphus, Duke of Cambridge (b.1774), Princess Mary, Duchess of Gloucester (b.1776), Princess Sophia (b.1777), Prince Octavius (b.1779), Prince Alfred (b.1880) and Princess Amelia (b.1783), so I guess they all had a half black parent as well? it all seems a but strange but there it is,

shopping for Jollibee finished,

we were on our way home,

into the train, we were soon walking past,

Foxgrove Lodge,

the wisteria starting to open,

the cherry blossom looking nice,

I will be walking through here soon,

past the snail mail box and we were home, after a freshen up and a coffee I was out again,

turning left here to meet Steve at the club,

in a back garden next to the path,

a magnolia was putting on a good show,

as was this cherry tree,

lots of tennis being played tonight,

the covers on for the next cricket season,

this year sponsored, 

by Tamasha, a Indian restaurant near Bromley North station,10% discount to club members if we fancy a trip to Bromley,

I meet Steve in the club and chatted the night away, after saying our goodbyes we made a move for our homes, Diana had already gone to bed when I arrived, tomorrow she has a 04.00am start, so up at 03.00am, for myself a coffee, a quick look at a documentary and I too was off to bed.