It Was Diana's Day Off,

so first thing we were out, 

and hurtling towards Victoria, 

this where Diana wanted to go, 

the Natural History Museum,

I had to have a pose,

the garden area had been totally transformed since our last visit, 

so I was snapping away, 

to say the garden was crowded was a understatement, 

the garden looking like we had stepped back in time to the Late Jurassic Period, from about 156 to 145 million years ago, as I mentioned it was crowded, school holidays of course, also we should have booked tickets, but as we did not, 

it was out of the garden into the road that lead to the side entrance to join the queue, 

which was, 

huge, 

so onto plan B, Diana's second choice was to visit the Victoria & Albert museum, 

the exhibits in every room looked just so stunning, 

as we made our way to our favorite section,

but first a look into the shop,

for Diana the jewelry was a great draw, 

but we left empty handed,

into the main entrance area, above the counter the unmistakable work of Dale Chihuly

as it happens we visited Kew gardens where a exhibition of his work was being displayed a few years ago,

we started walking away from the entrance,

marveling at the art works on display, 

a reminder of Thailand, 

we had seen displays like this so often when we lived out there and visited temples,

on to Japan and a display of tangs, the hilt of a sword,

one of my favorite aspects of Asian art, woodblock prints, these by Yoshitora Utagawa,

absolutely stunning, 

we spent quite some time there, 

we were then off to our next venue, 

this one of the last stores I remember around the tube station that has not been made into a coffee shop, it reminded me of Black Books! back onto the tube and a few stops later,

we were here, 54 The Gallery, 

to say Hi to Fred and James at their photographic exhibition, it runs from 28th July until 3rd August,

as Diana looked around I chatted to Fred and James, 

by now we were hungry, so we started back towards Chinatown,

the Ritz was having some major work on it, we enquired but it was fully booked for afternoon tea, 

so Chinatown it was, 

although a grey day, 

the hanging lanterns gave the place a colorful air, 

a peruse though a few menus, 

and we decided here, the Golden Phoenix, 

first things first, a bottle of house red, 'Cheers!',

on to our meal, a half Cantonese duck off the bone,

a chicken and noodle dish for Diana,

we also ordered beansprouts, 

and egg fried rice, Diana had a coke to go with her meal,

there is no getting away from it, eating out is creeping up in price, just 2 main courses, the bill came to £91.00 including service charge, 

we made our way through Chinatown, 

Diana called in here, but nothing took her fancy, 

under one of the gates, 

and into the square, 

our next port of call, Mamsons, their web site is down so I cannot post a link, 

that did not stop Diana, from grabbing a ice cream for the journey home, 

we passed one of the many shops in the area,

and made our way to the underground, 

the station deep underground, 

and a long walk from the escalators, we arrived back at Victoria and then home, where it was feet up for a couple of films for the evening, firstly, 

The Good Liar, a enjoyable film about the past and present as a con artist plies their craft, deception after deception, but who is conning who? we followed that with,

Oppenheimer, we both thoroughly enjoyed the film the first time we viewed it in the cinema, watching it again was a real treat, as it happens he was a subject for study for one term at school, I remember his quote so well, "Now I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds", below is him being interviewed where he mentions the quote,

according to Oppenheimer’s telling in that 1965 NBC News documentary, goes as follows:

“We knew the world would not be the same. A few people laughed; a few people cried. Most people were silent. I remembered the line from the Hindu scripture, the Bhagavad Gita; Vishnu is trying to persuade the prince that he should do his duty, and to impress him, takes on his multiarmed form and says, ‘Now I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds.’ I suppose we all thought that, one way or another.” 

 what a great although at 3 hours long movie, but it has to be said so well made and executed, after which as you may have guessed, we were off to bed.