It Was Diana's Day Off,

so glad rags on, 

and we were out to London, 

we soon arrived at South Kensington tube station, and were exploring the shops nearby, 

one of the two remaining bookshops, 

and in the window this charming pop out book, 4 rooms of a house that you can make, with all of the rooms accessories, Diana thought it would be great fun for her nieces when she visits them in the Philippines in a few weeks time, 

purchase made and we were on our way,

past so many cafes, where in my youth they were all book or artists shops, 

and the is where we are headed, the Natural History Museum,

down the steps into the garden, that has been made to look like a prehistoric snapshot in to the past, 

with palms and ferns looking like the place where dinosaurs once roamed, 

like this one, but with a bit more meat on it!

well we just had to have a pose,

or two, 

before we went inside, 

and here we are inside, 

the main hall dominated by this huge skeleton of a whale, nowhere near as impressive as when a Diplodocus cast skeleton named Dippy was here, gifted by Andrew Carnegie in 1905, the plaster-of-Paris replica of a Diplodocus carnegii skeleton was a star attraction until it left the museum in 2017 for a UK tour and now resides at the Herbert Art Gallery and Museum in Coventry, bring back Dippy I say!

we started looking at some of the displays we had not seen before, we were going to try and find a preserved specimen of a coelacanth,

but first a look at this fearsome creature a marlin, it was huge,

cake and coffee time, 

whilst Diana was eating I took a few photographs,

of the buildings architecture, 

we asked two museum guides to direct us to the coelacanth, they both admitted they did not know what or where it was after I explained it was a fish, but they thought the whale hall, which I thought highly improbable, a fish in a hall dedicated to mammals?

we continued walking, and found this fascinating creature, a Dodo,

and found some illustrations of it, 

we made our way upstairs, 

in front of the cut through Sequla tree trunk,

at the end of the main hall, stained glass windows,

looking down on the whale in the main entrance hall,

Diana was fascinated by this Victorian case of mounted humming birds,

she did not realize how truly small they were, I ask two more guides for the museum where the coelacanth was, one thought it was a bird and hopefully suggested the bird gallery, a bird? what education had these guides had?

we decided to go upstirs in case it was in the evolution of the planet, 

whilst there we came across this display of a volcano erupting in the Philippines,

it was Mount Pinatubo in the west of the main island of Luzon, it had a devastating eruption in 1991, after a pause of over 500 years, it buried the surrounding towns under a dense blanket of ash. Despite large-scale evacuations, several hundred people died and hundreds of thousands were left homeless. As a result, the USA closed its military bases in Subic Bay and Angeles City. In the months that followed, sulphuric acid was measured in precipitation worldwide, as it happens you can see Mount Pinatubo from where Diana's family lives in the Philippines, thankfully none of them were injured in the disaster, since 1993, there has only been slight and infrequent volcanic activity, which is why the crater lake can now even be visited on guided hiking tours, 

we asked a few more guides about the whereabouts of the coelacanth, of the 8 guides we asked only one had heard of one of the most important discoveries of a true living fossil, in truth I was shocked at the complete and utter lack of knowledge that the guides displayed except one, pathetic in the extreme, after walking through as many galleries we thought the fish would be in we gave up, well we had walked it seemed miles and had worked up a bit of a appetite, still we did get to see a likeness of a coelacanth,

outside of the building!

and here he is, the reason we were looking for the fish was that I find this fish fascinating, a true living fossil, the coelacanth, the fish was thought to have become extinct some 66 million or so years ago, but one was discovered back in 1938 of the coast of Africa in the western Indian Ocean,

if you are interested in the story behind this fish I can toughly recommend A Fish Caught In Time by Samantha Weinberg, it is a great read and of course factual,

back on the tube to Leicester Square,

past the M & M's shop,

the Swiss clock at the edge of the square being worked on,

near by one of the many pedal cabs you can hire to look around the city,

we were soon approaching Chinatown, 

and were walking to this restaurant on the corner, 

the Burger & Lobster,

the menu in aquariums, 

we had beaten the evening rush, 

we started with a coke for Diana, a wine for myself, 

our meal arrived, 

a 1.75 pound lobster each, one half boiled, one half grilled, 

it was big, and delicious, 

we followed that with one of these, 

a crème brûlée, Diana asked for the bill which came to £192.00, including service charge,

we made our way outside, 

that big one next time!

we made our way back to the square,

and had a look at some of the artists, 

displaying their wares,

we were off to Leicester Square tube station,

past the Burger King, 

and a great play on Slim Pickens name, Slim Chicken, 

a few tourists taking a photo opportunity, 

as both groups photographed each other,

then a bit of street theater, 

as this chap, 

made his way through the square, 

another 3 wheeler for hire, 

one of the tube lines we took, was a long way down!

we soon arrived at Victoria, 

and then Beckenham, 

a bit of shopping in M & S,

and we were home where it was feet up for a Deadliest Catch followed by a double helping of Guinness, (the television series, not the stout),which we both really enjoyed, after which Diana was off to bed, I soon joined her after a couple of Banger & Cash.