The British Museum and 12 Hours of romping

1/10/11

This morning started with an alarm - which I clearly didn't wake to. What I did wake to was Will saying that the sunrise was beautiful. This got me up. I have always loved sunsets and rises. Trying to get the shower to work was fun. I first turned on the tub before turning the wheel that was in the middle of the wall - instant water from both pipes. Realizing that the water was still coming out of the spout I turned the water off and got in the still running water. Breakfast was quite the experience. When seated Will and I were asked if we wanted to join our friends - Will's voice must've given us away. I ended up having a little bit of scrambled egg, a friend one, two rashers, some tropical juice mix, and coco ricecrispies. The scrambled egg was just kind of a gooey mess of egg and this time my friend egg was fried on just one side, adding to the liquidy egg theme for the meal. The tropical juice was wonderful though. I topped it all off with some strawberry yogurt with pineapple chunks. The yogurt had a certain tang that I couldn't place exactly. Good, but different. 

Trying to keep up on the readings I went back up with Will and started reading more of Cahill...which turned into a nap after seven pages. I woke up, hand still in between the pages. Will couldn't find his map and I couldn't find my little Nike track bag. Will thought someone had to have taken it, but nothing of value was missing, besides my bag, so it didn't make sense. Slightly put off we went down to meet outside. I quickly decided I didn't like the clouds that now hovered above and ran back to get my jacket. Other people were running around trying to get journaling materials so I did another look around for my bag and  scarfed down some more of the Strawberry Gateau.

We jumped on a bus, this time I rode on the second level with Justin. The topics moved from movies to  music and other childhood attachments as we past shops, Hyde park and other tall buildings. We arrived at our stop just short of the British Museum of History. After a batch of pictures outside we started our two hour journey through the museum - a crime in itself. Two hours is the amount of time I could've spent in the first half of the first room, the room of enlightenment. There is too much that I saw to describe and talk about it all so I will just mention a few highlights. In the room of enlightenment were life size (or bigger) statues. This may sound strange, but what really impressed me were the feet. They were so well carved that you could see the muscles tensed and the slight bulge of the vains. 

We were told to pick two artifacts that we could relate to ethically or morally. My first one was a citole. I actually thought it was a amazingly carved violen but it was actually in the family of the guitar. A bow was added later when the piece was modified. The reason I chose this object was because I value life and the quality of it for everyone. A musician gets the pleasure of spending time creating an art which not only brings enjoyment of life to the play and brings enjoyment to the people who are being played to. This is a job that is unnecessary in the grand scheme of things but adds enjoyment and improves the quality of life for many different people. 

The second thing I choose was the Japanese Samarai armor and katana (sword) - both symbols of war but also values. The idea of the Samarai was all about courage, honor, and protecting those under you or below your status, chivalry in another form. They were suppose to live a life of example. This group of people ruled Japan for nearly 700 years. Valuing life and its quality, I like this idea of protecting the weak and being loyal to those who need you, and then living an honorable and good life. 

We went to another pub, where Charles Dickens and some other people liked to hang out I ordered Penne Pasta with baby spinach, mascarpone, parmesan, and English Red Tractor Chicken. I was the last one to get my food - by a long shot. There was a wood panel that people would slide up and we would pull our food out of. Apparently they just missed mine. It wasn't a big deal, but after wolfing down my food I was having a severe drop in energy which was making me grouchy. During this time we started talking about the objects that we related to. Outside Greg asked how I was doing, so I told him the truth, which he responded that I could go back. It wasn't that I wanted to leave the group, I just wanted a purpose. We did spend most of the day walking and did circles to find the last pub. We ended up walking through several squares and down oxford street - all the while Greg finished a cigar. I hate smoke. Half the time it wasn't a problem, the other half the wind was carrying it straight past the group. Smokers is one of the main things I truly dislike about cities.

We ended up at an italian restaurant called Alma's. Greg ordered bruschetta and olives for us to have with dinner. The bruschetta was amazing. It had just the right mixture of red onion and spices, as well as great texture for the largely diced tomatoes. Olives: dark = good and green = Alex's nerves all trigger in a wave like shudder. This was the first place that we had to verify that we wanted tap water instead of bottled. Got a strange look but we were happy. I had the chicken Carbonara for somewhere around nine pounds. It also had a great texture but i felt that the flavor was lacking just a tad, even withe the freshly grated parmesan on top. Still devoured the entire thing. When we finally reached the hotel we had been out and about for over a solid 12 hours! Finally full and in a good mood I settled in to type.

I almost forgot...WE WENT TO PLATFORM 9 & 3/4!!!! Yeah so my life is almost complete, minus the fact that they put it in the wrong spot...I really need to start a bucket list!