Thursday, 5 May 2022

Back to the stones

Following the visit to the Stonehenge exhibition at the British Museum noticed at reference 1, we have now paid our second visit, which proved to be well worth while.

As it happened, another cold day, with our gloves being retrieved from summer storage after just a few days there. Down to Epsom Station and onto a train, which seemed to be occupied by lots of parties of talkative, middle aged ladies.

Out at Waterloo to be confused by what turned out to be an ASDA trolley by the café in a box, underneath one of the bridges in Waterloo Road. Confused by the green handle, which in Epsom means Waitrose. No idea where the offending ASDA store was.

Onto a bus which took us up Kingsway. To be entertained by the coils of cable strung up a lot of the traffic lights. Coils which have been there long enough to appear on Street View. These ones just by the northern end of Sicilian Avenue.

Lot of goings-on at Pushkin House when we went past, including being greeted effusively by an unknown older lady. Presumably some kind of literary event. Presumably no relation to the Pushkin Press from whom I buy the odd book, for example, collections of stories by Teffi.

I had forgotten how big the Museum's portico pillars are when you are up close to them. Furthermore, as far as I can tell from the photograph, the pillars are made of hefty slices of solid stone. No limestone skim on top of rubble here.

In the past I have found the fancy roof over what used to be the inner courtyard rather tiresome. An attempt with catch up with the French and their glass pyramid at the Louvre. On this occasion, perhaps a trick of the light outside, I found it quite impressive. Although I did wonder what happened when it got hot, as I could not see any arrangements for ventilation. In the absence of which the greenhouse effect would soon make the place uncomfortable.

Tea, coffee and buns from Benugo, who appear to have the franchise for that sort of thing in the Museum.

Comments last time around notwithstanding, the take-away on this occasion was the huge amount of time that the people of between four and five thousand years ago had to spend on cultural matters, on luxuries. My understanding is that most other large animals spend pretty much the whole of their life finding food, eating it, digesting it and sleeping. With the odd time out for an occasional fight or a spot of reproduction. While we humans seem, from quite early on, to have got things so organised that we had plenty of time for other stuff. Maybe, straying into bubble land, our brains had grown so big and complicated that mere calories were no longer enough. We needed brain food.

A puzzle was the arrival of warfare. Was that more than pressure of population? Perhaps a realisation that stealing stuff - women, children, tools and food - could be an easier way to make a living than growing it at home. And while it is true that some animals do theft, for example rooks stealing twigs from a rookery neighbour, as far as I am aware, they don't do it on the industrial scale that we do. Maybe that is work in progress.

One example of all this being the swords above. Seemingly far to large to use and only ever intended for ceremonial purposes. Which might include putting them beyond use and then burying them.

The one large room which housed the exhibition. Patron were invited to move in an anti-clockwise direction, from the entry (back left in the snap above) to the exit (back right).

Out to stroll down to Lowlander, the place last mentioned at reference 3 and websited at reference 4. Passing up on the authentic Fitzrovian & Italian cuisine offered on the menu snapped above, complete with the authentic British item bottom right. 

Past another bit of old London which the developers have not yet digested. BH bottom left.

And so to Lowlander, where BH took her usual chicken salad and I had the best mussels and chips that I remember having. Complete with the now mandatory saucepan and bread board. But probably bought fresh that very morning from Billingsgate, rather than the boil in the bag variety offered by most establishments. Although, to be fair, fresh from Billingsgate not really an option unless you are in or near London and have a big enough client base to carry the overheads.

We spent quality time on the window snapped above, visible from where we were eating. I was completely convinced it was some kind of polished brass pillar, just the sort of thing that Masons would adorn the outside of their temple with. BH was not so sure, and, on this occasion at least, she was right.

No doubt about the Peabodiness of these flats, a little to the south of the Lowlander. I wonder what the tenancy arrangements are? Social needs? What the market will bear? A mixture, depending whether you want the walls painted or not?

A brand new bus to take us to Waterloo. Maybe its first day out.

With the outing completed by a couple of heritage items from the Raynes Park platform library. On the left, a short book about the mysteries of spoken English. What looks to be an interesting complement to the study of grammar and vocabulary. On the right, some 20th century short stories from the US. Both books cheaply produced, in Moscow, in English, for mass consumption in the Soviet Union in the early 1980's. I wonder if this sort of thing has survived its demise.

Well not quite completed. There was the matter of the Sainsbury's trolley outside Costa, a long way from home. And the lemons from Tesco's immediately outside the station. Thin skins, but a modest 35p each and which did perfectly well for lemon tea.

 

PS: I read this morning in yesterday's Guardian of another exhibition at the visitor centre at Stonehenge itself, featuring, inter alia, very roughly contemporary stone circles from Japan. Bonsai stone circles in the sense that they are made of pebbles rather than boulders. See reference 2. Perhaps something for the autumn to come.

References

Reference 1: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2022/04/to-stones.html.

Reference 2: https://www.english-heritage.org.uk/visit/places/stonehenge/things-to-do/exhibitions/circles-of-stone/.

Reference 3: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2022/05/penalty-beef.html.

Reference 4: https://www.lowlander.com/.

Reference 5: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2022/05/fake-142.html. A fake picked up after Lowlander.

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