Dinner in the club to make life easier, then to bed.
Slept surprisingly well considering jet lag. Breakfast in the club and then in the tube to the Museum of Natural History where Simon had booked a tour. The museum was very busy, especially anywhere where there were dinosaurs. What did small children obsess about before dinosaurs were discovered and diggers were invented?
The tour was very good and the guide informative, although I was gutted when as he introduced us to Sophie the Stegosaurus he casually mentioned that dinosaur scientists hate the term “Thagomizer” for the spiky bit on the end of their tails. Mind you, he also said “The Far Side “ cartoons dated from the 1950’s so clearly he wasn’t 100% correct about everything. I can’t imagine any scientist not liking The Far Side but maybe that’s very Gen X of me.
From the museum district we walked back through the posh areas of London to the club, including through several parks.
It turns out that there was a Far Right march organised for today, so there were many streets blocked off and a heavy police presence, as well as constant helicopters buzzing around above us. We never saw the march but later in the afternoon, when we were looking for somewhere to eat, all the pubs were filled with young people with short haircuts draped in the St George flag.
We ended up having an early dinner at a posh restaurant instead. It had a special deal for early diners, but the spanakopita I had tasted very odd and I could only eat half of it.
On the tube earlier in the day I’d seen an ad for the new Hercules musical, which I didn’t even know was a thing. It’s one of my favourite Disney movies, so on the spur of the moment I bought a ticket for this evening’s performance (just me as Simon is not a live theatre fan). A quick nap after dinner, and then I set out to walk the 20 minutes to the West End. As I was leaving the club I noticed a march of protesters outside. The doorman assured me it was safe to go out, so I stepped out to find it was a counter protest to the earlier Right Wing march – a bunch of Liberals chanting that refugees were welcome. It went some way to restoring my faith in humanity, and actually brought tears to my eyes. It was an eye opener having to make my way past the riot squad as I headed to my musical.
The show was absolutely terrific, I had no hesitation in joining the standing ovation at the end.
