Half Term Holiday -

We arrived at Liz’s flat just after 10 on Sunday night.

The DJ Deckstand got assembled and Jon started loading it up [but Bob and he still didn’t finish dusting it!] I just sat around drinking tea and eating toast and Liz’s home-made pumpkin jam [and mending things with my sewing kit]

On Monday morning, Bob and I went over to Clapham, and sorted out the curtains in Steph’s bedroom [drill and sewing kit much in evidence] then we went with the girls to Brixton and had lunch in FrancoMancas

They specialise in sourdough pizzas- and even do them without cheese [for people like me!]

Then we went on to the Museum of London by tube. Steph appears to be hunting for something elusive in her bag. Bob just looks contented and relaxed.

We wanted to see the exhibition of London Street Photography.

This was really interesting, and showed pictures going back 150 years.

We spent ages wandering round looking at the images. They were mostly black and white, and beautifully arranged.

 

Then we walked down the Victorian Street – passing the intricately carved doors and interior of one of Selfridge’s original lifts

I enjoyed looking at the display about the Safety Match Factory built by the Salvation army [much better working conditions than those offered by Bryant And May] Lights In Darkest England

We also admired the Suffragette information, including this wonderful handstitched banner

After that, we went home again, and in the evening went out to Steph’s local, The Calf, for a Quiz Night.

We didn’t do too badly- it was unfortunate that I had confidently identified the photos of the two schoolboys as “Tony Blair and Gordon Brown” when in fact they were “Adolf Hitler and Charles Manson”! But we clawed back points when Liz correctly identified the collective noun for cockroaches as “An intrusion”

Steph was keen that the others should sample her company’s latest “Goat Beer” [she works for MillerBrands]

There are no goats involved in the production – but apparently there is a goat who lives at the Czech Brewery where the stuff is made!

On Tuesday Steph had to go to work, but Liz had taken a second day’s holiday. We went up to Lincoln’s Inn Fields to look round the Sir John Soane’s Museum

I cannot begin to tell you enough about this place- absolutely packed full of artefacts and curios collected by the wealthy man, who turned the back part of his home into a display area for them – Greek and Roman statuary, an Egyptian sarcophagus, paintings [evocative Canalettos and busy Hogarths and many others] beautiful furniture. I discovered that the colour of our own humble Dining Room is actually quite close to “Turner’s Patent Yellow” [but he never made his by mixing up leftover pots in the shed!]

This sarcophagus is believed to be that of Pharaoh Seti.

He is probably the one who ordered the murder of all those little Hebrew babies – and his daughter was the one who lifted baby Moses out of the bulrushes.

All very interesting in view of Bob’s recent Exodus sermons.

 

We spent ages looking round. Then off to lunch – at Itsu

“Our mantra is health & happiness. We make and sell butterfly light soups, sushi, noodles & rice bowls, all freshly made on site.”

Liz and Bob had pots of noodles and chicken – I had rice and chicken. It was fast, hot and utterly delicious.

Then on to the British Museum.

We loved the [free] Eric Gill exhibition – although it was rather small [“housed in a broom cupboard” Jon said later]

The man who designed the wonderful Gill Sans Typeface and produced some wonderful sculptures was incredibly gifted – but in many respects, utterly bonkers"!

We wondered about looking at the “Egyptian Book Of The Dead” Exhibit – but decided that at £12 each that was rather a lot of money. So we just went round the free Egyptian stuff instead.

 

Bob was transfixed by the massive sculpture of the head of Rameses II.

He’s the son of Seti [see above] and therefore likely to be the guy that Moses confronted. God says “Let My People Go!”

I love the way that artefacts in the British Museum go right back to Bible Stories.

I remember being taken as a child, by my Dad, to see many of these things – and he explained the connections. Real people, true stories…

There’s always time to send a text to someone you love!

We admired the Assyrians for the intricate details of carving on their beards. Liz liked the way this one was posing with his bag.

 

It may only be February, but I started thinking about Holiday Club [Exodus Themed this year] and looking at some hieroglyphics

Forget your synthetic phonics – every Egyptian schoolboy knows the rule is “Eye before bird, except after wave”

After that, more refreshment, coffee and ice-cream in “Scoop”

This was splendid. A 10-year old called Esther was celebrating her birthday – they brought out an ice-cream cake. We joined in the singing, and she kindly brought three slices of cake to our table for us!We’d already sampled coffee, gelati, and a waffle!

Back to Elephant and Castle for a bit of a rest, and then in the evening, we went round to Mamuska, the lovely, homely, Polish restaurant for one of their extremely generous [ but remarkably inexpensive] meals.

Jon is very suspicious of my camera, and muttered about that blog.

But it was all so tasty! The other three sampled the Polish Beer

 

Tyskie is apparently the most popular Polish beer both in Poland and in the UK.

And guess what- MillerBrands bottle that too!

disclaimer – I should point out that the pastor did not spend all his time in London drinking beer!

It is not the responsibility of the rest of the family to keep Steph’s employer in business.

We all entered the competition on the label to win holidays in Poland. You never know!

It was a brilliant break, and we seemed to cram an amazing amount into just 2½ days. Home well before mid-day Wednesday, and back to all the usual home stuff.

Thank you, Liz, Jon and Steph for giving us such a lovely time.

Hope to see you again soon!