So, as it was my birthday during the week my good lady wife took me out for a surprise day out yesterday. As usual I frustrated her by not wishing to know where we were going or what we were doing until we actually arrived there! Mwa ha haaa!
It was a lovely day, and comprised a wander round St James's Park with a homemade picnic in the sunshine by the lake, then a jaunt up to Barbican and a visit to the 'Dickens and London' exhibition at the Museum of London. Nothing earth-shattering, just a great day out and thoroughly enjoyed. In the evening we went out locally for tapas at El Molino in Penge. Fabulous!
I'm only blogging about it because we made a couple of curious observations that got us thinking about aspects of contemporary life.
The first was in St James's Park, where we were picnicking on a bench - not having a rug to sit on the grass with. It was amazing the number of people giving us odd looks and making comments as they went past. We were getting as much attention as the waterfowl on the lake! And no, my flies weren't undone - I checked. Is picnicking such a rare or curious activity? Or was it the fact that we'd brought some wonderful homemade food with us (cheese muffins, red onion & goats cheese tartlets, mini cottage loaves - yum) and not picked up tasteless pre-fabricated sandwiches and some sort of 'meal deal' extras from a shop?!
To clarify:
- we weren't in anyone's way
- we weren't taking up anymore space than two seats on a bench between us
- we were fully and normally clothed
- it was nice weather for a picnic
Maybe if I'd put my hat out people would have thrown us some small change? If I thought there was a living in it I'd happily hawk us both around the fairs and bazaars of the land, picnicking for the entertainment of all and sundry.
The next 'issue' was when we had just entered the 'Dickens and London' exhibition, and is no doubt a popular subject for ranters and angry people everywhere: mobile phones. In fairness I didn't see any signs requesting that people turn off or silence their mobile phones whilst in the museum - but then should you have to? I don't think so. There's a certain reverential etiquette to being in libraries, art galleries, exhibitions and museums generally. So we're reading the first couple of displays and a mobile phone rings. The lady answers it. The lady then has a reasonably long and loud conversation on it. 'Hello?!' This woman was probably around 50 and therefore old enough to remember what life was like before we all had mobile phones.
I was rather surprised that the exhibition attendants didn't come over and suggest that since she was so near the entrance she might like to step away to take the call. Shamefully neither I nor anyone else said anything to her either, but barging in next to me and obscuring Edward Bulwer-Lytton once she'd finished her call did confirm my hunch that she had the manners and social graces of a goat.
The exhibition wasn't packed, but it was certainly busy and there was some jostling for position from time to time. My wife got annoyed with an old boy who obviously thought it was acceptable to lean against her backpack rather than ask if she'd excuse him. Some guy also took a call, but he at least had the good will to be discreet and whisper & head away from everybody. Interestingly when my mother-in-law visited the exhibition some time back she was asked by another lady to hurry up when she was trying to locate her home area on the large map of Dickensian London, because she also wanted to look in the same place. Presumably this lady also steals library books from people's hands, or shopping from other people's trolleys if she can't get to what she wants straight away...
Aside from the behaviour of other visitors, the exhibition itself was engaging and illuminating. Sometimes it can get wearisome just looking at dead people's personal belongings and day-to-day ephemera, but there was a good balance between personal items and the more contextual pieces representing society at large. The doors from Newgate prison probably impressed me the most out of everything. The manuscripts and corrected novel proofs are a timely reminder of how much labour went into his work, as well as how difficult his handwriting is to read!
We went in on the 14:30 session and easily lost three hours inside. It's not an exhibition for casual browsing - there is much to be learnt from the information plaques and from close scrutiny of the display items. We particularly enjoyed the reproductions of the periodicals containing the latest instalment of Nicholas Nickelby and other novels, and one really gets the feeling that in book form you lose so much of the cultural context surrounding these episodic publications, with their adverts for quack health remedies and announcements of local events.
As we staggered back out into the daylight, tired but educated, I realised yet again how badly read I am in Dickens, and Sian decided she wants to read Dombey & Son next, since she knows very little about it! If I'm going to read anything in the short term it'll be Sketches By Boz, which was probably the most quoted work in the exhibition and certainly the one that the most attention was drawn to, it being a collection of short pieces dealing very much with London culture and life.
It's only on until early June, but if anyone is umming and ahhing about it I'd say go, and go now! (and watch out for middle aged people who have forgotten their manners!)
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