Up the Pompeys

Yesterday to the British Museum to see the Pompeii exhibition and being a special occasion we took the front left upstairs seats on the 59 bus from the new-to-us remodelling of the north bound bus stops north of Waterloo Station for our journey to Russell Square, where we took our sandwiches, while being entertained by the strenuous looking exercises of what appeared to be a young man on his lunch break. The only odd thing was that he did nor more than five or so of any one movement before moving onto the next. I would prefer to have a proper go at one before moving onto the next, although it should be said that my days for public exercises of this sort are long gone.

Despite entertainment we were still a little early for our timed tickets for Pompeii, so we took a quick peek at the nearby Enlightenment Room (see March 6th 2012 in the other place) where I found a case containing both an old Greek pot and the Wedgwood version of it and it was interesting to see how Josiah had smoothed the original design down, lost all of its rawness and most of its punch. A smooth and anodyne possession for an upwardly mobile bourgeois.

Subsequent management of entry to the Pompeii exhibition was a bit slack, not up to the standards of the Tate, and the exhibition itself was badly overcrowded, both in the sense that there were far too many people and that there were far too many exhibits for the space. Also rather hot. I was left feeling that what had been an impressive domed reading room had been put to a poor & wasteful use. Could they not have found something better to do with it?

What one could see of the exhibits did interest, but would have interested a lot more in better conditions. Curious how these special exhibitions attract huge crowds when all the stuff, much of it of comparable interest in the regular galleries, does not. I have observed the same phenomena in picture galleries.

Out to the courtyard for tea and hotdog, this last not bad at all taken without ketchup or mustard. Here we were entertained by a smart, slim young lady in full warpaint including high heels and a smart pleated skirt, something I have always had a weakness for. Not altogether clear what she was doing there, apart from having herself photographed while posing, on her mobile phone by some Japanese tourists.

On the way back to the 59 bus stop strolled past the very grand looking Victoria House and wondered what it might have been built for, having now sunk to housing Amway (http://www.amway.co.uk/) on the ground floor, an outfit which we knew as a rather odd pyramid sales outfit back in the 70's of the last century. Checking Wikipedia this morning, I find that I had guessed right and the place was built for Liverpool Victoria Friendly Society, which I believe now operates out of some far less grand building on the outskirts of Bournemouth. Probably not a Friendly Society any more either, rather some rapacious member of the capitalist clan.

At Waterloo we attempted to find bread, to find that Kronditur & Cook could not help us. However, on the off chance strolled up to the Carluccio's on the new mezzanine, where I was able to buy a very decent Italian loaf, well worth the £2.95 I paid for it. Not least because of the nice manners of the young lady who sold it to me. The bread was taken with chicken soup, this being the last two of the six meals we had out of our perch reared chicken for £5 from Tesco's. Excellent value. And excellent soup, demonstrating once again the value of adding mashed potato to the stock once boiled. Further flavoured with celery & carrot, sliced thin, and the remainder of the chicken, diced coarse. All in all, a good day out.