Last week I had the unfortunate privilege of turning 34. It hit me a little harder than I thought it would, and I'm still not sure why. It just felt old.
In order to alleviate my suffering Fiona had been spoiling me all week with some great presents, including the re-introduction of surround sound into our home entertainment system, some classic Blu-Rays and a few shirts to keep me looking stylish. But she saved the best for later in the week, having arranged a weekend trip to London. We left Aberdeen on Thursday night and hopped the train and tube from Heathrow to our hotel on Tower Hill. We had a great view of the city from our room on the 10th floor, but quickly traded it for a seat in the hotel bar. We had a couple of drinks and watched the world go by. Surprisingly we also found a pretty good Tex-Mex snack platter amongst the other more traditional offerings on the bar menu - the mozzarella sticks and BBQ chicken wings perhaps being the hotel's birthday gift for me.
Friday was my actual birthday, and has it had so many times in the past, the weather fully co-operated. It was sunny and bright, with temps in the mid-twenties. Our room was perfectly air-conditioned and we were already familiar with the extremely high quality of the bed, so we had a little bit of a lie-in before our big English breakfast. Once the beans, toast and mushrooms had settled sufficiently we hopped on the Tube and headed for the British Museum.
Because of the weather we took our time getting there, stopping in the odd shop. Being my birthday one of them was a comic book shop and Fiona let me browse to my heart's content. I only realized later, after lugging them through the museum for a few hours, that perhaps it would have been better to re-visit the shop later in the day - especially since one of the titles I picked up was Allan Moore's seminal (and incredibly large) "From Hell". Fiona had figured this out, apparently, as we stopped in at the antique bookstore after museum and she bought me some first edition copies of Churchill's "A History of the English Speaking Peoples".
The museum itself was spectacular. It was busy, but not so much so that it ruined the experience. I don't think we had ever seen this amount of antiquities in one place before. The Egyptian and Assyrian exhibits were the stars of the show, but the Roman and European exhibits were also really cool. All the guide books warn about trying to see all of the museum in one day, or attempting to do it without a plan, and I think we would agree with that sentiment. We latched on to a BBC program called "The history of the world in 100 objects" which attempts to show the history of human development through ... well, you get the idea. But 70 out of the 100 objects were in the British Museum, so we browsed through most of the halls quickly and spent our time at the specifically labeled objects. We stopped for lunch at the posh bistro on the museum's second floor, and, suitably refreshed, headed back in to see the showpieces - the Rosetta Stone and the Elgin Marbles. The Rosetta Stone was smaller than I thought it would be and surrounded by a crowd and their associated camera flashes. While cool to see, I think it gets most of its cool factor from its historical significance. There were far more interesting tablets and carved stones, covered in tiny cuniform scrawl with subjects covering ancient kings granting tax free status to their favorite charioteers and stories resembling the biblical flood narrative. The Elgin Marbles were cool and well-displayed. I was assured of that fact by an exhibit about why the Marbles should stay in the museum. But they were amazing examples of Greek artistry. Whether they should stay there or go back to Greece, well, I can see both sides of that argument. But if they had to give back everything they stole, there really wouldn't be much left.
We Tubed it back to the hotel on time because Fiona had organized dinner at a swanky restaurant in the West End called Quaglino's. We got all dressed up as you should do when you go to a place with a doorman, a live jazz band playing in the lounge and cigar & cigarette girl selling Cohibas (post-dinner cigar = perfection). Having planned this quite a bit ahead, we were quickly escorted to a reserved seat in the lounge where a chilled bottle of champaign was waiting for us. Have I mentioned before what a great woman my wife is?
Dinner was fabulous. I had a great starter with scallops and guacamole, followed by a terrific steak. To top it all off, Fiona had arranged for a cake. It was great, which was a good thing because they only make cakes for parties of 6. We ate this delicious cake for the next two days back at the hotel.
Saturday was reserved for another museum we had wanted to see for a while now - the Victoria and Albert Museum. Their specialty is the integration of art and design in industry, so the exhibits were somewhat different that what you would see elsewhere. It is also cavernous. It goes on and on and on ...
We knew it would be a good day when we got to the museum and saw sign that the temporary exhibit would be all about Grace Kelly. People who have watched "Rear Window" with me, would know how I felt about that. Unfortunately, in probably the only thing that didn't work out all weekend, the exhibit was sold out. But the rest of the museum was awe-inspiring. By the end we had a new appreciation for all sorts of different craftmanship - perhaps none more so than for carved ivory. There were other highlights, including an elaborately decorated gaming board, an old cup used in drinking games, tapestries and a really cool exhibit on the art behind theatre performances. We left knowing that we would need another couple of visits to see everything the museum had to offer.
We left on time and went back to the hotel for a room service dinner. Time was of the essence as we had tickets to see Macbeth at the Globe. It was great seeing "the Scottish play" in the open air, sitting in the covered stalls as a light rain fell on the spectators and actors. It was neat to have been to many of the places mentioned in the play. The play itself was really well done - gory to the extreme, with eyes gouged out, tongues cut out and people emerging from the sides of the stage doused in blood, dragging others to their doom. They had spread a black tarp out over the standing area in front of the stage, cutting holes for audience members to stick their heads out and view, giving the whole theatre an "underworld" kind of feel.
On Sunday we walked across Tower Bridge to the south bank, where we met some friends for lunch. We spent the rest of the afternoon going through Harrod's and napping in the sun in Hyde Park. We went back to the hotel early and turned in, completely tuckered out.
On Monday we had another good lie-in and packed up our possessions for the trip home. The trip was uneventful and we were glad to be home. We went to pick up Casey who had stayed with friends for the weekend. As usual, they were reluctant to give her up.
After all that, understandably, I'm feeling a little bit better about getting older. Maybe even looking forward to next year's birthday ...
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