Re gloves/scarf -claire's, I should think! Accessory shop to be found in any shopping centre - an Aladdin's cave for girls of a certain age.
We had a great time.
I had a great time too, and it was a perfect kid day for S&N. Thanks for showing us around.
Ah, yes. Known i my children's childhood as "the dinosaur museum". A truly wonderful place.
I hope you stayed out of the toyshop
3. No, that's the Natural History Museaum. They can do that tomorrow.
Free museums are probably the best thing about London. Certainly for tourists, who are otherwise being ripped off constantly.
Certainly for tourists, who are otherwise being ripped off constantly.
As far as I can tell, everyone is getting ripped off constantly.
If someone could have the London Science Museum boxed up and sent to New York for us, Sally and Newt would appreciate that a great deal.
So would I! A friend moved there last year to take a curatorship in the psych department, and I'd love to have him back on this side of the pond.
True, but it's worse if you're a tourist. Not just the obvious stuff to trap the unwary, like Aberdeen Steakhouses, but things like the Oyster "discount", which work fine for locals but really badly for tourists.
More generally, if you know London well you'll be know plenty of good value restaurants/pubs etc and can usually avoid the unjustifiably expensive ones. If you don't, it's easy to pay more than you should.
re: 8
Yeah, true. I've been noticing that friends who live near me seem to choose to drink in some slightly dubious pubs which, surprise, turn out to be much cheaper than usual.
I was just walking by there in May, but it was about an hour before closing, and I figured it wasn't worth paying admission just to see it for an hour. Whoops, as I found out later that night, it's free! Dammit.
It has enormous banners outside saying "FREE ADMISSION"
SP can't read, Ginger Yellow. Way to make him feel bad.
It's really a self-perpetuating cycle. SP couldn't read the signs that said that public school is free, so he never went to school, which means he never learned how to read in the first place. We need a special international symbol for free, the way we have one for men's room.
the way we have one for men's room.
We do? Damn, I wish somebody'd told me years ago.
I hope you stayed out of the toyshopHamley's.
The science museum is indeed amazing. I was there last year with my then-four-year-old, and when we got kicked out at closing time he insisted we go back a second day to see more (so yes, good thing it's free).
Strangely, I did notice the giant "FREE" sign outside another museum further down Brompton- Victoria and Albert- but wasn't interested in going in that one. I guess I'm just scientifically illiterate. Instead I spent my free time going to Harrod's and wandering around Kensington Gardens.
I want to spend a day with Asilon and family and LB and family!
The V&A isn't very sciencey. More arts and craftsy.
the toyshop, though, is in the science museum. In my memory, we would start in the dinosaur museum and walk through into the science museum because there was a very limited child interest in all the rocks and non-dinosaur things in the NHM
I may have to blow out tomorrow evening. I have a work meeting just dropped on me at 10.30 in the morning, which wouldn't matter, except that I have a lunch in Cambridge.
More arts and craftsy.
And they've just dumbed down their once fantastic costume exhibition by hiding most of the beautiful early modern stuff and replacing it with examples of late 20th century celebrity designers whose names nobody will remember in 20 years' time.
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Notes on the evolution of Unfogged: Time was when people would have all over this headline like ants on a beer spill. Tempora mutantur et nos mutantur in illis.
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23: "I was a little sloppy out of the blocks, but I was able to hold on," he added.
The worst thing about the South Ken museums is that they have made the Geological Museum part of the Nat Hist Museum (and call it the Earth Galleries), and they have *got rid of the old earthquake machine*. There is a new one, but it's not as good, and the narration is just disappointing.
On the upside, the newish rooms at the V&A dedicated to glass are extremely excellent.* It is still very confusingly signed though.
*But I bet when they installed the Dale Chihuly chandelier they didn't think about how hard it would be to keep properly dusted. Also it would give the abdabs working at reception right underneath it.
I have to say that when I was last in the Science Museum (I think for the first time) I had the impression they'd gone a bit far in catering to the "assume you need to entertain a small boy" market, and also in "hey, ex-rocket museum-going small boy turned director of a medium sized engineering firm, would you consider sponsoring our exhibit about Formula One cars?"
But where else do you run into an Apollo lander, the only satellite launcher to orbit its payload successfully three months after the project was cancelled, and Alan Turing's Pilot ACE within twenty yards of each other?
27: When I worked at OMSI I dreaded working the Earth Sciences hall because of the earthquake simulator. Every few minutes it would start up playing a really tinny bubblegum-pop version of "I feel the Earth move" before launching into a simulated 6.0 earthquake. I still cringe when I hear that song.
29: The Disneyfication of science museums is terribly sad. There is no reason that hands-on exhibits have to be reduced to the level of video games, or that exhibit copy has to be written with the stupidest possible visitor in mind. Send the stupid people to theme parks, and let the curious ones actually learn stuff.
27 -- What?? I am SO MAD they got rid of that earthquake machine. I lived in London for a few months as a kid in the early 1980s -- seriously, it has to be the worlds greatest kid city -- haven't been back to London for more than a few days since, and have always wanted to go back to that earthquake machine. Oh well.
I liked the Imperial War Museum a lot as a kid, and, who am I kidding, it's probably the first place I'd go if I could arrange a trip back over there. But that's probably not a taste you want to encourage in your kids.
Also it would give the abdabs working at reception right underneath it.
What? What would it give them?
Or, possibly, to whom would it give them?
27: Pittsburgh has (or as of last year had) an earthquake machine at the Science Museum. It's a pretty small one, but you can pick from among four different earthquakes to re-create.
32: Urban Dictionary exists for a reason, neb.
Happy to have learned a new word (abdabs / habdabs). Apparently heebie's long-lost British cousin - the OED explicitly compares it to "the screaming heebie-jeebies."
The Science Museum is very much aimed at small children (and yes, mainly boys), but I'm not sure that's such a bad thing. Most museums are really dull for children, and I know the Science Museum helped foster my early interest in science.
Also, adults have less need for science museums these days, I think. We have blogs and podcasts and David Attenborough/Jim Al Khalili documentaries.
35,36: Or more authoritative sources.
35: it still lacks either a direct or an indirect object.
I take it we are to understand that it would give [one] the abdabs working at reception, or that it would give the abdabs [to those] working at reception. But that is no excuse for sloppy writing.
Sloppy writing is it's own joy.
IIRC you could crank the old London earthquake machine up to an 8.0 or maybe higher, and it was totally scary and dangerous-feeling. This is based on my memory as an 8 year old of course.
We had a real earthquake here yesterday, but it was both boring and seasickness/nausea-inducing.
An earthquake machine sounds like something only a supervillain should have.
Science museums tend to bore me these days, plus they're creepy in more ways than one.
IIRC, my wife and I went to the Science Museum on one of our early dates, and spent far too long a time trying to build some bridge puzzle.
The Pitt Rivers in Oxford is an excellent kid museum. Not because they go out of their way to cater for kids but because it's essentially a dark jumbled place full of macabre shit.
@33: It would give me them. Or you. Or whomever. It's like giving the all-clear, it doesn't need a stated object to be comprehensible. Less is more.
I never really liked it as a kid, but then I don't really go in for collections of "ethnic" artifacts. I tend to appreciate museum exhibits on a fairly shallow aesthetic basis. If it looks nice, I'm interested. Otherwise I'm not. I'd rather read a book about the culture in question, to be honest.
How to crochet basic fingerless mittens
I don't know if Sally is old enough to crochet, but it's fairly simple--I taught myself last year using a "Kids Can Crochet" book--and wanting to make something that a cool 12-year-old wears might be sufficient incentive to learn.
42: It did not strike me the first time you made that comment, but it is apt to think of a place like the AMNH as an "immersive experience" historical museum of early 20th century natural history museums.
Incidentally, since we're discussing British museums and tourism, any visiting Americans (or others!) should be sure to check out the Darwin centre at the Natural History Museum, which opened recently. Make sure to do so on a weekday, though, so that you get to see the scientists at work and make faces at them through the windows. The main exhibits in the Darwin Centre are a bit underwhelming, but a) there's the staring at scientists bit, and b) you can take a guided tour of the speciment storage area, where they keep all the freaky stuff in formaldehyde.
check out the Darwin centre at the Natural History Museum
What does Mr. Darwin have to do with natural history?
49: Hey. Lincoln meet-up over the summer?