Monday 28th March

The British havent had a pay rise in about 5 years and the inflation rate is 5%, so they are noticing it and with the threat of 500,000 public service jobs being cut over the next 5 years, well the ramifications are enormous.  I felt for the police during the protest rally on Saturday as they are going to experience cuts as well but they were having to control the crowd whilst no doubt wanting to be walking side by side with the protesters.  

The mornings are very brisk but the days have been crackers, we were even able to shed a layer yesterday, but we did cover quiet a distance, in fact we walked our little trotters off, hence the need to put our feet up and have a few to many pints last evening. The price of meals and pints are surprisingly much cheaper than we thought, for breakfast yesterday we payed $8 for the two of us for breakfast and cup of tea.  Last nights dinner was $7 per meal and $4.50 per pint, and in Australia the pints would cost us $7.50.  

Walking around London is like walking around the Monopoly Board, we are staying in Northumberland Avenue in TrafalgarSquare, today we are heading to Oxford Street. I have always been a big  fan of Monopoly and now I think I am more so.  I loved seeing a dog walker, a very effeminate man walking four poodles down the street.  This was a sight i was expecting when we got to Pais, not in London.

The British Museum is incredible founded in 1753, the Museums remarkable collection spans over 2 million years of human history.  We travelled the world experiencing the collections from Africa, Asia, Europe, the Americans and the Ancient world.   Including iconic objects such as the Rosetta Stone, the Parthenon sculptures and Egyptian mummies.  On Spocks recent trip to Jerusalem he purchased a coin  450 BC the Athenian Owl, we looked for one in the museums coin collection but were unsuccessful, that was the only dissapointment for the museum.  The museum is huge and on several levels and it took the best part of the morning to see the small part that we did, one could easily spend a week at the museum and still not cover all the displays.  

The Imperial War Museum was the next on our list to see and we walked there loosing our way once or twice but enjoying the sights we were seeing along the way.   Walked through west end on our way, all the musicals are still running Pricilla, Billy Elliot, Wicked and many more.   The war Museum was full of relics from every war from world war I onwards, it was a magnificent display and a lot of fun.   The holocaust exhibition was very disturbing and emotionally exhausting, but very very powerful.   Foot weary we walked back to the hotel and rested up for a bit before we went around the corner to a lovely little pub for dinner and bent our elbows perhaps a bit to much.  But these ales and ciders are grand.