Corking

Well as we are on holiday, it was up early to try and beat everyone else to the Science Museum this morning. While James had spent a decent amount of time in there in the past, I’d only seen half of it last summer when we had just arrived in London. So it seemed a great time to see the other half. Plus there is an exhibition ‘Game on’ at the moment exploring the history, technology and culture of computer games.

We were at the door of the museum 15 minutes before it opened and joined the thronging crowd (well about 30) hanging round trying to stay out of the wind. The early start was well worth it as we were among the first to get into Game on and had all the arcade games to our selves. We played ‘Space War‘ the first ever computer game – invented in the 60′s. Two small, blue shapes pretending to be spaceships moving round a screen trying to shoot each other. It was quite a bit of fun actually.

There were rows and rows of old computer games to be played with and James moved from one to the next with a little gleam in his eye. A gleam with turned to a disbelieving laugh when I had to reveal I hadn’t played ‘Pac Man’. It was a little scary actually, seeming something which was cutting edge in my childhood sitting in a museum case.

But it was great, there was a version of the ‘Monkeyball‘ game which you played by standing in front of a camera and leaned the right way. James was even defeated by one game. You were some kind of flying robot and had to shoot other flying robots. There were two joysticks each with little ‘thumb joysticks’, a dash board covered with switches and buttons and things that lit up. Underneath there were three pedals, one labeled accelerator and the middle one was ‘brake’. As for the third, we still don’t know what it is….

At the end of the exhibition we queued up and managed to play for 5 minutes on the Wii. If you don’t know it, its a computer game with a wireless controller that you wield as a tennis racket, a golf club or a sword. We were playing tennis, all you had to do was swing either in a forehand or back hand when you felt your character on the screen needs to hit the ball. Sounds simple but 5 minutes was just long enough to get the hang of it before we were herded out to let someone else have a go. Lots of fun I have to say – even if it is a silly name.

With the festivities over and most of the chocolate gone it is time to do a bit of a catch up. I was feeling in need of some treats for Christmas so while James slumbered peacefully on Saturday it was off to the Borough Market. Intending to avoid the crowds on the last market before St. Nick attacked chimneys world-wide I was there just after it opened. I was not the only one to have planned to shop early though and arrived to find queues 30-40 deep outside the poultry store.

With the press of the crowd I didn’t plan to stay long so rediscovered my favorite olive stall and visited the ‘one pound man’. Its not the name of the stall but almost everything there is just one pound. There was a Christmas market on at the time but it was essentially the same stalls with prettier lights and more people. Having frittered away the better part of £15 in as many minutes it was off home to enjoy the fruits of my labour. I did take photos so you can have a nose too.

In the run up to Christmas London emptied somewhat – despite the ‘Killer Fog Travel Chaos’ as reported in the Evening Standard. So James and I took advantage of a quieter London and Tube and headed up to the Natural History Museum for the Saturday afternoon. He’d spent a while round it before so we meandered round a great collection in a fascinating building. It is a wonderful place and up there fighting with Westminster for my favourite building in London. More photos here….