The weather was much nicer today; low forties and simply cloudy... no rain. I headed up the street and around the bend to the entrance to the park. There I took a jog mostly just following the perimeter of the lake/pond that runs through the middle of the park. Within minutes I did have to take a quick stop though as I passed the well remembered Peter Pan statue. I remember taking pictures there at the age of 7... maybe tossing some bread to ducks... oh the nostalgia... Anyway, I started up again, headed under the bridge and around the lake. The statue was by far my favorite place, if for no other reason then the memory of it. That said, there are a lot of ducks/birds/swans. At one point I saw a heron too, and that was cool. Anyway, after about 45 minutes to an hour I headed back to the flat.
My morning there consisted of little more than breakfast, coffee, a shower and some random things online. Most important of note was booking myself a room for my visit to Oxford. Other than that there were more emails and things to read. As 11 approached Margaret and I got ready to head to the Fan Museum in Greenwich.
The trip itself was uneventful, but we exit the train station in Greenwich onto a little alleyway that I described as quite quaint. It had a bunch of little shops on it as it curved up a slight slope to the main road. We were both a bit surprised to find that the fan museum to be labeled on the street signs. But, the museum was a short walk away and we headed there. Once there we at first bought tickets, and then mentioned our particular relation to the museum. This led to the following...
The woman selling tickets was very polite but did not know much. We had a pleasant conversation about where we were from and that our great grandmother had donated a couple hundred fans. Meanwhile, a man from the other room came in, and after a disclaimer of not eavesdropping inquired if we had just mentioned 'Young' as in ... 'Harold Young'. When we confirmed we welcomed us warmly and went to see if Helen Alexander would have a chance to meet us. Unfortunately, she appears to have been preoccupied. As we were looking around a ground floor room, we were returned our money for admission, despite declining it. Instead, we just made sure to spend it at their shop before leaving.
The museum is... very small. The ground floor had a nice introduction that discussed fans ranging from materials (including ivory, tortoise shell, and mother of pearl) to how they've changed. For materials I enjoyed learning the "mother of pearl" is actually a material. I had previously thought that that was a phase used sort of as a polite swear. Oops... the progression I thought was hilarious and showed great taste in humor. It had a large number of handhold fans, and at the very end had a set of modern electric blade fans. Yes... I suppose they technically are fans.
Upstairs, today was the first day of their current display on "Everyday Life", that is, fans who's artwork portrays everyday people doing ordinary things. In terms of the collection's presentation, I enjoyed that most of the fans were mounted in front of mirrors to display their backs. With the exhibit were 3 fans, once owned by my great grandmother and donated by my grandmother, Leanna, and her sister, Lucinda. The first was titled 'La Promenade' and is supposedly an American fan from 1880. It is a wooden fan with a painting of a country scene with a cottage in its center. To one side is a girl under some blossoming trees by a pond with some swans. To the other side is a couple walking along a path through the woods. The second fan of hers was titled 'Putting on a Face'. This was my favorite of my great grandmother's fans on display. It was a great set of greens and blues. A wooden fan, with the leaf covering the top half of the ribs. The fan displayed a sailboat on a lake, sailing towards a sunset on the wooden ribs themselves. Meanwhile, the leaf was a simple green with a painting of a woman and mirror, putting on makeup. The third and final fan on display was a Japanese fan from 1890 titled 'Differing to the Gentleman'. It was an image of a Japanese woman under some chrysanthemums while a japanese man holding a closed fan sat as an onlooker from a nearby chair.
After the exhibit, we visit the shop, made some polite farewells and departed. We headed down to a fish and chips shop for our 1 required english meal. In the words of Auto from A Fish Called Wanda... "What is it that the English love to eat with their chips???" Fish! So yea, I had fish and chips and a pint of an English bitters beer. It was everything I thought it would be...which was a low bar. Fried fish and french fries with a beer. It is what you sign up for.
Then we headed to the observatory, home of the Prime Meridian. I felt a bit the nerd when I found myself wondering where the "Composite Meridian" was located... Anyway, that also brought back some fond memories from my first visit to London. As we stood on the line and took pictures, we looked at the engravings of different cities along the line, each one listed with their geographic location. We both chuckled as we realized how large a percentage of those cities we'd been to.
We then headed back to the flat. When we exited the train station though, we took a quick detour to Hyde Park and the Peter Pan Statue. That was a picture that simply had to be taken for old times sake. It was funny to remember being small enough to climb the statue. Conversely... I am now as tall as the base of the statue...
With that we headed back to the flat. I bought a few more groceries, and with that made some more food. I plan to stay up as late as possible to deal with this jetlag, but we'll see how far that gets me...
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