Breakfast and Ballgowns

Yesterday was our final day of sightseeing before Sarah catches her plane this morning back to the U.S. It's been great to see her, but I must admit I am exhausted. We've crammed a lot of activities into this week and I'm looking forward to being a vegetable for the next day or two.

On Thursday we went to the British Museum, where I promptly lost Sarah in the vast rooms dedicated to museum displays of the Enlightenment era. She wandered up ahead while I lingered over Maori pendants from New Zealand, and the next thing I knew, she was gone, swallowed up by a crowd of about a million museum spectators. Because she'd been living in France her cell phone doesn't function here, so I couldn't call or text her. I knew she had our address so she could always make her way home, but that didn't clarify what I should do. Stay? Go?

I waited a while in the Enlightenment area, but she didn't return. Fortunately, I knew she wanted to see the Rosetta Stone, in a completely different part of the museum. So I went there. And there she was, peering blithely into a museum case in a nearby gallery. Problem solved, but I can only assume she might have been trying to ditch me!

Yesterday we went to Trafalgar Square, despite gusty winds and intermittent rain. Then onward to the V&A, which has a special exhibit on ballgowns -- glamorous evening wear by the likes of Hardy Amies and Bellville Sassoon. They were beautiful, bejewelled and diaphanous, but for sheer creativity I kind of preferred Dame Edna Everage's "Breakfast Dress," located in the nearby theater and costume wing.

Last night Sarah had some time on her own, when she met up with a visiting friend from the U.S. (it's amazing how many kids manage to study overseas these days). I came home and spent the evening with Dave, watching "Eggheads" and "The Big Bang Theory" and that really terrible Star Trek movie about whales. I've barely seen Dave all week, because he had two concerts at school, so it was nice to ease back into our old routines. More of the same this weekend, as soon as I take Sarah to the airport!

(Photo: The awning over the front entrance of the V&A. There are special concurrent exhibits on British Design and Heatherwick Studio -- I suspect it may be related to one of those.)