18 - 19 February: Field Trips

We had a field trip today, almost literally. Our hosts do, in fact, have a field, grazed by sheep, and an adjacent wood, which is carpeted with bluebells in spring (April/May). In mid-February, it is still nippy, or “nipplely” as Carey calls it (rather graphically, in my opinion). Luckily, Angela and Pete had invited us into their cosy home for lunch. From there, we looked out at the fields, through large picture windows, with a glass of wine. It was most civilised.

Angela worked with my mum for many years. They were firm friends. I have known her most of my life. We enjoyed a splendid lunch and a couple of hours chatting about our upcoming trip, sharing memories and birdwatching. A pair of red-tailed kites nest in the woods and are fixing up their nest for the season. Great Missenden is just 40 minutes on the train from London Marylebone. It’s still a pretty, quite-rural Buckinghamshire village and famous as the home of the children’s author and illustrator, Roald Dahl.

Our trip also gave Carey a glimpse of the type of place I grew up in. After my family came to Britain, we settled in Buckinghamshire. Both my childhood family homes are about 15km from Great Missenden (about 6km apart, by the windy, country lanes). My dad worked in Uxbridge and my mum (with Angels) in High Wycombe until after we left for college.

We took advantage of the last dry day in the forecast. We walked to the British Museum and back, going via Broadgate, Holborn Circus and Old Spittalfields Market, one of the Victorian covered parish markets that is now an artisan fair, food court, pub hub. We stopped in for a pint and some food at a place with foosball tables and shuffleboard (cool again, in a retro-way, apparently).

The museum was heaving. Fortunately, membership perks include express entrance and the members’ room and café, which is still pretty full, but a lot less zooey than any of the others on a cold half-term Wednesday. We ended up doing what you might call a “highlights of the non-Egyptian collections” tour (mummies & animal-headed Gods are magnets for families making a “what do we do in the cold?” half-term visit): the Sutton Hoo treasures; the Lewis chess set; the Babylonian “Ram in the thicket” and the “Standard of Ur”, the Tring tiles, via sojourns through the North American galleries, the red- and black-figure vases of Classical Athens, the bronze work of the Etruscans… Of course, there were also many, many, many other treasures (many of them disputed) we didn’t swing by this time, but we’ll be back (we always are!).

It’s been 2 years since we visited. We really registered how much they have done to refresh the exhibits, change up the explanatory material, even to refresh the colour palette of the galleries. They are really working hard to connect with a non-technical audience and to create memorable visuals. The children actually seemed engaged and interested!