Highlights Imperial War Museum and ‘the Play that went wrong’.

We headed into Leicester Square after breakfast to get antihistamines for John and tickets for us both. We had been here too long to not go to a show. After discussion and on line checking we headed for the official booth and got tickets for the evening for ‘The Play That Went Wrong’ for tonight and ‘Bat out of Hell’ for tomorrow’s matinee.

We stopped for coffee and I tried a Turkish coffee. I was pleased I did and did drink it but much prefer flat whites I decided. Ian said they often have ‘mud’ on the bottom. We then bused to the Imperial War Museum, where we spent three hours.

The 5 floor centre had 3 aircraft suspended, a Harrier Jump jet, a Spitfire and a V1 ‘doodle bug’. On the floor were some vehicles. One was a Press Agency armoured land rover that had been bombed in Palestine and the other was not even recognisable as a vehicle really. It was a car destroyed in a bomb in Baghdad when a suicide bomber killed 38 people. It had been toured around the USA to raise awareness.

We first went around the WW1 floor. We knew a lot of the history but there is always more to learn and little snippets to prompt other memories. There were a few mentions of New Zealand and a replica tunnel as well. The display showed the names used in some of the tunnels to help the soldiers keep orientated.

Propaganda on both sides was referred to. Germans were encouraged to use the greeting ‘May God punish England’. Lots of displays showed gas masks, and there was one of a sniper coat with a sign that said gamekeepers as they were often chosen to train the snipers. I hadn’t thought about the Chinese being in this war but there was a guardian lioness that had been carved by a member of the Chinese Labour Corps. There was a lot of mention of the Empire being the source of extra soldiers as the UK had had a big navy but small army in 1914.

We stopped for lunch in the café and then we headed for the WW2 floor. Here we spoke to a Welsh volunteer, Graeme, who had lived in London as a child during the Blitz. There was an indoor Anderson shelter on display nearby similar to what he had used. He explained that only 60 people had been killed when sheltering in them as usually bombs would explode on the roof and it was only when an occasional bomb exploded inside the house that people would still be at risk. He said he enjoyed his work as people came to him to discuss their stories as well.

The next visit was to the Holocaust exhibition. No photos were allowed here and there was an age restriction of 14 years. The attendant was talking to a mother with a young son as we arrived so they were taking the restriction seriously. It was sobering as such exhibits always are. I wrote down the quote at the start from Heinrick Heine, a German Jewish poet. He wrote ‘Where one burns books, one will in the end burn people’.

A women was speaking at the end and said that people ask her how she can possibly forget all that happened to her. She said something like her memory is like a stone thrown into a pond. First the ripples are large then smaller and smaller and finally there are no ripples. But the stone is still at the bottom and her memory is a stone in her heart.

Our final visit was to the Lord Ashcroft hall where over 100 VC’s and George Crosses were on display, with details of the recipients. John called me over to see the George Cross awarded to Stewart Guthrie for confronting the gunman, David Gray, at Aramoana.

Near the Museum is the Tibetan Peace Garden which had been opened by the Dalai Lama in 1999. It was a lovely peaceful garden with fragrant flowers, 8 places to sit and sculptures on the outskirts. We knew of it as there was a cache there and this is part of the listing. Eight meditation areas surround the main monument - the Kalachakra Mandala - traditionally associated with world peace. Four modern Western sculptures representing Air, Fire, Earth and Water have been carefully located to the north, south east and west, while a Language Pillar, inscribed with a message from the Dalai Lama written in Tibetan, English, Chinese and Hindi promotes communication and understanding between cultures and individuals. If this all seems a bit too much and you just want a quiet, soothing walk, head for the inner gardens which are scented with herbs, jasmine, honeysuckle and roses. An outlying landscaped area is also great for ambling around. We ambled in peace and left as others were arriving.

We tubed back with a listed 1-minute change at Paddington that took quite a bit longer. The tube was the busiest we had struck as it was after 4.30pm and commuters were appearing. Then we tubed back to go to a show and had only just enough time for a snack before joining the line to have our bags searched.

John and Katherine had discussed ‘The Play That Went Wrong’ although I hadn’t heard of it. It came with a heap of good reviews with the occasional negative comment. I didn’t think it was worth 5 out of 5 but it was a good 4, with just a bit too much slapstick in places. The actors had their poor timing done perfectly and made it an excellent representation of an amateur performance gone wrong. Props were swopped, items on the sets fell, lots of people were hit by various items and even the lighting technician/prompt was a part of the play. We laughed a lot.

On our way back to the tube we stopped for posh sushi at a dim sum style café where the food travelled past on a conveyer belt on different coloured plates that depicted the price, and we chose what we wanted. We then headed back to Hammersmith just as Jane was about to lock up.