From one extreme to another – on Wednesday I went to WANC, ate delicious vegan food, caught up with some friends and learnt how to flirt in Greek, and last night I got all dressed up and went to the Royal Albert Hall for the opening night of Madame Butterfly. It looked like there were seats available up in the gods, so go see it if you can.

Yes, it snowed in London. And here are some cute pictures (not mine).
I shouldn’t be amused by how quickly London falls apart when it snows just a little bit but it’s hard to resist.

Is this one reason I like working in a museum? It’s a constant reminder of the myriad histories present in any city and a privileged insight into the lost layers of the city.
“An interesting exercise can be performed on the streets of London. Look around you, at the shopfronts and the traffic and the houses, and imagine these things as historical phenomena. Envision them as a temporary stage set in a drama with no ending. Then the true nature of the period will become apparent.”
From a London: City of Disappearances
No wonder London sucks you in: “Of all cities, London most powerfully touches the imagination. It is the landscape for these stories because no other place has the same capacity for labyrinthine obliquity. It elicits wonder and horror in equal measure. In Blake’s words, it has become ‘a human awful wonder of God’.”

Randomly, I learnt from www.worldwidewords.org that there aren’t any roads in the City of London, as ‘all the ways there had been named before the word came into the language.’

The back forks of my bike seem to have been damaged in the move so I caught the bus today. It was a lovely way to start back at work because I had an idyllic walk through the park to the bus stop, past two ponds full of all kinds of ducks and some swans and Canadian geese. It’s going to be gorgeous in summer. I will get another bike soon but I think I’ll try and detour through the park each day.

Four work Christmas parties down, one to go.
The bathroom at work was suddenly girly again as everyone rushes to whack on some slap before the final party. The luncheon today is a big posh do held in the City of London, with lots of ritual cheers and a toast to the Queen. The first year I went an old man came up to me at the end and told me “they’d decided I was the best top”. I still have no idea what that means but I’m pretty sure they didn’t mean best Top.
It’s properly cold in London now – last night I had to wear gloves for the first time, and temperatures are heading below 0C overnight.

I had the first of five work Christmas parties on Friday night, and survived.
At some stage I put my hand in my jeans pocket and found the scrap of paper I thought I’d lost with the name of my Secret Santa person written on it. Secret Santa presents are given out at one of the other work parties and is taken very seriously – I would have been in trouble if I hadn’t been able to remember who my present was for.
In other news, I’ve decided that I hate the rain.
This pointless personal post was brought to you by the ATT100 and Ironmonger Row baths.

How cool is this?
If you were worried by the change in law last year that made it an ‘offence to organise or take part in a demonstration in a public place within the “designated area” (up to 1 km around parliament)’ but didn’t know what to do about it, someone has done all the thinking for you. Just register your protest on the second Wednesday of every month and protest whatever you like on the third Wednesday of every month.
“A recent law has made it illegal to demonstrate anywhere near Parliament without official police permission, and Mark is organising MASS LONE DEMONSTRATIONS to highlight the danger and stupidity of having this law in a democracy.”