Week 1

So the week started well...with my boyfriend having bought a mac I can now pretend to be creative as everyone knows the mac is the creative persons laptop of choice and therefore I am being creative every time I use it right?...No? So besides getting the equipment what else have I done this week which could class as being creative? Well to let people down slightly not a lot....

I started reading Brighton Rock by Graham Greene and if the first chapter is anything to go by the book is awesome. For full recommendations I would wait about 8 weeks given my current pace of train reading.

Apart from that my boyfriend Laurence and I paid a trip to the V&A Museum of Childhood in Bethnal Green. On entering I thought I would love a museum of toys, who wouldn't? Well it started with me realising/remembering that I find dolls and puppets a little creepy rather than entertaining. The initial half an hour of realising I have played with or owned about 10% of the toys there soon wore off and I was left with the realisation that I am old, in fact, older than I actually am. Apparently a good 50% of the toys I owned as a kid were around from 1980 to 1985, either toys in Chester were very dated or my mum stock piled toys from before I was born...i'm really not sure?

A visit to the shop made me realise that perhaps the book selection could do with a bit of updating too. For Christmas 1995 my sisters and I received a great book by Dorling Kindersley (in association with UNICEF) called 'Children Just Like Me'. The book shows children from lots of different countries around the world and describes their lives, likes, culture and clothes. On browsing through the books of the shop I spotted this title and assumed an updated version of the book was on sale, excitedly I flicked through the book to find the book is exactly the same as the one I have at home. Now, I am not normally a person who thinks old books are silly as the reading of Brighton Rock above suggests but when the book is centred around the children being 'just like you' the fact that every child in that book is now at least 25 and all the clothes and toys discussed are pretty dated I feel the book could do with an update. Despite this I spotted 2 adults clearly buying the book as presents without even flicking through it...had they done so they may think it is a little odd that American kids are still wearing bleached denim shorts, tie die t-shirt, high top trainers and playing with the original gameboy!

I also had a spot of excitement in finding not one but two of my childhood tea sets on display. I realise this make me sound like I had more than two tea sets, I should probably say my tea sets were on display. One I have not taken a picture of, this was a small china Beatrix Potter tea set and the other a plastic teddy bear tea set. On discussion with my mum this is most probably an early learning centre circa 1985 tea set...my house mate Sarah also owned this tea set apparently, did you?

So, what can I recommend about the V&A Museum of Childhood? For a dash of reminiscing it is amazing and the restaurant, as with most London Museums, is awesome. I had the lentil, mushroom and leek gratin and it was tasty! The museum is free but for a better museum experience try the national history, the science museum, the tate (modern) or the national portrait gallery to name a few I've been to. On this point I was educated today as I did not realise there were 4 Tate museums of which I have been to 2. I will challenge anyone reading this to name them? If no one does I shall name them in my next blog.

On another note I have knitted an extra 3 lines to my scarf this week also...and if you think this blog is lacking in culture and creativity wait until next week when I will be mostly moving house.