I'm definitely not a person who enjoys hot weather, neither is V, so we we're quite happy to escape to London for a moment. What we expected: mild weather. What we got: cold weather, a bit of rain and a wind that nearly rips your hair out. What we came back home to: hot weather. Nevertheless the vacation was wonderful, and being back home is wonderful, too. I just finished some books that needed casing in or other finishing touches I had skipped before leaving simply because it was too hot to work and my glue dried quicker than I could handle. Can't wait forever for a weather to my liking even though I've given myself a permission to be as sluggish as I can. I'll get back to posting book-ish posts any day now, but today you get just a bit of travel stuff (and a chance to buy this, this, this and this, and something else, since I finally listed some new and some very old books on Etsy - I hope to list more during the weekend, so do check back later).

I hardly ever end up having photos of myself as I'm usually the one behind the lense (this time I left my camera home and used my camera phone only when I really needed to). V took this one in the Micrarium at the Grant Museum of Zoology, which was a pretty awesome place. Much to the amusement of V I was quite thrilled to see the jar of moles, which is exactly what it says, a jar of moles. Don't get me wrong, I prefer animals alive (and at a safe distance from me), I just happen to have a thing for collections and they don't come much stranger than a collection old moles stuffed into a glass jar. (Well they do, I just don't want to know about the truly weird and icky stuff [I kept my eyes closed in the fetus aisle of the Hunterian Museum].)

This trip to London was really about the strangely fascinating things, tiny details in different proportions. Last year I spent ages looking at minerals, so I kind of picked up from where I left then. We went to the bizarre museums with glass jars filled with strange, and in the museums that were a little less strange I looked for the odd and uninteresting, and we went for walks in places we knew nothing about (and some I knew something about). We even ended up visiting the Grand Entrance Hall of Brunel's Thames tunnel (of which I've talked way too much since). Many experiences of slight fear of heights. Now I'm making our trip sound much more adventurous than it was. Rest assured, I'm still the anxiety girl.

The Japanese book exhibition I mentioned in my last post was truly a breath of fresh air. Such wonderful books, beautiful music on the background and the Brunei Gallery almost all to ourselves. I made notes about things I need to look up online, but I don't want to yet, I sort of want to save it for later so it feels new again.

Also, ridiculously interested in archaeology right now. Kept babbling to V about some Roman mosaics when we made a quick stop at the British Museum. I'm always grateful for my trusty audience, though it is seldom truly appreciative.