The Pillage People and a BBQ

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We headed off to London today, and the British Museum. Originally, Lee was planning to join us, but she hasn’t been feeling too well, so she stayed home. The train was very busy (with seating arrangements not helped by the automatic seat reservation system having a ‘day off’!), but at least we arrived on time – into a sweltering London.

As we came out of St Pancras, we decided that it was a perfect day for NOT using the Tube, but walking instead – and I don’t say that very often! The city was packed, and it seemed the whole place had now switched to summer-mode – shorts and t-shirts were the order of the day, with the obligatory ice-cream van on every street corner.

I’m obviously out of touch with London and its prices these days – a ‘99’ now costs £3!!! (but it’s an essential part of Summer isn’t it?)

We were specifically going to see the much-publicised Viking Exhibition, ‘Life and Legend’ – and what an Exhibition! Unfortunately, no photographs were allowed, but take our word for it, it was VERY comprehensive. If you think you’ve seen Viking Longboats, check out the one on show here – LONG doesn’t even begin to describe it!

Here’s a few things we learned about the Vikings

– ‘Viking’ in old Norse means ‘Pirate’
– Bluetooth technology is named after one of their Kings, Eric Bluetooth
– Most Vikings converted to Christianity within a generation of settling here
– They weren’t that great at fighting – they won about as many battles as they lost

An hour later we were all vikinged-out and so it was a quick look round the Sutton Hoo exhibition, before taking a very pleasant walk back to St Pancras.

Not a Viking Helmet! (Hoo knew?)

We got home about 3.00, which gave us just enough time to grab a cuppa and for Ann to prepare a couple of dessert, before popping next door to Paul and Karen’s, for one of their legendary BBQs. All the gang were there – Julie, Tom, Trish, John, Rosi , David together with Mark, but no Paul, (who was ‘trapped’ in a golf tournament).

Marinated Pork and Lamb – Yummy!


Fruity creamy thing!

The food was great (as it always is). The meat had been marinated to perfection, whilst Ann’s ‘fruity creamy tower’ tasted as good as it looked, but proved a real challenge to carve!

Such is the power of social media, that within three seconds of its arrival, a lot more people found out about Ann’s excellent desserts!

A great day – especially the BBQ. Thanks for hosting it all Karen!