the BL, as the locals call it...

Having visited London twice before, and lived here for a year, I finally got around to (doing my duty) and visit the British Library!! The locals refer to it as 'the BL'.

I didn't do my research very well [irony noted], and when I rocked up to the information desk for a map, I was amazed to discover the treasures on display.

I peered at Shakespeare's notebooks, the Magna Carta, the Gutenburg Bible, some of Jane Austen's letters, Leonardo da Vinci's workbooks, original Beatles lyrics, the Beowulf book/poem thingo and classical music scores (from someone famous I can't remember, sorry mum!)

There was also an excellent exhibition - about the Ramayana, which is essentially an Indian love story. (Prince Rama marries Sita, Sita gets kidnapped, Rama enlists the help of Hanuman the monkey to find her, which he does). It's a very long story, and on display were about 120 small traditional Indian paintings telling the story. It was really lovely (I still want to go back to India).

After that I needed tea and cake, and on the way to the cafe I came across the Kings Library. It was a collection of really old volumes, donated by King George III - and it's housed in an amazing tall glassed tower in the middle of the library. This is what I looked at while I sipped my tea (pic right).

The rest of the weekend was relaxing - we had another bank holiday on monday, so we went to Khanh's for lunch and she cooked us the most delicious laksa.

Things are starting to slow down now, in some ways, with only 5 weeks to go. I'm working 4 day weeks to use up my annual leave (someone has to do it!), but there's still lots of sight seeing to do and I've got lots of grouse things planned. Stay tuned...