London, it's not that bad!

London is a very confusing place. Half the time it drives me nuts as its so crowded and most people are incredibly rude or put their grubby shoes on the seats of public transport or talk really loud on their phones or have their headphones on too loud or drop litter or let their kids piss up the side of bus stops (True. I witnessed this on the weekend. Unbelieveable.....), but then the other half of the time, I think its excellent. And the part of me that thinks its excellent was very happy yesterday.

The Wig and I went to have lunch at a friends house near Bethnal Green yesterday which comprised a sausage roll starter (unconventional but strangely alluring), Lamb shanks and vegetables for a main and poached pears and lemon cream for dessert. Delicious. Anyway, since Bethnal Green is just up / down the road this was a perfect date. Having grown up in a village with a very limited bus service (I think it was 1 an hour until about 5pm, 6 days a week) I am always super impressed with the buses in London.  they are frequent, run late into the night, what more do you want from a bus?! We got the bus halfway, and then walked the rest, which I'm glad of since we saw some pretty little Spring flowers and it also enabled me to use the ladies facilities in The Museum of Childhood.

http://www.vam.ac.uk/moc/

This is another place I have memories of visiting with my Aunt as a child and a couple of years ago, it had a lovely refurbishment (although some of the exhibits do still look a bit like they have been found in a skip....). So now it has nice toilets, a little cafe, a great shop (my marking system of museums is always based on the quality / range of items in the shop) and its FREE. Another great thing about London. Most of the Museums are free to get in. The Natural History Museum, The V+A, The Science Museum (I think), and after a little bit of traveling the world I know this is pretty unusual. So as much as I complain about the downsides of living in London, there are plenty of upsides too. You just need to know where to look.