Every now and then, this FOB takes the opportunity to leave the pig farm neighbours behind and venture out to see civilisation. Actually to be quite honest I'm not being very fair to the area we live in. The nearest city is only about 3 miles from us, it's a city called Lichfield. It's home to the only 3-spired cathedral in England, beautiful evensong can be heard during their daily evening service, I've never been for a service, on account of being a pagan, (actually scratch that as my Dad has been known to read an article or two that I write, I'm not a self-professed pagan, more a liberal Methodist) so that statement isn't even a qualified one. I do like wandering around the cathedral every now and then.
So back to my trip away from the pig shit flora and fauna... Last weekend a few friends and I met up in London, for those who haven't been, you must go. Throw caution to the wind and just go. I'm about a 2 hour commute by train to central London, so depending on company, if its friends I take booze, if its my husband I take condoms (JUST KIDDING) and if its my kids I take a shot gun (JUST KIDDING.. AGAIN!) Anyway so London, I'm a massive museum junkie, most of my trips into London are organised by trying to fit in a couple of hours just walking through museums. My favourite being the V&A, if you ever have the chance to go I would highly recommend it, if for no other reason then to take a picture with the statue by the door with his manhood on display in all its glory then at least also for the 7 floors of historical artefacts and art that you can see on display.
London has always fascinated me, the people, the hustle & bustle, the lights.. everything! Due to the privileges I had in my previous job, I got the opportunity to travel to quite a few places, and London although may not be at the top of my list of favourite cities, it most definitely tops the list of cities I'd love to live in. The first time I travelled to London was a drive through, they had guns, we had guns, our beef got sorted, no I joke, it was a drive through because trivia buff came to pick me up from the airport when I moved here. My first proper visit was again with trivia buff and we literally walked the entire city because being the anal museum junkie that I am, I printed out pages of places I wanted to go. We are talking serious location hopping. The fascination with London for me personally stems from the fact that as a Fijian who was educated entirely in Fiji, I have always been taught about the relationship between Great Britain and its Commonwealth nations and so it almost feels like I've come full circle as a Commonwealth citizen to be in the capital city of the nation that we were ceded to, who in turn colonised us, then we gained independence from and now has come to employ us, well not me, I'm the stay at home bum, the trivia buff is the money maker, I just spend it.
My two older children sometimes accompany me on these museum trips, the younger ratbag, all 5 years old of her is very vocal about her opinion. Neither hell nor high-water can deter her from airing an opinion if she feels compelled to, this we found out the hard way at an exhibition about medieval houses where she decided during a presentation with about 30 odd people seated in it, that it was the perfect time to announce at the very time the speaker decided to take a breath.. "This is so boring, I'd rather die than listen to him". I pretended I didn't know her and also that I didn't speak a word of English. I think it worked. However I will say, for someone who likes to say that they're a museum junkie it is rather ironic that I never got the chance to visit our local one back home in Fiji. So that just poops all over my self-imposed title of trying to appear cultured, but in reality I didn't even do it back home. I will when I save enough money to visit, because right now, I barely have enough money to pay for my bus fare into town to get to classes, a trip to Fiji would entail selling an arm on eBay.
There's a famous quote by Samuel Johnson (the father of English dictionaries and also happens to be from Lichfield) that goes "When a man is tired of London, he is tired of life; for there is in London all that life can afford." And that literally describes my fascination and never-ending desire with the capital city. I hope I've convinced you to go for a visit even for just a day, if not for the museums then go have yumcha in ChinaTown, it shits all over any other Chinese takeaway thats for sure.
On that note, from the land of pig shit and more shit and museums,
Bella xx
#London #BuckinghamPalace #ArmyLife #ArmyWife #WanderlustFijian