London, Day 3 Well, it's raining. The day I decide to check out Portobello Road market, it's raining. I'm hoping it will clear up, but locals indicate that doesn't really happen. So, yesterday, I made it to the British Musuem, which is really close to my hotel. I walked to Russell Square first, to check it out. Sat and read for a bit, and then went for a quick tour of the museum. Antiquities are not my favourite, but they do have the Rosetta stone and a number of fine mummies. Of course, there's the partially reconstructed Parthenon as well. Sat with it for a while as I consulted my guidebook. It's strange for me to see all these disembodied antquities. The remnants of the Parthenon consists of columns and friezes and many, many headless statues. In a museum stting, they seem to be simply disembodied bits of really old things that perhaps should have disappeared instead of being *rescued* from the heathens by the British. Yes, I know my Art history, and I know their importance to our own civilization. I just thought they looked lonely. They needed sunshine and bits of moss growing on them. I wanted to be able to touch them and sit among them. There was a lovely statue of Aprodite reclining on her mum's knee (part of a large frieze--both headless, of course). It would have been nice to join them. Left the British Museum to go to the John Soane Museum. Those wacky, wealthy 19th century Brits! The museum is housed in Soane's house, which is full of more disembodied antiquities. The museum itself spans the three townhouses Soane acquired and every square inch of it is covered in Greek and Roman bits, a Turner painter, some Hogarths (including the very fun Rake's Progress, the story of a lad who squanders his inheritance, marries a one-eyed rich older lady, and ends up in the asylum). On the very top floor, I was accosted by one of those eccentric old security guards who was an amateur scholar on everything Soane. He pulled out a very dogeared notbook full of his own drawings and pictures stuck with yellowing cellotape, and proceeded to enchant me for over 20 minutes with stories of Soane's collection, interests, philosophy (he was a little bit Gothic Revival and a little bit Classical). I then walked to Covent Garden, mostly to go to the Doc Marten department store. I was hoping that they still made those high-heeled Docs, but they don't, so I bought some cute sandals instead. Had a horrendously expensive lunch in a cafe just off Covent Garden (18£!, which is about $40.00--salad, glass of red wine, and an espresso). You can get much cheaper lunches, but I knew I wasn't going to eat for the rest of the day because I was meeting a bunch of people for drinks at a pub--and once I was there, I knew that the best I'd get until closing time (11:30 p.m.) was a packet of peanuts. Softimage has a general discussion list in addition to specific product discussion lists. The general discussion list has been, for many years, a place for people to take the piss out of one an other. I ventured into this group (consisting mostly of clients in and around London) about two years ago. Exchanging barbs with these witty, funny, twisted, and mostly sweet people has been an important part of my working day at Softimage. We gathered at a typical pub in Soho called the Blue Posts and had a great time. Some of the people I already knew, and others I was meeting for the first time. One of our clients, a crazy, tall Spanish programmer, has promised to make me dinner on Wednesday and invite a bunch of listers over. I've promised to meet him at his work and be his little assistant (this guy is big--well over 6' 5", if not taller, and he had to bend over so that I could hear him when he spoke to me). That's all for today. I hope it stops pissing rain. If it doesn't, I'll have to turn this into a museum day. I think I'll go look at contemporary art, though...