Street

Fantastic day today. We caught the train from Reading into London and then on to the British Museum, where we had tickets for the 'Life and Death in Pompeii and Herculaneum' exhibition. It was fantastic. The exhibits were just beautiful and tragic at the same time and seeing many of the things - particularly the casts of bodies of people and dogs, which I had heard about since I was little from my mum and seen only in books - was brilliant.

There were lots of everyday objects and it was just so easy to imagine people holding handles or using the utensils all those years ago and on the day the volcano erupted.

As a bonus, we finished early enough to get to the Photographers' Gallery on Oxford Street. We had a welcome cup of tea in the Cafe and then my wife and daughter couldn't resist the temptation of the nearby shops (can't say I had a problem with this!), so they went off while I went round the galleries. My poor son was caught between a rock and a hard place - he wasn't particularly interested in the photographs and going round Next with his mother and sister didn't really hold a lot of appeal. In the end he went for a short walk and then mooched around the gallery.

Sadly, we weren't allowed to tak pictures in the Pompeii exhibition, so I didn't even take the camera in with me. There was a lovely sunset as we drove home, but it's a bit difficult to stop and take a picture on the M4, so my blip is of the road where my son will be spending his final year at university. His house is just on the left with the white windows.