Tourists and mangy squirrels at the Brit Museum

Strangely the hordes of tourists wherever I went surprised me. Rather silly of me considering I was one of the hordes and it was supposed to be the begining of summer. Of course it was tiresome when I had to wait while the lines inched forward at any tourist site. The worst was at the British Museum. I went there the day it rained cats and dogs. Obviously everyone had the same brilliant idea so just walking through a room was painfully slow. The majority of the tourists at the museum were not particularly interested in the exhibits. Many just stood around and chatted, blocking the way for dedicated museum freaks like self. And then there were those for whom it was a photo op....ooooooh lets take a pic of us with the Egyptian statue thing (actually it's Assyrian but who cares...). GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!!!!

My humour was restored eavesdropping on these American girls at the museum who were discussing the mangy squirrels of Cleveland, Ohio. I quote, "Have you seen the ones in Cleveland. They are like so mangy with like clumps of hair falling out". "Yeeeeeeew"!!! I didn't realise that mangy squirrels were such a big issue in Cleveland. The things one learns at the museum!!!

Inspite of the imagery of mangy squirrels running amok in Cleveland, I had a good time at the museum. I saw the famous Elgin statues which the idiot Brit (Elgin) happily carted away from the Parthenon in the 18th century. Some of these were friezes of centaurs and lapiths (some human like thing) fighting. Exquisite except for the many missing heads of both. I just thought that they got damaged somewhere when I noticed a plaque under many of these friezes. Apparently various French and Italian dudes in the army (of France and Italy of course) coolly lopped off the heads as souvenirs! This was during the world wars or something.

Then there were the Assyrian exhibits. A very gruesome lot, the Assyrians. Lots of friezes again, of lion hunting with some very agonized looking lions, weirdly contorting their bodies. Plus more stuff showing the Assyrians massacring their enemies. Lots of decapitated folks being pulverized under the chariots. These friezes were strategically placed in the great hall where the king met visitors. Excellent psych warfare.