Weekend in London

We've had a lovely weekend visiting Elder Son and Daughter-in-law, spending Saturday afternoon at the Natural History Museum.

It is amazing that it's free to enter and wander round such an incredible place. I pestered everyone all afternoon: what was the name of that film? You know, the one with the dinosaur? And the little boy. Somebody's stolen our dinosaur? Or something like that.

After bombarding me with silly ideas like Jurassic Park, Indiana Jones, Monsters Inc, they all insisted they didn't know what I was talking about. It finally came to me: One of Our Dinosaurs is Missing.

Husband is a typical man. He knows all sorts of stupid things, so there am I getting excited and saying, 'Wow, that's amazing! Did you know that blood leaving elephants's ears can be 9 degrees cooler than blood arriving there?' And he says, 'Yes, of course. That's what their ears are for.'

Pah. I also found out that carnivores, like lions, don't see in colour so stripey and spotty animals are well-camouflaged against their background. And I discovered that a full-grown African elephant weighs about 56 times as much as I do. However in the process of discovering that I also found out what I weighed, something I've been trying to avoid for some time. Serious, serious diet starts now.

The most fun to be had in the Natural History Museum, however, is people watching. All these terribly earnest middle-class parents dragging their offspring round, saying things like, 'Look at the size of the tail on that blue whale, Justin. Do you think that helps it be a better swimmer?' And 'Look at how many blood vessels we have in our body, Molly,' when all the children want to do is rush from one interactive exhibit to another, pulling levers, pushing buttons, making noises for the sake of it rather than education. Which was what I was doing mostly too.

There was a very graphic display about human reproduction. I learned a lot. Especially after spending a good few minutes staring at one exhibit before I worked out what it was: a cutaway of a man and woman in coitus. 'Oh! That's what it is! Oh, oh! Is it hot in here or is it me?'

Front of the blue whale skeleton from below.

Then today Elder Son and Daughter-in-law cooked lunch for us. Spinach and ricotta stuffed pasta with spinach, and bruschetta with sun-dried tomato pesto, goats' cheese and serrano ham. And very yummy it was too in spite of Elder Son grumbling that it was a failure because the pasta wouldn't stick together properly! Daughter-in-law also made us a Nigella Boston Mud Pie Cake (I think) that was also very delicious but I forgot to take a photo! You'll just have to take my word for it.

And just for Welshcakes, here's a photo of the bottle of Limoncello that Daughter-in-law brought back from a trip to Milan last year. Alongside their wedding photo - and it's their 1st anniversary tomorrow!