Another hot, beautiful day - most unlike the London I remember. It was still cool when I got up at seven and began to work-out; but after a strenuous session, by the time I was out in Russel Square chugging around the park, the heat had returned. For once, I wanted to stop after the first lap - I suddenly had no energy; but I kept it up for my "minimum daily balance" of 20 minutes. Afterwards, I was knackered (to use the English vernacular), but knackered in a good, sweaty way.

Yet I'm unhappy that I've lost the energy that I had for the first week of the trip. And it's not just energy I've lost, but also a touch of my early joie de vivre. Despite frequent, great moments of fun and happiness, I've been aware of a level of irritation and moodiness on and off through each day, recently. I'm recording this only for the sake of completeness - really so that when I look back on this journal in years to come I'll remember everything - the good and the bad. I've been trying to think what could be responsible for this lowering of my morale - perhaps its the lack of emotional and social contact - who knows.

Like always, by the way, I'd appreciate if you not write me to give advice here. I know it would be well-meant, but one of the many reasons I'm on this trip for two months is to find out more about myself, and this is part of the process.

In any event, I'm finding that any early-morning storm clouds in my head get lifted by a good bout of exercise, so it was with a pleasant feeling of anticipation, and an appreciation for the delightful weather, that I walked the back streets towards the West-End. Dad had decided that it was too hot today for him to come up for the day with Mam, so I was free to persue my tourist agenda. And it was the heat that influenced me to make for South Kensington and the museums.

Heading out for the museums

Near the museums in South Kensington is the Royal Albert Hall, where I stopped off to buy a couple of concert tickets for July, when I'll be back in London at the end of my trip (which is still, thankfully, a long way off!) It's a fantastic building - perfectly circular, looking somewhat like a vast tea-cosy :)

The Royal Albert Hall

The magnificently restored Albert Memorial across the street from the Hall.

My ultimate destination was the Victoria and Albert Museum. If you notice that there are a lot of institutions in this neighborhood with the word "Albert" in their names, that's because Albert was the beloved husband of Queen Victoria. When he died, she was devastated and did what any woman would do; find a way to keep his memory alive. Since she was also head of an enormously wealthy empire, she could do this in a very, very public way!

The V&A, as Londoner's call it, was strangely deserted for a museum that houses the foremost collection of decorative arts in the World. Then I reflected that most Londoners would be outside cavorting in the rare ninety degree heat outside, whereas I'd chosen today for my visit in order to escape the same heat. The staff at the entrance were typically friendly, attentive, exquisitely polite (although one older lady did inexplicably ask me if I was a musician). This is one of the big differences between museums here and anywhere else I've been - the staff seem to be "enthusiasts", not bored, like at museums elsewhere.

It was nice to be finally in a museum again where I could understand the annotations on the objects (after Italy!). Another difference between the museums here and in Italy - in Italy there is often nowhere to sit (I think they assume that you must suffer for art's sake!), whereas here they even had cute little folding stools you could carry by a handle around the museum.

It truly is an astonishing museum - if you're in London and you have any interest at all in antiques, or interiors, or design, you have to come here. The collection is so extensive and varied - rooms devoted to decorative iron-work, for example, display cases of gloves or ornate locks, a chandelier viewing room, halls full of enormous antique plaster casts of older antiquities (including some of some of the things I'd seen in Italy, such as Trajan's Column in Rome, and, of course, Michelangelo's David); case after case of gorgeous, ornate gold and silver objects; a large hall of dress through the ages (which raised the admittedly trivial question in my mind, why hasn't men's evening dress changed since 1890?).

And finally, a big new "important" exhibition on Art Nouveau. The pieces I particularly noticed here were Belgian - perfectly formed objects mating ivory with silver. Overall, after seeing this exhibition, I thought that this period had to be the pinnacle where craft, style and professionalism combined perfectly with art.

Unfortunately, you couldn't take photos in the Art Nouveau exhibition, and I accidentally deleted from my camera half the photos I took elsewhere in the museum! So I went to the V&A and all I got was this lousy photo collage :)

A photo of the shaded courtyard reflected in an aluminium sculpture

I was planning on walking home via Knightsbridge and Marble Arch (to stop by Speaker's Corner), but only made it as far as Hyde Park Corner before I realized I was too tired, hungry and hot for such a trek. So I retraced my steps to "Harvey Nicks" (Harvey Nichols), the other famously chique department store on Knightsbridge, and bought a great picnic dinner in their food department. I'm finding it so hard to eat correctly here in London - finding sandwiches is no problem, but finding a simple take-away meal which is high on protein and low on starches isn't easy. And even if I do find one, it's invariably small in proportions, leaving me just as hungry afterwards as before. This time, at least, I could pick and choose from some great stuff: the price of course was paying Harvey Nick's prices!

I mentioned Harvey Nicks as the "other" department store - well here's the more famous one, Harrods - closed, today, unfortunately. Notice the Royal Appointments stacked one above the other on the near corner of the store - these are awarded by the head members of the Royal Family for specific products e.g. "Appointed Corset-makers for Prince Charles " and so on.

Before catching the Tube back to my hotel, I stopped in Wilton Crescent to take a photo of No. 9, where I lived, with Canon Keith deBerry and his wife Betty, for 8 months during my final year as a student in London. I don't know if they're still alive - I doubt it: he was ancient even then. Though for all I know he could be off on another "mission". It was funny that his missions always tended to be scheduled for interesting places such as Orlando, Florida, or St. Tropez, France :) He was a funny old bird, the Canon - typically English - always saying "Oh, I say Betty..." when there was something particularly unusual on the television news. If you're wondering why I was living with a Canon of the Church of England (along with three other students), it's because I went through an 18-month phase of intense relgiosity when I was a student - something I don't talk about too often.

No. 9 Wilton Crescent, a block from the walls surrounding Buckingham Palace, and a block from Harvey Nicks. There, in the midst of such luxury, I lived for 8 months as a starving student!