Theme Parks

One thing I like about London is the ease of having “themed days”. For his birthday in 2005, I took Dave out for a penguin day. I had adopted him his own Magellanic penguin (called Sausage – don’t ask) on Magdalena island off the coast of Chile, and to build on this, I took him to London Zoo to see the penguins being fed (including the star Rockhoppers Rocky and Stanley, sent over from Whipsnade as a punishment for having been naughty, frequently playing football with eggs that were supposed to be incubating), and to see the film March Of The Penguins which had been released the day before. A few years before this, I indulged in a medically-themed day, going to the Old Operating Theatre at London Bridge and then to see the Spectacular Bodies exhibition at the Hayward (subtitled The Art And Science Of The Human Body from Leonardo Till Now). And earlier this week, Dave and I had a Foundling themed day. We spent the afternoon in the Foundling Museum at Coram Fields, gaining the background to the Foundling Hospital established by Thomas Coram in 1739 and its famous benefactors and patrons of the arts, Hogarth and Handel. We went because in the evening we had tickets to see the magnificent Coram Boy at the National theatre. A breathtakingly wonderful and moving production that everyone should see because it was the London stage at its absolute best.

REBECCA