We went up to London for the day yesterday, primarily so I could take Davies to the Pixar exhibition at the Science Museum but also for a day out. My parents came too and we caught the 10.08 to Victoria which gets us in around 11.30am. The trade off of having three other adults with us on the train to assist in ‘managing’ the children was of course offset by the children acting accordingly, but we did keep them fairly amused with pens and paper. So there was drawing, noughts and crosses and some writing done on the way up there.
We’d got the one day travelcard tickets so debated tube or bus and went with bus to Kensington. It was really busy on the bus so we all got split up with various of us getting up mid journey to offer seats to those more worthy of getting a seat on a busy bus (not me – I had a Davies on my lap and he may be short but he’s very heavy so I felt quite justified in sharing a seat with him being a good enough reason not to give it up 🙂 although of course I would if required!) I sat chatting to a french girl who was also heading to the museum and planning various other places for the rest of her day. It was qute nice pointing out Harrods etc to her as we went past, although Ady was laughing at me from his position a little way up the bus as actually I was probably only slightly less clueless than her about where stuff was in London 😆
We got to the museum and Mum decided she would join us in the Pixar exhibition so Dad, Ady and Scarlett headed off to explore some of the rest of the museum while we got tickets for that, found it, were directed back to the cloakrooms in the basement to give my bag in and then re-found it again 🙄 Unfortunately neither of the children had really caught up from their late night on Saturday and retrospectively it was probably not such a great idea to take them but having been meaning to take Davies for weeks and finding out it ends next week meant it was really the only feasible day left unless I wanted to take him on my own and drag (and pay for) Scarlett along too.
I think it was overpriced really and not very clearly advertised as it was very busy but most people there seemed slightly disappointed. plenty of original sketches, cells from the film and storyboards, casts of characters in glass cases and lots of fairly abstract little bits of art based on the characters (quite a lot on Edna Mode from The Incredibles), all of which was interesting and good to have there to show the process but not awesome by any means. Worth the money for us on it’s own though was one exhibit which we watched three times – hard to describe really but it was like a carousel, it had the toy soldiers at the very top coming out with parachutes, then a lassoing Jessie, a Buzz bouncing on a ball, Wheezy and the green martian on a seesaw and various other detail – each character going round the circle was slightly different so when the whole thing span round really fast and they started strobe lights it all came to life and started to ‘move’. I’ve described that really badly I know 😀 but it opened up a long conversation about animation and illustrated it all beautifully 🙂
There was also a very good film which Davies accurately described as ‘like an album’ with captures of various of the Pixar films shown like pictures on a wall and then swinging into each of them. The drawings were just like chalk or pastel drawings so the art was very unsophisticated which made it all the more clever somehow. It was shown on a giant screen which made you feel you were falling into it too. Liked that 🙂
We bought a 3D drawing pad and glasses – it’s got a blue and red pattern on the paper and if you draw on it in black pen then look at your drawing with the glasses on it appears to hover above the page. I think tbh with Davies being tired anyway he didn’t appear to get huge amounts out of it but it will be something that gets refered back to and at least gave him yet another dimension to the behind the scenes side of making animated films. At least I can be confident I am facilitating this interest to the very best of my Home Educating ability ;-).
We met back up with the others and much debate about what to do for lunch ensued. 🙄 We eventually walked back up Kensington High Street, found an M&S food store and bought sandwiches, then got on the first bus that came along and stayed on it until we happened upon Holland Park which seemed as good a place as any to hop off and have a picnic. Very busy with lots of blokes doing Bank Holiday jumpers for goalposts football matches and the sandfilled playpark was full to bursting with parents sitting watching while the nannies played with all the children – love that people watching 😉
We were fairly surprised to realise it was already gone 4pm by then so we got back on a bus with the intention of getting back to Victoria and maybe heading to Trafalgar Square but the weather had turned from OK but showery to actually quite windy and cold so we caught one bus to Hyde Park and then hopped off onto another to Victoria. Dad bought us all tea, coffee or coke (Scarlett dropped hers so we spent ages speculating about which corners of the country her coke would travel to on the bottom of people’s shoes), Mum and I went into Lush and I recommended my favourite shampoo to her (Big for interested parties 🙂 ) then as no direct train was showing for the next hour or so we caught the next one going close to our way, got off and changed mid journey and arrived home just before 7pm.
The trip home was fine too – children very tired by that point, Davies had had a massive bump to the side of his head by walking into the side of a bus stop while not looking where he was going so he was slightly wobbly from that too. More noughts and crosses (although Mum played with Davies and was really annoying me by letting him win all the time and telling him where to put his cross next :roll:). The children had a bath which turned the water black and went to bed.
We had lots of drinking and a lovely curry I’d stuck in the slow cooker before we’d left in the morning. Debate about HE – good natured but boring – same points being made and debated over and over again and they left around 11.30pm.
I think that was what Bob and Hannah felt about Pixar as well – though they both knew the bit you were trying to describe, and said it was the best! I think had they not had the added excitment of meeting Mr Pixar, they might have been less amused by the entry fee. Bob said it was fairly quiet when they were there (10.15am, and the first school croc didn’t arrive till 11am), but he thought if it had been busy it would have been horrendeous.
Comment by Joyce — 30 May 2006 @ 11:12 am
Kelbv’s VEXER program can be downloaded here – you can do all kinds of crazy stuff with it, but the main attraction for Davies would be the 3d drawing 🙂 Unlike the paper pad, you can draw stuff that goes in and out of the screen! Yuo move the mouse faster or slower to control the depth.
Sounds like a good day 🙂
Comment by Alison — 30 May 2006 @ 11:17 am
Of course I did say (based on the LOTR exhibition) that it would be disappointing relative to price.
Comment by Chris — 30 May 2006 @ 1:26 pm
Sounds like a good day to me also! I love spending the day in London wandering around.
Comment by Roslyn — 30 May 2006 @ 3:06 pm
Sounds like a good day and even if it was pricey I bet Davies got a lot out of it, it will stay with him.
Hope you got my e-mail with zoetrope and stroboscope links.
Comment by Ali — 30 May 2006 @ 4:58 pm