So, as I was saying, I was at Buck House earlier this week. I know, you’re thinking the knighthood is well overdue, but I’m afraid I was only there for breakfast, not with Liz and Phil, but with Rachel Woollen, Martin Clayton and others from the Royal Collection and fellow blogging types, including Tim Jones, Jo Geenan of Visit London, and iPad app creator Max Whitby of TouchPress. The “Bloggers’ Breakfast” was a nice excuse to see the new Leonardo da Vinci: Anatomist collection and to try out the accompanying iPad app created by Whitby and colleagues. A fascinating way to start the day.
As we left the collection, just after 10 am, when the “public” began to arrive, we were greeted by high security as it was almost the hour for the aforementioned Liz and Phil (QEII and the Duke of Edinburgh) to head off in their carriage to the House of Lords for the State Opening of Parliament. It seemed churlish not to take a few snaps (you can see those on my Facebook page here) before departing to the sound of a multi-gun salute that caused not a few shivers and noisy remarks among camera-wielding American tourists heading to Buckingham Palace who’d missed all the pomp and sight of the Queen not five minutes earlier, presumably through circumstances beyond their control or sheer ignorance.
Up to Green Park tube and a quick link to Leicester Square to meet up with the mighty Tim Lihoreau Creative Director and More-Music-Breakfast presenter at ClassicFM whose studios look out over the Square’s glitzy cinemas and the newly installed pavement fountains (we’re unsure as to whether they will be illuminated water jets, it’s likely). A quick tour of the studios of Classic, Xfm, Heart etc all in the Capital Radio building and a little sushi on the terrace and discussions of all things technical and otherwise. Science certainly meets art here in the high-tech digital audio realm.
After lunch, a visit to the Wellcome Collection to take a look at Brains, their fascinating exhibition about probably the most complicated object in the universe – the human brain. Followed by a cuppa with my book publisher Olivia Bays from Elliot and Thompson to discuss my progress on Deceived Wisdom and the international book tour…well maybe not that last part, but certainly we covered the ins and outs of the evolving contents list. A dash from Euston Road to King’s Cross station was in vain, but catching the later and slower, stopping train back to Cambridge gave me plenty of time to download and edit photos.