Exhibition: Thirst - In Search of Freshwater

Yesterday, third in a row of five Meetups, back with London Museums A-Z for T is for Thirst: In Search of Freshwater, an exhibition at The Wellcome Collection. Advertised, would you believe, while I was looking at my phone but not especially busy, in The Rockingham Arms - and this being the next unscheduled date in my diary, I was one of the five to snap up a place in the first minute!

Hallelujah, unusually, I got to bed in time to have a proper night's sleep - and made it to the Wellcome Collection slightly early. We were meeting in the cafe - a quick scan and I spotted two of the group, conveniently seated at the sofa at the rear wall. And then navigated the rather slow service, to get a ham & Emmental baguette and an apple juice. And you can have the baguettes toasted! So I did - it was just ready by the time I'd paid. 

Joined the others - who duly put up a sign, and a larger one when the organiser arrived (and thoughtfully cleared away the mess from the table's previous occupants, which had just been left there, and which it hadn't occurred to us to do) - and we had a lovely chat as people gradually arrived; a lot had signed up. And mmm, that baguette was lovely - as was the apple juice. Which, I discovered, has less of a water footprint than orange juice, because apples tend to be grown in colder countries than oranges, which therefore need more irrigation! Information courtesy of the informative leaflets available in the cafe:

Naturally enough, almost everyone was asking me about the cruise - I lost count of the number of times I told the same story! :-) But it's all good. And when it came time - and the person who'd said he'd be a bit late arrived - in we went. Informative panels described what the exhibition was about - and there was an ancient stone, inscribed with some of the Epic of Gilgamesh, involving a passage about a wicked king who threatens to cut off the water supply to Uruk by damming the river, upstream:

The early part of the exhibition, in fact, deals with the lack of water in parts, and includes some striking photographs:

This is an ancient ice house - the conical shape, as well as the heat-resistant building materials and underground storage, helped to keep the ice - also food - cool:

And how cool is this (pun intended) - an ancient Chinese drinking vessel, with a display of its cross-section showing an internal pipe that was filled with ice to keep drinks cold!

The Arabs were, of course, known for their advanced irrigation systems in ancient times - a book is displayed that describes how they brought their methods to Sicily!

And there's another drinking vessel with an internal pipe, this one specific to Sicily:

And then, as they point out, there are places that get too much rain - as in this cartoon from Punch:

It's often said that Ireland is the rain shield for Great Britain - this series of graphs of monthly rainfall trends over the course of a year bears that up (as ever, darker colours represent higher rainfall):

There's an inscribed bit of ancient Roman piping!

decorative drain covers:

decorative water filters:

Speaking of things we don't want in water, there's a map of the cholera outbreak of 1866 in London - primarily affecting the East End, it confirmed Dr. John Snow's thesis that it was carried by water, striking hardest in the areas where the new sewage system had not yet been completed:

Ancient Roman aqueduct:

On the Epiphany, clergy from south London churches come out on the Thames to bless the water:

Was just wondering where the divining rods were.. and there they were!

There were plenty of more interactive exhibits - such as this film, about 21 minutes long and on continuous loop, showing (usually related) simultaneous video snippets related to flooding in different parts of the world. There's a sofa, with cushions, and beanbags for people who want sit to watch - and honestly, for all that it showed sad images of people in their destroyed homes, and water-damaged family photos, it was a peaceful watch, no dialogue, just the sound of lapping water mainly. The calm after the storm, I guess you could say. Similarly, they had an audio installation, available on headphones, of cracking ice. I skipped that one - seen enough ice lately. Further along, there was another video, again on loop, of people complaining about pollution from a local factory, which is destroying the river and damaging the locals' health.

The last thing I photographed was a display of bottles of water from what would be considered sacred sources, or with supposed medicinal properties:

A very relaxing space for a Sunday afternoon, I thought, more seating than usual for an exhibition, and some audiovisual exhibits. Only thing was, we'd scheduled a couple of hours in there, which was maybe half an hour too long. Anyway, we took photos before we left, beside an art installation that, to me, looked like nothing so much as stacks of poppadums.. The exhibition runs to the 1st, BTW.

Social afterwards at the Marquis Cornwallis, when everyone was ready - and it felt like a slightly longer walk than anticipated, in light rain. They'd reserved three tables for us - we pushed two together. Some of us ordered food - I had a chicken schnitzel, which was lovely, but came with some very salty chips, which I didn't finish. And we had a convivial night, as always! Turned into rather a late one - and wouldn't you know it, I turned the wrong way on leaving, and ended up making my journey home a lot longer than it should have been.. so I was even later. And too late to blog, of course. Uhh.. getting up this morning was a pain.. Great to see people again though, first time with the group this year!

Tonight, with Up in the Cheap Seats (UITCS) again, for Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo - a dark comedy set in Iraq - at the Young Vic. Booked for Bar + Block Southwark beforehand. Ooh, another place I haven't been in an age..

And tomorrow, I'm back with London Classical Music and Theatre Group for The Makropulos Affair, by the London Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Sir Simon Rattle, at the Barbican - one of the group with a wildcard ticket couldn't go and kindly offered it for free, so I snapped it up. Eating at Cote Barbican beforehand - it'll be fun trying to get the discount on my app. And gee, you guessed it.. Haven't been there since September, but was with the group slightly more recently, in October..

I was having terrible trouble finding anything for Wednesday - and then Nell Phoenix came to my rescue, with another storytelling evening at Torriano Avenue! (I see she's still advertising it as £7, but it's actually £10.) Anyway, that evening, it's Yamamba, with Laura Sampson!

Then a few more days of Meetup. On Thursday, back with UITCS for Safe Haven, at the Arcola - the true story of Operation Safe Haven (1991), which protected, and provided humanitarian aid to, Kurdish refugees in Northern Iraq after Saddam Hussein defeated the Kurdish rebellion. Jeez, hard to imagine it happening these days..

On Friday, back with La Isla Flamenca Club, olé! This show is called Light & Shadow, and is happening in The Gold Bar in the COLAB Tower (walkable, lovely.. as long as the weather warms up a bit) - tickets from We Got Tickets. I managed to get an Early Bird ticket, but they're now sold out - regular and student tickets available.

And on Saturday, that postponed trip with The Hideout to see 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple.. where, doubtless, we'll find out what the deal is with the weird, tracksuit-clothed people who popped up at the end of 28 Years Later, led by Jack O' Connell. Again written by Alex Garland, and again it stars Ralph Fiennes as the doctor studying the plague that has struck humanity.