Bletchley Park

After three Meetups in a row, the weekend belongs to London Museums A-Z.. today, we were off to Bletchley Park, the ticket for which is valid for a year. I got a cheap train ticket on Uber, with a promotion knocking £5 off, plus £10 Uber credit - which was most of the cost of the ticket. 

Amazing how I can get myself out, sometimes - I ended up getting there early. Our organiser had a teeny sign.. of more use, TBH, was the picture he posted of where he'd be, adorned with a big red arrow. When someone suggested getting a hot chocolate in the Starbucks, just upstairs, while we waited, I thought that was an excellent idea.. in fact, they had a new, pistachio one. So I had the new, pistachio one! And a chocolate muffin. Because, you know, chocolate.

No bins. No bins on the train either. On the train, we couldn't all sit together - I unsociably sat on my own - in my defence, I had a time-boxed event in my phone game.. which I got finished on the train. That, and the muffin (very moreish, lovely big chocolate chips). The only stop en route was the oddly named Leighton Buzzard.. no, don't bother looking it up, the name is more interesting than the origin of tje name. I finally found a bin in Bletchley Station.

It's quite a short walk to Bletchley Park from there - I had an easy time going through the entrance, had bought a ticket in advance, nice and simple. Not so simple if I want to come back - the ticket is valid for a year, but I was informed I have to produce the paper ticket they gave me! Heh, good luck finding that. Once through, you can grab a free audioguide. As I was fiddling with that, the headphones, and my hairband, my hairband fell off.. it was only later, over a snack in the cafe, that I found it again.. must have gotten caught up in my coat. That, or it rolled itself all the way over there..

Hut A, as I recall, is where you enter and get the guides - and there's already plenty to see there:

Including testimonials from people who worked here during the war - unless they still felt themselves bound to secrecy:

There's a copy of the Enigma machine:

And a whole exhibit where you can try your hand at codebreaking:

Our organisers also arranged for a guided tour for us, for 2pm - two hours from then. Free, booking required, whereupon you get a wristband. When I eventually finished with that, I set out around the grounds:

Various information boards give a real insight into how life was, here:

The direction signs all have characters on them, reminiscent of codes:

Aw, my dad would have loved the old vehicles in the garage:

They kept equipment on site to destroy everything, if necessary:

And would you believe, this is a replica of an actual GCHQ field office, as used in Afghanistan! 

And then it poured rain.. when was that forecast?! In fact, it rained all afternoon, where it had been supposed to ease. Well, I had a hood, so off I went.. to see the Polish memorial. It wasn't until the guided walk that I found out that the Poles commemorated here actually brought their knowledge of Enigma to Bletchley:

Found the Bletchley cat!

And then I found the group again! They were just on their way to lunch, so I joined them - mind you, most of us decided we'd rather eat properly later. It was kind of war cuisine there anyway.. one person decided she'd like one of the "kid's meals", causing some confusion when the server was looking for the person who wanted that. And when she ran short of ketchup, why, our selfless organiser leapt to the rescue..

And thence off on our guided walk, which was prefaced by a little talk. She was very good, even in the pouring rain.. she fairly ran us around though, even asking us not to ask questions till the end, she'd only just have time to squeeze everything in! To be fair, this place is jam-packed with things to see. With an hour now before closing time, we elected to see the D-Day film.. which was very emotive.. and then did a kind of whistle-stop tour of the various sheds, which contained many rooms mocked up as they would have been, back in the day. One room was devoted to carrier pigeons.. yes, they had those too..

And we did learn a little about codebreaking - such as the Nazis' mistakes in not having letters represented as themselves, and how they used reciprocity: so, if A was represented as P, then P was represented like A, for example. It was tactics like this that made the codebreakers' jobs easier - that, and human error.

There was a mock-up of Turing's office:

And there was a replica of the bombe, which sped up the process of trying to find the right code:

Some went up to the mansion to round off the day, but I was more interested in the codebreaking huts, joined them as they headed for the exit, once I saw how late it was! Crikey, if you're interested, there's a lot here. Terrific destination. Oh, and for once, would you believe it, the gift shop got me.. I couldn't come away without one of their puzzle books. Lord knows when I'll have time to try them..

A group photo was followed by a longish walk in the rain - but by the sound of it, our organiser had no other option! the other pubs not being suitable. And certainly, the choice of pub was an interesting one.. we headed to the fetchingly monikered Captain Ridley's Shooting Party! The history reads as follows: In 1937, the estate passed into government hands. Then, an undercover MI6 group arrived using the name ‘Captain Ridley’s Shooting Party’, with ‘an air of friends enjoying a weekend at a country house’. Their real purpose was to see whether Bletchley Park would work as a wartime location.

Anyway, it's a Wetherspoon's, so I could have my usual katsu chicken curry - after one glass of wine though, they seem to have run out of Sauvignon Blanc (contrary to reports, I did not drink them dry), so I had Chardonnay thereafter. The chat was excellent, as always. And our train was delayed- dearie me, we had to stay longer in the pub.. ;-)

And tomorrow, it's an Unlimited event, where they don't cap numbers - we're off to the British Museum to see fragments of the Mausoleum of Halikarnassos, one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, as I previewed last Sunday of course, followed by a social in Penderel's Oak, as usual.

I was stuck for something to do on Monday, until I remembered something I saw advertised on Facebook - there's a talk about British Folk Horror that night! I was too late to book an in-person ticket, so I booked one for the livestream - tickets from Eventbrite.

On Tuesday, I'm thinking of heading to see Is This Thing On? A comedy about a guy who, having marital problems, heads to a bar - only to find it's open mic night, and he can't get a drink unless he does a turn on stage: so, for the first time ever, he attempts a bit of stand-up comedy. Directed and co-written by Bradley Cooper, it stars Laura Dern as the wife - and as told to me by someone at The Cartoon Museum, it's inspired by the story of John Bishop! Nearest showing to me is in the Curzon Aldgate.

Then it's two more days with Up in the Cheap Seats (UITCS) - on Wednesday, Ballad Lines at Southwark Playhouse (SP), booked on their excellent (but now, sadly, expired) PAYG offer, where you paid £60 for access to up to five productions. I made sure to book another set before they expired!

On Thursday, we're at Monstering the Rocketman, in the Arcola - the true story of the biggest libel suit in British history, with Sir Elton John suing The Sun for falsely claiming he'd used prostitutes. Then I'm back to Ireland for the weekend- good weekend not to be in London, with Valentine's Day in the middle..

And on the 16th, back with UITCS again, at SP again, and again with PAYG, for Beautiful Little Fool, the story of F. Scott Fitzgerald and his wife, as told by their daughter.