Exhibition: The Mausoleum of Halikarnassos

Yesterday, fifth Meetup in a row, and second in a row with London Museums A-Z, was an Unlimited event, where they don't cap numbers - we were 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 on the 1st of course.

It was only as I was getting ready to leave that I remembered to book a General Admission ticket for the museum - they're free, and not necessary, but handy to have. We were to meet at 3pm - which was all booked up when I looked. Funny that! Well, I got a ticket for 2:50pm - they don't check the time anyway, as long as you have a ticket. Got a nice, early bus - it arrived as I was racing for the stop, and the obliging, lone person at the stop kindly delayed getting on, giving me a little smile as I ran up. Just to make sure the bus didn't leave. Thank you, kind stranger..

So I arrived about 2:30pm, made for the security check - they glanced at my ticket as I came through, that was all. Boy, was I glad I had one though - there was no queue if you did.. and I see they were now letting ticketless people through the main entrance as well: but made them queue, and boy, was that a long queue. Being made miserable by the guard strolling around the head of the queue, telling them that they had to control numbers, they were so full.. Inside the tent, I was delighted to find the only bags being examined were rucksacks. Whee! I got into the museum in no time flat.

Made for our usual spot, over by the wall, behind the totem poles.. I was actually the second person from the group to arrive, didn't recognise the first one (sorry!). Ran to get one of their delicious ham and emmental baguettes - and when I came back, there was one of the hosts, and we all got acquainted. In due course, two more of the total of four hosts arrived - the last messaged, she was helpfully standing at the back entrance with 59 tickets (!) that the organiser had booked - he wasn't there, unfortunately, he'd cancelled his attendance in the morning. No flippin' wonder the admission tickets had booked out for that time..

And during our stay in the lobby, more and more people swelled our numbers.. a double-edged sword: you love to see people coming, and certainly, the Unlimited events make it easier for those of us who tend to book last-minute.. but wow, it gets hard to manage! Mind you, the larger the group got, the easier it became to identify us. And some of us kept an eye on the outskirts, in case anyone looked lost.. It did help a bit when someone located a LoMAZ sign..

When I noticed it was getting close to time, I ran to get my coat from where I'd left it - as I warned the people nearby, when the group moves, it moves fast. And it did! about a minute later. Unfortunately, I think the fast-moving group split up a bit.. lots made it to the exhibition room without issue, but some didn't, and there seem to have been some lost souls wandering the museum for a considerable time afterwards, pleading for help on the event WhatsApp chat. To be fair, there were also some latecomers. And the place is a maze.

The room itself is quite small.. for all that the mausoleum was huge, they don't seem to have recovered much! It was destroyed by a series of earthquakes, and what was found tends to be a bit damaged:

The walls are lined with friezes from the mausoleum, depicting an epic battle - also showing damage. It can't have helped that many of them were used as building blocks for other constructions:

Most of them depict Greeks fighting Amazons:

I was nearly at the end of this long section before I noticed the information plaques on the floor - so used to seeing them on the wall! Of course, not having them on the wall allows the blocks to be placed closer together, to give an idea of how the wall of the mausoleum would originally have looked.

The royal pair themselves, King Mausolus, for whom the tomb was constructed, and who gave his name to it, and his sister-wife, Artemisia, who commissioned it. Have to say, the statues look better than the ones at the immersive exhibition, which I went to on the 1st. Even if they are damaged!

And yes, this statue could hardly have been more damaged:

Well, we had an hour in the room - which was a wee bit much for what was in it. I didn't wander far, but did pop over to the room next door, which had some much less-damaged, Greek artefacts:

Mind you, this guy does look like a candidate for reconstructive surgery:

They cut the time a bit short in the end - we did have a pub booking to go to. Our social was in Penderel's Oak, as usual. And with several different ways to get there, we all split up again on the walk - the area we normally have booked was booked again, but proved not large enough, several of the group sitting nearby. Chairs were moved around, people were climbing over bags.. we had a bit more space as people began to leave. And as one of our hosts prepared to leave, those in the know would not let him go without getting us all to sing Happy Birthday to him! Another convivial night, with one of the friendliest Meetups I know. Delighted to be able to come - a shame it's a while till the next thing I have booked with them. For now..

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

Tomorrow, 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 next Monday, 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.