This was Wednesday – a day trip there and back (and my total by bed time was 8 and a half pages of notes and almost 200 photos)…

Chopping a couple of bits off my hair and deciding to take my fleece with me on todays venture out preceded the car moving at 9.45am in bright sunlight this morning – and 10 minutes later we were parking at the train station, where the gusts felt freezing as the building got walked down to, Ben And Jerry’s ice cream was advertised by the barriers, a very artistic illustration of the history of train travel was passed on the way up to the platform; and I sat on a bench and saw a lady on the opposite platform who had a bright pink Mohican hairstyle and appeared to have one metal leg (and a long pole), most people seated were poking their phones, a boy was taking selfies, the robot announcer recited the ‘see it, say it, sort it’ motto, a girl had a couple of cheek piercings, a Japanese boy with blueish hair was carrying a pole, and then the train appeared, and was boarded at 10.23am.

Someone was carrying a Pikachu rucksack, the man sat in front of us had a ‘Star-trec phase ll/lll’ titled slideshow on his laptop, Upper Pollicot was a village in the depths of some very green and scenic English countryside; a massive area of solar panels wasn’t far from a place called Ilmer, and mounds of building material (including rock and bricks) were in fields near Horsenden (and Google Maps said we’d passed The Grange Restaurant at Hearing Dogs For Deaf People). The big stone Dashwood Mausoleum wasn’t far from High Wycombe (which got whizzed through), followed by Beaconsfield; the M25 was whizzed over at 11.27am, HS2 work was going on right next to West Ruislip, Wembley Stadium had some unbelievably tall cranes nearby, graffiti (of varying levels of artistic-ness) was almost everywhere once a bit further down the line, the driver apologised for the overcrowding on this service, some very very dark tunnels were whizzed through, I noticed a Twist Museum nearby on Google Maps, and the robot recited its script again before arriving at London Marylebone at 11.47am.

There, bike racks weren’t too stuffed, ‘My Neighbour ToToRo’ was advertised, we managed to purchase day rail cards, I grabbed a newspaper, and there were whiteboards saying which lines were open and which weren’t; extreme gusts came up the escalator, and down on the tube platform they continued, the ‘see it, say it, sort it’ motto was recited by another well spoken robot, and I forgot when we got on the train because I decided to test my balance and stay standing. At Regents Park there was a poster for something called Harness The Wind (Google says it’s ‘The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind’ and is a new musical premiering at @sohoplace in London from 25 April 2026); people disembarking at Piccadilly Circus were repeatedly told to mind the gap; Charing Cross was decorated to show it’s proximity to the National Gallery, there was a quick look at a map, and down on a very very draughty platform a train full of extremely squashed people (it resembled a very very overfilled baked bean can) passed by: a heck of a lot of Haribo sweets (including rainbow strips) were on a J & R Snack shop counter/hole in a wall, and it was 12.22pm when a District Line train was boarded. Mum had a seat donated to her, I saw a ‘Be One With Your Gum’ advert at St. James Park; and it got a bit stuffed at Victoria, a man in a very formal tuxedo (with a posh folded purple handkerchief poking out of a pocket) got on, a girl looked like she was wearing a purple bedsheet, and after a bit of overground, South Kensington was disembarked at at 12.30pm; Mum’s ticket didn’t want to work, we went along a very very long stone tunnel with posters all the way down it (one mentioning a Slam Dunk Festival), and came up into sunlight – where school kids on an outing appeared to be picnicking on the pavement.

We entered the Science Museum, there was an umbrella drying implement, and then we left the building again and I forgot when the next one was entered – as a woman from the Soil Association wearing big fluffy boots seemed to recognise Mum, welcomed us, then led us round the side of it; and by a big ‘TECHNICIANS’ board sort of thing 2 more ladies welcomed us and mentioned the cancellations some people had had to make due to the tube strikes. I poked a screen and forgot what I was told by it because she reappeared and poked it, got 1 of the Soil Association people to try it, and then was questioned on her career by another lady – who told her she worked in the Marine Conservation Society until January; and another one whose name I’d already forgotten said a few things. At 1.12pm a bloke called R, in a dark room we moved into, said 3 and a half years was how long it took him to put the exhibition together (while trying to make it fun for families) – and they had an advisory panel; a woman termed herself a senior policy officer and said lots of stuff I forgot; and there was a model of a margarine factory in a glass case, a stone Aztec corn goddess (next to a sack of hybrid corn seed from 1950) was in another, followed by several more models – and that (1.25pm) was when 2 of the Soil Association ladies asked about my notepad and read my info card.

Round the next corner there was a huge replica of an ammonia reactor, the senior policy officer had a microphone attached to her head and said stuff about agricultural productivity, the bloke called R pointed out Fritz Harber’s sample of ammonia next to the reactor; the next room was statistics; and the 1 after that was bright yellow (on the topic of ecology) on 1 side and lilac on the other (for biotech). There was a small ‘object handling trolley’ with a couple of volunteer ladies behind it in there, a random woman came over and asked if I was Rachel Palmer’s friend (which I said I wasn’t), the senior policy officer and R said more stuff once next to what R termed ‘a yellow island’ – that had a very old book titled ‘The Living Soil And The Haughley Experiment’ on it – and then soil samples going back to 1840s and a farmers radio used in a farmers version of The Archers were mentioned. A collection of farmland bees wax in a glass box (that said ‘lent by Cambridge University’ on it); the steps used to grow meat were listed, a long blue net tunnel with fake shellfish in was dangling next to something I forgot – because a Noah’s Ark playset, a model of a flu resistant chicken, and a Feeding The Future electronic play screen distracted me from what the senior policy officer was saying (which seemed to be about food resilience); I thought I heard some French being spoken, a ‘Disco Soup Cookbook’ open at a page showing the recipe for carrot peel soup was what I had time to notice in the last room.

Then we emerged into a room with lots of tables in, I heard more French, screens got poked for the purpose of making virtual wind turbines and giving a virtual blood sample (neither of which were succeeded in); and we came down some stairs, I saw elderflower and apple cake-y substances in the cafe – and it was sat in as Mum wanted tea. A tall lady had a t-shirt on with ‘not my first rodeo’, a bit of pear, hazelnut and salted caramel cake and a brownie got divided up for our consumption, were consumed, I browsed the ludicrous shop content: plasma balls, plasma lamps, infinity mirrors, jellyfish aquariums and volcano lamps; all sorts of ‘make your own’ kits (including Build Your Own Renewable Energy Cars, and Build Your Own Anatomical Skeleton); plant Bobballs, Giant Stress Brains, slitherbota, XL Program A Bot, Tobbie The Robot, British Airways Airport playsets, all sorts of Minecraft stuff, aprons, things called zip strings, piano fingers, digital drum sticks, and a heck of a lot more stuff I forgot…

..before the building was left at 4.10pm…