Cross-cultural day

Sunny!!!

Friday, 21 March, started with the sun and is ending with the rain. There was some strong wind in the meantime. And so much happened!

After the gym I went to Central London. First I offered to show Sir John Soane's House to my friend. We didn't need to queue for long to get in.

  He was amazed, like everyone else who sees it. I was seriously surprised that he hadn't even known about it, being an artist and having lived in London for over two decades.

After the visit I sat down on a bench in Lincoln's Inn Fields.

It is a large square overlooked by Sir John Soane's House and The Hunterian Museum opposite. The latter exhibits unusual medical collections of John Hunter. I can recall a day several years ago when I invited my dear friend from Gdansk to explore both of the collections. If you google the square, you may read more about this historic area, but I simply have to paste in this bit from Dear Wiki:

'Lincoln's Inn Fields was the site, in 1683, of the public beheading of Lord William Russell, son of the first Duke of Bedford, following his implication in the Rye House Plot for the attempted assassination of King Charles II. The executioner was Jack Ketch who made such a poor job of it that four axe blows were required before the head was separated from the body and, after the first stroke, Russell looked up and said to him "You dog, did I give you 10 guineas to use me so inhumanely?'

Our today's sightseeing did not end on Sir John's house either. Making sure that the British Museum stays open till 8 pm or so, we headed for a coffee at The Tea and Tattle across the road from the main entrance.

 Again, it's a fantastic place to sit freshen up and get ready for my hard labour of sightseeing! Upstairs, we looked at some books and artwork from Asia, Africa and the Middle East. A pleasure of coffee drinking followed and was intensified by a shared piece of lemon drizzle cake. On leaving, I met the third member of Arthur Probsthain's family. It was the daughter of the old lady who works daily at the 'backstage' office preparing the next catalogs. Can you imagine?

Today's visit to The British Museum was a long one. We saw two major temporary exhibitions: The Colombian Gold

 and The Vikings...

 On the way out I 'dragged' my companion to look at the third, smaller one: on the Hindu deity with an elephant's head.

Do you think the cultural day finished for us there? Not at all. We dashed to the Kurdish New Year or Spring  Festival called  Newroz. It was held at The Iraqi Cultural Centre. What a wonderfully rich and colourful celebration I attended!

During the long journey to the centre, my Iraqi friend told me about the origin of Newroz, but for you I'd better quote our friend, Dear Wiki:

'According to Kurdish myth, Kaveh was a Kurd (written as Kawa in Kurdish), lived 2,500 years ago under the tyranny of Zahak, an Assyrian who is named Zuhak by the Kurds.^[3][18] Zuhak's evil reign caused spring to no longer come to Kurdistan.^[3] March 20 is traditionally marked as the day that Kawa defeated Dehak. He is then said to have set fire to the hillsides to celebrate the victory and summon his supporters; subsequently spring returned to Kurdistan the next day.'

Artists in conversation:

After a while I found an empty seat in the front row of chairs. Therefore I took pictures of dancers from a strange perspective.

The most impressive hair of the evening captured during a dance:

Initially, only women were dancing, but as the evening progressed, a few men were joining in.

Amar, the saxophonist turned out to be a good dancer!

The ICC Director, like so many others, wanted a keepsake of this highly successful event:

This girl won my private and secret competition for The Best Headgear of The Evening:

Around 10 pm the party was still at full swing. The Kurdish band entered the stage again. But for some, it was time to go home...

That certainly was an evening with a difference.