I was wandering around the Natural History Museum in London on Friday afternoon. I'd gone there specifically to see the life size model of a blue whale that the museum's famous for & the dinosaur exhibits. Just my luck -both sections were closed for refurbishing, (though I'm not sure how you refurbish a dinosaur).
The whale's in the marine section, obviously, & was hidden behind temporary plywood hoardings. There was a door in the temporary wall, slightly ajar, with a bunch of visitors taking turns to look in.
I was tutting to myself about bloomin' tourists gawping at stuff, then realised I was as much a tourist as them, so I took a look too. I found myself face to face with a blue whale, one enormous eye peering out of the doorway at me, like it was hiding in a cupboard. That's surreal I thought.
Then I looked past the face & saw a man hoovering a whale. With a Henry Hoover -one of those little wheeled ones with a face printed on it. It looked like one of those little fish you see on nature documentaries, cleaning the food scraps from bigger fish. That's just bizarre I thought. I bet Darwin never forsaw that. I really wish I'd photographed it, cos now I'm not convinced I saw it.
