Well, the best part of my day came when my wonderful girlfriend Vanda made a surprise breakfast of venison sausages and eggs together with coffee and cranberry juice. Just in case that wasn't enough, there was toast, brie and pate too. I should note that this giant breakfast came just after an equally huge dinner at one of my favourite restaurants - Francos in Roydon. Yet I still had a good appetite.
After breakfast we drove down to Greenwich as we had planned to see some shows at the Planetarium and also to see the John Harrison clocks. I am a mad collector of watches so was really pleased to be doing this.
Arriving at Greenwich was such a joy. The sun was shining, Blackheath looked beautiful and we got a parking place right outside the Observatory. In all the car journey from Harlow took only 45 minutes.
The Planetarium shows were incredible- in 3D without the need for funny glasses. I now know about the Stars, the Sky at Night and Mars - well at least a little more than I did when I was 39. The best joke I heard was from one of the presenters, who told the audience "don't bother to switch off your mobiles, as they won't work anyway, as we are under tonnes of concrete"!
We had lunch in the gardens of a wonderful tearoom in the sunshine taking in the view of Canary Wharf and the Dome.
After, Vanda insisted on being photographed on the exact spot of Greenwich Mean Time, so we had to wait in a long queue. But it didn't matter, as I sneaked into the museum shop!
Going into the house which holds the Clocks was amazing. John Harrison was one of the great geniuses having solved the problem of ships navigation and longitude. In essence he developed the first ever GMT clock. He took over thirty years to build the device and had many obstacles to overcome on the way. The clocks and watches that John Harrison built are quite a feat of human ingenuity. More so because they were made in the 18th Century.
So, after Greenwich, for something completely different, we made our way to the Rain Forest Cafe in Central London. This was a great place and good fun with moving gorillas and roaring tigers very near our table. I was shocked to read from the menu that rainforest has gone down from 14% of the earth's surface a few years ago, to just 6% today.
All in all a wonderful day. One of the best birthdays I have ever had.
