Welcome! (And, Wellcome)

I'd love to make this a long, long post, but my family don't like me writing too much about them online! So it'll have to be short. There have been some big things happen to us lately, and by far and away the best is the arrival of two brand new twin babies!!!  They arrived two nights ago  in UCL Hospital, and I'm full of happiness!  Little sister is on the left, little brother is on the right.  

They were just under six and a half pounds each, which is massive for twins, but so very, very tiny, with little fingers and  teeny weeny little feet.   They have faint mewing cries, which I am sure will grow louder in time.

T and I saw them yesterday evening and again this morning.  There's a tube strike in London so there were problems between getting between our place and the hospital.   We decided to walk home, having a coffee first in in the nice cafe at the Wellcome Collection, 

which is just down the Euston Road.

As we walked in we recognised a friend on the reception desk.  I knew she worked there but I'd never seen her there before.  Of course she knew all about the twins, and when we went to pay for our coffee and snack, we found she'd paid for them for us in celebration of our brand new grandchildren!  We were so touched and pleased.

Chatting with her, she recommended we visited an exhibition at the Collection that is ending next weekend. So we did ....

....but by now, you might be wondering what the Wellcome Collection is.  It's one of London's newer attractions, and I'm sure that in ten years' time it will be firmly on the list of  "top London museums."  Not quite anthropology, not quite medicine, not quite art, it looks at what makes life the way it is, and humans the way they are, from a medical and artistic standpoint.    It's based on the vast and varied collection of 19th century pharmaceutical magnate Henry Wellcome.

The Wellcome Collection used to be an intriguing half forgotten bit of the science museum devoted to historical medicine all over the world. That collection has now moved to a large museum near Euston Station and expanded to include many special exhibitions and artworks and a really creative programme of events. Its shop sells heavy duty medical books and has a good line in gifts with a touch of grim medical humour, like these cuddly stuffed bugs.

(I think botulism, the orange one, is the cutest. )

and books like these, for instance, on alternative ways of looking at bodies...

The exhibition I saw ends on 9th February and covers the work of artists in residence at various Wellcome medical research facilites all over the world:  art in the service of medicine.  It's great, and I wish I'd known about it before. No point in writing in detail about it now .....but oh, all right, I'll say just a bit.

I liked a fossil necklace tracing the geological history of the world with beads created from items from every epoch. For instance, from the Oligocene epoch, there are beads containing a winged ant in amber from the Dominican Republic, part of a Dugong Rib from Florida, some petrified Green Palm wood from Germany, an Australian mollusc.... the history of the world in one beautifully crafted object.

And here's a teaser from B-Floor Theatre, a dance troup from Thailand supported by Wellcome. There was some extraordinary film in the Thai section of the exhibition, show as they performed in colourful paper bags, folding and unfolding. This clip shows another project.



Click here for the website of Peter Mawanga, from Malawi, passionate about using his art to spread awareness of health issues in Africa, like this track, "Heal the Pain"

All praise to the Wellcome for supporting these and other talented artists. There's so little time to see it but if you're in London, near Euston before 9 Feb, do consider visiting- it's all free.   The exhibition website is Foreign Bodies, Common Ground.

The twins are due home today and so I'm thankful for the good medical care they've had during their birth, and grateful we live in a country where we can get it for free.  How glad I am that we have access to effective medicine for so many human conditions - and how sad that so many millions all over the world have no chance of it.

Loads more very interesting comments have arrived on the last post, on Japanese food, and I'll reply to them very soon.