Make the Most of London!

I never expected to live in London, and having the opportunity to experience British life is gravy. Every few weeks I make an adventuring to-do list. Museums, ice skating, palace visiting, gardens, shows, Parliament. We know from behavioural psychology that planning is half the fun, so I don’t lose any sleep if these trips are postponed.

Unfortunately my success rate at finding travel companions outside my own family is rather low. My friends politely decline museum invitations and suggest lunch instead. So I go alone, or take one of my daughters who is not sleeping or in school at the time. We see something interesting, learn something new, and smile all the way home, telling our stories over and over again on the tube.

When a girlfriend asked me to join her at FOCUS's seminar on Making the Most of London, I took a cue from my ladies and politely demurred, suggesting instead a visit to the Disobedient Objects exhibit at the Victoria & Albert Museum. Philosophically I could not justify the opportunity cost of two hours of exploration time for a lecture on how to explore.

Eventually I set aside my objections and headed to meet my friend at FOCUS. As luck would have it, I had the dates wrong: I was one week early. So I spent the next half hour chatting with the FOCUS

staff. I was heading to the V&A afterwards, I told them. They suggested I expand my visit to include the jewellery collection. On my way to the jewellery room (which you MUST see), I stumbled by a gallery of sculpture, stunning in scale and containing the bottom and tip of Trajan's Column, which we had just seen in Rome a few months back.

There was no longer any question that I would be at that next weeks’ seminar.

So what did I learn? Get outside your own neighbourhood. Sit in on Parliament, join the National Trust and visit palaces for free, see the Enchanted Forest at Syon Park, walk up the Wellington Arch, take a backstage tour at the Royal Opera House, see a Pantomime, visit Buckingham Palace in the summer when the Queen is on holiday. While you're at it, buy yourself an elaborate fascinator and book Ascot tickets through your home embassy. Or just buy a fascinator for the fun of it, because what woman doesn't want a loudly ostentatious headpiece?

An important and overarching theme was to plan in advance. Nearly everything in London can and

should be booked, often six or eight months beforehand. Checking out a museum this weekend? Book tickets online for popular exhibits. Visiting a garden? See if you can skip the queue with advance tickets. Often these are free and as valuable as gold when you would otherwise be queuing outside in the elements.

If you read this blog, you surely know how vast and diverse London is. Get out there. Eat something new, something delicious or gross or unusual. Take your kids to a new museum and teach them about artists and leaders of the past. See a show, plan a park walk. So much of London life is free and all of it is gloriously, uniquely and colourfully British.

Written by Susan. Susan is an adventurer, former lawyer, current 'trailing' spouse and constant mother of two daughters. She writes on her blog www.SmartlyMomming.com

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