Thank you, Time Out. You’re a gem.
If you grew up in London, then it is guaranteed that you probably went to one of the museums situated in South Kensington on a school trip. Natural History Museum, Victoria & Albert Museum or Science Museum, you oft found yourself on a crowded bus of tourists with your teacher shouting at you to, “KEEP WITH THE GROUP!”. If not, then I’ll quickly explain.
South Kensington is the place if you want to soak up some well deserved “you” time. The place is dotted with garden squares where you can hide yourself with a good book and ignore everyone. Hungry? Exhibition Road is chock full of restaurants. Leaving the station, you’ll be assaulted by all sorts of delicious smells. If you don’t want to do that, then you can wonder into any of the museums I mentioned above (for free, mind you), and learn everything there is to know about science, history and design.
This is where Mutay and I found ourselves last night. Science Museum hold Lates – a free night for adults that takes place on the last Wednesday of the month. Lates have a different theme each month, spanning issues as far apart as sex, alcohol and climate change. Last night’s theme was Brazilian, due to the recent World Cup.
One word: awesome.
It was a bit overwhelming when we first entered the museum. The place was a hubbub of loud music, fast paced people and an atmosphere I can only describe as electric. We were handed a leaflet, detailing all the events going on that night. The first thing that caught our eye was the drop in sessions to make your own instruments. Making our way down to the basement, we were shown all the things we could make including instructions.
My first attempt at making a drum failed. Personally, I blame it on the string. It was too short, but that is besides the point. We then moved onto the maracas, in which Mutay aptly marked hers with ‘M Slice’. Rapper in the making.
Next was the kazoo – Mutay has a picture of me attempting to make music with it. I look like a monkey with my puffed out cheeks and one ear sticking out from my hair. Then we made our own pipes, which was interesting…
We’ve decided to start a two man band called “ChyTay”. Auditions for a third member will be held shortly.
Flashback to your childhood – anyone?
Immensely proud of the things I made. I’m not too sure my mother would be pleased because I’m not putting my degree to use here.
We wanted to go to a samba session, which was being held every 40 minutes, but our bellies told us no. So, we detoured to the ground floor and grabbed a bite to eat in the café. To be honest, I wasn’t really expecting to eat what I did eat, but I must say it was delicious. I can’t remember half of the names of the food on my plate, all I know is that the chorizo was delicious and the bread with the dips was class.
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Due to fate, Mutay actually picked up a can of coke for me that had ‘Bestie’ written on it. <insert appropriate ‘”Awwwwwws” here>
The lighting could have been better. I clearly think I’m some kind of professional photographer.
After munching for what seemed like forever, and therefore missing the time slot for the next samba session, we made our way to the second floor for some print screening. Unfortunately they had ran out of paper, so we weren’t able to get our prints made, but we did manage to take some that were left over at the end of the night.
Our night ended in heaven.
As Mutay described it, it was “a bunch of geeks at a silent disco in a museum”. It was honestly the best thing I have ever been to. The DJ did try to end the night with Salt-n-Pepa’s ‘Push It’, but the crowd was having none of it and he thankfully ended with Fatman Scoop’s ‘Be Faithful’.
Mouse
I was happy because Fatman Scoop. Mutay was upset because she wasn’t sure whether her face would be seen in the picture.
Science Museum – you will witness us in your building again for the Science of Hedonism, next month. See you then!
– Chynna ♥
Deux Ville Filles 