Please Mr. Postman

On the occasion of the 200th anniversary of the birth of Charles Darwin, I herewith present the Darwin Stamp and Natural History Museum Saga.

As neither TeenE nor Hubster want to go to the Darwin Exhibition at the London's Natural History Museum, I decided to go on a weekday when it would be less crowded, and the thought of being there on his actual B-day was too enticing to miss. Much of the UK is awash with commemorations, due to the 200th anniversary of Charles Darwin's birth, and the sesqui-centennial of the publication of On the Origin of Species. There have been color supplements in the newspapers, several documentaries on TV, and all kinds of books published about the illustrious native son who changed our view of life on earth.

I left Stitchery on Maida Vale too late to make the Museum's birthday cake celebration at half-past-twelve. As I had oodles of time to get to South Kensington, I decided to go to the W9 Post Office on my way out of Maida Vale. I had read that the Darwin Stamp first-day covers from the W9 PO would have the cancellation mark in the shape of the fish-symbol with legs, a take-off on the stylized Christian "icthus" fish symbol, the design of which has always cracked me up.

Discussion of the whereabouts of the W9 post office with knitters who live in that neighborhood produced the information that the nearby one had been closed. I ran into a postman making his rounds right outside the Stitchery house as I was leaving, and was informed that if I "popped up" Elgin Ave. to Harrow Road I'd find one that was open. So off I walked, and walked, and walked. I found the postman's use of the verb "pop" to have been overly optimistic. I walked for at least twenty minutes before reaching the Harrow Road intersection.

Once at the Harrow Road PO, I enquired about the franked first-day covers. I was told that although this was the first day of issue for the Stamps, the COVERS were all sold out as they had started selling them two days ago. They recommended checking with the Baker Street post office. I told them I had just walked to W9 from NW8 and wanted to know why they couldn't cancel my stamp with the special frank TODAY as it was actually Darwin's 200th birthday. The clueless lady, who was not sure who Darwin was, and after being told Twice that he had formulated the theory of evolution, still believed he was a physicist, told me to speak to the manager. After 20 minutes of waiting in another queue to speak with the manager, I was informed I could buy a single stamp and a single envelope and he would send it to Baker Street to be franked.

Once I escaped the PO, the southbound Bus 28 arrived eventually. Our "driver" seemed to have some difficulty with the concept of his job description. At Westbourne Park garage he got off the bus, leaving it running, and didn't return for ten minutes. Twice more he got off the bus at stops and left the bus with the doors open while he disappeared. At one of these stops he got on and off four times before putting the bus in gear. I will give him the benefit of the doubt and attribute his erratic behaviour to the tummy bug. Meanwhile, I had to transfer to another bus to get to South Ken but only knew of two locations where that could happen, so had to wait until we got there to transfer. Finally on the appropriate 70 bus, we went three stops before the driver told us he was not going any further although his sign had said South Kensington. We all transferred off that bus and got on the next 70.

I decided at this point that it was so late in the afternoon that I should do the Darwin exhibit another time. I DID, however, enjoy some of the free exhibits very much, especially the evolution of humans and the hall with the mineral specimens and gemstone vault, always my favorite spot in a Natural History Museum.

I took a photo of the marble statue of Darwin that occupies a place of honor in the main hall, and also visited the gift shop, where I managed to resist purchasing a silly stuffed toy effigy of the great thinker.

I shall definately return to the exhibit, although not in this coming week, as it is a school vacation week for all of London.