Shell Wildlife Photographer of the Year

Since moving to London the Natural History Museum has been a regular fixture in days out. It is the ultimate temple of D's (3) major obsession (Dinosaurs) and the venue of one of my favourite proud parent stories:

D, standing in the prehistoric swimming reptiles section spots a curator holding a dolphin skull. She crouches down and shows the skull to him, "do you know what this is?" she enquires; "um... I think its an Opthalmosaurus skull" he retorts.

This trip was to see the Shell Wildlife Photographer of the Year exhibition. This was aimed directly at adults, the only real attempt to engage children was a scratch-off-the-answers question sheet asking questions about both nature and photography; also all photos were presented at an adult's height requiring any child to be lifted to get a good view. Fortunately I was in a group of four adults to two children so this was not a real problem.

However, with effort to engage D (the love of my life looked after B) he got a lot out of it; even if he did think that a magnificent shot of a crocodile hiding in the water was a dinosucus.

What: Shell Wildlife Photographer of the Year
Where: Natural History Museum; map
Cost: Adult £7, Concessions £3.50, under 3 free, family ticket £18
When: Until 27th April
Going next year: probably
Similar:

• Animals
• London Zoo
• London Aquarium
• Horniman Museum
• Photography
• to be added...
  

London Model Enginering Exhibition

Who with little boys could possibly resist such an opportunity! And the number of little boys clearly showed that I was not alone. However, most of the exhibition was more targeted at big boys with many modelling companies and tool manufacturers displaying their wares.

What was available for little boys was reasonably good, D&B both spent a lot of time staring at trains (both and stationary), traction engines (stationary), helicopters (moving) and a hovercraft (moving) and a miniature steam train ride. And for this it was well worth the visit, however, having a show area and a trade area and perhaps some more adventurous demonstrations would have improved the day out immensely.

What: London Model Engineering Exhibition
Where: Alexandra Palace
Cost: Average (Adult £9.50)
When: Jan 2008
Going next year: if there is nothing else on
Similar:

• Various miniature model railways (I'm familiar with the one in Chingford, Waltham Forest, but others exist)
  
• Kew Bridge Steam Museum - Never visited
  
• Science Museum - Many examples of old machines in the permanent "The making of the modern world" including models; most of these are stationary exhibits with no working railway.