That the visit by Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom and the Commonwealth realms to the Republic of Ireland would have been such a success, stealing the show from Barack & Michelle Obama's visit the following week, would have been far from my prediction or anticipation.

But she did - and big time.

I have to declare an interest here - I'm a Brit - but anybody who knows me will confirm that I am as reluctant a Brit as you will find and, accordingly, I am no monarchist.

So it was to my surprise that she won my admiration by her actions and reactions, increasingly so, as her visit unfolded.
But of far greater importance, she won the hearts and admiration of many a staunch Irish republican who would, previously, have harboured still less charitable views about the British Royals than my own.

But enough of that.

In our case we made a speedy, Friday to Sunday, visit to London mid-month.

Aer Arann, flying out of Waterford, enables us to be in Hannah's club, Gymbox, in the City of London less than four hours after rising from the bed in Ballyduff - and at an affordable cost.
(Unfortunately both the airport and the airline are currently under threat of closure).

Sue and I decided to spend the Friday at the British Museum while Hannah worked.
I had not been to the British Museum since leaving London - forty-four years ago, come this September!

We started the visit with an excellent lunch on the top floor of the Great Court built in the space vacated by the library.

Sue was particularly taken by this Lion and as we made our way through the mind- and eye-boggling exhibits from the Greek, Persian, Chinese and Egyptian civilisations, representations of animals became a recurring theme.

I thought that this cat would do nicely for my birthday present but the museum authorities refused to cooperate.....

The only difficulty we had was trying to get a view of the exhibits past the thousands upon thousands of Japanese tourists who appeared to be there for the sole purpose of taking pictures of one another!

But we forgave them that night for the quality and variety of their cuisine because Hannah and Ousmane treated us to dinner at Roka, a Japanese restaurant on Charlotte Street, where we had one of the best and varied meals I have ever eaten.