Lots of driving today. Went up to visit the History of Advertising Trust near Norwich. One of those flat, grey East Anglian days, good for driving. HAT is a marvelous institution, a bunch of people beavering away preserving all this ephemera. Long shelves with thousands of huge, black guard books from places like O&M and JWT and dozens of defunct agenices you've never heard of. Well worth a visit if you're ever in the middle of East Anglia.
Then, since it was on the way back, I called in to Cambridge, to 'visit some of my old haunts'. But I immediately remembered why I hated the place so much. Especially this dump. One of the richest educational establishments in the world and they spend their whole time sending me DM asking for more money. The worst three years of my life. An awful institution in an awful place moulding the rich and the posh into a ruling elite. Bought a sandwich and got the hell out.
But then, hurrah, went to the Imperial War museum at Duxford. Where the grey, fenny weather made perfect sense. Perfect light for wallowing in fake nostalgia for The Battle Of Britain. Most of the movie was filmed at Duxford so it always seems slightly familiar. Apparently they blew up half a hanger for the film - doing more damage than the Luftwaffe ever did. But it was the movie that rekindled public interest in The Battle Of Britain and got the rest of the hangers listed. I'm barely old enough to remember the film coming out, and my dad barely remembers WWII; yet it can sometimes seem really 'present'. Especially at places like Duxford.
Interesting how it gets people so involved. I was watching a Time Team - D-Day thing yesterday and Tony Robinson kept referring to 'our boys', which I'm sure he doesn't do about the British troops in Iraq. Hmm.
The American bit of the museum is a brilliant building.
Home in time to watch England play slightly rubbishly against the Japanese; who were splendid.