The Jewish Museum - London, UK

14th November 2013 - £7.50

גוט־מאָרגן דו

Camden Town. Playground of the eager tourist and the desperate Londoner. Where the streets are paved with pavement. The land of goths, dreadful Irish bars, and that infuriating guy who sits by the bridge, hawking the plastic yolks you put in your mouth to make bird noises. Where better then to house the nation's flagship museum of history's most persecuted religion?

From the word go, I was bowled over by how kind everyone was at The Jewish Museum: the cloakroom lady, security guard, the man behind the till. I felt like a nephew who'd been away and "never calls and never writes". Ok, I'll stop stereotyping. After this: entrance isn't free. There. It's over. The fee's not a problem though, as the museum's a registered charity and I shouldn't laugh because a Yorkshireman poking fun at spurious claims of Jewish thriftiness has a distinct glass houses/stones smell about it. 

The Design Museum - London, UK

22nd October 2013 - £11.85 (joined by Amanda Leat and Farhad Agzamov)

Cool Joe

By creepy old uncle Thames, in Tower Bridge's meagre winter shadow, sits the old banana factory that now houses London's glittering Design Museum. I'll say this, right off the bat: I don't really care for this kind of thing. Perhaps my ambivalence renders an opinion of said institution obsolete, but I believe great museums should have the power to convert the heathen (like the National Railway Museum).

Our entry was inauspicious due to the surprisingly hefty queue for the relatively small space, perhaps adding credence to the museum's proposed move in 2014 to Kensington (an area, I'm sure you'll agree, in desperate need of a museum or two). The entrance was a little steep, granted, but they receive no government subsidies, are relatively transparent as far as their finances go and they do a lot for the world of design so I'll let it slide. For now.