Random photo: Townley Venus

I have writer's block, and 10,821 photos. Let's randomly choose one and get a blogpost out of it.

I took this photo on the 3rd March, 2024. It's the Townley Venus in the British Museum, found in one of the various halls there. The marble statue dates back to the 1st or 2nd century AD, but was discovered in the late 18th century amidst ruins in Ostia. It became part of the British Museum in 1805, where it's remained ever since.

The statue depicts...Venus, flexing her muscles and casually letting her toga hang by her hips. As with most Roman statues, it's a pale white, and I wonder what it must have looked like originally. It was probably far more colourful.

To date, that's the most recent time I've been to the British Museum. It was part of a trip I went on with two friends, both of whom have since gone to uni. Originally, they were going to go alone, but I asked them if I could tag along, and they accepted. Considering the fact I was quite introverted at the time, living somewhat far away from everyone else, it was quite rare for me to hang out with others. Most of my socialising was done in school and on the phone, and that was fine for me, but I always secretly yearned for something more, something to break myself out of my anxiety-hardened shell. 

They both studied history, so all the places we visited were history-themed. We started out at Trafalgar Square, taking photos of the plinths adorned by men who helped keep the British Empire running. There's Henry Havelock, the general who fought against the Indian Rebellion. There's Charles James Napier, the former colonial governor of Sindh. I'd imagine nowadays, some would raise an eyebrow at them having statues around probably the most famous square in the entire world. I don't even mean in terms of the empire's legacy, what with it being fraught with blood and colonialism - Havelock and Napier are nobodies in the British curriculum.

Afterwards, we headed on to the British Museum, where we saw the Venus, but also the Rosetta Stone. I still think that's one of the coolest ancient artifacts, and I'd go back just to see it once again. There were also the Elgin Marbles, which a few years prior had been in the news. Greece wanted their marbles back but the UK didn't care, they'd been in the museum long enough, dammit. I'm not sure if the photo below depicts a chunk of them or not, but I find them cool regardless.

  

A long walk along Oxford Street followed, right down to Marble Arch, where we broke up and went our separate ways. I headed home and, a few weeks later, after being inspired by a trip on the Bakerloo line on my way there, wrote this classic AO2a blogpost. Later down the line, I mentioned the day out in my "unblogged 2024" series, where I said pretty much the exact same things as I just have. So if this post felt like deja vu, that's because it is.

I still speak with my friends from time to time, even if they're far out at uni right now. We're all busy and have moved on with our lives, in fact I wonder if they'll read this post and realise I'm talking about them. It was thirty months ago, after all, it's easy enough to forget about what you've done that far back. Sometimes I wish I could go back to that time, but it's probably best to move on. I have uni in a week anyway, that's kinda important.

Oh, and the statue is pretty. Don't think I mentioned that.