Nothing is certain except change.

I brought the children to the National History Museum last weekend as I had not been to any of the museums in London in my entire life. It is rather pathetic to think that I've not been to any of these interactive and interesting museums despite the fact that I've been to London so many times for so many years. Now, with four off-springs, I have no excuse to not visit them - especially when the entrance is free!

Initially, I had asked them which museum they'd prefer: the one with the dinosaurs or the one with the mummies. It wasn't a surprise that they chose the dinosaurs as we had already been to the museum in Egypt to see the real mummies - the tombs and a shrunken and wrinkled Pharoah himself. Princess didn't like the sight of the blackened corpse at all! Furthermore, she insisted that she had been on her school trip to the London museum with mummies last year.

So, on Saturday, when we walked into the front gate a long queue awaited us - mostly comprising of tourists from France and Spain. I gasped a little but was glad to find that the queue was moving very quickly. Lovely, lovely, lovely. Inside, we were welcomed by a huge skeleton of a plant eater, the Diplodocus. The children were already beginning to imagine the impossible - of being trapped in the museum and being able to find everything come to life!

I don't know how our National Museum in Kuala Lumpur looks like in the inside today as the last time I went in was perhaps approximately 25 years ago! That already hints that I am close to being an antique artefact. Oh, dear. Anyway, from what I gather, our 'ol museum is still very much the same as the way it was yonks ago: mostly of manequins donning clothes of the sultanates and historical objects exhibited in glass cabinets. Surely, for our museum to be more interesting, they'd have to increase the currently meagre fee of RM2 to something more outrageous. Well, unless some tycoon would be generous enough to give some to the community. Ha Ha! Wishful thinking.

Coming back to our trip to the museum, the children bombarded me with a million questions (which I'm sure they've already asked a zillion times now!) about the existence of the dinosaurs and the creation of the universe in the Islamic context. Among all, I came across the phrase Nothing is certain except change - which I found extremely interesting. It encapsulates the concept of the unknown future and the divine will, which even science cannot deny. With that, I reminded myself to welcome change and endure the trials that come with it.

The museum was enormous and we obviously did not manage to cover the entire building as I had to leave to meet an old friend I had not met for 15 years. The children wanted to go to the Science museum which was close by but I managed to convince them that we had to keep some places unvisited for our next trip although the children really had their eyes on the London Eye. If Allah permits, it'll be the next time around kids...

(I wanted to download more pictures but there were problems downloading pictures in the right order)