Tut, Tut!

Today was Tutankhamun day! It was very exciting., and very packed. The first part of the tour is made up of artifacts from other pharaohs' reigns, including a gorgeous gilded wooden coffin. The Tut stuff is a bit disappointing when compared to the 1972 exhibition at the British Museum. The gift shop was outrageously expensive, with the catalogue - measuring 6" by 6" at most, and not exactly thick - costing £12 (nearly $25), and a book not unlike many that have been sold in the past 35 years since the last show costing £35. The pictures are not even all in colour!

The kids were great. One autistic girl was in a bit of a bad way at first, but once she got used to it, she started doing Egyptian poses for us. Most people were very tolerant of the fact that we obviously had some kids with us who were not quite the same as other kids. But one old bat shushed one of the autistic boys, who can get a bit loud, especially when he's excited. I explained that he was autistic, and would have left it at that, but she was clearly going to add some more unpleasantness, so I concluded with, "and I'll shush him if necessary". She got right on her high horse and announced that she was recovering from cancer, and had just had 8 months of chemotherapy.

And?

What reaction did she expect? What I wanted to say was, "If you were a bit nicer, maybe people would care." I didn't. But it was true.