At the British Museum's exhibition of I am Ashurbanipal, I heard a couple of women talking Arabic, and they seemed very engaged and animated. I asked if they were Iraqi: Nineveh, the capital city of the Assyrian Empire is outside what is modern day Mosul, northern Iraq. One said yes, "I am Assyrian!". She was very happy here, seeing all the old artifacts on display and reading the ancient history. It's been a very tough few years over there, with civilisation replaced with utter savagery sometimes. Let's hope things get better.

The quiet, subdued and cathedral like quality of the museum interior makes a perfect antidote to the mad consumerist rush at Christmas. Whenever I stare at the old cuneiform writing tablets (see left) I'm left very confused as to how it all makes sense! But it all did: letters, literature and starting with plain accounting of course.