I'm not throwing away my shot - Alexander Hamilton

The opening lines in rap go:
How does a bastard, orphan,
son of a whore and a Scotsman, 
dropped in the middle of a forgotten Spot in the Caribbean by Providence,
impoverished,
in squalor Grow up to be a hero and a scholar?

 So we attended Alexander Hamilton at the Victoria Palace telling his remarkable life story as a key figure in the founding of the USA.  Apart from the stunning production, music and acting, this story has so many other relevant messages about living life to the full, love won and lost, not being afraid to be bold and of saying goodbye.  The experience of nearly 4 hours passed like 5 minutes and we laughed, cried and reflected on our own lives and that we should 'not throw away our shot'.  Our thanks go to our daughter Therese who encouraged us to attend and we now understand why she has been 3 times! 
The morning was spent continuing our exploration of the National Science Museum at Kensington.  I particularly enjoyed the gallery detailing the development of steam engines and the industrialization of manufacturing processes. Scottish and English engineers like James Watt, (steam engine), George Stephenson (Father of Railways) and his son Robert Stephenson (steam train), Matthew Boulton (partner of James A\Watt who applied steam engine to manufacturing) and Thomas Telford (bridges and canals) led the world  - they 'did not waster their shot'.  The byproduct of their genius was the industrial revolution that had many upsides.  The downsides include industrial processes continuing unsustainable and polluting use of the earth's resources including water and atmosphere to feed consumerism.  Frenchman Alexis de Tocqueville visiting Manchester in 1835 called it a “new Hades”, the air full of the “noise of the furnaces”, the gutters running with fetid water. Yet, “from this foul drain”, he wrote, “the greatest stream of human industry flows out to fertilize the whole world. From this filthy sewer pure gold flows.”  This description seems not too dissimilar from Bradford in those times when the Dinn/Dunn family moved from Ireland. 

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