Natural Science and the Great Glass Elevator

We spent many hours today wandering around the Natural History Museum. I am pretty sure we saw only about half of what was there, and we ended up with neither the time or energy to do more. There are a lot of stuffed animals on display. A LOT. Most of them very old, as they tend not to use real animals in the displays so much anymore. In the corridor to the human skeleton section there was a horse skeleton cut in half down its spine, and there was half a human skeleton (also cut down the middle of the spine, reaching up with its hand on the horses missing flank. Sam walked in, stood looking at it, and then said to Shane with a note of wonder in his voice, "A man died patting a horse!"
The funniest thing that happened to us had nothing what-so-ever to do with Natural history, and much more to do with man made attempts at technology. In the shape of a glass elevator. We had the stroller with us for the day - so very, very handy for tired three year old legs and to load up with water bottles and lunches - but that means that stairs are hard, and elevators a must. This was just a small one, going from the ground floor next to the huge animal models (Blue whale, Elephants, etc) to the next floor up where you can get a birds-eye view of said models. It is also glass which means you can look out all the way up, and be seen for the whole journey.
We had been wandering separately all over the joint, but for some reason we gathered when it was floor changing time, and all got in the lift together. We did comment that the lift was moving very slowly as we waited for it, and eventually realized that you had to keep your finger on the call button to get it to come. Once in, we again joked that you may have to keep your finger on the button to get it to the top. Shane asked what would happen if I let go of the button, at which point Paul knocked my hand so that it came off the up button. Sure enough the elevator stopped. Problem being, it wouldn't go again. We were about two metres above ground level, more or less in the room still with all the fake animals, suddenly in a display cabinet of our own. A glass window with six people in it, all very real looking I might add. We posed for a second - and thought we were hilarious. Then we tried again to get it moving. Shane complained (in jest) that he was running out of oxygen and suddenly the situation was hysterical. We were all laughing barr Lilli, who looked quite concerned. Eventually we realized (with the help of Paul actually reading one of the signs in the lift) that if ANYTHING gets too close to the doors, it stops. There were lazer beams to detect our presence. We pulled in our arms and legs and huddled even closer and eventually made it to the top, where the door opened automatically, as it was supposed to.
Lilli asked straight away if we could go back down by the stairs.
The funny thing was that by the time we had finished our lap of that floor, she was keen to go down in the lift again, and, more fools us, we all piled in again. This time the stopping was intentional, with the odd finger being put into the beams on purpose. Stopping. Then starting. And that was all fine....until we made it to the bottom., and the automatic doors were suddenly no longer automatic! That is right - we couldn't get out. There was a museum employee at the bottom who tried opening the door for us, but couldn't. To get it to open, she had to push the call button. It took only a minute or two, and much laughter again, and we were out. We also have labelled it as the worst lift ever designed and made. Beware of the glass lifts near the Blue Whale! Mind you, a good laugh, is good for the soul...