Adventures in London

We visited the Cock the other night…hehe, keep reading and you’ll find out what I mean.

Well, you’re in for a long post this time because it’s been a while and I’ve done a lot. When last we met, I was going to go to Aladdin. The show was great; it seemed to me that it was what Commedia would have been like. And Ian McKellen was amazing, of course. He was in drag, which was a hoot. I never thought that a 64 year old man would have such nice legs…

Classes are going great. It’s nice to have some non-theatre classes; it makes me feel like a real person again. And it’s nice to know what’s going on in the “real” world.

I’ve been going out by myself and with friends. I’m starting to know my way around, which is nice, I don’t get lost so much anymore.

Last Thursday there was a Chinese dinner at ISH. One of the entertainment pieces was this woman doing Chinese ribbon dancing. It was so amazing. It wasn’t really ribbon, but pieces of lightweight red and orange silk attached to 2 fans. It looked alive, not like cloth at all.

It’s nice having a 3-day weekend…we were busy tho. On Friday we went to Hyde Park and walked through there and saw the statues and the park. The squirrels there will eat right out of your hands! Saturday we went to the Tower of London. That place is amazing. We took a Beefeater tour, which was so much fun! They have a lot of little anecdotes about the Tower, and lots of little stories that you don’t get to know about if you just walk around. They are cool men; they live AT the Tower, actually in some of the buildings. We saw the Crown Jewels-the real things! A lot of shiny…. And so expensive; I couldn’t believe how many jewels were in one piece. No expense spared there! On the way back we stopped to see Big Ben. It’s funny, you come out of the Tube Station and there it is, right across the street. We also got to see the Parliament buildings and Westminster Abbey. It was too late to go into anyplace, so we took pictures of the outside. And the explanation about the Cock: It’s a pub on Great Portland Street :) Everyone seemed to love the fact that I was slightly intoxicated that night; whenever I told people that I was tipsy, they would go, “Really?! Wow!” I guess they still see me as a naïve, proper little girl….well, they’ve only known me a week :P Sunday we went to Tate Modern. I loved the Surrealistic section. Some of the more well-known paintings I saw were Monet’s Water Lilies and Dali's The Metamorphasis of Narcissus.

Monday…classes. But then I saw an AMAZING play. It’s at the National and it’s called “Paul”. It’s about St. Paul’s conversion and ministry…written by an atheist author. It brings into question faith and ritual and how can we know if what we believe is true. The space was amazing… It was kind of in the round. We saw it in the Cottesloe part of the National. It’s a rectangular black box. The set went almost diagonally across the space, with the audience sitting in the opposite diagonal corners. They were also on the 1st and 2nd level surrounding 3 sides of the stage. They played it in modern dress with bombed out Middle Eastern walls as the set. They had a practical water tap :) And the main character……..absolutely brilliant. He was onstage most of the time. He was completely in character the entire time that he was onstage. And the scene changes were in the light, and he had to shift characters while onstage. Brilliant. He was so intense that it was just amazing to watch.

And this concludes my post, ladies and gentlemen! Sorry it was so long, but I’ve been busy. I went to see Phantom of the Opera tonight. It wasn't as impressive as I remembered, but that's probably cause I knew what was coming and how they did all of the tricks. It was good though, the girl playing Christine actually emoted while singing, and the Phantom was great. He had a really good voice and some of his character choices were awesome. He had a sensitive side too, not just the sadistic monster. And a character tic they established in the first act paid off in the 2nd act. And tomorrow I'm going to see Amato Saltone with Nicki...should be fun!

Hope everyone is doing well, and love to all!!!!