In Da Club

                On Friday the stars aligned and Sarah and I both had the night off. I had worked a day shift (so rare for me) and Sarah’s night shift, unfortunately for her, got cancelled. I got back around 7pm and we had some pizza and watched Gossip Girl for awhile. As per usual, the characters on Gossip Girl went to a nightclub. I mentioned how I wanted to go dancing and Sarah agreed. There’s a really popular club, Faces, five minutes away. So we made a spur-of-the-moment decision to go.

                Have you ever noticed that when you have to get ready for work or something it takes an hour? But when you decide to suddenly go clubbing you’re dressed, made up and out the door twenty minutes later? Weird how that happens. We headed to the club where there was already a line at 10pm. And all the girls were gorgeous, dressed to the nines. Part of me is shocked we even got in. It’s not like Calgary: even the bouncers were wearing suits and bowties. It also turned out to be ladies night so we got in for free! Note to selves: if going to Faces, go on Friday.

                The club didn’t live up to my expectations originally. This is one of the most well-known clubs outside of Central London. In Calgary I went out all the time but I haven’t been to a nightclub in London since I moved here. And you walk in and there’s literally two bars, a huge VIP area you can’t even get into, and the tiniest little dance floor. It was underwhelming. But then, around 10:30pm, the walls opened up to reveal a much bigger area!

                The music wasn’t great. It was a lot of dance and house music, and then switched to rap. I can get down with rap (they played Niggas In Paris which is like the greatest song of all time and everyone knew all the words and it was awesome) but at clubs I tend to prefer Top 40 and classic pop hits and stuff. Singing along while dancing is really fun. Don’t ruin that for me, Faces! So the music isn’t as good as Calgary. But the décor? Absolutely. Calgary’s clubs basically look like a plain box with some lights and bars set up. Faces is really swanky looking. Overall it seems like a pretty decent club. It’s surprisingly cheap and looks beautiful.  I just don’t like the music. But the important thing is IT’S ONLY FIVE MINUTES AWAY. So once we got bored/Sarah had to work really early we just left. No $40 cab ride, no night bus adventure. Walked home and were back by 1am.

                And now I’ve got the club itch out of my system. At least for a little while.

Throw Me Down in the Lazaretto

                As you can probably tell from the lack of posting anything for the last little while, I’ve been quite busy. I’ve only had two days off work in the last two weeks. I’ve taken today (Friday) and Sunday off. I thought about taking yesterday (Thursday) off as well but ended up working in the afternoon. Why? Because there are three concerts occurring this weekend that I would kill to see. Realistically, however, I was never going to afford to go to all three of them. I did, however, end up making it to one of them and I’m really glad I did because I definitely would have regretted this particular concert.

                I love concerts, as anyone who knows me is aware of, but it’s been awhile since I saw somebody in concert I haven’t seen before, the last being Taylor Swift last June but I don’t count her because I went to see Ed Sheeran. Twice. So let’s say Mumford & Sons in May was the last band I saw for the first time. Of course, this weekend in London, there were three people I hadn’t seen live! On Thursday the absolutely amazing guitarist Jack White (from The White Stripes, if you don’t know) was playing the Hammersmith Apollo. On Friday, Kanye West was headlining Wireless Festival, and Bruno Mars was headlining Sunday. Let it never be said I have a specific taste in music.

                I was planning on doing my Stubhub trick like I’d done with One Direction, but these concerts were very popular and ticket prices did not drop like I was hoping. Earlier this week I began to accept the fact I probably wouldn’t be seeing any of the shows, but there was this nagging feeling. It wasn’t for Kanye West, whose music I love but is a complete tool, or Bruno Mars, who I was hoping to see to make up for last year’s concert being cancelled. It was Jack White. I have loved him since The White Stripes. I love his solo stuff even more. And he’s so eccentric you never know when he might suddenly retire. As it got closer to Thursday and I watched the number of tickets available on Stubhub drop and drop, I got more and more disappointed.

                After work on Thursday, there were only two tickets left and they were expensive. And then a lot of stuff came together. First, I made it to the bank in time (like, they literally stayed open an extra two minutes to help me – thank you so much Gants Hill branch of Lloyd’s!) to put money on my account, just in case a ticket became available. And then, the venue itself, Eventim Apollo, released one ticket. It was the purchase price. Not as cheap as I wanted, but not as expensive as Stubhub. I wouldn’t have to go to Oxford Circus to get the ticket; I could pick it up directly from the venue. I had to do it.

                As soon as I had the ticket confirmation, I was so relieved. I really don’t care if I see Kanye or Bruno Mars. But Jack White… I respect him so much as a musician. I would have regretted not seeing him, especially in a venue like the Apollo (for you Calgary people, think of it like the Jubilee: beautiful building, great acoustics, big show yet intimate). I had gotten dressed before buying a ticket, just in case, so I was able to run right out the door. It was funny being at the Apollo, because when I work outside of London that is always the meeting point. I am very well-acquainted with the front steps. It was a much different scene that day, though, because there were hundreds of people lined up, waiting for the doors to open at 7:00pm. I got my ticket from the box office and joined the line.

                Yes, I went to this concert alone. My friend Alessia wanted to come, but only if tickets were £30. This morning, when tickets were not that cheap, I let her know. Maybe another time. This is hardly my first time alone at a concert. I’ve seen Ed Sheeran and Paul McCartney alone, so I’m used to this. You’re listening to the music, anyway. Inside the venue is quite nice. It probably only holds about 2000-3000 people and there’s literally couches surrounding the entire upper bar area. The seats inside are nice. Think theater, not concert venue. There’s not a bad seat in the house, which I always love. Apparently Jack White does too because at one point in the show he talked about how he just came from Glastonbury and it was nice playing a show where the audience wasn’t a thousand feet away.

                I have no idea who the opening band was. Probably someone from his record label, Third Man Records. I can’t decide if I liked them or not. They were kind of like The Sex Pistols meets folk rock. It was weird. Jack White came on right on 9:00pm with Sixteen Saltines and played for two hours. It was not the greatest concert I’ve ever been to (that honor is a toss-up between Paul McCartney and Mumford & Sons) but he is, without a doubt, the best guitarist I’ve ever seen. He combines his insane guitar sound with drums, bass, keyboard and violins to make the most interesting and unique sound. He played many songs, including some of his White Stripes and Raconteurs hits. He did, however, miss out on some of my favorite songs, like Freedom at 21 and I’m Shakin. There’s some White Stripes stuff I would have liked to hear, too, but, as I have mentioned, I am actually a bigger fan of his solo albums. His performance got more and more passionate the further into the show. The 45 minute encore was just non-stop energy, finishing with Steady as she Goes and Dead Leaves and the Dirty Ground. But what I loved the most (see what I did there?) was that my favorite song of his, Love Interruption, was actually the best song in the concert, too. It’s not often that my favorite song is also the best live, so that was nice.

                After the show I was waiting for some of the people to get on the tube because I hate crowded transport when I realized I was standing near where the band would be leaving. I was unable to resist waiting with people. I met the drummer, some comedian who plays with Kasabian, and model Cara Delevigne. I never saw Jack White, because I really needed to make the last train, which left at 12:19AM. I have no clue if he ever came out and I don’t want to know. I’ve learned there’s nothing scarier than being in Hammersmith and hearing the train station broadcast ‘this is the last train to Central London’. Close call.

                So yeah, it was a great concert and I’m glad I went. I would have been kicking myself forever. Hopefully I will get the chance to see him again. As for Kanye West and Bruno Mars?  You can’t have everything. They’ll be back, I’m sure.

The Weekend and Also, My Parents Came to Visit

Friday

I had to line up a lot of work because my parents were coming to visit so it was a pretty busy week. I started on Saturday and had applied for work for the next week. My job apparently decided I was working too much (I see I’m taking time off the next week, they see a really tired employee come day six) so I ended up getting the Friday off before my final Saturday shift. Sarah and I saw this possibility coming (she also had Friday off) and had decided to use the magical world of StubHub (www.stubhub.co.uk) to see if we could get half-decent, day-of tickets to see One Direction. That’s right. We woke up to find that tickets had dipped to our pay limit (we were going Sunday already so we weren’t going to pay more than a certain amount to see them Friday). The boys were playing Wembley Stadium for three nights and this was their first show. Our tickets were in Standing Yellow, which was in a back corner of the football pitch.

I met Sarah at Oxford Circus at 3:00pm to go grab the tickets. In Canada, when you get tickets off StubHub you get them emailed to you and you just print them off. Here you go to StubHub’s last minute ticket center. Which meant we got actual tickets! They were really cool. They had One Direction’s faces on it! We then walked to find some food which ended up leading us on the scenic route to Baker Street, where we eventually settled for some little cafeteria. I got some crappy lasagna (my mom makes the best lasagna all other lasagnas suck) and fries. Sigh. Then we headed up on the train to Wembley. You can always tell who is going to a One Direction concert because they are female and probably wearing their faces everywhere. We weren’t, but only because I left my hoodie in Calgary (and Sarah’s One Direction duct tape). The scene at the train station was madness. There were girls everywhere. The gates wouldn’t open until 5:00pm so we had half an hour in the craziness. That being said, the view from the train station was pretty cool. The stadium is in full view across the pathway, there were double decker buses riding on the bridge in front of it, and a giant One Direction billboard plastered across the front.

We waited outside longer than necessary, until Sarah realized that Wembley Stadium was outside. It was organized chaos to get in. We all had specific entry gates and they would only let about fifty people in at a time. The arena itself is huge. Normally the area with concessions is jampacked but it was so big in there it didn’t seem very busy. We sat on some couches we found and listened to a radio program that was recording from the stadium. Everything got pushed back half an hour so it was a lot of sitting. Their opening act, 5 Seconds of Summer, also opened when we saw them in Vancouver. We skipped them then, too.  Finally, at 8:00pm we went to our standing section to wait for the concert. They played some really fun music while we waited, like Bruno Mars’ Locked Out of Heaven, which definitely made the waiting easier. Then it started. I screamed and danced and freaked out. It was good times. I love Harry Styles. And I’d get to see it again Sunday!

Saturday

The next day was a bit rough, mostly because we didn’t get in until late as we missed the last train and had to take the night bus. I had to get up at 10am to work. When I’d finished at 8pm, Sarah and I headed to Trafalgar Square to meet my parents, who had just come in from Canada. They were jetlagged and tired and had been walking around all day so all we did was walk to Covent Garden so I could grab some Shake Shack to eat. It was a tasty burger.

Sunday

                Sarah, Sandra and I had all cleared our schedules to hang out with my parents all day. We started off with Sunday buffet brunch at Babur, the Indian place Sarah and I had eaten at nearly two months before. We were cautious not to fill up (Sarah and I have learned from our mistakes). From there we took the train down to London Bridge. My parents really like walking, and I don’t, so I tried to find a happy medium. The walk from London Bridge to Waterloo takes about forty-five minutes and has a lot of nice things to see. On the walk you pass Southwark Cathedral, Shakespeare’s Globe, Tate Modern, the Millennium Bridge, Oxo Tower, ITV Studios, BFI, and more. My dad wanted to see The Old Vic, so we walked a little past the station so I could show him. I also freaked everyone out by pointing to a restaurant and giving the exact date Harry Styles ate there. Oops.

                From Waterloo we headed to my parents’ hotel, the London Edition. First we stopped to pick up our second round of One Direction tickets. We were in the stands this time, in Club Wembley. Everyone but me and Sandra had a nap at my parents’ hotel. We got to Wembley Stadium around 5:30pm this time and there was far less of a crowd waiting outside. We walked the whole arena again before grabbing some surprisingly tasty pizza and some not so tasty popcorn. We skipped 5 Seconds of Summer again. They announced that the boys would be coming on at 7:45pm, but it was more like 8:30pm again. This time Sarah and I could see the whole stage, though the boys themselves were very very small. That’s the problem with arenas. There’s not really a good seat. If you’re close, you can’t see all the action. But if you’re in the stands, you’re far away just because of the size of the place.

                This concert was even more fun than Friday’s. I danced around and screamed and acted like a fourteen year old. It was really great. Did I mention I love Harry Styles? We had to catch the train because everyone needed to get up early. Again, it was organized chaos. They didn’t want everyone rushing the station so they held us back until everything was clear. The police were so well-prepared. They brought a microphone and a record player and started playing One Direction songs through the mic! It was funny and thoughtful of them.

 

Monday

                I was working Monday night but I had the morning and afternoon off to hang out with my parents. My dad had booked a Rock & Roll Tour of London in the morning. It was very informative. It took us all around Soho, Highbury & Islington, and Camden, showing us many sights of the British music scene. They tailor the tour to your interests, which is good and bad. Nobody said they liked The Rolling Stones or Led Zeppelin, so we, unfortunately, did not hear much about them. I said Joy Division, though, and they actually found a way to incorporate them into the tour, which was impressive.

                Our tour finished around 12:30pm in Trafalgar Square. We went to Covent Garden to meet Sarah and introduce my parents to the wonders of Nando’s. They were impressed. Afterwards Sarah went back to the flat and my parents and I went shopping briefly, before I went back to their hotel to get ready for work and they walked down to Harrod’s.

 

Tuesday

                Another early morning as Sarah, Sandra and I headed to Victoria to meet up with my parents. We had booked a coach tour of Stonehenge and Bath. The coach wasn’t completely full, which was nice. Everyone mostly slept on the drive out to Stonehenge. Even our guide stayed quiet, after acknowledging the fact that everyone was probably going to fall asleep. Good call. We got to Stonehenge in about an hour and a half and had an hour to look around. The tickets were included in our tour, as were the audio guides. You have to take a shuttle partway up to Stonehenge and then walk for a bit. Sometimes I really like audioguides but today I was just not in the mood to listen, so Sarah and I just walked around. You’re not allowed to get close anymore, because people suck. They would try to push the rocks over or deface them in some way. That, and the ground is unstable after all these centuries. Stonehenge has actually been a tourist attraction since the 17^th century or something like that.

                It was pretty cool to walk around something so old, but it’s also kind of overrated. I thought it would be bigger or more imposing; that I would somehow feel insignificant when standing there. But honestly, it’s just some old rocks in a cool pattern. My dad thought we were going to Easter Island and kept asking where the giant heads were. After we took the shuttle back down to the Visitor’s Center and went in the exhibition. It was basically a museum dumbing down what was said on the audioguide. What is Stonehenge, why did they build it, etc. My favorite room was a room of theories about Stonehenge’s existence. It’s up for debate and I like conspiracy theories like that. Then we were back on the bus to head to Bath.

                The ride to Bath took another hour and we sometimes drove through some countryside villages. I was more excited to see Bath than Stonehenge. The city is beautiful. The buildings are a mix of Roman and Georgian architecture and it’s a really cool combination. They also primarily use these kindof gold-beige stones which are so pretty. When we got off the bus our guide took us on a walking tour of the city. We saw the exterior of the Roman Baths, the Royal Crescent (which I found really cool) and some other famous landmarks. Mostly I just really liked walking around the city, taking it all in. I don’t think I could spend more than a day there, but it sure is nice to look at.

                We had forgotten to book tickets to the Roman Baths with our tour except for Sandra who booked separately from us. By chance, there was one token to enter left over, so Sarah and I used the two to see the baths. They were really cool. It’s basically the ruins of a spa. After walking through it they have a miniature of what the baths would have looked like. It was really cool to see how it would have looked. It really did look like a spa with a bunch of swimming pools and hot tubs.

                After we finished at the baths (we skipped the audioguide again) we met up with my parents and went looking for a bite to eat. We visited a pub which actually had some really good chicken wings. It’s really hard to find good hot wings in England. They are my favorite. But these were fine. We did a quick walk through the shopping area which turned into us almost missing our bus. There wasn’t anything left to the tour after that, just the drive back to London.

Wednesday

                Sarah and I spent the morning at our new flat (more on that in another post). I met my parents to show them the new neighborhood and then we headed to Camden. My parents had taken an interest in it after our Rock & Roll tour so I took them to the high street so they could check out the markets. It, unsurprisingly, wasn’t really their scene. We did shop at H&M for a bit and grabbed some lunch at Wetherspoon’s. My dad tried the veggie burger and loved it. My mom tried the purple drink and loved it. Then we headed down to Oxford Circus where we shopped at H&M (again), Debenham’s and TK Maxx.

                Sandra met us down at Oxford Circus and we went to supper at Belgo, the mussels restaurant. I’d been to the one in Bromley with Sarah but this time we went to Covent Garden. The food was just as good (my mother is hard to please and she really liked the mussels) but the restaurant was really crowded and loud. Oh well, it was still a very satisfying final meal with my parents.

               

Being Productive. Sort of.

                Sarah and I don’t have work until Thursday (her) and Friday (me). We had hoped to work Tuesday and Thursday but things didn’t pan out that way. But the six eight hours or more days in a row absolutely murdered me so I can’t say I was too upset to have four days off. It also enabled us to get some stuff done (and a lot of sitting around).

                On Tuesday we finished up our flat application. We both had to fill out an application form that the landlord sends to his referencing company. It’s a little stressful because there’s so many variables. At the end of the day, though, it is the landlord who makes the final decision based on information received from the referencing company about how risky they consider Sarah and I to be. He keeps talking about filling out paperwork, though, so he obviously thinks this is going ahead. I hope it does. I’m tired of living on a couch. I’m ready to start settling. Besides Sarah and I both filling out the application form and sending it off, we also had to pay £150 for the referencing. It seems like a lot but we have learned over the last few weeks that in the grand scheme of things they can charge you for, that’s not that bad.

                We thought paying the fee would be difficult. For some reason we were overcomplicating it. Our original plan was to put the money on Sarah’s UK bank account then go back to the flat and transfer it to the landlord via the internet. In reality all we had to do was hand the bank teller the money and they put it right on the landlord’s account. Duh. We’re stupid. It was so easy and it transferred really quick. By Wednesday morning I had an email from the landlord saying he had received the payment. After our visit to the bank we stopped by a couple discount stores to start picking up some stuff for our eventual flat. We know that it will take some time to make wherever we live feel homey but we need to start grabbing some stuff. Most important is sheets and we managed to buy some sheets and a blanket for incredibly cheap. We literally walked up and down the aisles grabbing essentials you wouldn’t normally think of, like garbae bags, toilet paper and soap. They might not be as important as pillows but could you imagine going to wash your hands and having no soap? Ew.

                We spent the rest of Tuesday binge-watching Gossip Girl (we’re several episodes into season 4 now). Wednesday we had booked the day off of work because we had tickets to Clarence Darrow, a play starring the greatest actor to ever walk the fact of the earth: Kevin Spacey. He is mine and Sarah’s favorite actor. The play was a one-man play at The Old Vic, where Kevin Spacey is the Creative Director. The stage is just a small piece of floorboard in the center and the seats go full circle around it. This was the Dress Rehearsal, as the opening night was later that day. Our tickets only cost £10, as the theater reserves one hundred seats for under 25’s.

                The play itself was just okay. It’s about an American lawyer, played by Kevin Spacey, who basically just narrates his life and his court cases. Some parts were interesting, like when he fought for teaching evolution in school or against racism. Some parts made me want to fall asleep. Kevin Spacey was fantastic. I imagine doing a one-man play is incredibly difficult. He’s just an absolute legend. So he was great to watch but the play itself it boring. Oh well, at least I’ve seen him live.

                After the show as we were walking to the bus we ran into a girl we had worked with all weekend. It was funny because I kind of forgot that we know people besides each other now, and running in to people we know is an actual possibility. It makes me feel more settled here. We took the bus back to the flat and waited for Sandra to get back. Last week Sandra decided to brave the crazy and come to the One Direction concert next weekend with Sarah, me and my parents. She even suggested we watch my One Direction movies to warm her up. Well you don’t need to ask Sarah and I twice, we are more than happy to watch ALL THE THINGS.

                And so Sandra came home and we watched This Is Us, their documentary, their Up All Night concert and most of their music videos – some of them several times. We also ate Chinese food. It was kind of a perfect day: Kevin Spacey and One Direction. And now I’m super excited for the concert June 8^th. Right now Sarah and I have June 6^th off so if we don’t get work we’ll go on StubHub that day and see if we can get super cheap tickets and see them TWICE! IT’S PERFECT!

A DAY OFF!!!

So after a crazy six days of exhausting work in three different locations Monday was my much-needed day off. The day began with sleeping in. Yessss. I’ve had to get up at 6am for the last four days and work nine to ten hours on top of that so sleep has been necessary. After catching up on Mad Men (this week’s episode was really really good – watch it) Sarah, Sandra and I caught the bus to Surrey Quays to see X-Men: Days of Future Past.

                I have an Odeon Film Fan card so I got 25% off today, because they have Film Fan Mondays. It’s pretty sweet. Unfortunately, the movie kind of sucked. I love the X-Men film franchise. I have seen every single one of them, including those terrible Wolverine movies. X-Men: First Class was brilliant and I am a diehard Michael Fassbender fan. I have voiced my concerns over the newest film combining the new and old casts but I still held out hope that it would be good. It’s just…blah. They try so hard to bring in as many cast members as possible that there’s no focus in the story and the entire thing seems disjointed. They should have kept to the new cast. They also lose track of the canon, majorly. One of my favorite things in the film series – that isn’t in the comics – is the relationship between Magneto and Mystique. I love it. The actors old and new have this intense chemistry and it’s so great to watch. In this movie they just throw that all away. The best part was Evan Peters as Quicksilver. And he wasn’t even in it that much. Side Note: Props to the filmmakers for that little inside insinuation about Magneto being Quicksilver’s dad. I hope he has a bigger part in the third one. Michael Fassbender is a better actor than this movie deserves. He elevated the first one to a really high level but couldn’t save this one. I know you’re probably thinking this is just me being hard to please but Sarah and Sandra didn’t like it very much either. In fact, Sarah’s exact words after the movie ended were “Evan Peters was the only good thing about that movie.”

                After the film we bid adieu to Sandra and headed to Waterloo. We had both put our names in to a draw to win tickets to Graham Norton and Sarah had won. We had found out last week that the guests for our episode were insane: Tom Cruise, Emily Blunt, Charlize Theron, Seth MacFarlane, and Coldplay. Wow. They said someone would meet you at 5:15pm and we showed up an hour early and there was already a huge line. We stood in the rain for an hour before they gave us wristbands with numbers and warned us that they didn’t guarantee entry. We had numbers 110 and 111 so we figured we would be pretty safe. They told us to come back at 6:00pm, for when they would let people in. At that time we realized exactly how many people were hoping to get into the audience. Seemingly all the employees had brought friends and family and there were 180 people with priority tickets. Then they started calling our wristbands ten at a time. It did not look good. A guy started sending everyone with numbers over 250 home. Fortunately, Sarah and I got some of the last spots. Phew.

                I’ve only ever been to one other talk show taping, The Late Show With Jimmy Fallon, and the audience here is much bigger, as is the stage. Before the host comes out a warm-up comedian comes on. His job is to get the audience laughing and clapping. Then Graham Norton came on and continued to warm us up. His first guests were Tom Cruise and Emily Blunt, who are starring in The Edge of Tomorrow. Everyone went nuts for Tom Cruise, obviously. He is a funny one. On the one hand, he’s insane. On the other hand, he is actually a very mild-mannered person. In fact, I would go so far as to call him boring. He answers questions very simply and directly. He doesn’t tell any funny stories or anything. But he seems like a genuinely nice person. He knows he’s lucky and he doesn’t take it for granted. He interacted with the other guests who came out and was really excited to see Coldplay. Like, leaning forward in his seat for a better view excited. He also was the only guest who stopped and shook the hand of every single person sitting in a floor seat before thanking the entire audience for coming. I was impressed. Emily Blunt was surprisingly funny. She does a spot on impression of an African American woman (she was talking about her daughter she gave birth to not too long ago).

                Then came out Seth MacFarlane and Charlize Theron. I love Seth. Everyone knows this. I was so excited to see him and he did not disappoint. They were promoting A Million Days to Die in the West, which I really want to see. For someone known for his crude humor, Seth is one of the most charming people I’ve ever seen. He just oozes charisma. You can’t help but want to pay attention to him. He also can whip out his impressions without hesitation. He did everyone from Brian and Stewie Griffin to Kermit the Frog. The best one, though? He sang the ‘Thunder Buddies’ song from Ted! As for Charlize Theron…she was there. I don’t really know what to say about her.

                The musical guest was Coldplay. I don’t like them but it was enjoyable enough. Their set was beautiful. Chris Martin is actually really cool. I thought he was going to be a bit more hipster douchebagey but he was interacting with the audience before and after the song and really put all his energy into performing. He was also interviewed briefly with a band member and they were pretty funny.

                All and all not a bad day and just another reason why living in London is so cool.

How I Spent the Bank Holiday Weekend. And Tuesday.

                It was yet another Bank Holiday weekend in England so we were once again faced with a long-weekend. Unlike Easter Weekend, however, we found ourselves in the position of actually having things to do every day.                

                Friday marked our one month anniversary of being in London. Things haven’t worked out exactly as planned. We are both still unemployed. Contrary to everyone’s opinions in Canada, it isn’t because there are no jobs available. There are thousands of new jobs listed every day. The issue is that the competition is fierce and we lack experience. Who knew that getting a university degree would actually hurt your employment chances? But Friday was also the day of Sarah’s first job interview. I am still an unemployed couch hobo so I went down to Kew with her. We left ridiculously early but it was a good thing because there was a lot more walking involved than we had originally thought. I can now say I’ve walked the entire exterior of Kew Gardens. Originally I was just going to hang out at a pub while Sarah had her hour-long interview, but the pub next door was closed. Fortunately there was a shop across the street called Ceramic Café. It’s one of those shops where you can paint pottery. I love doing that so I painted a butterfly jewelry box while I waited.

                On Saturday we planned to see the new Seth Rogen movie, Bad Neighbours. We originally meant to attend the 1:00pm showing but we were bequeathed with the delightful news the trains weren’t running. We were instructed to wait at a bus stop for a replacement service. After about ten minutes of waiting with a growing crowd but no sign of the bus, I remembered there was a neighborhood bus that took us exactly where we needed to go. The only problem? It would take an hour to get there, which meant we would be seeing a later screening. Then the bus wouldn’t go past the second last stop as the driver had gone over their allowed driving time. Fortunately, the very first time we’d seen a movie there we had taken the tube to Canada Water, so we knew the walk. Had we not, though? We would have been super lost and definitely would have missed the movie. For the record, Bad Neighbours was hilarious. We then had to take another hour-long bus ride back. Doing two hour-long bus rides really makes me appreciate the ten minute train rides it usually is. Never not work again, trains.

                Of course, that wasn’t going to happen. At least I knew in advance the trains would be down on Sunday. We planned to go to Shake Shack and take pictures of us crying over burgers. Because we love this actor Dane Dehaan and he was on The Tonight Show With Jimmy Fallon telling a story about a time when he hadn’t had a burger in four months and then started crying in a restaurant. So, with Sarah and I being as weird as we are, we were totally going to replicate that. The bus was only supposed to take thirty minutes to get to Covent Garden but it took more like an hour. Once again, the driver was going over their time. It didn’t affect us at all but there were people on the bus absolutely freaking out, saying it was because she was driving too slow. The bus ride was slow, yes, but from what I could tell it was because there was loads of traffic, not anything to do with her. So we had our delicious burgers from Shake Shack and we took our crying pictures nobody understands and then we went to the British Museum (www.britishmuseum.org). It was a quick walk there from Covent Garden. We didn’t stay there very long. The museum is huge and it was a weekend, which meant tourists everywhere. Especially Asian tourists who just stand around in huge groups taking pictures of literally everything. We definitely went around the back side of the Rosetta Stone and made funny faces as people were taking pictures. Photobombing is fun. We kind of sped-walked through the museum. We saw the Egyptian, Mexico and mummy exhibits and some cool exhibit about money. But ultimately we decided to leave. We had a quick drink at a pub before hopping back on the bus to head back to the flat.

                Monday was an unexpectedly awesome day. Last week when we were in Liverpool I saw on Facebook that one of my favorite music artists, Ed Sheeran, was playing secret shows on Monday. I had made a joke to Sarah about how wouldn’t it be cool if we could go but there’s no way we will get tickets. Then I kind of forgot about the whole thing. Friday afternoon Sarah was sleeping on the couch when my phone went off: a twitter notification with the link to the tickets. I clicked it and saw they were only £6. Without even asking Sarah I grabbed two tickets. When she woke up twenty minutes later I told her she owed me money…because we were going to an Ed Sheeran secret show Monday afternoon.

                So Monday arrived. The secret show is to promote his new album, Multiply. The premise of his secret shows was exactly that. He played a thirty minute gig in Ipswich at 11:30am, followed by an hour long show in London at 4:00pm, followed by a full concert in Dublin at 9:30pm. The doors for the venue, Koko, were to open at 2:00pm. Sarah and I headed down there early to grab some Nando’s before the show. We got to the venue around 1:30pm and the line was huge. This was my fifth time seeing Ed Sheeran and every time has been completely different. The first show was in Phoenix last February. He was just starting to get famous but had already announced his tour and ticket prices. I figured paying $25 to see him in a smallish venue was fair. The next two times were in Edmonton where he opened for Taylor Swift. I met him at the second concert, which was amazing. The most recent show was in New York, when he played to a sell-out crowd at Madison Square Gardens. I’d gone to that one because I thought it was really cool to be able to say I saw him for $25 at the beginning of the year and at MSG at the end of it. And now here I was, having paid £6 to see him play in front of about 500 people. It was insane. I have now seen him more than any other musical artist with the exception of Alexisonfire. He’s catching up to them. But what was really cool was the crowd. For Phoenix and New York City it was 80% people who like The A-Team and nothing else and for the Taylor Swift shows it was all girls who liked Taylor Swift. But this crowd was different. It was 80% diehard fans, like myself. Lots of us had t-shirts from the different shows we had attended all over the world. People were sharing stories about the different concerts. It was really cool to be surrounded by people as passionate about the music as myself.

                The doors were supposed to be opened at 2:00pm but we actually didn’t get in until more like 2:45pm. We grabbed some drinks and checked out the t-shirts, which were disappointing. I definitely would have picked one up if it had the date on it. But I really could care less about a generic t-shirt. I’m only shelling out money if it’s got the actual event on it. We could have been halfway to the stage but I like to be able to move, so we found a pole in the middle of the room and hung out there. It worked out perfectly because nobody tried to take our spot, we could take turns leaving to grab drinks, and we had a perfect view of the stage. We also know where to look in all the pictures his manager posts of the audience.

                Ed came on promptly at 4:00pm with a shortened version of my absolute favorite song of his, You Need Me I Don’t Need You. You want to appreciate his talent? Watch a live version of that song. I’ve seen him play a twenty minute version before but obviously that wasn’t going to happen if he only had an hour. He then moved on to Lego House followed by one of his new songs. He then played I See Fire from The Hobbit movie, which I was really hoping he would play. I recorded it on my phone because artists don’t tend to play their movie songs very often in concert. He then played what is so far my favorite song on his new album, One (the album drops June 23^rd). Sarah had run to grab drinks during that song and all of a sudden he started playing her favorite song, Drunk. This was Sarah’s third time seeing him live, but the first by himself (she came to the Taylor Swift shows with me). He never played that song with Taylor. I started freaking out and she made it back just in time. He then played Give Me Love, which he always used to open his shows with. I love hearing that live because he changes the way he sings the course and it’s just heaven in my ears. He next played The A-Team, obviously, and finished the hour with his first single from the new album, Sing. I don’t really like that song. It sounds very Justin Timberlake-y and like he’s trying to get his music played at nightclubs. He’s still crazy talented, though. He is probably the best artist to see live. His albums are great but him live is just insane and indescribable.

                The show took exactly one hour, just as Ed said it would. It was still definitely worth £6. I’d pay twice that just for one song. He’s playing the O2 arena in October so I’ll definitely see one of those shows. Or all four. We’ll see. After the show we went to a pub to grab some food but the kitchen closed at 6:00pm. How is that a thing? The kitchen should be opening at that time, not closing. Ultimately we ended up back at Nando’s because we have a problem.

                After a lazy Tuesday morning we had to head back to Kew to pick up my pottery. It’s not the greatest work of art in the history of the universe but it will do for something I hadn’t been planning on doing in the first place. The walk was a lot hotter than anticipated and I ended up getting heat exhaustion because I’m awesome like that. It was actually kind of freaky. I thought I was just hungry but when I tried to get off the train at Waterloo I had the shakes. We ran in to a Costa Coffee at the station and I sat in the shade and had a drink and a muffin. It worked and we were able to continue on with our day.

                We were seeing a play at The Globe that night so we decided to kill the hours before then exploring the South Bank. We first walked through the Royal Festival Hall. It was very posh and I bet it’s gorgeous when there are events. There are six levels to explore but it was quite intimidating. We couldn’t really tell where we were allowed to be. Also, there are bars literally every few feet, which I found amusing. Then we found the greatest place ever, the British Film Institute (www.bfi.org.uk). I am seriously considering a membership, because it’s only £40 and you can go to all sorts of screenings and get tickets to the London Film Festival in the fall and they have all sorts of monthly members-only events. For example, next month there is someone coming in to do a lecture before a screening of 2001: A Spacey Odyssey. The second I have a job and am making money I am getting this membership. The building is really cool. There’s a couple bars and several screening rooms. There is a library full of film literature. I really want to check it out and see how much of it I had to read in school. It’s free! There’s also their mediatheque room. They have thousands of film titles from the National Archive that you can watch. FOR FREE. You can go every single day but you can’t stay longer than two hours. It’s pretty much become my goal to watch every single title. We got a ticket for half an hour so we could check it out and I put on 24 Hour Party People for Sarah to watch while I checked out the different titles available. It’s pretty cool. We definitely don’t have stuff like that in Canada.

                After our movie ended we continued walking down the South Bank before eventually reaching the Globe shortly after 5:00pm. Our show wasn’t until 7:30pm but we were both fairly hungry so we started looking around for a place to eat. We first checked the menu at The Swan (www.loveswan.co.uk), which is the restaurant attached to The Globe. It looked pretty tasty and smelled delicious but we had time to debate our options so we continued down the sidewalk. We didn’t find anything that seemed as appetizing as The Swan so we quickly returned. We were a little disappointed initially to find that the menu they had shown us was not available if you were attending the play. We had to order off of a pre-set three course pre-theater menu. We decided to just go for it and definitely did not regret it! For our starters Sarah had pea soup (which I did not try because ew) and I had some salmon with bread and pickles. I don’t usually eat salmon but I thought it sounded the best out of the options. For our main Sarah picked her selection solely based on the fact she felt like eating broccoli. It ended up being served alongside some kind of fish. I tried a piece of it and it was actually really good! I had macaroni and cheese, which sounds childish but I have found that macaroni over here is delicious. It was served alongside a salad that was bitter and somehow very addicting. For desert Sarah had a strawberry something and I had chocolate mousse. It was such a large serving of something so rich it made it a little less enjoyable than the rest of the meal had been.

                Overall dinner was amazing, though, and we had a great time. The restaurant is situated right on the Thames and from my seat I could see St. Paul’s Cathedral and the bridge from Harry Potter. I ordered a half-bottle serving of wine so as to avoid having to order by the glass and save some money and Sarah and I laughed at how the waiter poured two glasses. Because I am so Canadian I didn’t want to bother him so I just took turns drinking out of both. It was pretty funny. We also enjoyed eavesdropping on our table neighbor, who we nicknamed Dr. Shakespeare. He decided to give a complete synopsis of the play we were about to see to his dinner companions while adding his own personal tidbits of (false) information. Seriously, I studied Shakespeare. He was so wrong.

                We still had some time before the show so we went and grabbed our tickets from the box office before it got busy and had a drink outside while we watched the sun go down. For our drink we went to the outdoor section of The Swan, which is only for ticketholders, as it has direct access to the theatre. It was a really cool set up in the courtyard. They have it themed like the theatre would be in Shakespeare’s day, with cleverly named substitutes for burgers and beer. It kind of reminded me of A Knight’s Tale, to be honest.

                Ten minutes before the show they opened the doors and let us in. The show we were seeing (Sarah’s first at the venue) was Titus Andronicus. It is one of the few Shakespeare plays I have not read or seen some version of. We always knew we wanted to see a show at The Globe, sooner rather than later. When posters advertising the production made comparisons to Quentin Tarantino films, it peaked out interest. We still neglected to buy tickets, however, until after the show opened last weekend and it made the news because audience members kept fainting. Because that is what seals the deal for us. I have seen a play here before, Henry VIII, several years ago. I got standing tickets for that show. It’s a cool idea. Basically, because poor people in Shakespeare’s day stood in the center of the theater, they sell really cheap tickets if you feel like standing. I’ve done it once and I really don’t need to do it again. Standing for three hours or more is hard work and even if you can do it, it’s still in the back of your mind that your legs are getting cramped and tired. For a sold out show they put nine hundred people in the standing area. Sorry, but I will pay the extra £10 to sit. Which is what we did. We were right on the side of the stage, in seats referred to as ‘restricted view’. The thing about The Globe, though, is that all the seats are restricted view in some way or another, because it’s almost a complete circle. You will never be able to see the full action. In our case, there was a pole holding up the roof of the stage that was in our way sometimes. Not a big deal.

                The story of Titus Andronicus is not one of Shakespeare’s best. I like my tragedies with some substance, personally. Titus Andronicus returns from war with a former queen who marries the Roman emperor. She’s basically the devil and her sons rape Titus Andronicus’ daughter and cut off her hands and cut out her tongue. Titus Andronicus decides to get revenge but cuts off his hand because that’s apparently helpful. There’s also a black guy who is having an affair with the psycho queen. And a bunch of people die at the end in a scene that definitely can be described as Tarantino-esque. Mostly because there’s dancing involved in the murder. All it really needed was Stuck in the Middle With You. That’s what I would have done. But we weren’t really expecting substance (I’ll save that for Hamlet). We did have four people faint in the audience so we got what we came for. I think North Americans must be really desensitized to violence, though, because Sarah and I didn’t even bat an eye at the parts that made people faint. I didn’t even realize people had fainted because it seemed so tame compared to what I was expecting.

                Side Note: When the show ends all the dead people get up and do a dance. Seriously. Slumdog Millionaire style. Fortunately Sarah and I knew about it because they told us on our tour of the Globe last month. Apparently it is done because, in olden times, people were really upset. And if people were upset they wouldn’t recommend the play to their friends. So it had to end on a happy note, even if everyone was dead.

 It was still a fun experience, though.  I think this is when it finally hit us how awesome London is. Where else in the world can you see an Ed Sheeran Secret Show for £6 on a Monday afternoon and the next evening see Titus Andronicus performed in an exact replica of Shakespeare’s Globe? 

"Living is easy with eyes closed, misunderstanding all you see..." - The Beatles, Strawberry Fields Forever

                Last Friday Sarah and I decided to take a break from job-searching and get out of the city for a day or two. We ultimately decided to go on an overnight trip to Liverpool. In the UK they have this company called Megabus (www.megabus.co.uk) who offers ridiculously cheap fares on bus rides all around the country. They’ve even expanded to include some European destinations! I had taken them several years ago to Manchester and back. We were able to get return tickets for Liverpool for only £14 which was pretty sweet.

                We decided to go up on Tuesday which meant waking up at the wonderful time of 5:30am to catch the bus. We didn’t go to sleep early the night before either because why would we do that when we could have an Andrew Garfield marathon? The London Tube was striking Tuesday and Wednesday which meant the train the Victoria was going to be crazy. We were lucky enough to get on near the start of the line and actually got seats but it filled up fast and I felt like the devil for having a suitcase. To be fair, I was trying my best to keep it out of the way but when there’s a million people crammed on a train it’s going to feel like an elephant. After a torturous thirty minutes we arrived at the Victoria train station. We had forty five minutes before our bus was due to depart but I would definitely rather be early than late, especially on tube strike day. Our bus ended up leaving fifteen minutes late because of European driving laws requiring that drivers rest for forty five minutes (the previous bus had gotten in late). It wasn’t a big deal but one lady going on a bus to Nottingham was flipping out. Seriously, if fifteen minutes is affecting you that much, maybe you should have planned better.

                I was pleasantly surprised to see that Megabus has updated a lot since my trip to Manchester. The first time I took them it was a double-decker bus, completely full. There was very little leg room and no amenities besides a washroom. This coach had seats with extra leg room, plugs to charge laptops/phones/etc. and free WiFi! It was great. Sarah and I watched the saddest movie ever, a Belgian film called The Broken Circle Breakdown that I absolutely love. Then I read half of The Fault in our Stars, because obviously the previous movie had not upset me enough. The bus made two stops, one in Leicester and one in some university town, before arriving at Liverpool One Coach Station at 1:35pm.

                Before touring we went to check in to our hotel, The Sir Thomas (www.sirthomashotel.co.uk). Originally we had planned at staying at a hostel. I’ve stayed in hostels before and they are fine as long as there’s no curfew but it’s still a pain having to share a washroom and bring your own bedding and stuff. I had checked out the hotel deals on Expedia for fun and we actually got this hotel for just £3 more than the hostel! I’ll take that. The hotel was lovely and if you go to Liverpool I definitely recommend seeing if they have cheap rooms available. It’s perfectly located just off the main shopping district, at the corner of the Cavern Quarter. We literally never had to take transit because everything was walking distance. The staff were really nice and the rooms are clean. Yes, they are small, but it’s what we expected. We also got two beds! We have been sharing a couch bed for so long it was nice to have a night in a bed to ourselves. There was wifi in the hotel and really good curtains (it’s the little things that help).

                We’d been travelling since 7 that morning and hadn’t eaten at all so before heading out we grabbed lunch at the hotel’s restaurant. They were having a lunch deal of one course and one drink for £7.95 so we took advantage. I had some penne pasta that I think confused itself with a salad but was still pretty tasty. Finally, we were ready to head into the city. Tuesday’s stop was The Beatles Story (www.beatlesstory.co.uk), which is basically a museum dedicated to The Beatles. You can get an added package taking you to some Elvis museum but we really could care less so we got the cheaper ticket. You get an audio guide and it takes you through several rooms. It starts from their early years to how they all met. They go into detail on their various managers and drummers and acquaintances. Then it’s the stuff we all know about: Beatlemania, the break-up, etc. It’s really interesting and we were fortunate enough that it wasn’t very busy. After we were done we headed back up to the hotel. We got to walk along the Albert Dock, which is one of Liverpool’s most famous landmarks. We took a different route back to the hotel which allowed us to walk down Matthew Street, the self-proclaimed ‘Home of the Beatles’. That’s where The Cavern Club is located.

                We rested for a bit at the hotel while trying to plan our night. We hadn’t gone out for a night on the town since arriving in England so it was really fun to be able to get all sparkly and put a skirt on. We went to a restaurant down the road called The Living Room (www.thelivingroom.co.uk/liverpool). It was supposed to be kind of posh but relatively affordable. They actually had a really good supper deal going on but I wanted something outside the selection. Sarah and I split a bottle of some amazing Italian Cabernet (Banfi or something is what it’s called). I had duck spring rolls to start followed by gnocci as my main. Both were delicious. For dessert I had chocolate fondant with some Bailey’s on the rocks. The restaurant itself was very nice, though it was quite empty when we were eating. But, to be fair, it was only 7 on a Tuesday. They were incredibly quick: we were on our main course by 7:30!

                From there we headed to the legendary Cavern Club (www.cavernclub.org). You know the place. If you’ve ever seen a picture of The Beatles playing, you’ve probably seen the Cavern Club. It’s not just famous for The Beatles. Many other bands have played there over the years. Nowadays it’s more of a tourist attraction, unfortunately, though that’s to be expected. It’s so cool being able to stand in such an epic spot and everything is just like you imagine and then you look next to the bar and they are selling t-shirts and postcards. The bar is mostly populated by tourists who wear backpacks and are just there to say they went in. There were a few people who were doing like we were and clearly had put effort into going out. We actually picked an excellent time to go. We arrived shortly after 8pm, which is when these two young guys with guitars who call themselves the Nowhere Boys (haha, you’re so clever…) started their two hour set. They are a Beatles cover band, in case their name didn’t clue you in. You’d think I would find that lame since I find everything touristy lame but I actually loved it. There was no better way to experience The Cavern Club than by listening and singing along to the songs of The Beatles. They played a wide variety though sometimes they confused us (like saying they didn’t know how to play ‘Yesterday’. Who doesn’t know how to play ‘Yesterday’?) but ultimately it was a lot of fun. Sarah requested that they play ‘I’ve Just Seen a Face’ and they did and we were freaking out and singing all the words but nobody else seemed to have any clue what the song was. They should be ashamed of themselves.

                When the set was over we left and headed closer to the center of town to go to a club called Popworld (www.popworldliverpool.co.uk). Now, we chose to go here because it was the closest club that was open on a Tuesday night and not a gay bar. We were very disappointed. We showed up around 10:30pm and it was empty. Like, we had been expecting it to be pretty quiet initially, since we assume when clubs are open until 4am people probably don’t really start going until midnight. But this place was empty. Literally just us, a DJ and a depressed bartender. We actually felt sad for the place. Things were not boding well for our night out, after such a good beginning.

                We left after about ten minutes and started heading up the street where lights were flashing. We didn’t want to stray too far and fortunately we found a place at the top of the road. It was called Soho and it doesn’t even have a website. The music was Top 40 which is what we expect on a night out. It wasn’t busy but there were at least people. We sat outside until it got busier around midnight and then went inside to dance. One of the things I’ve always loved about going out in Europe is you meet so many people. Sure enough, I met some really cool people like Sasha and her boyfriend Chris who were, like us, coming up from London for the day out of sheer boredom. I also met these two guys from Switzerland, Danyal and somebody whose name I forget. They were actually at The Cavern Club and said hello when they recognized me from earlier. I talked to them for quite awhile, about everything from travel to music. It was really fun. We did not want to stay at the club until 4am so we tried to leave around 2am, like back home. We got back to the hotel at 3 so we were partly successful.

                The next day we awoke feeling good (I’m not being sarcastic) and got our stuff together to check out of the hotel at 11am. Our coach wasn’t leaving until 3:10pm so they were nice enough to let us leave our suitcase and backpack with them for a few hours. We had booked a tour at 11:30am. The tour was, of course, The Magical Mystery Tour (www.cavernclub.org/the-magical-mystery-tour). As one can guess, it was a two-hour Beatles tour. We got on the Magical Mystery Tour bus and our guide took us all over the city. It would be really hard to see these places outside of a tour, as they are quite spread out. We saw Penny Lane, George Harrison’s birthplace, Strawberry Fields, John Lennon’s home with Aunt Mimi, Paul McCartney’s childhood home (one of them, anyway) and much more. It was really informative and definitely a good way to kill time. The tour dropped us off at Matthew Street shortly after 1:30pm. We’d already done the Cavern Club so we grabbed some lunch, grabbed our suitcases and boarded the coach back to London.

                The only problem with Megabus is, at the end of the day, you are stuck on a coach for five hours. And that gets boring, even when you bring a book…and a laptop…and a DVD player…I watched Rebel Without a Cause and slept and messed around on the internet and everything but the time did still drag. It probably gets easier over time; it’s been nearly four years since I last spent that much time on a bus. I’m out of practice.

                That’s what is so awesome about living in Europe: you can decide last-minute to go on holiday somewhere for a day or two or a weekend and there’s always great deals. We don’t get opportunities like that in Canada, since there’s very limited ways of getting places. So Liverpool ended up being our first jaunt outside of the city. Can’t wait to see where we head next.  

Up at the O2

“If I had my life to live over again, I would have made a rule to read some poetry and listen to some music at least once every week.”  - Charles Darwin, The Autobiography of Charles Darwin, 1809-82 

                Today we had planned to use our Historic Royal Palaces membership cards again and visit Hampton Court Palace. Unfortunately, when we woke up we got our first look at that famous English weather: overcast and rainy. Obviously, it is still possible to visit Hampton Court on a day like today (the palace itself is all indoors) but did we really want to spend ninety minutes on a train there and back and walk through rainy gardens? Not really. And it’s not like we can’t go again literally next weekend (which is currently the plan). So we decided to stay closer to London and Sarah got to sleep some more.

                Once we got going we headed to the O2 (www.o2.co.uk) in North Greenwich. It’s primarily known for being a concert arena but it actually has a lot of restaurants and other things in it. Our first stop was the British Music Experience (www.britishmusicexperience.com) which is literally an interactive museum about British music. There is an overwhelming amount of information in it and if you try to see/do/read everything your head will probably explode. You learn early on to just focus on things you really like. For me, that’s the stuff on the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, and Joy Division (and One Direction…). There are different rooms organized by decade. Inside them are different costumes, memorabilia and even instruments belonging to various music acts from England. There are usually interviews or live recordings in each decade, along with different news clippings of important events from each year. This is where you have to pick and choose, because some years have twenty-five clippings to see. In the center of the museum are things like maps of England showing different artists hometowns, and a dance machine. Somehow Sarah and I did not go in the dance machine. In another room they have lots of instruments you can play on. If you know how to play, that’s cool. If you’ve always wanted to give the drums a go, they have monitors you watch that teach you how to play popular songs – at Beginner, Intermediate, and Master levels.

                After we finished at the museum (and ran away from their ‘special’ Taylor Swift exhibit) we went to Wasabi for lunch. It’s a cool sushi place at the O2 where the food comes by you on conveyer belts and the plate colors determine the cost. I had some delicious crab rolls, some avocado rolls and ordered some chicken satay. It was a very nice lunch. There wasn’t much else to do so we went to see Captain America: The Winter Soldier and then headed back to the flat. When we left the theater and re-entered the O2 to leave, the peaceful setting we had left had been transformed into thousands of people lined up for the restaurants. Like I mentioned, it’s a concert arena and some guy named Gary Barlow was performing. I guess he is or was a judge on The X-Factor and also used to be a member of Take That (if you’re not English you probably don’t know who they are but they are like the most popular thing ever in England. It’s actually scary.) We got out of there as fast as humanly possible. Note to selves: if we ever see a concert at the O2 (looking at you, Ed Sheeran in October), do not eat before the concert.