Seeing Things With People

                So this was a busy week for me. In addition to it being my second week of full-time work, I actually had stuff to do. First up was Antony and Cleopatra on Tuesday night. After enjoying seeing Julius Caesar last month with Britbound, I figured this was a safe (and relatively inexpensive) bet. We were set to meet at 6:45pm and I worked until 5:00pm, so there was no point or time going home. But I also had very limited money. I took the bus to London Bridge and grabbed a bite to eat at Nando’s, where I had accumulated enough points to get a free half chicken. I read my book and ate chicken like a loner and still had forty-five minutes to kill.

                We were set to meet at The Anchor, so I popped in and grabbed a glass of wine and kept reading until it was time. Here’s the problem with meeting places: you don’t know anybody so when the one person you do know shows up (the Britbound host) you realize that all of you have been sitting a few people away from one another, completely oblivious. Once Marie-Clare gathered the group together we made random smalltalk before heading to The Globe. There were no huge Shakespeare buffs there besides me but it was an impressive group. It takes a certain kind of person to not really like Shakespeare but want to see one of his plays, and Antony and Cleopatra is hardly one of the better-known ones.

                In some ways this group was better than the last one, while in other ways they weren’t. Really, it was just because at the last one I met a girl from Canada, Mina, and she and I spent the whole night together talking and whatnot. So there was nobody this time that I got along with that well, but at least they all stuck together. Part of the reason I got to know Mina so well last time was because everyone basically split up and she was the only person still around. This time, everyone did a good job of keeping together. They were also a pretty friendly group, unlike last time. So it’s hard to say which I preferred. It definitely didn’t turn me off going to more events like this.

                I was a little nervous about seeing Antony and Cleopatra, especially since Julius Caesar was just phenomenal. In a way, it would have been better to see this one first, because there would not have been so high a bar set. But I knew this and I was pleasantly surprised. It didn’t match Caesar but it did a very good job trying. The combination of humor and drama was excellent and the cast were all quite good. I always love their dances which come out of nowhere (like when the men are drunk on a boat). They add such a unique feeling to the play. The actress who played Cleopatra was quite good. She looked so much like Gemma Teller from Sons of Anarchy and reminded me of her, too, which was actually really appropriate in a way. I don’t think it was a deliberate choice, but that would have been cool.

                After the show was over I high-tailed out of there because I had to work in the morning, and I’m still not used to consistently getting up at 7am every day. Wednesday was a normal day and then Thursday I did yet another thing! This is unusual for me. I usually do stuff once every two weeks, not twice in one week! I’m trying to get out more, so this is a good start. Up Thursday night was movie night with Sarah. There’s a summer cinema set up in Regent’s Place Plaza that shows two or three movies a week for free. I’d heard of it because people were talking about a screening of Cool Runnings they were doing on Saturday. That’s what Sarah and I were going to see initially, but her work schedule changed so we couldn’t. However, I noticed on Thursday they were showing one of the greatest movies of all time: Clueluess. I know, I know, Sarah and I have both seen Clueless at least a million times. Whatever, that movie is great. And it got us out of the house.

                Thursday happened to be Sarah’s day off which is why it worked out so well. And the night thing was the screening began at 6:30, so it wasn’t going to be a late night for me. And it was FREE! I met Sarah after work and we walked to the plaza, which was really nice. I’m a sucker for attractive concrete parks with no actual green space. It was a really nice setup. The entire area had lots of concrete steps that I assume businesspeople eat lunch on. Sarah and I sat on one of those really close to the screen. Had we been earlier we may have been able to snag one of the fifty or so beach chairs they had set up or the dozen bean bags. Oh well, at least we weren’t sitting on the concrete floor, like we thought we would be. Clueless was excellent, as per usual. We were both really glad we had gone. It put us in an excellent mood for the rest of the day. Summer isn’t over yet, hopefully I can make it to another one of these.

Nerding Out

                So I took Friday and Sunday off, initially in the hopes of attending Wireless Festival. That didn’t work out, of course, but I kept those days free because I really, really needed a break. Friday was a pyjama day. I literally did not leave the flat. It was great. I got some serious TV watching done. I did work for almost nine hours Saturday, but Sunday brought with it another day off. Unfortunately, Sarah was working. But my friend decided to come up to London for the day and keep me company.

                We met at London Bridge at lunchtime and headed to Nando’s. Obviously. We had the strangest waiter who was really nice but wouldn’t stop talking to me about Canada and Nando’s and random stuff. It was really funny. From there we walked to the Tower of London. There must have been five million marathons going on because everyone seemed to be wearing a t-shirt supporting some cause or another. We had also forgotten that it was a Sunday. In July. There were a lot of tourists around the Tower of London (especially Tower Bridge) but surprisingly less than anticipated in the actual tower. Of course, because of my super awesome Historic Royal Palaces membership card I got in for free.

                We walked around the tower for a bit while I basically gave a guided tour because I’m a huge dork and spend way too much time there. We couldn’t see the crown jewels or the torture exhibit because there were huge lines. Because everyone loves diamonds and violence, I guess. We did take a Beefeater tour because you can’t go to the tower without taking one. It was hilarious, as per usual. I actually learned some things I didn’t already know, like about the tower’s architecture. That’s what I enjoy about the Tower of London: I learn something new every time I visit.

                After the tower we grabbed a few drinks at Wetherspoon’s before going our separate ways. When Sarah got back she and I watched Gossip Girl, as per tradition. I really don’t know what we’re going to do once we’ve finished the show. Our lives will be empty.

                On Monday I worked, but I had a day shift, which was unusual. I’d been meaning to go to an event hosted by Britbound for awhile, but they either didn’t interest me on days I had free or I had to work during social events that I did think I would enjoy. As it so happened, the stars aligned and I got my work schedule early enough to realize that I could go see Julius Caesar at The Globe. They took care of the booking fee so tickets were only £5. I was a little nervous before going, because I was going by myself and I wouldn’t know anyone and how would I find them? My brain was going crazy.

                I received an email saying to meet at a pub called The Anchor at 6:45pm. I knew there weren’t very many people going but I wasn’t really sure what to look out for. Fortunately, Marie-Clare, the Britbound employee who organized the event, arrived in a jumper with the company’s logo on it. I walked over and started discussing Shakespeare with them, because obviously we all had that in common. She had to leave and head to the theater early to make sure there wasn’t anyone waiting there, but did tell me if I was ever thinking of going to another play to let her know because she’d like to come. I really liked that. It’s cool when you don’t know many people that everyone is willing to just do stuff.

                While I was sitting around I met this Canadian girl named Mina and we talked for awhile. I didn’t talk at all to the other people going. Mina and I headed to The Globe together and I’m glad we did because we never found the other people from our group. We were ‘groundlings’ which meant standing. I had stood for a performance once before, several years ago, and it was a struggle. To be fair, Henry VIII isn’t exactly the most exciting play. I figured that now I’m more used to standing for long periods of time, maybe I could do it. Would I have preferred a seat? Yes, who wouldn’t want to sit down? But did I survive standing? Yes.

                It was a sold out performance so it was pretty crowded, but we were back enough that we had a good view of the stage. The actors are also always coming in and out of the audience which was a funny way to get jostled around during the show. Julius Caesar actually means a lot to me, even though it isn’t one of my favorites. That’s because it was the first Shakespeare play I ever read, when I was eleven (I was a weird kid, alright?). It was the play that started it all and I’d never seen it performed on stage or as a film.

                I have seen many a Shakespeare play performed on stage during my time. I have to say, this may actually be the best one I’ve ever seen. Julius Caesar isn’t exactly riveting and it really depends on the acting and the actors did not disappoint. The actors playing Cassius and Mark Antony were excellent but the real star was Brutus. He looked and acted the part, and Brutus isn’t exactly the easiest role to play. They also used vocal harmonies in a really unique and interesting way and the dance they do at the play’s end (because back in Shakespeare’s day they had to get all the dead people off the ground to prove they weren’t dead and so people would tell their friends it was good rather than super sad) was hilarious! It was traditional Renaissance stuff but they kept adding modern moves. I swear I saw some twerking in there.

                Overall it was an excellent evening and definitely makes me want to attend more Britbound events in the future. I’m starting to settle in and relax more. There’s no point living in London if I’m not doing cool stuff when I get the chance. And what a perfect way to start actually getting out and doing these social events than a Shakespeare play?  

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? 

A Day of Art and Shake Shack (Which is Basically Food Art)

"A sincere artist is not one who makes a faithful attempt to put on to canvas what is in front of him, but one who tries to create something which is, in itself, a living thing." - Giorgio Morandi

                Today was another rainy day. It was technically our last day of ‘freedom’ (since tomorrow is our orientation meeting which means we will actually have to do stuff after that, like get a bank account and a job) but the weather put a bit of a damper on it. To begin, we went to Leicester Square to get some show tickets for the night. There is a booth that sells discounted tickets called TKTS. I know it because they have it in Times Square in New York City, as well. Fortunately, the line is much smaller in London, and they open at 10:00am. We got there around 11:00am and, after a short wait, got tickets to War Horse. I’ve seen it twice at Lincoln Center in New York but never in London and Sarah has never seen it period. Our tickets are in the tenth row and should have cost us £62.50 but because we used TKTS they only cost us £26. We had budgeted for £30 so we saved some money! Yay! If there hadn’t been tickets to War Horse we were going to look at Once and Wicked. Not all shows are available at the booth. Some, like The Lion King, you have to buy at the box office because they don’t need to sell discounted tickets: everyone goes anyway.

                After getting our tickets we walked to Covent Garden so Sarah could finally try Shake Shack! And it was delicious! It tastes just like it does in New York. We had burgers, fries and milkshakes. If there was any reason to complain about Shake Shack it’s that they don’t adjust the prices for being in pounds, so it’s a bit pricey for fast food. Oh well. Totally worth it.

                When we finished our lunch we headed to Trafalgar Square. The original plan was to visit the National Gallery and the National Portrait Gallery, but we ended up just visiting the latter. The National Portrait Gallery (www.npg.ork.uk) was the first attraction I ever visited in London. I really like it. We spent almost two hours there. It’s basically portraits from the last five hundred years. Sarah and I laughed at all the self-portraits, because they are the original selfies. My favorite gallery is actually the first gallery you see: The Tudor Gallery. It has portraits of Henry VIII and most of his wives and his three children. I love that period of English history so it’s really cool seeing their pictures. Sarah had remarked earlier that it was too bad people didn’t do portraits anymore…and then we found one of Kate Middleton. Oops. The last exhibit, which is always changing, was on Vivien Leigh. I love Vivien Leigh so I definitely looked and read every single thing in that room. I just love her so much.

                As I mentioned, our initial plan was to then visit the National Gallery, but we felt a little too museumed out and wouldn’t appreciate the art enough. It’s free so it’s not like we can’t go back another day. Originally I had thought if we didn’t feel up to another museum we could use our Historic Royal Palaces membership card to get into Banqueting House, located down the road, then wander around Green Park and up to Buckingham Palace before grabbing some supper and heading to War Horse, but when we got out of the National Portrait Gallery it was raining and pretty miserable out. We had six hours to kill so we ultimately decided to head back to the flat. We had been saying for a few days that we wanted to organize our suitcases better (instead of the panic packing gong-show they all currently were) and we wouldn’t feel like it tonight, since we wouldn’t be back until after 11:00pm. So we took the train back and did just that, while watching Gone With the Wind (inspired by the Vivien Leigh exhibit, of course). Sarah’s never seen it before now. We couldn’t get through the whole thing, of course, because that movie is four hours long and we did not have that long, but we will finish it tomorrow.

                After some research, I decided the quickest way to the theater was by bus, and even that was going to take an hour. Somehow we managed to get on and off at the right stop. Yay us. We had an hour before the show so we stopped in at a pub next door and had some chips and garlic cheese bread. Supper of champions right there. It got freakishly busy at one point but then they all realized there was an upstairs section and disappeared. Afterwards we headed to the show (well, walked past it, technically). After buying some overpriced wine we went in to sit down. We had row K, on the right hand side of the stage. The theater is an almost semi-circle so there’s no actual bad seat. The show was great. There were a few small changes from the New York performances I had seen, which was interesting. The show originated in London (with Kit Harington aka Jon Snow as the main character) so I guess they know best. One thing I didn’t like was that they didn’t give out any programs. I’m so used to perusing through Playbills when I see Broadway shows that I really noticed their absence. The show lasted two hours and forty minutes and at the end you could hear everyone sniffling in the audience and I guess the lady next to Sarah was absolutely freaking out and her husband had to hold her down. I’m sad I missed that. All I got was some American lady who thought clouds were smoke from an explosion.

                After the show we went to get the bus back…but the road only went one way. So we went to look for a bus stop going in the right direction. We walked for a bit and eventually realized we were walking over Waterloo Bridge. Oops. Fortunately, we did find the bus in the end. After a bit of a wander. We didn’t get in until around 11:30pm so there went our plans for being well-rested for our orientation meeting tomorrow…