Shakespeare and Dalí: Two of My Favorite Guys

Day 4 marked the end of the unseasonably good weather we'd been enjoying and a return to the default London climate of light but persistant drizzle. (I bought an umbrella at a souvenir shop for £4 (round about ¥900) and it actually lasted for 4 whole days without breaking.)



Our first stop of the day was a tour of the Globe Theater with John's sister Emma. I was very excited to go to the Globe because it's apparently a fairly accurate reproduction of what the theatre really looked like in Shakespeare's day (although thankfully equipped with modern-day fire-extinguishers to avoid the fate of the original Globe.) They also have a very nice museum with exhibits of costumes, props and explantions of various aspects of the theatre in Elizabethan times. You can walk around at your leisure and read up on Shakespeare and English history and then go on the tour. And, because it was still the 'holiday season' they had free mulled wine for everybody, but unfortunately, no juice for us kids (>_<).



The guide explained the seating arrangements, (one penny to stand in the the yard, 2 pennies for a seat, and 3 pennies for a nicer box), the history of the theatre, and other interesting trivia. The thing I found the most interesting (at the time) was that (the guide claimed) the word 'window' originally came from 'wind-hole' meaning a hole to let the wind in and air out an otherwise hot and stuffy room. (Having since looked it up however this proved to be an example of cutesy folk-etymology as it really comes from Old Norse vindauga or 'wind-eye', but that's neither here nor there.)



Anyway the theatre was lovely, especially the gold-leafed caryatids on the pillars and the beautiful paintings on the stage. I didn't manage to get any good pics because of the combination of the rain and a crappy disposable camera, but John sent me some super nice ones. (Thanks John!)



The next stop on our tour was supposed to be Madame Tussaud's wax museum, but unfortunately the line was about 2 blocks long and the rain hadn't let up, so rather than wait around in the drizzle for an hour or two we gave it a miss. However since the wax museum is right near Baker Street Station I did get nice pic with me and the famous resident of 221 B. Baker Street. After that we parted company with Emma and decided to visit the Dalí' museum we had noticed near the London Eye.



The Dalí Universe was great. It had tons and tons of Dalí's sculptures and statues as well as some strange glass pieces he'd done and some lithographs and gold objets d'art. The whole museum was done in a wacked-out surrealistic style with big photos of Dalí floating on the walls along with selected quotes, and even the bathroom was done in a grand Dalí-esque style. They also had a Picasso exhibit going at the same time with some interesting examples of Picasso's foray into pottery.



The glass works (done in collaboration with the French crystal company Daum in the pâte de verre style) were my favorite. The colors were amazing; bright acid yellows and cool glacial blues. They were really stunning. Since they won't let you take pictures in the museum, however, I had to search the web to get pictures. (Note: these particular works were not on display at the museum, but they are examples of Dalí's work in this medium.)



Our final stop of the day (after dinner at a yummy Indian place) was another theatre production. This time we saw Mel Brooks' 'The Producers', which was very funny. (We got royally scammed on the tickets though, 'cause we bought them through one of those little ticket-booking shops rather than from the theatre. They charged us £30 for what should've been £10 tickets. Oh well, Live and learn, I guess...) It was a very good show regardless and I hadn't been to see a musical in ages, (not since 'Hair' in college, I think) so it was doubly fun. And, there was this German couple sitting next to us and the wife kept cracking up whenever they said anything in pseudo-German, which added to the humor. In case anyone is interested they've apparently done a new movie of it recently with Uma Thurman, Matthew Broderick, and Nathan Lane so you might want to

check it out

if that seems like your thing...

Okay this post is waaaaaaaaay too long so I'll say goog niter, and hopefully have another post up one of these days... (The next day of my vacation was New Year's Eve in Paris so it should be a good one.)

London: Day 3, Part 2

So after checking out the Tower we went ice-skating. Apparently it's some kind of special seasonal thing that they only do round about Christmas and New Year's, so it was nice that we got to do it. I'm not a huge fan of ice-skating so I skated a bit and then sat out to have a yummy cookie and some hot cocoa by the rinkside, but John was *LOVING* it. He just kept zipping around the rink and didn't get bored of it even after an hour. I will say one thing though I have a new-found respect for figure skaters. I had enough trouble just trying to move around the ice at a pace above a snail's, but the way they do all the those Double-Axels and Triple-Lutzes and whatnot makes it look so easy!



After we finished at the Tower we made our way to the London Eye, which is the largest Ferris wheel in the world. It doesn't just have a little carriage where you sit down, but rather it has a whole room with enough space for about 10-12 people where you can walk around freely while you admire the sights. (NB: This picture is just to give you an idea, we actually went on at night and couldn't get any decent pictures.) I loved it, but I think Dad would probably have a panic attack if someone made him get on (heck, he was sweating bullets on the little Ferris wheel at Hep 5). The view was spectacular and especially since it was at night we were able to see the famous buildings along the Thames (Big Ben, Tower Bridge, and The Houses of Parliament etc.) all lit up.



But, but, but, that's not the coolest thing about the London Eye. The coolest thing about the London Eye happened while we were waiting in line. We had just gotten our tickets and were standing in line chatting about this and that, when I heard the couple in front of us speaking in Japanese, in fact speaking in Osaka dialect. I'm always happy to hear Osaka dialect, so I turned around to take a look at the couple and who was it but my old manager Yuuichi from Flowertown Nova and his wife Jun!!!!! What are the chances! (According to Dad the chances are in fact very good, but that doesn't mean I didn't get the shock of my life!) Anyway we were all very surprised and happy to see each other and we decided to hang out together for the rest of the night.



Since we were in London we decided that we had to eat that most English of foods: Fish and Chips, so we repaired to a pub for dinner. Yuuichi and Jun were very excited about having real Fish and Chips, so they did what all Japanese tourists do and got out their cameras to take a few pics of the old F&C before chowing down. I took a pass on the fish thoug, obviously, and had a rather yummy grilled cheese and mushroom sandwich with chips. It was still early so John suggested a post-prandial stroll around Leicester Square. We soon discovered that there was some kind of carnival going on and Yuuichi, Jun and I took spin on the merry-go-round while John took pictures. I also had a nice big stick of fairy-floss (that's what the Brits call cotton-candy).



After our walk we parted company with Yuuichi and Jun and returned to the hostel to pick up our bags. Then we trundled them on over to our new hostel in Russell Square: The Generator. It was a bit pricey for a hostel, but it had free breakfast and a cool trendy atmosphere. John thought it was too trendy, but I kinda liked it, and their granola was quite good too.

OK, Goog Afternooner to all and keep checking back for more installments!

London: Day 3, Part 1

So, as promised, here is the continuing saga of my week in London:
Day 3: We had a full schedule today as we planned to see Westminster Abbey, The Tower of London and ride on the London Eye all in one day. And see them we did. Our first stop was Westminster Abbey, which had one of the longest queues I've ever seen. We waited outside in the cold for about 1 1/2 hours amusing ourselves by taking silly pictures like the one shown at left. (Did I mention it was COLD? I basically walked around swaddled in the same hat, scarf and coat get-up the whole time and still froze my ass off half the time...) However the wait was most emphatically worth it.



How to describe Westminster Abbey? I'd have to go with statuarily-gifted... (It's too bad the word statuesque is already taken, because it really feels like it OUGHT to apply.) Anyway, you get the point. I've never seen that many statues all together in one place in my whole life, they were literally cheek-by-jowl, and all of the sort to inspire you with a kind of open-mouthed wonder at the awesomeness of their erstwhile owners. One particularly arresting monument was the of Tomb of Sir Joseph and Lady Elizabeth Nightingale depicting Sir Joseph trying to save Lady Elizabeth from the skeletal hands of death. Pretty sweet!]



Our next stop was the Tower of London where we saw the Crown Jewels, and the Bloody Tower where Sir Walter Ralegh was held for 13 years. We also saw some rather nice cannons looted from the Napoleonic Wars and lots and lots of Beefeaters. The Crown Jewels (which include the world's largest diamond; 'The Great Star of Africa') were not too shabby, but I was most impressed by a solid gold nautilus-shaped punch server and its accompanying solid gold punch bowl which could easily hold enough punch to floor even Henry VIII.



Unfortunately after a good 10 minutes of searching all I could find was this detail from one of the handles which doesn't really give you an accurate idea of the sheer grandeur and swank of the punch bowl, but since you're not allowed to take pictures inside the Jewel House you'll have to content yourselves with this.



I have no idea who this guy is, but that's the Star of Africa he's holding, formerly part of Cullinan I, now located in the Royal Scepter. I found plenty of pictures of the scepter, but I just liked this guy for some reason, so here he is...

Okay, it's getting a bit late so I'll post the rest of Day 3 tomorrow! Goog Niter!

Finally (The Long-awaited Saga of My Trip to London and Paris!)

So, today I went to the photo-shop and finally got my pictures developed from my New Year's trip! Here's the blow-by-blow; Enjoy!

Day 1: I arrived at Heathrow, completely exhausted after my over 13 hour flight. I collected my various bags and went through customs. The customs guy was extremely cheeky with me and asked me a lot of personal questions eg: "How long did I know the person I was staying with?" "How did we meet?" "What was our relationship?" "Were we just friends, or was he my boyfriend?" (maybe it's just me, but I fail to see how this guy asking about my love-life or lack there-of is going to catch any f***ing terrorists...) Anyway after all that John met me at the airport and we headed straight for the hostel by underground. Our hostel was in Oxford Circus (see the pic at left) and the guy working the desk when we checked in was a very very nervous Russian guy. We ditched our stuff, asked the Russian guy for advice on restaurants in the area and eventually got some grub at an Indian place a few blocks away. We took a bit of a stroll after dinner and then went back to the hostel where I promptly conked out.


Day 2: We woke up at the crack of ten and set out for our first destination the Tate Britain Museum, which houses many of the most famous Pre-Raphaelite works. As everyone from back home knows I've been hankering to see these in person since my junior year of highschool and I finally saw them. It was almost a religious experience. I saw Waterhouse's famous 'Lady of Shalott', Rossetti's 'Proserpine' and Millais' 'Ophelia' and 'Mariana'. Perfectly breathtaking, all of them, but oddly enough the painting that caught my attention the most was John Singer Sargeant's 'Carnation, Lily, Lily, Rose' of which I had previously been unaware. Something about the precise quality of the light at dusk that he was able to capture in this picture was absolutely transporting. I got a postcard of it, but you really have to see the original to appreciate it I think.
We had lunch in the gallery cafeteria and I had my first taste of a real English 'cream tea' which is not actually a tea at all, but a rich dense scone smothered in jam and clotted cream, and quite possibly the most delicious thing in the whole world. After lunch we made our way to Westminster Abbey only to find that it was already closed for the day. We did get to see Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament though, so it wasn't a total wash. Here are some photos actually taken by me:
This is (as you can see) Big Ben. As you can also see I am not the best photographer in the world and a lot of the shots that I took came out rather half-assedly, so bear with me! After our disappointment at WA we set out on foot to Buckingham Palace.



This is John in front of the gates to Buckingham Palace. We actually saw some guards changing places, but according to a little plaque in front of the gate this was not in fact '*THE* Changing of the Guard' but rather only *A* changing of some guards... Oh well.



In front of Buckingham Palace there is a big monument with all sorts of Mermen and lions and various other figures on it that was quite impressive, so what did we do but clown around on it.





I wanted to climb all the way around to the front of the lion but I was a little scared since it was very narrow and slippery and had to content myself with peeking out from behind his tail. You can barely even tell it's me...



We also paid a short visit to Nelson's Column and I did some more goofing around with the Lions (they are by the way quite high up off the ground and John had to give me a boost) but apparently I didn't get a picture of it on my camera, so anybody who wants to see it'll have to wait 'til I get the rest of the pictures from John.


The next stop on our trip was the Tower of London, but unfortunately it was also just about to close, so we bought advance tickets for the skating rink (Yes, there's a skating rink at the ToL for some reason, and one at the Eiffel Tower to boot!) for the next day. By this time it was almost time to see our first play. John had suggested that since we were going to be in London we should catch a show or two in the West End. The first play we saw was 'Twelfth Night' at the Novello Theater and it was great. I'd never seen or read it before, so I skimmed a summary of it at home before I went. All I can say is it was hilarious! The acting was fantastic, particularly that of the actors playing Sir Andrew Aguecheek and Malvolio and I was laughing out loud half the time. I'm going to have to rent the movie version and watch it again, the scene with Malvolio preening himself in his 'yellow stockings' is really a classic comedy moment. (I love the nod to 'Kill Bill')



Okay this entry has already gotten a little too long already so I'll do the rest of it in installments. Stay tuned for day 3 and day 4 tomorrow!

Goog Niter!