Prepare to be jealous!
I saw ROSAMUND PIKE (aka Jane aka Fanny in "Love in a Cold Climate") in a play!!!! It was Gaslight (a Victorian thriller) and it was at the Old Vic and it was FANTASTIC! It was Victorian and pretty and Rosamund and the guy who played Pompey in "Rome"!!!! It was fabulous. I am so glad I went, and it wasn't even that expensive! I sat in the center of the FRONT ROW so I got pretty intimate with my new best friend Rosamund, and her voluminous skirts. Aaaaahhh bliss. I was so pleased with myself. I took the tube BOTH ways, at night, by myself. I even had to use a PAY PHONE to book the tickets! Wow productive me.
Theatre in London is funny :). People bring drinks and food into the theatre! And at intermission they sold mini Haagen-Daas (sp?) ice cream with cute little spoon things taped on the top! It was adorable. The girl who sold them was wearing one of those like cigarette girl stand things. It felt a little undignified to me eating ice cream at a SERIOUS DRAMA, but it was delicious! In America they won't even let you bring water into the theatre.
I considered waiting at the stage door, but the last train to Camden from Waterloo was too early. Oh well :). I got a program, and I got to be about 5 feet from her (vertically, ha) so that's enough for me!
Luckily today made up for yesterday's wonderfulness :P. I wanted to go into the city 'one last time' before I left for Oxford, plus I needed a charger for my iPod and there is an Apple store on Regent Street. I also needed dinner, and decided to try 'Garkfunkel's' because it seemed like chain restaurant food--not great but predictable. SO. It started off fine. When I got to Oxford Street, I saw the Garfunkel's right away and decided to go ahead and get dinner while I was there. First mistake. The service was HORRIBLE. I waited forever and then got my appetizer at the same time as the entree! Well at least the food was good, but by the time I wanted dessert it just wasn't worth waiting--and I'd been eying that chocolate cake during my loooong wait so that was disappointing. IT TOOK FOREVER. I felt so like ignored and frustrated because I was PAYING for this meal and it's not cheap and yet the waitresses walked around like I didn't exist! At one point, when the people who came in after me and were a part of FIVE were in the middle of their main course, I wondered if my waitress had even put in my order! And nothing I did would get their attention. UGH I HATE feeling that way!
By the time I got out of that mess, the Apple Store was JUST CLOSING when I got there. Bollocks. Walked the wrong direction down the street to my bus stop for a while before realizing I wasn't getting anywhere close... and THEN I tried to get money out of a ATM to pay for my hostel tomorrow and right when I was supposed to get my cash I accidentally hit the cancel button when I was closing my wallet, which ejected my card with no money! So I tried it again and it said my financial institution wouldn't verify the charges or something. WTF! I was really worried that somehow I was going to get charged for the money I didn't get. Luckily I didn't but I was so worried the whole time getting back!
I wish I had just gone to Westminster or Trafalgar Square, somewhere that is NOT Oxford Street or Regent Street. I'd rather my last memory of London not be getting trampled by a crowd of people speaking like a million different languages and wishing I'd just gone ahead and gotten that chocolate cake.
But even a bad day in England is a bad day IN ENGLAND, so I can't complain! And I've really enjoyed being in London. I'm just ready for a change! And being able to get to one place to the other without being emotionally violated by the rush of thousands of people and cars. Especially since everyone I see stares at my cast! It's like hasn't anyone ever told them it's rude to stare at someone? It always makes me worried they are staring at me because I look weird or something is wrong with me or something and then I remember my cast and I'm like really? my cast? It's not that interesting people. Literally I think some guy slowed his car down to look at it once. *confused*
I'm sitting in the dining room at the hostel hearing some Americans talking and it's weird. When I'm around other Americans it's really easy to forget I'm IN England and not back home. Which is why I can't wait to get to Oxford, partially--less tourists, more authentic British experiences. I hope. All the really old pubs in Camden now serve Thai food. Go figure :P. The pubs we went to in London were all owned by the same people and kind of fake-y. Although I did have some English food--Toad in the hole if anyone is interested. I felt very English indeed.
Seriously I am going to respond to everyone's comments, the internet here is terrible and goes in an out every few minutes. When I get to Oxford it will hopefully be better and I can respond to your comments with my favourite British phrases :). Thanks for all the comments, I love being able to read messages from 'home' (not HOME home, but like normal life) on the few occasions I can get the internet to work.
In the last week I've had one dream where I was Romola Garai, and one dream where I was Victoria Smurfit. The last dream involved Stephen Tompkinson (Father Peter Clifford from Ballykissangel). Mmmm.
And now another episode of "Talk to Me" in 45 minutes!
Theatre in London is funny :). People bring drinks and food into the theatre! And at intermission they sold mini Haagen-Daas (sp?) ice cream with cute little spoon things taped on the top! It was adorable. The girl who sold them was wearing one of those like cigarette girl stand things. It felt a little undignified to me eating ice cream at a SERIOUS DRAMA, but it was delicious! In America they won't even let you bring water into the theatre.
I considered waiting at the stage door, but the last train to Camden from Waterloo was too early. Oh well :). I got a program, and I got to be about 5 feet from her (vertically, ha) so that's enough for me!
Luckily today made up for yesterday's wonderfulness :P. I wanted to go into the city 'one last time' before I left for Oxford, plus I needed a charger for my iPod and there is an Apple store on Regent Street. I also needed dinner, and decided to try 'Garkfunkel's' because it seemed like chain restaurant food--not great but predictable. SO. It started off fine. When I got to Oxford Street, I saw the Garfunkel's right away and decided to go ahead and get dinner while I was there. First mistake. The service was HORRIBLE. I waited forever and then got my appetizer at the same time as the entree! Well at least the food was good, but by the time I wanted dessert it just wasn't worth waiting--and I'd been eying that chocolate cake during my loooong wait so that was disappointing. IT TOOK FOREVER. I felt so like ignored and frustrated because I was PAYING for this meal and it's not cheap and yet the waitresses walked around like I didn't exist! At one point, when the people who came in after me and were a part of FIVE were in the middle of their main course, I wondered if my waitress had even put in my order! And nothing I did would get their attention. UGH I HATE feeling that way!
By the time I got out of that mess, the Apple Store was JUST CLOSING when I got there. Bollocks. Walked the wrong direction down the street to my bus stop for a while before realizing I wasn't getting anywhere close... and THEN I tried to get money out of a ATM to pay for my hostel tomorrow and right when I was supposed to get my cash I accidentally hit the cancel button when I was closing my wallet, which ejected my card with no money! So I tried it again and it said my financial institution wouldn't verify the charges or something. WTF! I was really worried that somehow I was going to get charged for the money I didn't get. Luckily I didn't but I was so worried the whole time getting back!
I wish I had just gone to Westminster or Trafalgar Square, somewhere that is NOT Oxford Street or Regent Street. I'd rather my last memory of London not be getting trampled by a crowd of people speaking like a million different languages and wishing I'd just gone ahead and gotten that chocolate cake.
But even a bad day in England is a bad day IN ENGLAND, so I can't complain! And I've really enjoyed being in London. I'm just ready for a change! And being able to get to one place to the other without being emotionally violated by the rush of thousands of people and cars. Especially since everyone I see stares at my cast! It's like hasn't anyone ever told them it's rude to stare at someone? It always makes me worried they are staring at me because I look weird or something is wrong with me or something and then I remember my cast and I'm like really? my cast? It's not that interesting people. Literally I think some guy slowed his car down to look at it once. *confused*
I'm sitting in the dining room at the hostel hearing some Americans talking and it's weird. When I'm around other Americans it's really easy to forget I'm IN England and not back home. Which is why I can't wait to get to Oxford, partially--less tourists, more authentic British experiences. I hope. All the really old pubs in Camden now serve Thai food. Go figure :P. The pubs we went to in London were all owned by the same people and kind of fake-y. Although I did have some English food--Toad in the hole if anyone is interested. I felt very English indeed.
Seriously I am going to respond to everyone's comments, the internet here is terrible and goes in an out every few minutes. When I get to Oxford it will hopefully be better and I can respond to your comments with my favourite British phrases :). Thanks for all the comments, I love being able to read messages from 'home' (not HOME home, but like normal life) on the few occasions I can get the internet to work.
In the last week I've had one dream where I was Romola Garai, and one dream where I was Victoria Smurfit. The last dream involved Stephen Tompkinson (Father Peter Clifford from Ballykissangel). Mmmm.
And now another episode of "Talk to Me" in 45 minutes!