London
I was in London last week, May 17th - 20th. A nice weekend it was. We had decided with mum that when The Lord of the Rings musical comes to London, we must go see it and now the musical had just come on stage. The Finnish band Värttinä has participated in the making of the music.
We arrived to London on Thursday morning and promptly went to take a nap in the hotel. Hadn't slept all that much during the night. Rest of the day went to walking around, absorbing the feel of London and visiting our favourite places like Covent Garden and Lush, Leicester Square, Piccadilly Circus and record stores. I bought a pot of the Big shampoo from Lush and I quite like it. Makes my hair shiny. :)
On Friday we visited the Greenwich park with mum. She had never been there and my last and only visit occurred 8 years ago, so it was a good choice. The sun was shining, it was really warm and the park was really green and pretty. There were people out with their dogs running happily around them. Lots of free space.
We had decided that we also want to finally visit the Westmister Abbey church and we found that it was possible to go on a boatride from Greenwich to Westminster along the Thames river. How convenient. So that is what we did and got wet by random waves that crashed against the boat. Westmisnter Abbey was pretty. Looked at many graves inside the church and saw the throne used in coronations (not so pretty). We were geeky and wanted to see the memorial of Isaac Newton because of the DaVinci Code book. :P Well, otherwise too, but we joked about that. It was also cool to see the memorials of many famous writers.
That evening we went to see the play Equus. Yes, the one with Richard Griffiths and Daniel Radcliffe in it. (Huh, I didn't even realise Griffiths is Uncle Vernon until now that I checked imdb.com!) We were seated in the middle of the third row and the stage was just a couple of metres away from us. Perfect.
I liked the play. Understood almost everything they were saying on the stage. The horses were the coolest! Actors had these horses' heads on them and moved like the animals are supposed to, stomped their feet and swung their heads around. About the plot... A 17-year-old young man (Radcliffe) has blinded six horses for no apparent reason and he is thought to be mad. He would've been thrown into prison, but a doctor convinced authorities that he needs help and he is sent to a psychiatrist (Griffiths) to be treated. I won't say more.
On Saturday eath_in_dublin, my former roommate, came to see me in London. She brought me a necklace with a clover and tiny Irish whiskey bottles. We walked around, visited the Forbidden Planet bookstore and randomly found a manga store that had Naruto cosplayers in it. Why is it always Naruto? Sigh. Day was half-sunny, half-cloudy, and quite windy so it wasn't at hot as the day before. We saw two guards with horses, a demonstration ("Ethiopians out of Somalia" or something like that) and there was a woman preaching about Jesus on Trafalgar Square with huge loudspeakers.
We didn't have awfully many hours before Eath had to leave again. After resting a bit it was time for me and mum to go to the Lord of the Rings musical. The theatre was close enough for us to walk there. It looked quite fancy, all decorations and mats deep wine red. This time we were sitting in the dress circle, or whatever it was called. It was higher up than the stage and that was good. Easier to see spectacles from a bit further away.
The staging was wonderful. They must have used a lot of money for it. The whole stage was surrounded by tree branches that meandered even over the private stands closest to the stage. Before the actual musical started, there was a group of hobbits on the stage, trying to catch fireflies and amusing the audience. They also wandered around the seatings and shook peoples' hands. Cute.
All in all it was a great show. You all know the plot, I'm not going to talk about it. But I must praise the staging once again. E.g. the fight with Balrog was very cool. Gandalf stood with his back to the audience, facing Balrog which was a flat thing spread from one end of the stage's wall to the other. Wouldn't have been so impressive if it wasn't for the red lighting, fog from the machine, a huge bang and a flash of light, soot raining down everywhere. Well, actually it was sliced paper, but looked very good.
At one point during the musical there was a pause and this time it was orcs that came walking around us and making strange noises. It was amusing to watch them appear unexpectedly and one woman actually screamed. :D We had a good time.
On Sunday we left very early, around 7:30 am and I think the tube we caught was the first one because it was full of people. That time on Sunday morning! We had to stand all the way to the airport which took an hour. We weren't very happy. It was good to get back home.
This week we've been watching a lot of Heroes with Jutta and yesterday finished the first season. Waah, I want more episodes. The last fight wasn't as exciting as some of the previous ones in my opinion and I was a little bit disappointed, but otherwise it was a nice episode, so no big complaints. Now we just have to deal with there not being any more episodes to watch for a while. That is sad. Not so many series make me wave my hands and squee at the cuteness or the freakiness of the characters! And watching it in good company makes the whole experience a lot better. :P
I wish Sunday was here already... Placebo's concert. <3
We arrived to London on Thursday morning and promptly went to take a nap in the hotel. Hadn't slept all that much during the night. Rest of the day went to walking around, absorbing the feel of London and visiting our favourite places like Covent Garden and Lush, Leicester Square, Piccadilly Circus and record stores. I bought a pot of the Big shampoo from Lush and I quite like it. Makes my hair shiny. :)
On Friday we visited the Greenwich park with mum. She had never been there and my last and only visit occurred 8 years ago, so it was a good choice. The sun was shining, it was really warm and the park was really green and pretty. There were people out with their dogs running happily around them. Lots of free space.
We had decided that we also want to finally visit the Westmister Abbey church and we found that it was possible to go on a boatride from Greenwich to Westminster along the Thames river. How convenient. So that is what we did and got wet by random waves that crashed against the boat. Westmisnter Abbey was pretty. Looked at many graves inside the church and saw the throne used in coronations (not so pretty). We were geeky and wanted to see the memorial of Isaac Newton because of the DaVinci Code book. :P Well, otherwise too, but we joked about that. It was also cool to see the memorials of many famous writers.
That evening we went to see the play Equus. Yes, the one with Richard Griffiths and Daniel Radcliffe in it. (Huh, I didn't even realise Griffiths is Uncle Vernon until now that I checked imdb.com!) We were seated in the middle of the third row and the stage was just a couple of metres away from us. Perfect.
I liked the play. Understood almost everything they were saying on the stage. The horses were the coolest! Actors had these horses' heads on them and moved like the animals are supposed to, stomped their feet and swung their heads around. About the plot... A 17-year-old young man (Radcliffe) has blinded six horses for no apparent reason and he is thought to be mad. He would've been thrown into prison, but a doctor convinced authorities that he needs help and he is sent to a psychiatrist (Griffiths) to be treated. I won't say more.
On Saturday eath_in_dublin, my former roommate, came to see me in London. She brought me a necklace with a clover and tiny Irish whiskey bottles. We walked around, visited the Forbidden Planet bookstore and randomly found a manga store that had Naruto cosplayers in it. Why is it always Naruto? Sigh. Day was half-sunny, half-cloudy, and quite windy so it wasn't at hot as the day before. We saw two guards with horses, a demonstration ("Ethiopians out of Somalia" or something like that) and there was a woman preaching about Jesus on Trafalgar Square with huge loudspeakers.
We didn't have awfully many hours before Eath had to leave again. After resting a bit it was time for me and mum to go to the Lord of the Rings musical. The theatre was close enough for us to walk there. It looked quite fancy, all decorations and mats deep wine red. This time we were sitting in the dress circle, or whatever it was called. It was higher up than the stage and that was good. Easier to see spectacles from a bit further away.
The staging was wonderful. They must have used a lot of money for it. The whole stage was surrounded by tree branches that meandered even over the private stands closest to the stage. Before the actual musical started, there was a group of hobbits on the stage, trying to catch fireflies and amusing the audience. They also wandered around the seatings and shook peoples' hands. Cute.
All in all it was a great show. You all know the plot, I'm not going to talk about it. But I must praise the staging once again. E.g. the fight with Balrog was very cool. Gandalf stood with his back to the audience, facing Balrog which was a flat thing spread from one end of the stage's wall to the other. Wouldn't have been so impressive if it wasn't for the red lighting, fog from the machine, a huge bang and a flash of light, soot raining down everywhere. Well, actually it was sliced paper, but looked very good.
At one point during the musical there was a pause and this time it was orcs that came walking around us and making strange noises. It was amusing to watch them appear unexpectedly and one woman actually screamed. :D We had a good time.
On Sunday we left very early, around 7:30 am and I think the tube we caught was the first one because it was full of people. That time on Sunday morning! We had to stand all the way to the airport which took an hour. We weren't very happy. It was good to get back home.
This week we've been watching a lot of Heroes with Jutta and yesterday finished the first season. Waah, I want more episodes. The last fight wasn't as exciting as some of the previous ones in my opinion and I was a little bit disappointed, but otherwise it was a nice episode, so no big complaints. Now we just have to deal with there not being any more episodes to watch for a while. That is sad. Not so many series make me wave my hands and squee at the cuteness or the freakiness of the characters! And watching it in good company makes the whole experience a lot better. :P
I wish Sunday was here already... Placebo's concert. <3