London 2013 (First Part)
I'm eating shortbread, drinking kiwi juice, and regretting living inside a witch's cauldron. Time to stop complaining about the weather and getting started on my London post!
The lovely space_oddity_75 and I are huge Cabin Pressure fans, and when last December we read that Roger Allam was going to be Prospero in The Tempest we decided to book a trip to London to see him. First on saturday evening, then the matinée on sunday. Then she found out John Simm was going to be in The Hothouse that same weekend and we bought tickets to that too. It was a fantastic weekend of fine theatre with two of our favourite actors. \o/ I took a lot of pictures, so this post will be divided in three parts. I'm not even sorry.
We were very lucky with the weather, although to us it was mild spring weather, while to the Londoners it was the first summer weekend.
We were staying at the Travelodge near King's Cross. Fantastic place, a couple of minutes from the Tube and the trains.
As soon as we arrived we dropped the luggage at the hotel and ran to the Forbidden Planet. The guy at the counter looked at the stuff I had bought, squinted, and said there had to be some secret code hidden in it. I have eclectic tastes, what can I say.
We went to the National Gallery to stare at Van Gogh's Sunflowers for a while. Sadly that picture is in Amsterdam until September, but we still got to do cooing noises at other Impressionist pictures and then make a quick stop at the shop where I bought souvenirs for my aunt.
I love this picture! \o/ That's my theatre outfit (took me ages to decide what to wear for John Simm) but it was great for walking around the city too.
We had lunch sitting there basking in the sun and looking at jugglers.
First play of the weekend, Pinter's The Hothouse, with John Simm playing Gibbs. And as we later found out, the actor playing Dudley from Harry Potter was in it too. The theatre was really small, and we were sitting in the first row, a few steps from the actors. It was incredibly intense, and had a couple of triggering sequences where I had to hide my head behind space_oddity_75's shoulder. I hadn't been to the theatre in years, I had forgotten how real and intense it can be. Not to mention I had never been so close to the action. John Simm was superb, although I loved everyone equally, it was a fantastic cast. Really loved the actual play too, it was very dark and quite a punch in the stomach, the kind that stays with you for a while.
I couldn't take any pictures inside, obviously, so here's an official picture.
We waited at the Stage Door one hour, and then found out John Simm wasn't coming out because he was having drinks with his colleagues. I was feeling like a zombie (after all it was the very first day), so we decided to go back to the hotel. A girl we met at the Stage Door walked us to a store (The Cooperative, a new one they opened near Trafalgar Square) and went into mother hen mode with me, picking stuff to eat and giving me advice on the best british pastries. She told me I hadn't lived until I had tried something with ginger in it, and picked a Jamaica Ginger Cake, which, as it turns out, was bloody amazing. :D
On saturday this was the view from our window.
We had the whole day to ourselves, and we took pictures and did a lot of shopping. Here's a picture I took in Chinatown, just before the weather changed.
space_oddity_75 is basically a native, so she took me to places I hadn't been before, like Hamley's. We took the scenic route, to take some more pictures.
As it turns out the London air makes my hair look all puffy and amazing. :D
First stop, Lush, a store I had never heard of before even if it's obviously Heaven on earth. I bought lots of stuff, and thankfully there's one in Venice too. It looks like Willy Wonka's lab, and it smells amazing. I took a shower yesterday before going to bed, and used only Lush products, and holy hell I feel like a princess today.
Then we went to Hamley's. Think Santa Claus' lab, and then multiply it by four. It has one floor only for lego, what the hell.
I ran around squealing and sniffing random stuff and taking pictures. Wonderful.
We had lunch in this nice little place called Misato, a fantastic Japanese restaurant. We had sushi, sashimi, tempura, miso soup and washed it all down with hot tea.
Quick stop at Cool Britannia, to be stereotypical tourists for a while. :D
This picture was an accident, my camera went off while she was holding it, but I really like how it turned out, so there. :D
Mah babies!
Onward to the second part.
The lovely space_oddity_75 and I are huge Cabin Pressure fans, and when last December we read that Roger Allam was going to be Prospero in The Tempest we decided to book a trip to London to see him. First on saturday evening, then the matinée on sunday. Then she found out John Simm was going to be in The Hothouse that same weekend and we bought tickets to that too. It was a fantastic weekend of fine theatre with two of our favourite actors. \o/ I took a lot of pictures, so this post will be divided in three parts. I'm not even sorry.
We were very lucky with the weather, although to us it was mild spring weather, while to the Londoners it was the first summer weekend.
We were staying at the Travelodge near King's Cross. Fantastic place, a couple of minutes from the Tube and the trains.
As soon as we arrived we dropped the luggage at the hotel and ran to the Forbidden Planet. The guy at the counter looked at the stuff I had bought, squinted, and said there had to be some secret code hidden in it. I have eclectic tastes, what can I say.
We went to the National Gallery to stare at Van Gogh's Sunflowers for a while. Sadly that picture is in Amsterdam until September, but we still got to do cooing noises at other Impressionist pictures and then make a quick stop at the shop where I bought souvenirs for my aunt.
I love this picture! \o/ That's my theatre outfit (took me ages to decide what to wear for John Simm) but it was great for walking around the city too.
We had lunch sitting there basking in the sun and looking at jugglers.
First play of the weekend, Pinter's The Hothouse, with John Simm playing Gibbs. And as we later found out, the actor playing Dudley from Harry Potter was in it too. The theatre was really small, and we were sitting in the first row, a few steps from the actors. It was incredibly intense, and had a couple of triggering sequences where I had to hide my head behind space_oddity_75's shoulder. I hadn't been to the theatre in years, I had forgotten how real and intense it can be. Not to mention I had never been so close to the action. John Simm was superb, although I loved everyone equally, it was a fantastic cast. Really loved the actual play too, it was very dark and quite a punch in the stomach, the kind that stays with you for a while.
I couldn't take any pictures inside, obviously, so here's an official picture.
We waited at the Stage Door one hour, and then found out John Simm wasn't coming out because he was having drinks with his colleagues. I was feeling like a zombie (after all it was the very first day), so we decided to go back to the hotel. A girl we met at the Stage Door walked us to a store (The Cooperative, a new one they opened near Trafalgar Square) and went into mother hen mode with me, picking stuff to eat and giving me advice on the best british pastries. She told me I hadn't lived until I had tried something with ginger in it, and picked a Jamaica Ginger Cake, which, as it turns out, was bloody amazing. :D
On saturday this was the view from our window.
We had the whole day to ourselves, and we took pictures and did a lot of shopping. Here's a picture I took in Chinatown, just before the weather changed.
space_oddity_75 is basically a native, so she took me to places I hadn't been before, like Hamley's. We took the scenic route, to take some more pictures.
As it turns out the London air makes my hair look all puffy and amazing. :D
First stop, Lush, a store I had never heard of before even if it's obviously Heaven on earth. I bought lots of stuff, and thankfully there's one in Venice too. It looks like Willy Wonka's lab, and it smells amazing. I took a shower yesterday before going to bed, and used only Lush products, and holy hell I feel like a princess today.
Then we went to Hamley's. Think Santa Claus' lab, and then multiply it by four. It has one floor only for lego, what the hell.
I ran around squealing and sniffing random stuff and taking pictures. Wonderful.
We had lunch in this nice little place called Misato, a fantastic Japanese restaurant. We had sushi, sashimi, tempura, miso soup and washed it all down with hot tea.
Quick stop at Cool Britannia, to be stereotypical tourists for a while. :D
This picture was an accident, my camera went off while she was holding it, but I really like how it turned out, so there. :D
Mah babies!
Onward to the second part.