London vacation/"In Celebration" (spoiler free) or How It Came to Be That I'm Braindead Now

[yukisherry]

First of all, I'm back from London. Physically, at least.  *waves hand in greeting, while eyes remain strangely unfocused and glassy*


Mentally I'm stil on the island, 'cause my brain melted into a grey puddle and stayed that way when I saw the play "In Celebration" last monday (13th). This was incidentally also the very first day of my UK-visit, which inevitably lead to me walking the streets in zombie-mode from Day One, basically. So if you happen to live in London, and if you spent the last week  wondering who that weird girl with the empty gaze and uncoordinated walk was, well, that would've been me, then.

But first things first: I liked the play. For various reasons. One reason is very obvious and answers to the name of Orlando Bloom (who from here on will be called He Who Must Not Be Named or You Know Who or Orli), and I think this one is really self-explanatory, so yeah, no explanation needed. But you'll get it anyway.

You Know Who did a wonderful job portaying his character, and so did the fellow actors. The Yorshire accent - so so sooooo great and at the same time somewhat difficult to understand, but hey, English is not my mothertongue so I'm hardly anyone to judge these things. The play  is serious in it's basic drama, which i like, but it also had lighter moments (especially involving the characters of Mr Shaw (the father) and Andrew (one of the three brothers) ^___^).

But somewhere along the way, I PRESUME, i didn't get a plot point or something, because when the play was over and the lights went on, I thought [insert an indefintite amount of white noise before first thought hits empty space] "....wtf? this is the end? but... but... ??????? "

So I probably didn't get one of the improtant things that one of the actors with the heavier accents pointed out, anyway, I still felt it was a lovely evening, an entertaining cast and god did i fall in love with the stage decoration (not this crap modern abstract epressionist WHATEVER black curtain with maybe, if we're lucky, ONE CHAIR or something, no, a proper and very detailed set-piece that looked cosy enough to actually live in!!!). Money well-spent. Satisfied? Check. :)


And then there came the program-signing part and even though my brain was already liquified and therefore (mostly) non-functioning, if I ever thought it couldn't get worse (not that I'd ever think that, I DID study Murphy's Law with undevided attention after all) I would have been proven wrong in that very moment.

Nonetheless, I did get my program signed. Check.

That evening I could not, however, convince He Who Must Not Be Named to take the picture I drew of him, mainly because there was no way of telling him that it was indeed for him, as in not neccessarily for signing but for taking home and smiling about it or throwing away if not liked or whatever.

I just held it out to him together with the program and he probably thought that I wanted it signed (which i did, smart boy, but I also brought copies for him as a present, so... *shrugs*). There were simply too many (!!!) people standing in front of me to say something like: "It's for you/Lookie what I made, do you like it?/It's a present/Just take the damn thing!" and him actually hearing it without me raising my voice to screaming-level (which would have caused the people around me certain deafness, something that I might have accepted as an unfortunate sacrifice to be paid, but it also would have meant that You Know Who's hearing could've been damaged in the process, something that I am not willing to be made responsible for).

Therefore, I opted to take what I could get and was more than happy about the signed program and the fact that I had seen the play an' all. Also, I will cherrish the memory of the kinda funny double-take He Who Must Not Be Named did upon seeing the pic and his then even more hurried and/or confused scramble to get the paper out of the way of the program to sign it. It was really hilarious, in my opinion at least. :D

So that was monday. And guess what I dreamed of? Not of London or airplanes or You Know Who, but of dogs. Didn't get a lot of sleep. It's not like I do not like dogs, but I don't really like them either. I prefer cats.






By the way, all photos displayed here were taken during last week, by me or Angel. We made loads, but on most of them there are only snippets of You Know Who to be seen, and many are out of focus, so I don't know if I'll ever post the rest or not. Maybe. For fun. We'll see.


Angel and I saw a lot of interesting stuff on tuesday  (St Pauls Cathedral, Tower & Millenium Bridge, Shakespeare's Globe, Harrod's christmas trees) and bought Harry Potter stamps. We just happened to walk up St Martin's Lane on our way back to Piccadilly when we saw a crowd standing outside the Duke of York's theatre. Could mean only one thing. A certain actor was about to give autographs after that afternoon's two o' clock staging of "In Celebration". We decided to stay and wait. Then we took some pictures, most of them turned out kinda blurry and/or showed lots of hands and scraps of paper and just a teensy bit of You Know Who (as mentioned above). But I really like this one on the right, because it looks as if he turned his head up towards us specifically to have his picture taken. Plus, the hand-over-heart-gesture is just so sweet! *cuddles* ;)

I dreamed of dogs again, but this time I was sure it had something to do with Sidi, the black dog of He Who Must Not Be Named Because We All Know Whom I Speak Of.


Somewhere along the way I had decided that yes, I really like seeing him in real life and yes, I want to give him the drawing. So girl's gotta have a plan, right?

On wednesday, after checking another tourist-must-have-been-there (one that i claim is so famous because one can say  "I waited for God knows how many hours in that line" afterwards), namely Madame Tussauds, Angel and I went in at Hamleys, a very big (the biggest?) TOY STORE (in Regent Street I think it was). Amazing. Coulda spent tons and megatons of time in there. My point being is that I saw this little penguin plushie and fell in love (for the onehundredandtwentyfourth time since arriving in London) and that was the beginning of my plan. Plushie. Picture. Orli. Happy.

I named the penguin Elijah, by the way. It didn't have blue eyes (they were brown), but I thought he might have worn coloured contacts so as to not get recognized in public. The penguin, of course.

So that was that. In the afternoon, Angel and I took a walk  from Trafalgar Square down to the houses of Parliament/Big Ben and back when it STARTED TO RAIN AS IF ALL HELL BROKE LOOSE. Rain, real rain in London? Check.

So the weather pretty much decided for us if we should or should not go and see You Know Who leaving the theatre, as we were soaked through and shivering and there was no way I was going out there again that night.

I am so not going to say anything about dream-dogs and barking mad at this point. Am not. I will however mention that I found lots of coins lying around on the streets, not enough to get rich, but it added up to about three pounds or something. :)


So thursday began (with a trip to Tower Hill) and that day was in many ways the highlight of the week. Not only did we eat something (......well, London is really expensive unless you want to live off McDonalds/BurgerKing and other fastfood), it also tasted wonderful (burgers and sandwiches are fine in their own way, but i found myself craving for something real) and the music was great. Did I mention that we ate at the Hard Rock Cafe? *giggles*

Hyde Park, bla, bla, Buckingham Palace, bla, bla and then I bought this shiny silver paper bag for gifts to put Elijah The Plushie and the drawing plus another smaller copy of it that had a lot of babbling written on its back in. The Plan reached its final stage. *hypers*








Evening. Got dressed up. Everything ready to get the plan into action? Check.


*nervous squids squirm in belly*

We went to the theatre and were lucky to find that there weren't so many people waiting outside that night. Got to stand first row so to speak. We did. Turns out that there were many other fans still to come, doesn't matter, we  had a brilliant view and about 1 hour and a half to kill before You Know Who showed up outside. I taped all our non-sense talk and god, where did the niveau leave off to? Hawaii, probably.

Not important. The important thing is that the crowd was very well-behaved that day as far as i can judge that, and Orli seemed to be relaxed and was charming and looked to me like a glowing light bulb in the dark, eminating sexyness. Guh. I died a thousand deaths in the few minutes that NOTHING (okay, many litres of air and several layers of clothing, but that counts as nothing in my opinion) seperated my humble self from You Know Who. *dreamy stare into space*

*__*


Now, on to the commencement of the story of how it came to be that I'm braindead now goes with a funny little story and the following picture on the right:         -->

My friend Angel held the program I bought (which already had ony signature on the front, but shhhht, don't tell) open for Orli to sign and there he was standing in front of her, scribbeling "OB" on it and then leaning over her to reach for the other programs the people behind us held out.

Yuki [urgent whisper]: Take photos, take photos!
Angel: What, from this close??!
Angel: *does not wait for answer anyway, tries to hold camera as far away/to side as posible and FLASHES*
Orli: *white light, white light* @_@
Angel: Sorry!
Angel: *goes on flashing only milliseconds after apology* click click click click click
Orlando: *brushes yuki's hand with arm accidentally* --> *SKIN CONTACT* [so soft! so warm! guh!]
Yuki: *majority of braincells sizzle and die*
Yuki: *triple-zombie mode but not yet completely empty*


And here comes the story of how it came to be that I'm braindead now: He Who Must Not Be Named stood in front of me and there was this cute little girl who also wanted to give him a little fluffy thingy (a bear? anyways, she weaseld her way to the fornt to hand it over (which I approve of) and afterwards dissappeared again (which I also approve of)^^) and ...

Little Girl: *stands in front of Orli, arm outstretched with the fluffy thing in hand* :)
Orlando: Awwwwwwwww! Hi sweetheart.
Little Girl: *gives plushie to orli* :D *disappears*
Orlando: *looks up from girl and sees  sparkly silver bag dangling in front of him a little above waist-hight*
Orlando:  Hello...Is that for me?
Yuki: .......*glassy gaze*........
Orlando [thinks]: Oh my, that girl's really far gone. No reaction at all... Did I do that? *wonders bemusedly*
Yuki: .........*question registers somewhere* .......... *mumble["foryou"]nod*
Orlando: *takes bag, smiles, goes on and greets other people*
Orlando: *stops*
Orladno [thinks]: Actually, that BLANK STARE where you could almost see through her eyes to the back of her skull, that was kinda funny. Let's go back and kill the last remaining braincells of that girl!
Yuki: *ultra blank stare that follows his every movement without connecting meaning with it whatsoever*
Orlando [talks to general audience but already turned back towards the spot where yuki is not breathing]: You all right? *slightly evil smile tugging at the corner of his lips*
Yuki: *stares, uncomprhending*
Orlando: That's right honey, thank you very much.
Yuki: .......... *sees moving lips* *hears some sort of sound* *sees Orli looking in her direction but is so not stringing his words together to any coherent sentence in her head*
Yuki: ........... *last three grey cells sizzle* *burn&evaporate* --> *empty*
Yuki: ............. *braindead without even knowing that she was called honey, something that she would find out later while listening to the tape* .... *repeats some fragments of the sound that orli made* ... Thank you.....
Orlando [thinks]: Now I can really see the back of her skull. Man, there's only an echo coming back from her, that's how hollow she is! And I did that. Cool. *silent evil laugh* Okay, that was fun.  


And then he gave some more autographs and eventually got into the car and left me there on the pavement in front of the theatre, braindead.

Yeah. Mission accomplished. ´x___x` Check.

And then I died again, but this time of embarrassment. That happened when I realised how completely idiotic I must have looked, gaping and staring and echoing his words, but it's really not my fault, I mean, how am I supposed to be prepared for You Know Who actually taking the time to talk to some silly girl that just happens to be me???  I thought it would be the routine sign stuff, let them take photos, if i really feel good i might even smile into some cameras and then I'm off with Sidi, thank god it's over, they're all screaming so much, so no talikng, please. Hand over gift and that's it. But... he really is such a sweet guy, putting up with all of this fangirl-squeeing every day and even managing to be enthusiastic about it (if there're no paparazzi around). *hugs*








Angel and I went back to the hostel, happy and smiling. *1000-watt smile*


Another quick and painless death happened that night while I listened to the tape. I remebered that he called the girl sweetheart and that was so cute in itself but then... honey.... that was just... a good thing I didn't catch that while he was still standing in front of me, or else he would have been more than just a little freaked out by the strangled mega-squee and the hyper-fast-up-and-down-jumping I shurely would have done. *phew*

And shure as clockwork, I dreamed of a black dog that looked suspiciously like Sidi and it came running at me, which lead to me running away from it (Sidi is not exactly small, after all, and when a animal that size comes jumping at you, I tend to take that cue as "run like hell" no matter if the owner is You Know Who or not).... and as an afterthought, one might take it that as a reversed prophecy, considering what happened the day after.


So on friday Angel and I went to the National Gallery and we stayed there from opening (10a.m.) almost until closing time (5.48p.m. and it closes at 6p.m.)!!! I think I read every description of every damn picture in there. We discussed some of the imagery and colours and stuff, had some disagreements about what metaphor signifies what; and eventually got out of there, totally exhausted and hungry (although hunger was at that point in time a constant companion). We decided to go and see He Who Must Not Be Named one last time, while we had the chance. (However, I did not want to be there as early as on thursday evening, because we stood first row once, now it's someone else's turn, you know.)


We believed, with that being the last day and all, we'll take a bunch of pictures and be happy. Angel then bought a pink rose for Orli, finally also wanting to give him something. We waited. and there were two blonde girls (the fact that they're blonde has of course nothing to do with anything whatsoever, but it's the only thing I remeber about them) in front of us, which made us second row. Just like I wanted. But then a lot of people with BIG cameras showed up, I supect them of being paparazzis... and then the car drove away without having picked up Orli. That got me really worried.

He Who Must Not Be Named did show up nonetheless, but he did not seem as good-humoured as on thursday. I guess that might have had something to do with the way the paparazzis showed up and also the really obnoxious behaviour of those blonde girls who screamed the whole time and tried to hug him and take a picture of themselves together with orli, even though he clearly did not want them to (and the security people had told them that already: photos of him is okay, but photos with of themselves with him, that's a big NO-NO). Ah, well, Angel managed to give him the rose and that was okay.


Otherwise, he really just got through the routine and then disappeared into the theatre again (which should have been suspicious in itself, but I still hadn't restored higher brain function, so... ). The crowd dispersed and Angel and I set into motion up the street, already comparing the pictures we'd taken.... which lead to the following scene:

Yuki& Angel: *walk slowly, hunched over the digital cameras and chatting&laughing because of the snapshots*
Angel: Lookie this pic, it's cute, but those from yesterday were better...

Yuki: *nods* Hm-Hm. *looks down at pavement in front of here, watching her step 'cause she's wearing high heels*
Angel: You know, really, the most intelligent thing...
Yuki: *tilts head slightly to side, contemplating the black furry dog legs that entered her field of vision*
Angel: ...we ever did was coming here yesterday...
Yuki: *finally recognizes that THE FUCK it really is Sidi*
Angel: *babbles on without noticing anything*
Yuki: *looks further up and dies again and again while legs start to move of their own volition, falling into a jog-step that must have looked incredibly stupid with the high heels and all*
Angel: *trails off* ....???

Angel [thinks]: Hey, where's Yuki gone off to?
Yuki: *follows Orli in zombie-mode, as if attracted by an invisible magnet-like force* °__° *absentmindedly fumbles with camera*
Other People: *finally GET IT* *some squees of  "Orlando, Orlando!" can be heard*
Angel: *finally GETS IT too*
Orlando: *turns around*
Yuki: *camera flash* ó__Ó *is somewhat surprised that she managed to get it working without having dectached her gaze from the figure in front of her once*
Orlando [thinks]: Huh...Did I already see that weird zomie-walk, that entirely empty gaze and this slack expression somewhere some other day? Deja-vu? Matrix? And is she drooling? Anyways, if she keeps following me like that, she's gonna break both her legs with those shoes she's got. Hehe. That should be fun. Not gonna walk faster, let her follow a little bit more and maybe she'll stumble and fall flat on her face! Hehe. Great idea.
Orlando: *grins for some inexplicable reason, still looking back over his shoulder *
Yuki: *alternately gapes dumbfoundedly and flashes camera*
Orlando: *mentally pouts because the girl does not fall flat on her face and notices that he's been spotted by more and more people*
Yuki: *the few restored braincells wave goodbye*
Orlando: *decides it's time for him to get out of here and starts jogging in earnest, turning a corner into a side alley which presumably leads to the spot where his car waits for him*
Yuki: *slows down and does not take turn, because let's face it, stalking is so NOT polite*
Angel: *catches up*  ... HE WALKED PAST US! With his dog! How cool is that??? *happy*

Amazing. And sad, because we thought we weren't going to see him again.
 


But on saturday, unbeknownst to us, there was also an afternoon as well as an evening performance, which meant that Orli had to get inside the theatre sometime around 1.45p.m. Our flight left that evening and we spent the morning and early afternoon wandering around, revisiting our favourite places. That's how we happened to come across the crowd waiting in front of the theatre and we caught out last glimpse of You Know Who.  ^__^


Eventually we got on our plane back (we almost missed it because of some mix-up at the airport) and when the wind got under its wings and this uncomfortable pressure set in my ears, I felt tears stinging my eyes. I'm such a crybaby sometimes and we had such a wonderful time in London that the feeling of loss overwhelmed me in that moment when the flight took off. But that's a good thing, right? It means that my holidays were really great. Sometimes it's good to miss something, makes you look forward to the next vacation, too.

That's it.

Well, almost:

Here is the BEST PICTURE EVER TAKEN (just because it's so hilarious, the lamp post with Orli-ears) that had me giggling on several occasions:




I love it. *laughs*

The End.

All thoughts that are represented to be Orlando Bloom's are entirely of my own imagination. No clue what he really thought in these scenes. :)

[edit: all high-res links are now repaired and should be working. if not, inform me please]