LONDON III

i just came back from another weekend in London!

sneaky photo of the stage

love never dies!

t'was great. the first time was on my first night in England, just after leaving my sister in Nice and just before going to Norwich to start my exchange (which has been swell so far.. though i realise i should do a blog about it as well). In London, I was with my best friend Kerry and she took me to see 'Love Never Dies' (sequel to the phantom of the opera). A must see for all phantom fans, it stands well on its own, but i'm not sure it compares to the original. There are some borrowed notes/melodies, but overall it was like Andrew Lloyd Webber meets Tim Burton. Kind of cool! I was listening to the sound track for a while....

with Ramin Karimloo, the first phantom of 'Love Never Dies'

scampering around london by night!

i love the reflection!

The second time (last week) I went to London to see my cousin Pauline, who was holidaying there before starting uni in Canberra (congrats!) Saw 'Chicago'. Fantastic, despite the fact that the set consisted of chairs and well placed lights and the fact that the very interactive conductor looked like Kevin Rudd. I was surprised at how well it complemented the film (which I had seen first). Some of the lighting effects were fantastic and the dancing was superbly racy as expected (lots of splits and fish net stockings). During one of Velma's solos, someone in the audience fainted (or somehow warranted the person next to them calling out for help, we weren't sure), and people in the audience were getting out of their seats so that the front of house could come in and carry them out.  It was a pretty big deal, and all through this 'Velma' just kept singing and dancing along and giving it her all. talk about the show must go on!

we went to Portobello Road in Notting Hill, which turns into the famous antiques market on Saturdays. Lots of cool, different things, ranging from leather bags and canvas paintings, to antique tea sets to 1940s wartime gas masks. 

the colourful buildings of portobello rd

cool shop with sewing machines everywhere!

and outrageous shoes...

Then a quick dash through the Kensington Palace (home of Princess Diana) side of Hyde Park. Unfortunately the palace is undergoing renovations until 2012, so not much to see there. We had an English sausage bap (bap = english word for roll) while spotting squirrels through the park (as well as a man who we saw trying to pee behind a tree).  

then the Science museum (free!) which was in a very impressive stately sort of building with a large dinosaur fossil dominating the central hall. Lots of different exhibition halls there that we didn't get to see (it was several stories) but the jungle ant colony kind of freaked me out. It was a bit like Questacon (in Canberra) if anyone's ever been there, but for adults as well. some cool optical illusions such as 'the inverted face', where your brain decides that it can't actually be inverted/hollow and decides to show you something different --> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ObNHHwB8OQg

Then to Chinatown because i was/am seriously craving chinese food (I normally never eat out chinese/vietnamese/thai due to the fact that that's all we eat at home with the family when we go out..so it's funny now that I'm craving it. I even cook rice in a saucepan with water, LOL in other words 'sans rice cooker'. oh how my life is different haha)

---

This weekend I went with some international uni friends (about 8 of us). Friday night, bought a discounted ticket to see 'Dirty Dancing'. It made me laugh a lot, and was pretty much a renactement of the movie. I somehow was expecting it to be a musical because it was at West End, but the main characters didn't sing at all and there was hardly any orchestra (3 instruments!). The costumes were really fun though (1950s) and there was evidently a big emphasis on dancing. What really made the night was the excitement of the scores of middle aged women who squealed, screamed and swooned throughout the show, esp when Mr Muscle says the iconic lines 'nobody puts baby in the corner'. you could smell the oestrogen, hello! Baby was pretty much cast perfectly (she was so cute when she was dancing across the bridge and up the stairs, just like in the movie), but 'Johnny' (the main guy) was so old (~ 40, perfect for all the middle aged women there). 

row E!

yesterday I went to Borough Markets (where the nation's independent food suppliers/farms sell their stuff). I really wished I could have bought more food, but seeing as I was only going home on Sunday most things would have gone off. Lots of brownies, turkish delight, tarts, strudels.. any viennoiserie you name it! gourmet sweet toothes will die and be reborn here. Also a lot of olives, leavened breads, cheeses, charcuterie meats, jams, pâtés, falafel, fresh fruit/seafood/game meats, wine... 

Then to Camden markets which is known as the 'alternative' punk sort of place. lots of clothes, food and jewelery there as well, but lots of tattooed or goth people about too (so very newtown). When I told my flatmates that it wasn't that alternative, they asked if i'd seen some glow in the dark rave/fettish shop that was there. I def missed that one. 

the can't-be-good-for-your-arteries donut shop

alternative...

 then on to a 'Flash Bang lightning' tour of London, which included a boat ride on the Thames. I highly recommend the boat ride, because the crew do a free guided tour of the sights of the Thames that had the boat in stitches. lots of happy snaps here, and then through to the main sights really (Tower Bridge, London Eye, Westminister Abbey/Parliament/Big Ben, Royal Parks and Buckingham Palace, Trafalgar Square). Spent some time in the National Gallery (i love how almost all the museums are free) where they hold a great collection of paintings from Da Vinci to Monet.

preening pelican the royal park

chinatown again :-)

Today, I went to Brick Lane as well, which used to be the Jewish part of London but now is well known for its Bangladeshi community and curry houses. Lots of cool, cheap ethnic food there, I was really surprised by the value. A flea market (weird vintage stuff there, including a pair of platform stilletos that were attached to a pair of stockings), and brick lane bagels - a famous 24hr bagel shop recommended to me by Affly, my flatmate. Seriously fresh (still warm!) bagels and bread ("sorry we can't slice the bread for you because it's too hot!"). Spitalfields markets and church nearby, before heading back to Norwich to be greeted by my lovely housemates :) 

crazy shoes (the stockings are above my head

mmm! but they spell Bagel funny..

over and out!

i really should do a norwich one as well (see pictures on facebook), but i just had some random epiphany despite being super tired from the trip to write about what I had done today. which led me to the other london days.

happy valentines
caroline