The Top Floor Flat

Brilliant, so after a week I finally got YouTube to upload my video of last week’s concert in Hyde Park to celebrate Andrew Lloyd Webber’s birthday. To be fair, the fact that they were so far off on the date (even the man himself pointed out that we were all there about six months too late) had more to do with the fact that the massive stage from the BBC Proms in the Park the night before was going to be unused that Sunday and they had to fill it with something rather than the fact that BBC Radio2 and Andrew Lloyd Webber aren’t Facebook friends (honestly, how did we remember anyone’s birthday without Facebook?). In any case, I have to admit that I didn’t much mind who we were celebrating or what they’d be playing because I was going to see John Barrowman present.

Mr. John Barrowman is a television and stage actor who just happens to be one of the most fantastic characters in the Doctor Who universe and so I couldn’t pass up a chance to see him present the show, and sing. In my excitement to see the dashingly attractive (unfortunately gay) and talented John Barrowman, I had actually forgotten how much I do enjoy most of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s music.

Ann and I, along with her co-Girl Guiding leader Ellie, packed a delicious picnic dinner (more difficult than you might imagine when Ellie is gluten-free, Ann is vegetarian and I like meat and bread) a bottle of wine, and made our way to Hyde Park. The concert area was enormous and we were quite far back but thankfully they had set up giant screens. Effectively, I was just watching the event on TV, but it was a lovely night and being outside, with all the other people at the event, was quite fun.

I was also amazed at the other stars who were in attendance that night - of course I hadn’t looked much farther down the playbill than John Barrowman’s name when I was reading about the event, but Joss Stone (the blurry person in white in the video below), Idina Menzel (the less blurry person singing “Don’t Cry for Me Argentina”) and a bunch of people from the reality TVs shows here in Britain to find people to play the West End roles in Joseph and Oliver.

I had a great time, actually a lot more fun than I expected. The music was fun, everyone was having a good time, and I hope Andrew Lloyd Webber felt rather proud of himself when 3500 people all stood up and sang “Any Dream Will Do.” Happy birthday Mr. Webber. Thanks for some wonderful music.

You know, after the fact, I realised that I had recorded mostly the songs from Evita which is my favourite ALW music but were not the best performances of the night.  If you’re so inclined, there are so pretty bad quality (like mine!) videos of the performance of “Light at the End of the Tunnel” from Starlight Express which might have been my favourite song of the night.

Speaking of birthdays… I have a flatmate who’s got a birthday soon….

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Alright, this should, in theory, be the last post of extreme Doctor Who geekitude for quite some time (seeing as the show is over and I’ve now done… well, this.)

Today I went to the Doctor Who Exhibition at one of the main exhibition centre here in the city. I guess they actually have Doctor Who Exhibitions on a fairly regular basis, both in London and around the UK, because it’s so popular, but this was a particularly big one and had all of the props from the new series. They’re the actual props from the show too, as well as a lot of actual costumes, which was really exciting.

I’m not going to post all of the pictures here because they’re on my facebook account here if you really care and most of them are of monsters or characters that are unique to the show so it wouldn’t mean much if you haven’t seen it. Here are some pictures of me, though.

This is me in front of the TARDIS (in the show, The Doctor travels in a space and time travel machine called the TARDIS which stands for Time and Relative Dimension in Space. It is supposed to be able to change shape so that it matches with its surroundings but it got stuck as a 1950s police call box, and is the most iconic image from the show. It’s bigger on the inside.)

This is me next to the Face of Boe, a super awesome character of highly enigmatic proportions. He also may or may not be a three million year old version of one of the show’s most awesome characters, Captain Jack.

And… this is me next to a cyberman - a metallic, emotionless, soulless thing that used to be a human but now wants to kill me. I escaped.

Finally, below is a video of one of the exhibits - the exhibit of the ultimate, can’t get any worse, end of the world villains who reoccur throughout the show. They’re called the Daleks and they’re terrifying.

Doctor Who has a sort of tradition of appealing to adults and children, but the adults watch it on the sofa and the children hide behind the sofa because of the scary monsters. This was true with the original series (which ran from 1963 to 1989) and today with the new series (which has been running since 2005). In the little shop (they had a little shop, I love it when they have a shop) it was quite cute - there was a dad showing his young son the merchandise and he said, “why don’t you get a Dalek shirt? Then you can really show that you’re not afraid of the Daleks!” to which the son replied, “but I AM scared of the Daleks!!” Good call kid. Anything that runs around yelling ‘Exterminate’ is bad news.

Alright, that about sums up my incredibly geeky day. I managed to salvage my dignity by going to a super posh area of town with Mimi for sushi, dessert and window shopping and tomorrow I’m having proper afternoon tea with Vori, a lovely girl who I’ve met once before as she’s a friend of Debbi’s. Hopefully tomorrow I’ll also get a bit of shopping in as I think at they office they’re beginning to wonder why I only have three outfits.

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I apologise in advance if any of this post is incredibly incoherent.  I’m alternately typing and screaming at the television as I watch the men’s finals of Wimbledon (tie-break of the 4th set! Ahh!)

Last night was a lot of fun - I met up with the folks that I met at the pub the other night.  In addition to having some nice people with whom to watch Doctor Who, I got to explore some of the beautiful Canary Wharf and Isle of Dogs area.  (Uh oh… I don’t think this game is going to last much longer…).  I could do a massively long post about Doctor Who and my thoughts but I think that’s probably unnecessary.  Let’s just say, it was not the ending I would have chosen for my favorite season so far but there were two (and some) Doctors (Oh NO! Federer, bad shot!) and you really can’t go wrong with double the David Tennant.

ANYway, moving on from my absurd geekiness.  Today I decided to go to Cambridge which I’ve heard is a beautiful  (AH, GO Federer! How is he hanging in this thing?!) city.  Unfortunately it was pouring rain in the morning when I awoke.  Because it cleared up around 9:30, I decided to head out anyway as it was only a 40 minute train ride from London.  I met some nice people on the train, a couple who were also heading out to meet a friend.  We all chatted on the ride down (the man does strategic business consulting for IT companies, as did the woman until she had a ‘mid life criss’ and became a nutritional therapist).  When I got to Cambridge, I didn’t have a map or any plan so I just wandered around the city.  I hadn’t really (OH no! Championship point! Oh wait, nevermind! Ahh! It’s a challenge! Federer wins the challenge! I need to stop this commentary!) counted on the fact that all of the museums would be closed on Sunday which was a unfortunate and the rain picked up again.  Basically my trip to Cambridge was beautiful as the city was very nice, but also quite damp.  I have to say I think I like Oxford better, even counting for the fact that I was biased against Cambridge.  There were also a ton of Italians there for some reason.  Like, absurd numbers.  With balloons in the colors of the Italian flag that said ‘Italia’ on them.  In any case, I ended up leaving around 3 (AH!! WE GO TO 5TH SET! Go Federer!!!!) and got back home a little before 5 (it’s 40 minutes from Kings Cross which is 45 min from my house) and am just relaxing this afternoon - I thought about going down to be at Wimbledon for the finals, although I couldn’t get tickets I’d be able to sit on the hill and be around for the atmosphere but I was worried it would be over by the time I got there and it’s still raining on and off.  I’m disappointed I never got down to the courts during the games, that’s something I really did want to experience.

Well, I’m going to focus on the 5th set now, have a great evening!

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Whew, what a weekend! It’s right late and I’ve got to get up early for work so I’m keeping this short(-ish).

Saturday, I headed out early to get to the Tate Modern as it was opening. I allowed myself about 40 min for the journey, way more than was necessary. What I didn’t count on was being stunned speechless by the amazing Millennium Bridge which crosses from St. Pauls on the one side of the Thames to the Tate Modern on the other. It was absolutely gorgeous and I was about halfway across (a process which had already taken me a good ten minute as I was oogling the view) when I realized that sitting right next to the Tate on the opposite side of the river was the Globe Theatre (of Shakespearian fame) and I nearly fell in I was so exited! I had forgotten it was in the area and suddenly there it was in all of its Elizabethan glory.

I spent a lovely morning at the Tate Modern, which had some absolutely stunning Picassos, Matisses, Kalinskys and Pollacks to name just a few. I was there quite a bit longer than I had planned because there was so much to see, and I didn’t even go into the paid exhibits as there were over two floors of free show rooms.

After I had exhausted the Tate, I wandered over to the Globe and was so excited to be there that, on a whim, I bought tickets for a Sunday night performance of The Merry Wives of Windsor, a play of which I knew the basic plot but not the details (it’s one of the relatively few plays I haven’t read by Shakespeare!). I got some poor touring couple to take my picture in front of the iconic building and wandered off towards the Tower of London (where the lines were too long and prices too steep for me to even consider going in) and caught a train up to Camden Town, already excited for my Globe experience the next night.

Camden Market is a huge sprawling outdoor market of stalls that sell everything you could possibly imagine, from clothes to shoes to food to accessories to musical instruments to fob watches (Beth, if you’re reading this, I was *so* close to getting a fob watch, but it had some naff picture of Big Ben on one side!) to toys… it was unbelievable, and I only saw a small part of the market. I bought a pair of trainers which I desperately needed and a backpack, then made my way back home to watch my Saturday night fill of Doctor Who (which didn’t remotely fill. In fact it was a total cliffhanger ending as it was the penultimate episode of the season).

Sunday was an incredibly lazy day - I cleaned house, relaxed, did some writing, and took it easy before heading off in the evening to see my play at the Globe. It was FANTASTIC! I can’t even describe what fun it was. I was there with some of the most brilliant audience members who really knew their Shakespeare, and the actors were wonderful! I was roaring with laughter the entire time, as was the rest of the crowd. The way it works is there are seats (expensive) or you can stand in the ground level, in front of the stage, where you would have stood in the Elizabethan era if you were fairly poor but wanted to see a play (hey! like me!). I was right in the middle of the action as the stage literally wrapped around where I was standing. It was so much fun, and I was grinning all the way home.

Tomorrow starts another busy work week, but hopefully I’ll have time for a few social things! Hope everyone stateside is doing well!

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What a fantastic last few days! I’ve done so much fun stuff that I’m going to try to bullet point the last few days so this doesn’t become another mile-long post.

- Got off bus in (gorgeous) city centre and walked the 1.5 miles over to my B&B (a task made more difficult by the giant backpacking backpack I had - I must have looked ridiculous!) and checked in, cleaned up and ditched my bags.
- Headed back into the city proper to explore, ended up walking around for over five hours and wow, this city is beautiful! I wandered through the old Bodleian library area (the library itself was closed but we could go in the courtyard) and saw the iconic Radcliffe Camera:

- Walked to the Science Library which had tons of scientific equipment from as far back as the thirteenth century. There were astrolabes, compasses, map making tools, clocks, microscopes, and really cool old medical equipment among the collection. It was pretty daunting to be in a building full of these things, over half of which were probably older than my country.
- Continued my walk through the city and found myself at the Museum of Natural History and the Pitt-Rivers Museum. The MoNH was fairly standard - dinos, bird replicas, stuffed animals, and had a lot of cool specimens however the really fantastic bit was the Pitt-Rivers museum. It was arranged like a traditional Victorian era collection hall with rows and rows and rows of shelves of international “curiosities” from all over the globe. They had everything from sewing needles to string instruments to shrunken heads. It was impossible to even get an idea of a small part of the collection because there was so much there. Hopefully I’ll swing back today or tomorrow to continue looking.
- Started to make my way back towards my B&B and cut through the Oxford park where I saw the large cricket pitch. If there’s a match on today I might try to watch for a bit, although I don’t have the slightest idea how cricket is played.
- Had an early dinner at an Indian restaurant and then crashed at about 9:30 and slept for 10 hours after my busy day!

Yesterday was my birthday (22! Yikes!) and I was perfectly prepared to spend it the same way as the day before, sort of exploring on my own (seriously, this whole trip is like, the world’s biggest birthday present) but I had the treat of meeting with Mikki and Sophie, two girls that my friend Laura met while studying abroad at Oxford and who had come to Colby to visit. I had spent they day with them when they visited at Colby and I was going to have morning coffee with them. They ended up showing me all around their college (Worcester) which was great because it’s exam time and most of the colleges are closed to public viewing and taking me on a tour up the tall church tower which was approximately three thousand steps up (alright, so like, 150) but at the top looked out over the whole city. It was amazing! I have tons of pictures which I’ll be uploading soon. I mentioned that it was my birthday and they really generously offered to make me a cake and celebrate with me that night! I let them get back to their studies and spent the rest of the day as follows:
- Went to the Botanical Gardens, which were stunning. They were first created to house plants used for medical experiments but now have plant species from all over the world in really nice gardens.
- Headed over to Christ Church college, one of the filming sites and set inspirations for Harry Potter but the college was closed to visitors so I couldn’t get in. Instead, I went in the picture gallery, a site on Christ Church that houses dozens of really fantastic Renaissance art from some incredibly important artists.
- Made my way to the Oxford Museum of Modern Art but it was closed while they set up a new exhibit - guess I’ll just have to come back to Oxford in a few weeks!
- Checked out some of the shopping areas, specifically looking for something cute to wear that night when I met Sophie and Mikki’s friends but gave up as by the mid afternoon, the crowds had gotten overwhelming!
- Headed back to the B&B for some relaxation and to get away from the crowds.
- Got an early dinner at a well reviewed sea food restaurant. My first Fish and Chips in Britain!
- Went back to the B&B for something I’d been looking forward to all week - Doctor Who!! I finally got to watch my first episode live and it was fantastic :). Had way too much fun watching and am really disappointed there are only four more episodes this season!
- Walked over to Mikki and Sophie’s college where they had made me a cake, complete with candles and had gathered their friends (who can resist free cake?). It was so much fun spending time with them, they were all so nice and friendly and we got along really well. After cake and Pims (the Oxford drink of choice apparently - consumed with lemonade and strawberries), we went to a traditional English pub where I got hard cider (a traditional English drink) and continued to make fun of one another’s countries until I had to catch the last bus back to my B&B.

Wow, so much for keeping this shorter! I’ll just have to start updating more frequently or doing less.

I think I’ll updated more :).

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