On the road again

Monday saw my return to the left side of the Atlantic. I'm incredibly tempted to use the terms wrong and right rather than left and right for many reasons, but I won't actually go that far. This was something that went unannounced except to a very small number of people, also for many reasons. The bottom line is I'm back in Edmonton and while I plan to make it something temporary, it may well wind up being a protracted sort of temporary.

I'd of course eliminated my landline prior to heading to the UK but thanks to the wonders of quad-band GSM mobile phones I've sorted something out with the mobile phone I bought in the UK so I have at least one method of direct communication available. Those who are interested are more than welcome to reach me via email/facebook/etc. for my new phone number if I've not already given it to you. As cell phone plans are utterly stupid in Canada (I was soooooooooo glad to turf my cell phone in early 2007) I'm just doing a pay as you go thingie for now and thanks to the stupid costs involved with even that (and no free incoming calls, which one gets quite used to thank you very much) I hope nobody takes offense if I choose to not answer calls outside of the cheap times.

So far all I've done since getting back, aside from trying like hell to readjust to this time zone and climate, is change my money at the bank, sort out the phone and have a great visit with someone who I'd not seen in far too long (which really made my day, I must say). So far my equilibrium is quite off, resulting in far-too-often bouts of clumsiness, and I can't eat (anything) without getting an upset stomach and I'm looking forward to when all that - and the cold I seem to have picked up - is over and done with. Another few days should be enough I'm hoping.

At any rate, some people who might read this already knew of my return prior to it happening, some have been informed since my return and others yet may not know anything unless they read these words.

So... that's where things are for now. I've got no plans sorted at the moment and likely won't until I feel at least slightly human again.

UK Snow

From early this morning it's been snowing all over England... while there's been bits of snow here and there this is by far the largest amount I've seen since arriving.

The BBC has a nice little article with pictures.

Paris Images

The Paris pictures are now up except I've again run out of space at Picasa and have had to split things apart. Most items are at http://picasaweb.google.com/cburgesspics however some are also at http://picasaweb.google.com/cburgesspics2 (and that's where new pictures will go of course). The links at the side have been updated for those who prefer to use them.

Catching up, sort of...

So it's been ages since anything has gone in here... I'm not sure how much I'll actually write about any particular subject until I've actually started to type. Let's see where this all goes.

Family Visit:

My cousin Dave and his family were in London for a week and I had the chance to visit with them for a couple days. On Wednesday last week I met them at a pub near Waterloo station, not far from the flat they were renting, and after some walking across the river we wound up at a pub near Embankment station to have a few drinks and chat and catch up. It was a great time and it'd been a couple years since I had the chance to talk with them. After a while we saw Denise (Dave's wife) back to the flat and Dave and I went to a different nearby pub for a nightcap and more yapping.

The day after I had a full schedule (more on that later) so I didn't see them then but did meet up with them (along with the young 'uns, Rachel and her friend Sarah) Friday morning at the John Sloane (an architect/artist) museum which was quite the sight to see. We wandered around the Holborn area in the rain and meandered to a nearby church Denise had wanted to see. Lunch was had, much walking and sightseeing was done including a visit to the Spitalfields market (where I'd not been before) before we hopped a taxi back near Waterloo and had a wonderful dinner at their flat. Things ended earlier that night as they all had theatre tickets and had to get to the show. We parted company and I headed back.

Overall it was a great visit and it was nice to see them but also slightly surreal to have seen them in London as opposed to the norm of Edmonton or Calgary (where they live).

Thursday:

Thursday last week saw my visit to the Earl's Court exhibition centre where I met up with a friend to go see the Doctor Who exhibition there. We spent a good 2 1/2 or so hours there taking in the exhibits and probably looked a bit silly photographing nearly every square inch of the stuff on display but had fun nonetheless.

After a quick bite of lunch we grabbed the train to Waterloo to meet up with another friend to go see a recording of The Friday Night Project, a chat show of sorts, featuring David Tennant as the guest. Much queueing was done but eventually we got in and took our seats. As things turned out we got front row seats (albeit well off to the side) so the view was pretty decent save the occasional blockage by a camera or other equipment.

As is the tradition on that show, there's a segment where a quiz is held to see which of the two hosts knows more about the guest with each host playing for a side of the audience and the winning side having someone run up the aisle wearing a coat of £5 notes. Our side of the audience "won" during that bit and as the person with the coat of cash never gets far up the aisle before being mobbed it was quite fortunate that not only were we in the front row but also quite near the aisle. While the chap in the coat did indeed get mobbed, and my reaction time was not what it could have been, I scrambled around and did wind up with £15 out of it all. With 3 of us there I shared the money evenly, although a moment later, Alan Carr (one of the hosts and a fairly well-known comedian) came up to me and handed me an errant £5 note lying about so I wound up with £10 for myself in the end which was enough to cover after-taping drinks at the pub with some change left over.

Another fun day.

Edinburgh:

The week prior I spent a few days in Edinburgh. I left early on the Tuesday morning and returned late on the Thursday night and spent about 2 1/2 days there total considering the train ride was about 4 1/2 hours each way. I was quite amazed at how nice the city looked and (at least in the areas I went) how uniform it all looked. Often with European cities you'll get a wide range of architectural looks and styles but the uniformity in (parts of) Edinburgh was actually refreshing. I spent most of my time in what they call the Old Town but did notice the usual variances in styles when I went around other areas (such as the New Town).

Many museums were visited but the best attraction was Edinburgh Castle, which (quite rightly so) is the top tourist attraction in Scotland. Much more of it remained relative to Dublin Castle and looked like a proper fortress where you could easily imagine sieges being fended off and invading hordes trying to get through the gates whereas Dublin Castle, at least what survives of it, has been mostly absorbed into the surroundings.

One question a friend of mine asked upon my return was "Dublin or Edinburgh?" and I easily and quickly answered Edinburgh. I'm not sure I'd go back there since I've seen most of the sights I wanted to see, but I'd certainly be more inclined to go back there than Dublin. Mind you I found the people easier to understand in Dublin... Scottish people in Scotland talking with other Scots get into this really heavy accent which surprisingly sounds nothing like English at first. It could be a regional/dialectical thing too but in just overheard things people said to each other on the streets I found myself often straining to comprehend vast tracts of what they said. I had no such issue in Dublin.

Still, a very enjoyable trip.

Paris:

I left for Paris this past Saturday afternoon and returned this past Wednesday night, spending about 4 1/2 days there. I was very tentative about going mostly because I wasn't sure if I trusted my French well enough to manage there on my own. I was reassured by many people that the city is cosmopolitan enough that you can get by with just English, but I did try my hand at conversing in French to varying degrees of success. As with any foreign language I found it most difficult with the spoken word and/or the rate of speech as I'm fine with the vocabulary and written word. Nonetheless I tried though more often than not when someone French detected my accent they'd just start speaking in English (so long as they knew enough English, and that wasn't always the case).

The sights were very cool to see, especially the notables like the Eiffel Tower and Arc de Triomphe (both of the Arcs de Triomphe, actually... yes, there's more than one as I learned). The city is so very, very flat and there are very few skyscrapers outside the downtown and financial districts that you can see a lot from almost anywhere. The view from atop the Eiffel Tower was impressive though it was pissing rain that morning and all the cloud made it hard to distinguish a few things. It was actually cloudy more than not during my time there so I did eventually adjust to a degree. Nevertheless, as nice as the view from atop the Eiffel Tower was, the absolute best view was from atop Montmartre by Sacré-Coeur church. You could see almost everything from up there (except that which was blocked by the church itself of course!) and despite it being 290 (yup, I counted as I went up) steps from the base to the top the minor climb is well worth it.

Sacré-Coeur itself is pretty inside and out but not as much so as Notre Dame cathedral. No photography was allowed inside Sacré-Coeur but I got a load of pics inside Notre Dame. The lighting was a bit iffy and some of them doubtlessly didn't turn out so well but so far I've not had the opportunity to transfer the pictures from the camera to the computer thanks to low hard drive space. I will endeavour to get things up as soon as I can since I'm fairly anxious to share some of the sights with those who've never been there to see them.

Ultimately the city is utterly easy to navigate (despite the weird divisions) thanks to the metro system. The RER has a slight learning curve to it but the main metro system itself is dead easy to use, though probably no moreso than the London Underground (or from what I understand but have never tried first-hand, the New York Subway). I worry about being able to find my way around a new city (or more importantly I worry about being able to find my way *back* in a new city) but those concerns were quickly vanquished in Paris. Moreover, the metro system is cheap as dirt there. While a peak hours trip on the Tube here in London can cost you as much as £4 one way, a book of tickets for the Paris metro (also valid on the bus, trams and Zone 1 for the RER) is €11.10, or €1.11 per trip, or about 85 pence at current exchange rates. As an added bonus, unlike with Tube trains, I was actually able to stand upright in all Paris metro trains so I didn't even object when I had to stand for lengthy trips (such as the one from Reuilly Didérot to La Défense on line 1, which was 18 stops). I can't say the same for the London Underground trains or the LRT back home, that's for certain.

As noted, pictures from Paris will be up ASAP.

Doctor Who Season Premiere Party:

After my return from the taping of The Friday Night Project, I found in the post that tickets had come for the season 4 premiere party for Doctor Who to be held this Saturday (tomorrow), hosted by Jeremy Bentham, a notable name in fandom circles (and a really nice guy, too), so I'll be off to that this weekend to enjoy some good ol' geeking out with fellow nerds. Tickets were (partially) distributed via a lottery system where you submitted a request and a certain number of tickets were made available with names being drawn from a hat or something similar. I didn't expect to get tickets given the event is fairly well-publicized but not only did I score a pair of tickets, a friend of mine in Yorkshire did as well so I'll get to see her there too. Bentham was at the monthy DW pub night at The Fitzroy Tavern last night handing out more tickets to those with whom he'd arranged to meet there though by the end of the night I forgot to ask him if he had any spares (though he did tell me earlier in the night he'd be giving away any of the tickets not yet distributed by the end of the night as it's too late to put them in the post) otherwise I might have been able to invite some others along as well as I'm sure there are a few people I know here who'd like to go but don't have tickets.


Anyway I think that's pretty much got me caught up now. I could have expanded on some things I'm sure but people know how to reach me if they want anything more in depth about a given subject. =)

Until next time...

Falling behind...

I'm falling behind with blog posts as I've been focused on other tasks of late. I've got a bunch of stuff to blather on about including but not necessarily limited to visits with my cousin Dave and his family who are in town this week, attending the Earl's Court Doctor Who Exhibition (the largest such exhibition ever mounted apparently), attending a taping of The Friday Night Project and seeing David Tennant and Freema Agyeman there (along with briefly meeting Alan Carr) and my trips to Edinburgh (which was last week) and Paris (for which I leave in about an hour or so).

One day I will get caught up... perhaps in a week or so once I'm back from Paris and things have calmed down a bit.

Brier

Congrats to Kevin Martin and the members of his rink who have just won the 2008 Brier and will represent Canada at the Worlds next month. Unlike with other networks (ahem, TSN) I was able to watch the feed here live via CBC's website and enjoy the match - a tense one at times on what looked to be quite tough ice. Not only did Martin win the Brier, he did so with a perfect 13-0 record much to the enjoyment of Albertans everywhere.

Guinness

Courtesy my friend Rob I've been given a link to Guy Kawasaki's blog (Kawasaki is a former Apple Fellow and all-around technology dude) where he posted about his recent trip to the Guinness Storehouse in Dublin. He was quite definitely not there when I was, but it certainly wasn't too long after, and he managed to score a much better tour of the place as he was accompanied by Fergal Murray, Guinness Brewmaster.

Among other things he got to do, like actually pour a pint himself, he snagged a nice 3-minute video of Fergal talking about how a proper, "perfect" pint of Guinness should be poured.

For the enjoyment of all, I include here said video:

BBC TV Centre revisited

This past Saturday night I had tickets to go to a taping of a nerdy sitcom (called "Arcadia" - good luck finding much on Google yet, I certainly couldn't find much beforehand) at the BBC TV Centre. This time I dragged along a friend so I at least had someone to yap with during all the waiting (and there is indeed a lot of waiting - waiting in the queue to get inside; waiting to get through security; waiting on the audience foyer; waiting while shots are set up; other miscellaneous waiting) and certainly had fun at the British TV Mecca. The show was mostly rubbish and really quite puerile (as is the case with much that winds up on BBC3, apparently) but a few laughs were had, even if they mostly came from the warm-up guy working the audience.

The highlight of the evening was quite probably our squee moment when we saw a fully assembled Who-esque Police Box standing near the audience foyer entrance. It was a very nice surprise and of course we did some requisite pictures in front of it; those pictures have of course been posted.

Each of us blew off differing birthday parties to which we'd been invited in order to visit the TV Centre and while I didn't have a terrible evening by any stretch, there's something to be said about wanting to trade it in for a night out with friends at the pub.

Invasion

Saturday was the Invasion 2008 Doctor Who convention, a day of geekery and drunkenness, and the first Who convention I'd attended since 1988 - yes, 1988. The event started FAR too early for my taste, especially since I had been to the concert the night before and didn't get back until about 12:30am (the stupid queue for the coat check took forever!) and registration began at 7:30am. It also didn't help my ears were ringing after the concert which hampered my ability to fall asleep.

Anyway, I begrudgingly woke up when I needed to do so, got ready and headed for the tube not long after 7:00am and got to the venue well before 8:00. I stood in line to get my registration package and met up with a friend who got there a little after me before we found seats for the introductory session.

The day was essentially comprised of discussion panels (recounting stories and audience-provided questions) and the autograph session. The first panel featured some kid guest stars from Who; the second featured people from the 7th Doctor era; the third featured the 8th Doctor, Paul McGann; the fourth featured people who played various monsters; the fifth was a solo effort from Tom Baker about his time as the 4th Doctor (among other things). The panels were all enjoyable, but of course loads of people were there to see Tom and take in what he had to say. He was quite engaging and certainly didn't disappoint, other than when he had issues hearing the questions being asked of him and he pretty much answered a completely different question. To be fair, he's not young, and he remarked there was a problem with the acoustics, but nevertheless whatever he said in reply was enjoyable and generally humourous.

The autograph session on the other hand was simply atrocious. There was about a 45-minute break between the panels and the autograph session and when Baker's panel finished there was a mad rush to the exit. I chose to wait until it was easier to get out but found out afterward the mad rush was there as people were trying to queue for the autograph portion. By the time I left the auditorium and went to queue there were a few hundred people ahead of me. I couldn't count how many but it was an obvious majority of the attendees. The autograph portion also started late which didn't help. It was also known/noted that Baker had to leave earlier than other guests, meaning the possibility existed I and those in the queue with me might not get his autograph. Certainly by the time we got to the door, well over 2 hours after entering the queue, the powers that be had closed the queue for Baker and thus nobody else was going to get his signature. That was quite disappointing, but not only did that mean I was unable to get his signature, the delays in starting the autograph session meant there was no way I'd be able to get all the autographs I'd wanted (especially when I saw Jean Marsh leaving the building well before I got into the auditorium). So, I prioritized somewhat and wound up getting Paul McGann, Paul Kasey, Nicholas Briggs, Sophie Aldred and Anneke Wills.

That's about where the day ended, convention-wise. Afterward a few dozen folks went over to Barking to a pub and consumed far too many potables. It was a fantastic night though, being able to hang out with a bunch of the Who fans I already knew and meeting a bunch of others, the highlight being spending a fair chunk of time with Anneke Wills in a social situation, hearing some of her stories and just being able to talk with her like a normal person rather than having to do so in the more awkward methods available at convention signings and such. She was an absolte sweetheart and a very down to earth person. The chap who published her autobiography is one of the Who fans I've gotten to know since arriving here and it was certainly thanks to that affiliation that I was able to meet Anneke, though she's certainly sociable and approachable enough that she wouldn't have minded if I just went up to her at the pub and started a conversation without having first been introduced to her by Tim.

Today I'm quite sluggish between the fatigue and drink, and even though I slept in a bit I'm still all cobwebby in the head and haven't yet gotten to some work that I had slotted in for today... though thankfully I don't have to get that sorted until Tuesday so I still have time. Soon it's podcast time then I think it's going to be an evening of relaxation with a movie or something.

Underworld

Friday night saw the rescheduled Underworld concert which I was originally supposed to attend on October 19th last year. I was quite disappointed of the postponement at the time, but the delay allowed me that much more time to build excitement and indeed I was excited to go to the show.

The website for the show said a 7:00pm start time, so I made sure to get to the venue early so I could collect my ticket at the box office, and also to make sure I found the place alright since I'd not previously been to the Camden area where The Roundhouse happens to be. When I arrived I noticed a sign posted saying doors were at 7:00, the opening act was at 8:00 and Underworld took the stage at 9:00. So after killing some time wandering around the various markets in the Camden area and grabbing a bite to eat I popped back to the venue a little before 7:00 so I could stake out a good position near the front.

Eventually, the opening act (a solo artist called "Yoav" - pronounced YAHV he said) came out and did his thing for about half an hour, then he left, and earlier than scheduled Karl, Rick and the gang took the stage and played for over 2 hours until about 11:00. The show was very enjoyable and because I was 6 feet from the stage all night, very loud. I made the attempt to bootleg the concert on my phone but so far I've not had the time to pull the files off the phone to see how well the attempt went.

Overall it was an enjoyable show except for the people who kept harassing me to let them go in front of me because they couldn't see around/over/past/through me. I told each and every one of them I wasn't going to let them go ahead of me, and I think for good reason. It's not my fault I'm the height I am, nor is it my fault they're the height they are. If they can't deal with someone standing in front of them then they should have gotten there earlier than they did and staked out a good spot just as I had done. I didn't mind the first time or two someone had asked me but by the 4th or 5th person I was getting slightly aggressive in telling them no. I paid my money to get in like everyone else, I made the effort to get a good spot, they should respect that and just let me enjoy the show instead of pulling my focus a dozen or more times and disrupting things.

Anyhow, it had been nearly 9 years since I last saw Underworld (which was in Seattle in April, 1999 for the Beaucoup Fish tour) and it seemed like yesterday that I last saw them once they took the stage and starting doing what they did. Good times.

Earthquake

Last night (well, early this morning to be precise) there was an Earthquake in England, near the east coast in the midlands. Apparently it was among the strongest in decades and it was a neat experience.

It was barely felt here, and as it was happening I wasn't even sure if it was an earthquake. I'd never felt one before, nor did I think it was the sort of thing that happened here, but I knew I definitely felt something. There was some shaking and a feeling of uneasiness but overall nothing too bad.

Nevertheless, all was fine here, no disruptions (eg. power), just a bit of weirdness.

Dublin Redux

So the trip to Dublin was essentially short, only about 2 1/2 days. I didn't have a lot on my itinerary for things to do and that was a good thing because I really couldn't find all that many things to do. The main things I wanted to visit were the Guinness Storehouse and Dublin Castle, and indeed I got to both those places. Other places I got to, in no particular order, were the National Gallery, the National Museum of History & Architecture, Trinity College, Christ Church Cathedral, and more.

I considered other places such as St Patrick's Cathedral but never did get around there. I'd also planned to go to the Natural History Museum however it was closed for refurbishment so I could not do so. I ate lunch one day across from City Hall but didn't go on the tour there. I went by Custom House but had read something about the visitor centre being closed so I just kept on walking.

The city isn't overly large and with few exceptions (the docks, the zoo, etc.) it's not much hassle to walk from any venue to any other venue, and that's a nice thing. It makes getting around fairly easy without having to worry about taking a cab or public transportation. That said, for a smallish place there's certainly a huge number of taxis and buses going around. Not counting tour buses, the streets are simply littered with buses. My second night there I came out of the pub I was at, which was toward the north end of O'Connell Street, and there was nothing but taxis as far as the eye could see - dozens of them. Granted there are a number of pubs and restaurants in the area, but it was quite a sight to see on a Wednesday night. I'd not seen the likes if that anywhere, not even on the busiest weekend on Whyte Ave.

The weather was fine... nothing spectacular, but it's February after all. There was almost no rain (just a slight bit of drizzle Thursday afternoon) though it was mostly overcast throughout my time there. I didn't attempt to stay up for the lunar eclipse, but even if I had I'm not sure if it would have been worth it with all the cloud cover. The city is nice, there didn't seem to be many hassles around (no crime visible, a few panhandlers, lots of cigarette butts and other bits of trash that are omnipresent in cities) and the people were nice. There was a huge concentration of French people around though... I found that odd for some reason.

I'd looked forward to going there, and it's a nice enough place, but I think I'd be hard pressed to go back there. I'd still quite enjoy touring around the countryside one day, or visiting other cities (Cork, Shannon, etc.), but I really don't see going back to Dublin.

Dublin

I got back from the Dublin trip a little under an hour ago. I'm working on getting pictures posted but that will take a while. I'm going to wait to post something more useful as it's late and I've got a lot of catching up to do with some other stuff, but I'll do a proper post in due course.

Summary: It was grey. There was lots of Guinness consumed. Um. More later.

More travels, more theatre

Another day out with Mr. Fleming meant a bunch more sights seen. We began the day at Parliament and walked around the grounds for a bit and around Westminster Abbey before heading across the river to the south bank by the London Eye. Since neither of us had been on the Eye we figured what the heck and bought tickets for a 'flight' as they call it. The view is indeed spectacular though because I'd already made the climb atop St Paul's Cathedral, it's something I'd already seen. I'm not convinced the money spent on the 'flight' was worth it for me, but it's nonetheless cool to see London from that high up.

After a crappy dinner at a nearby Chinese Food buffet place we ambulated over to Trafalgar Square and on to Leicester Square as he'd wanted to go to the theatre and we found cheap tickets via the TKTS booth at Leicester Square (made cheaper yet by coupons I had) for a play called "Angry Young Man." We wandered around the Leicester Square area and went back down to Trafalgar Square by the Nelson monument and Canada House before going into the National Gallery for a bit to kill time before the play. After gawking at some paintings we swung by a nearby Tesco to grab some pop and then proceeded to the theatre, which was about a block south of Trafalgar Square.

The play was rather interesting and quite fun, a story about a Russian surgeon who has come to London to work, except he'd been laid off before arriving. He meets a ne'er-do-well socialite at Hyde Park and gets caught up in a whirlwind of events leading to death and intrigue. Except it's a comedy.

The venue was quite small -- perhaps 110-120 seats -- and the performance was undertaken by 4 men all swapping in and out of the role as the immigrant. It was frantic and enjoyable. Russel had mentioned reading a review of the play (we did some quick Googling earlier in the day) that made him think the play was like something one might see at the Fringe back home, and indeed his assessment was correct. It was a very intimate, close-quarters venue with younger, not-too-seasoned (but quite capable) actors and was very much like something one would expect to see in Edmonton come late August. It was only an hour long but a good time was had by all.

Pictures from today will soon be up at the secondary URL.

Photos

I've been storing posted photos on Picasa, a website owned by Google and tied to my Google account. Though Google offers one 6369MB (as I write this; it will be more by the time I finish this post) for email, they cap Picasa quotas at 1GB/1024MB, an amount I've very nearly exhausted.

The eagle-eyed out there might have noticed I added another photos page link at the right-hand side a couple weeks back, and photo posts from now on will be slotted there rather than at my pretty-darn-full first site.

While the first URL was http://picasaweb.google.com/cburgess the second URL is the same with 'pics' added at the end -- http://picasaweb.google.com/cburgesspics is where one will want to go for photos from January 30th. The pictures sitting at the first location will not move of course.

A visit from Russel

A few weeks back I knew that a friend of mine, Russel Fleming, was coming to London for a teacher's job fair. He's currently living and teaching in San Tecla, El Salvador and is looking for different pastures. He's got a series of interviews lined up with various schools from Thailand, China, Oman and elsewhere. While he's got a bit of business to take care of, there's still time to take him around and show some sights from this city to him.

It's also quite nice to have a visitor, too!

On Monday I met him at Gatwick Airport and collected him from there, taking him on his frist UK train ride as we hopped the rail line north to Clapham Junction where another friend of his lives, and where he's staying for a few nights. After he dropped off his bags and had a bit of a visit, his friend had to take care of some work so we went out and about for a while.

One place he wanted to go was the Apple store, fellow Mac user that he is, chiefly to see the new MacBook Air; unfortunately, none were yet in stock to be put in display so we had to content ourselves with the other Apple fare. I was tinkering with an iPhone at one point and found it had a valid SIM card in it and actually was functional as a phone. Being an in-store demo unit that somewhat surprised me, but after calling my cell phone and seeing it work I was intrigued. I becked Russel over and told him about it, so he proceeded to try calling his wife back in El Salvador. Alas international calling seemed to be blocked as his call didn't go through.

If anyone cares to give it a ring, a valid phone number for an iPhone at the Regent Street Apple Store is 075 1584 7471 according to my cell phone's call history.

From the Apple Store we walked down Regent Street to Hamley's toy store, a simply massive place spread over 7 floors (though we skipped the girls toys floor). Russel was quite interested in looking at toys for his 17-month old son Matthew, while I was more interested in some other stuff such as the Teletubbies they had for sale.

After Hamley's we kept going down Regent Street toward Piccadilly Circus, tooled around there for a bit, went into the London Trocadero (a big amusement arcade with video games, bowling, a cinema, and more) to see what was in there, then kept going. We went up Shaftesbury Avenue at the start of the theatre district and meandered up to Great Russell Street to hit the British Museum. Unfortunately by the time we actually got to the museum it was nearly closing time so we spent all of 10 minutes in there before having to leave. We went back down Tottenham Court Road a bit back to Oxford Street and as Russel was tired from the jetlag we decided to call it a night and I went with him to the train station at Waterloo (after a series of strange events shut down Victoria station, which was the station we used to come into the city) and made sure he knew what he had to do to get back to his friend's place where he was staying.

Today, after a late start, we met up at the South Kensington tube station to go to the science museum. As he's a physics teacher, Russel wanted to start there. We wandered around there for about 3 hours before deciding to grab some lunch. A quick stop at Subway and we were on our way to the Natural History Museum, adjacent to the science museum. We spent about an hour and a quarter in there, leaving when they announced it was closing.

From there we wandered over to the Royal Albert Hall, mostly because I'd not yet gone there and I wanted to see it, especially at night. I satisfied my curiosity there and we moved on. Russel's wife had requested he buy some good British tea to bring back with him as she didn't care for what was available in El Salvador. So with that in mind, and being near Knightsbridge, the logical conclusion, of course, was to go shopping at Harrod's. We wandered around the food halls (ignoring the rest of the store) for a bit, eventually finding the area with coffee, tea, chocolates and other stuff. Russel looked around, found some interesting choices, and we left the store.

Knightsbridge isn't terribly far from Buckingham Palace, so with nothing better decided for a subsequent destination we headed over there. The palace looks quite nice at night all lit up, and while we were there we observed a lengthy line of cars waiting to get onto the palace grounds, as there was apparently some function there tonight. I pressed to go elsewhere (Trafalgar Square is about 10-15 minutes away on foot) but Russel decided to call it a night as we'd been going for about 6 1/2 hours without much stopping and he wanted to head back and relax. So, we trundled to the nearest tube station and made our respective ways back.

I've come up with some ideas for places to go the next couple days after his job interviews, so we'll see how far we actually get. Tomorrow will be all around Westminster by parliament, and Thursday will be a bit further east around Trafalgar Square, Leicester Square, Pall Mall, Canada House, The Strand, Covent Garden, and perhaps Holborn and St Paul's if we're quite energetic. We'll see how far we get!

Birthday Theatre Outings, Part the Second

Friday saw the second performance since arriving here of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat, this time with the understudy performing the lead role. Lewis Bradley's presence as Joseph just wasn't as enjoyable as Lee Mead's, I'd have to say off the bat. He's too skinny if nothing else, and although he's technically proficient (singing, blocking, movement, etc.) enough to perform the lead, there's just something of about it all. The kid is only 18 though, so it's not surprising he's not mastered every aspect of his craft yet. Nevertheless the show was enjoyable, though I'm not sure I've ever seen any performance of Dreamcoat that wasn't at least partially enjoyable.

The seat I had for it was front row centre in the upper circle (second level up) and the view was great, although being able to see more of the stage (and how things operate for scene changes and mechanical trickery) kills the illusion somewhat.

Saturday was a bit of a problematic day in that on weekends the tube shuts down on a grand scale (at times, anyway) for improvements, repairs and the like. I worked out what I needed to know to get to the other end of town to see Henry Rollins at the Apollo in Hammersmith, but once I got to the tube station I changed things up for no good reason and wound up getting on a train which, while listed as going to where I needed to go, actually terminated about halfway to where I needed to go. So when I got to the halfway point I had to come up with a Plan B, and given where I was, that meant switching to another line to go 2 stops, and switching to a third line to complete the journey.

However, being a Saturday, everywhere was packed. Every station, every car of every train... it was frustrating. Once I got to the last changeover I wound up having to wait almost 10 minutes... not because that was when the next train came but rather because the first two trains which came were packed far too full for me to squeeze on. I said to myself 'screw it' and just shoved my way onto the third one rather than wait any longer. After a few stops the crowd thinned out a bit so at least I could grab a seat and not be cramped.

Because of the tube snafu, I skipped going to a proper place for dinner and just went to the McDonald's by the tube station because I figured I was running short on time. The ticket said 6:30, and my plan was to be in the area by 5:00 to give myself time to find a place to eat. By the time I got to Hammersmith it was nearly 6:00 so I scarfed down some food as quickly as I could and dashed out. I had no idea where the concert hall was and I knew I had to find it soon. Thankfully it was very close (across the street from the mall place where the tube station lets out; of course it was across the street from the entrance complete opposite to the one I used to exit!) and I was there by 6:15 after I managed to figure out how to cross the road (it's a very busy road and there were no close crosswalks; I had to walk down the street for a ways to get across). I was happy to have gotten there in time, what with the ticket saying 6:30 and all.

Except 6:30, as I found out on the marquee, was when the doors opened, not when the performance began. That definitely explained the lineup of people still outside when I arrived. So, fine, 6:30 is when the doors open, no biggie, that probably meant the show started at 7:00. Nope, that was wishful thinking. The show actually started at 8:00. So, 6:30 came, I got in the queue, I went in, I went to the entrance fromt he lobby nearest my seat and waited. They let people into the theatre at 6:30 but not to their seats. The doors from the lobby were closed until about 7:00. So I wait, go take my seat, and wait. And wait. Thankfully I had some leg room otherwise that would have been an unpleasant night. Rollins has never gone less than 3 hours any previous time I've seen him so I knew I was in for a long night if I was uncomfortable. True to form and precedent, he went about 185 minutes after taking the stage promptly at about 8:02.

The show was funny as always, his stories are always interesting and he's got such a great way of telling them. The first time I saw him, at the Winspear, I wasn't sure what to expect. I knew he'd done spoken word tours for many years but I'd never been to one, heard one recorded, seen one on video, anything. I was quite blown away that first time, so much so that I'd never missed his subsequent appearances at the Winspear, until this past October of course.

Ultimately I had fun on the Saturday, but the whole process of getting to the fun part was somewhat trying. Oh well, that's what happens sometimes.

Birthday Theatre Outings, Part the First

Wednesday night was Lord of the Rings. I hopped the tube to Embankment (not quite close to the theatre, but that was on purpose so I could walk around and dilly dally and look for a place to eat dinner) and had loads of time to kill. I wound up walking down The Strand, up to Covent Garden Market (where I was sort of looking for a bag for my upcoming trip), and around the area before I decided on dinner at a place called PJ's, a block or so away from the Theatre Royal Drury Lane, where the play was being performed. Dinner was ravioli for starters and steak for the main with a nice glass of Bordeaux (the first wine I've had since October) and it was pretty decent and not too expensive (the theatre district has loads of places with set menus for reasonable prices).

I was somewhat looking forward to the play as I'd heard some positive comments about it from people I know as well as reading some good stuff online about it. I'd read some negative remarks as well but was still hopeful. The production values were amazing... the stage was split into about 15 segments (making up a circle altogether) which rose as much as about 10 feet above stage level; the segments were used quite well to illustrate the walking, some fighting, and so on. The acting was fantastic. The practical effects were fantastic (the way they handled the Balrog and Spider Queen were great). I'd read this was among the most expensive productions staged outside of Las Vegas and it's easy to see there was some serious money spent on the setup.

Not all was rosy, however. The writing was terrible... just plain terrible. It's a tough thing to fit the Rings story into a 2 1/2 hour play, there's no doubt about that, but so much was glossed over it was hard to follow the story -- and I say that knowing the story! Many characters were omitted entirely, some key and cool plot points were skipped or glossed over, and the pacing was utterly disgusting. There's a lot of plot to get through, a lot of exposition that needs to take place, and not a lot of time in which to do it. However there was more than one time where the writers rushed through several plot points only to wind up at a dead standstill plotwise. The worst culprit was in the third act when after some rapid plot succession the whole production ground to a painful halt while Sam, Frodo and Gollum sat atop the mountain on the way to Mordor and sang of home. Okay, if this lasted a couple minutes maybe I could forgive it. But no, this was about 10 minutes of schlock. It was torturous.

And the songs... oh, the songs. First off, the play isn't a musical as such, rather a play with songs. Songs which were terrible. Songs which seemed very out of place. Songs which were poorly written and not in any way catchy (as songs in a play ought to be). I cringed every time a song began, but thankfully there weren't too many to deal with. Spamalot suffered from this somewhat, though the movie had a bunch of songs in it so you could cope at least. The songs, when considered as part of the writing as a whole, made the experience less than wonderful.

Overall I'd have to give the production a passing grade but only because of the non-writing technical elements. Staging/direction was great. Lighting was great. Writing... ugh. I would not recommend the production to anyone unless they wanted to go for the eye candy rather than the story.

Tonight, on the other hand, I went to see We Will Rock You at the Dominion Theatre (less than a stone's throw from Tottenham Court Road tube station) and holy crap did it rock. I'm one of those types who prefers to hear songs sung by the original group (with rare exception) so I didn't look forward to Joe Random Castmember singing songs I grew up with and have loved for 20+ years, and while some of the songs were less than stellar (such as Killer Queen being reworked to be in the first person) overall I didn't mind the fact very few of the tunes were proper Queen recordings.

The staging was capable; there was a lift at centre upstage which was used far, far too often to take characters offstage (taking them below stage level) but otherwise was fine. The story was a bit shit, but considering it's hobbled together as a means of taking the viewer from one Queen song to the next it was acceptable. Very little of this type of reworking actually, well, works... the benchmark is and may always be the wonderful movie for The Wall which had a very cohesive storyline developed around the music. It also helped that The Wall was written as a collection to tell a story rather than a mishmash of songs cobbled together from a 20+-year catalogue (and yes, WWRY does run the full gamut from Queen II and A Night at the Opera to Highlander to The Miracle and a whole bunch in between). And the whole thing is funny to boot. Wonderful humour and pop culture references (which get updated as the years go on, at least based on comparing what I saw to what was listed on the official website, as well as noticing characters being naked after recent phenomena like Amy Winehouse) keep the tone light.

One high point was that the sound engineer absolutely cranked the volume many, many times... and I thought that was damned perfect for what could be termed a Rock Opera.

I would definitely recommend this to anyone who wanted to have a fun night out, and at about 2 1/2 hours running time it's definitely a full night out to see it. I was very glad to have seen it.

Tomorrow is Dreamcoat, and I'll hopefully jot down some remarks about it, though since I've already done so from the first time I saw it, I might restrict remarks to differences (if any) I notice and the performance from Lewis Bradley who's taking over temporarily from Lee Mead.

Travel

I've begun some travel plans so I can see a bit more of the area around me. Yesterday I booked my first jaunt, a 3-day excursion to the Emerald Isle to see some sights, especially the Guinness brewery, which I've been wanting to visit for years. There's an old wives' tale I've heard on many occasions that the closer one gets to the Guinness brewery the better the Guinness tastes. There are those I know who don't like Guinness but for those of us who can't get enough of it, I've wanted to put that theory to the test. Not long before I came to England, my stepmother's boss (I'll not name-drop here) went to Dublin for work-related reasons and he confirmed the Guinness tasted best in Dublin. Since the tour of the brewery ends with a "free" (I say "free" as the tour costs €14) pint, I'll be able to find out soon enough if the legend is true.

I'm also looking at a trip on Eurostar to Paris so I can not only visit the City of Lights but also do so via the Chunnel. I just like saying Chunnel. It's not a word you can use every day. Beyond that I'm looking at other places like Edinburgh, Cardiff, Brighton, and for warmer destinations, Barcelona and Rome. A friend of mine lives in Geneva and it's be interesting to go there to visit him, but I've not spoken with him about that.

Most of these jaunts would be quite short - 3 or 4 days at most, partly to keep costs down and partly because there are only so many places my time permits me to go. As it is, I had to book the Dublin trip later than I'd wanted due to blackout dates for the cheapest flights as well as other commitments (no pun intended) getting in the way. For Paris, the limiting factor will be when I can get a cheap Eurostar fare (and assuming I can find a worthwhile hostel as well; all the ones run by Hostelling International have had many crummy reviews).

Nevertheless I'm jazzed about going to Dublin and some of the other places. I'm far from a well-traveled person so I'm glad that's being remedied, if only moderately.

Indeed, reality TV still sucks.

Yesterday I attended a recording of a new reality TV series called "The One and Only..." at the BBC Television Centre. I was hesitant to go because the show held zero interest for me other than seeing the somewhat popular (over here, anyway) host, Graham Norton.

I hopped the tube west to White City and made my way to TV Centre to queue up to get in. The information I was given said they would let people in about 5:00, so I had no idea how early I should be there to queue up (they try to overbook the events in order to ensure a full audience) so I could be assured a seat. Taking a wild guess, I got there about 3:00 and was within the first 10 people in line, so I just waited there to get in. Yep, I queued up for nearly 2 hours to get into a production I didn't care to see.

Shortly before 5:00 we were let into the waiting room (the Audience Foyer, to be proper), and wait we did. It was after 6:00 before people were led from the foyer to the studio, and once we got into the studio it was another half hour or more before things got underway, that time being spent given the audience directions on when to clap, how to act/react, and so on.

Then the show began. The premise of the show is (apparently) the UK was scoured for tribute acts - individuals, not full bands - so the (alleged) top dozen could participate in the show. They broke the acts into 6 from each gender. For the blokes there was Elton John, Rod Stewart, Lionel Richie (yep, played by a white guy), Tom Jones, Robbie Williams and Frank Sinatra. or the birds there was Dusty Springfield, Britney Spears, Cher, Madonna, Diana Ross and Kylie Minogue. Each came out to do their thing and a couple of them actually did quite well (Elton & Dusty especially).

The production I attended was a dress rehearsal in preparation for the series beginning this weekend (I assume anyway; I've not cared enough to find out since I know I won't watch). The gallery wasn't full, but they had the full band, the full set, and nearly everything was as it should be when the first show is properly made. The dress rehearsal was a good idea since the production didn't exactly go off without a hitch. The worst part came during the intermission.

They broke the show into two segments, as seems to be the norm for this sort of show. The first segment, which was about 80-90 minutes, was the performance portion. Then they go off-air for a while whilst the phone lines are open for people to call and vote for whomever they prefer. When they broke for intermission, about 8:10, we were told they'd resume in about 35 minutes, but people had the option to leave if they wished. Since I had nothing else planned for the evening I decided I would stick around the 35 minutes to see the end of the show where the votes are tallied. However, they didn't meet their goal... 35 minutes came and went. 60. 90. They finally called the audience back in and I was in my seat about 10:00. Almost 2 hours of waiting, not 35 minutes. That was... displeasing.

To step back a bit, during the initial waiting period in the foyer, some people were approached to do a mock vote, amongst which was me. We were asked to simulate a vote but rather than vote for our favourite act, we were asked to vote for the two least favourite. I was quite pleased, from a cynical point of view, when after the votes were tallied the two I voted for as being worst happened to be the two set aside for possible elimination. For all I know the whole thing could have been rigged, but still a smirk crept across my face when the announcement was made.

For the first portion I was in the gallery, stage left, along with the others who'd been asked to do the mock vote. By the time the intermission ended, easily half the people in attendance had given up in frustration (as I nearly did, and maybe should have done) and left. When we were brought back into the studio after the intermission we were instructed to sit where we sat initially. After people were seated, they saw how many of the premium seats were empty (there were sections for the friends and families of the acts, friends of the producers, etc.) and asked people from the gallery to move down and fill those seats. As a result, I got to move down to the floor, stage right, third row, far left end, about 3 feet from the stage and about 4 feet from Graham Norton. So that bit was alright, especially when we exchanged a bit of banter during some downtime.

The show finally let out about 10:50 and I was quite happy to get the heck away from there. I enjoyed seeing and visiting TV Centre itself, but feel dirty after being at that production. It was truly terrible, was plagued with procedural problems, and I got the impression Norton didn't even want to be there. Still, he's a professional, he was able to turn the smile and charm and smarm on and off at will, so even if he didn't like it he'll still work through it and happily accept his paycheque.

Still, I got to see some of TV Centre from the inside without having to pay the £10 or so to take the tour as I'd planned to do at some point. I think the trade-off of 8 hours of my time for the £10 wasn't quite equitable though.