uppercase F

Chaos in the Underground May 31, 2008

OMG. Ohmigod. Oh…My…God. So I have had one heck of a crazy day. I’ll get to the Underground insanity in a minute, but this afternoon I went to see a matinée showing of Afrika! Afrika! with my friend Kathleen. Thanks to Kathleen’s superb connections we were able to sit in an executive box, and get a sweet view of the show. The show itself is incredible. I mean, un-freaking-believable. I spent most of the show worrying for the performers’ lives. Now if that doesn’t spell a good show, then I don’t know what does.

After I got home I decided to scope out the Underground scene. As some of you may have heard, they are banning alcohol on the tube as of June 1st. I had heard from many sources (including my mom) that there were going to be some parties going on tonight to celebrate ones ability to consume alcohol on trains. Specifically, there was going to be parties on the Circle Line, which as you can imagine runs in one big circle around the center of London. So, as I’m taking my little train to the center of London I notice that there are quite a few people partaking in the booze. By the time I reach King’s Cross it’s just absolute anarchy. There are thousands of people on the platforms screaming and yelling and toasting, some of them in fancy dress. Everyone was waiting for the Circle Line to arrive. At King’s Cross many different trains come into the same platform and the London Transport people were smart enough to stop announcing what platform the Circle Line was coming into. But it wasn’t enough to stop the swarm of people. I followed the crowd into a Circle Line train, where there must have been a couple hundred people in my carriage alone. Everyone was chanting and banging on the windows and ceiling. A favorite chant of the crowd was “Boris is a wanker!” (the mayor of London), which they kept chanting over and over again. Hilariously, there was a group of American girls next to me who were chanting along and one of them turned to their friend and said “What’s a wanker?”. People were banging on the ceiling so hard the lights actually turned off multiple times.

I don’t know if you can tell from the pictures, but there was a poor man in a suit who was just trying to get home. After turning down multiple offers of drinks he decided to depart the train. So… after traveling around for awhile on the sin wagon (and getting mooned- jokes on you guys, because now your asses are on the internet), the train gets to a stop and doesn’t move for about 10 minutes. Everyone starts yelling and screaming, and news gets back to us that the driver has left. That’s right- the train driver got out of the train and quit. Unbelievable. So everyone is kicked out of the train, and it is absolutely trashed. I mean, trashed like you’ve never seen. People had torn the signs and maps off the walls of the train. The ads were pulled down. There were beer bottles everywhere. Everyone was forced to get on another train, which was promptly trashed as well. I spent 2 and a half hours going around on the trains, and I only made it around the loop once. It usually only takes an hour to make one loop.

As I was taking my train back up to my house they kept making announcements regarding the closure of entire stations and lines due to the craziness. The Circle Line was closed completely. And I think it’s going to be a challenge to get the trains ride-able by tomorrow morning. There were people on all of the Circle Line trains, and I’m sure when they closed the line people just moved onto a different line. At the end of the night I came home with a piece of history- an underground map from the ceiling of a Circle Line train.

I Actually Heart Camden May 30, 2008

Tonight I went to a show called “Rapunzel’s Last Midnight” with a new friend of mine. The theater was teeny tiny- there were only about 9 or 10 of us in the audience. The show itself was… OK. A little odd, and a little meandering, but OK. Not a shabby way to spend a Friday evening though.

We then headed to Piccadilly Circus to get some food before we went to a bar. The picture above is the tube station at Piccadilly at 11pm. AT NIGHT. I felt like I was in rush hour tube traffic it was so busy. And on the street there were just thousands of people. I wonder if this is what it’s like every Friday night and I’ve just been missing out.

We decided to head up to Camden to have a few drinks, and maybe catch a glimpse of Amy Winehouse (I have not given up on my search yet my friends). No Amy, but we did find a pretty cool bar called the Buck’s Head. This bar met our all-important criteria of not too crowded, but not empty and boring. The drinks were cheap by London’s standards (7.50 for two drinks), and there was a good DJ making noise. All in all a good night. My opinion of Camden has definitely changed for the better.

It’s gross outside May 29, 2008

So there has been little activity outdoors because the weather is so freaking disgusting. But I was able to get my butt outside to see the Sex and the City movie. For some reason it came out 2 days earlier here in London, so me and Jane got matinée tickets to the movie of the decade. Yes, I said it. Before we went to the theater we ate noodles at Wagamama, which was so delicious. It’s a chain, but there’s only one in the US, in Boston. It was super good, and for desert we had the White Chocolate and Ginger Cheesecake. It was just as delicious as you are imagining. I was in heaven. The movie was good/funny/touching/cheesy. It was like a regular episode on steroids. Two thumbs up.

Hopefully the weather lightens up so I can do more touristy things before my job starts on Monday.

The Eye May 27, 2008

My friend Jane arrived in London yesterday, so I again had company in my journeys across the city. We took a 3 hour walking tour this morning that hit a lot of the places I’ve posted about already, but it was interesting to hear the history behind everything I’ve seen. Like did you know that it is legal to kill a Scottish person with a bow and arrow in the city of York, as long as the man is armed? And that the Winston Churchill statue outside the Houses of Parliament has an electric charge so birds don’t sit on him and poo on his head? Or that there are pelicans living in St. James’s Park, and they eat pigeons whole? Now you know. We were able to catch part of the changing of the guards ceremony outside Buckingham Palace, which I missed when I visited a few days ago. Lots of pomp and circumstance, as well as tubas. Or sousaphones, as I was corrected by Jane the musicology student.

After the tour we were quite tired so we stopped into a pub and ate some food and drank some beer. Two hours later (after some confusion with the food), we decided to make our way over to the London Eye. I had been on the Eye when I was in London 7 years ago, but Jane had never been and it gives such great views of the city. You can see Peaches in the photo above enjoying the view. The line to get on the Eye was heinous, and it’s completely over-priced, but it’s definitely a cool thing to do.

A Friend! May 25, 2008

Today my childhood friend Danielle came down from Milton Keynes to hang out with me. Whipee! I’ve been friendless since coming here, so it was refreshing to have someone to direct my comments to that isn’t a teddy bear. Though, as you can see from the pictures, Peaches was still present. We both went down to Buckingham Palace to see if the queeny was home. If she was, she was being very rude and not coming down to greet us. We then strolled over to Hyde Park (the real one, not the trendy part of Austin), which is lovely. I tend to find parks dull and boring, but Hyde Park had a gorgeous rose garden and it smelled wonderful.

We then walked around until we found somewhere to eat that both of us could afford, and ended up chowing down at a tavern. It was delicious. Danielle ordered nachos for us, and- I swear to God- it was a plate of doritos with sour cream, guacamole, and salsa. But nachos nonetheless! Yummy. I also ordered a cider called Bulmers, and I’m not sure if you can tell from the photo, but I think it’s a cider made for giant people. I, ladies and gentlemen, consumed a drink containing 580ml.

We then strolled over to Leicester Square and Covent Garden, where all the West End plays are showing. It was interesting to see the Sunday evening theater crowd wondering around, and it reminded me a lot of New York.

Yay for knowing someone!

Oi! May 24, 2008

Since the sun was actually high in the sky today I decided to make my way over to Camden Town. Sheila had told me there is a market there on the weekend where “people my age” hang out. This sounded promising. I took the bus over because the Underground is a complete mess this weekend due to the Bank Holiday on Monday. When I got off the bus I was swept into a crowd of what seemed like a million people. It was absolute chaos. I guess since it’s a holiday weekend everyone and their mom decided to come out. There were in fact lots of people my age, but the market wares weren’t quite what I was expecting. Though there were some pretty awesome music stands selling old albums, and some pretty nifty clothing shops, most of the stands looked like unlicensed Hot Topic Stores. I must have had 10 people come up to me and hand me fliers for tattoo and piercing shops. Now, I’m certainly not one to shy away from this kind of stuff, but it all seemed a little… fake. Like everyone was trying REALLY hard to be punk. Maybe I’m just being a pessimist. Take a look for yourself…

Skull and Crossbones May 23, 2008

Today was a disgusting day. I went to the Hunterian Museum, and I’m really glad I didn’t go right before dinner. The museum holds old medical samples, mutated bones and diseased tissues, as well as pickled body parts. Yummy! I had the pleasure of seeing a “maggot buried in the skin of a reindeer”, a “fetal foal with its membranes”, and “part of the face of a child with smallpox showing postules that have burst and ulcerated”. It was disgusting, yet very educational. I couldn’t take photographs unfortunately (I could have taken some good ones for you!), and I found out from the guy sitting at the front desk that a government regulation prevents people from taking photos in London museums. I’m still going to plead ignorance at the next museum I go to.

I didn’t do anything else because I felt sick.

Work Blog May 22, 2008

Someone please give the mayor of London a pair of scissors, because this man is in desperate need of a haircut. I can think of nothing else when I see him on TV every night. At least run a comb through it.

I have a new work blog that I am updating weekly in order to get credit for school. I’ll still be posting personal stuff here, but if you’re interested in the library business I’ll be posting every Friday to A Librarian in London.

It Exists!

Now, I do realize that this is my third mention of Harry Potter in the last week in a half, but look! It really does exist! There’s even half a cart coming out of the wall! This little area is sort of hidden in between Platforms 8 and 9 in Kings Cross Station. I had to look for it, and no-one seemed to be looking at it or taking pictures. Whoever thought this up, and whoever approved its implementation, are my new heroes.

Oh yeah, and I started my new job at the Natural History Museum. Well, I wasn’t actually doing anything today, but I was introduced to who I will be working with and given a tour of where I’ll be housed. I got a behind the scenes look at the rare book room (which is super cool and has all kinds of art work in it), which is closed off to the public. I’ll be working on an exhibit with material from the room throughout the summer. As well, I got to look through all the secret libraries that are closed to the public. They look like libraries from the 20’s, with two floors and twirly stairs. So cool.

And on the way home I stopped by Piccadilly Circus, but I only stayed for 5 minutes. There’s not much to see there except the lights and the angel. I really wanted to do the Lenny Henry/Genie dance in front of the lights, but I thought people would look at me funny (only Waterstons and a singular Horak will get that).

Tourist-y Fun, Part Deux May 21, 2008

Getting a late start, I decided to embark on yet another day of tourist attractions. I know I was successful because I spent most of the day surrounded by more Americans than English people. My first stop was Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament. I wasn’t really that interested in seeing Big Ben, but it’s way more impressive in person than in pictures. Definitely worth the trip. I tried to figure out how to get into the Houses of Parliament to take advantage of the free tours I had heard about, but couldn’t figure out how to make my way past the policemen with guns. There were plenty of things to see on the outside anyway.

I then walked over to Westminster Abbey. Again, I didn’t actually go in, because I didn’t want to pay (another thing I am saving for when visitors arrive). Instead, I sat on the grass in front of the abbey and made a daisy chain for Peaches. It was a lovely day, and a nice place to sit.

Then I walked up to Trafalgar Square, which is giant. There were a million people gathered around taking a million photographs. But it’s quite a sight to see, and I’m glad I wandered over. In the middle of Trafalgar Square is the National Gallery. I wasn’t sure what the gallery held, so I went in to take a look. They had a lot of classical paintings, including Di Vinci, Cezanne, and Michelangelo. As well, they had some Van Gogh, who is my absolute favorite. They had Sunflowers, which is absolutely gorgeous. What I like about Van Gogh is that you can never really get a good idea of the painting until you see it in person. Again, I was reprimanded for taking pictures in the museum, so I was only able to get one picture of the roof. Geez, these English people are strict. And love statues. They’re everywhere.