The star of this trip, the drug that has made everything possible, has been caffeine delivered into my person via flat whites. I don't even like coffee, but this has kep me going. I did the math. So, Tuesday night I got five hours, Wednesday was no sleep, and Thursday was four hours. I'm going to crash.
London. My god, I love this city. Everytime I come back, I find somewhere new and beautiful and unlike a side of London I have seen before. London is the kind of place where I find myself apologizing to the bricks and ironworks because I don't have the wordsmithing skills required to write about this place.
The main goal of this trip was to see Benedict Cumberbatch in Hamlet. After getting up at 6am, working a full day, catching a 6 hour flight to Kazahkstan, spending seven hours in the capital city, catching another 6 hour flight to London, and then an hour commute to my AirBnB, I finally showered, socialized, and fell into bed (bed, bed, bed. I love you, Bed) around, sigh, 10:30. 'Cause I'm dumb. The wake up call at 3:00am wasn't needed 'cause I was so worried about over sleeping, I kept waking up. I just gave up at 2:40 and played on Facebook for a bit before walking over to the Barbican to join the already-formed line. Getting there at 3:40 in the morning made me number 16 in line! Crazy! Box office opened at 10:30, but at 7:30, the theater let us wait inside the lobby where there was heat and wifi. Lovely!
I ended up getting a pretty poor seat, but a seat, for only £10! If I wanted to buy one if the return tickets, I'd have to wait until all the day-of seats were sold which meant getting back in line. Alright! Let's be greedy! You have a seat; now try for a better one!
An hour later, I got The Last Ticket of any sort available. Edge seat in box B. At first, as I sat down that night, I was a bit miffed. The view was partially restricted, I was the farthest row back, right by the door, and this ticket was an additional £50. Grumpy, I huffed a bit as some scenes were delivered out of my sight, but the advantage was that I was one of the first out of the theater. Also, I wear Dickies and walkers, so when everyone started running to the stage door in their heels and dresses, I could run faster. Secured a pretty good spot, not directly on the barrier but one back. Now, Mr. Cumberbatch doesn't sign every night, and he doesn't sign for everyone. But you know who he does sign for?
I employed every skill of manipulation I have to make sure no one bumped me out of my spot. I was polite and chatty. I shared an extra marker I had. Before anyone came out, I talked about how popular Ben is in Asia, and how excited my high school students were that we were going to have a signed Benedict program in our classroom. Lies, lies, lies. "What if someone steals it?" "Well, if they do, that sucks. I mean, I don't really care, but my kids are just so excited." Yep, I totally did it for the children. Cough. "Wow, you are the best English teacher ever!"
What? It worked.
That out of the way, I now have Saturday, Sunday, Monday, and most of Tuesday to do London stuff. After a late start today 'cause I was just pissing around, I spent the day mostly walking after securing a ticket to see War Horse this evening. From the townhouse, I walked to the Tate Modern where I passed St. Bart's hospital, the Old Baily, and a bunch of just wonderful little back streets before crossing the Blackfriars Bridge over the Thames.
After giving Modern Art yet another try and getting pissed with the whole genre--there was a mirror on the wall which was supposed to represent the blurring of art and reality or something equally pretentious and stupid--I headed to the National Theatre building. Didn't have any real reason. I just like being there. Mark Gatiss is doing a show everyday but the ones I am in town for, which is disappointing, but I did pick up a ticket to see Jand Eyre tomorrow evening.
For shits and giggles I took the long way to the Tate Britain passing by the super secret MI6 building.
Okay! At the Tate! William Blake! Turner! Real art!!! These were very cool, and,just when I was starting to get bored, it was 5 and tims to start heading toward Convant Garden.
More cool buildings and ended up passing 10 Downing.
"Do you want to wear the hat?"
"Sir. Sir. Why ask questions you clearly know the answer to?" 10 Downing St.
Holy crap! 6:20! I have eaten today... Just pick something!
Bounce over to War Horse, which I found disappointing and dull which a weak script, ridiculous plot, acting that could be added... The horse puppets were amazing, and I loved the goose!!!
And then the walk home of about 2 miles. Time for a shower cause tomorrow is a busy day, too!
Bye for now!
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