At Home in London - Thanksgiving Weekend
Nov. 26th, 2001 12:52 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lillibetOur Thanksgiving was fun, though hardly traditional. We went down to the
Barbican--stopping to get a rare roast beef sandwich for me and a pastrami
sandwich for Jason, both rarities in London but available at a shop near the
theatre--to see the Royal Shakespeare Company's production of The Merchant
of Venice. I believe this brings us to 18 different Shakespearean plays
this year and we have tickets to see Twelfth Night on Boxing Day.
A few months back we took a walking tour with a guide who is also an actor
and told us he was annoyed because he'd turned down a role in something else
because he was just sure he'd get the role of Shylock with the RSC, only to
have the director cast her boyfriend, instead. If so, that was the best
decision she made, as his was the strongest performance in the whole show.
The other roles were a mixed bag from reasonable to tolerable, but no one
really impressed us and several of the director's decisions (e.g. five men
smoking cheroots onstage in a small space during the first scene) seemed
questionable. But especially since this was one of the ones Jason's never
seen, it was good we were able to catch it.
After the show we walked across town to the West End. We had wanted to see
the movie Amelie and when we noticed that we were passing a cinema where it
was playing in fifteen minutes, we decided to jump at the chance. That was
a delightful movie and we recommend it to everyone. Jeunet is a wonderful,
whimsical director (previous movies include Delicatessen--this is similar,
but with a much lighter tone) and the main character did a beautiful job
with the role.
When we got out of that we were hungry, so we walked down Charing Cross Road
to Leicester Square and went to Bella Pasta so Jason could have one of his
favorite things: penne with chicken, pancetta and bell peppers in a cheese
sauce. Then we came home to call our families as they were gathered in
Clifton Park, NY and Alpine, UT for the holiday.
On Friday we had a pretty quiet day. I've been working to get the pictures
from our recent trips ready for the website, so I mostly focused on that.
I got up fairly early on Saturday to talk to steve. I woke Jason up in due
course and hoped to get to McDonald's for breakfast--something I enjoy once
in a while, that hasn't happened in a whole year of living two blocks from
one--but by the time he was showered and dressed and we got down there, they
had stopped making breakfast. So we went on to Sainsbury's and did a big
grocery run before coming home and making lunch.
In the afternoon we went down to Picadilly Circus and took the London Walk
called "Spies & Spycatchers' London." While mentioning various other spies,
real and fictional, the guide's real focus was on the Cambridge Five. They
(Kim Philby, Anthony Blunt, Donald McLean, Guy Burgess and Michael Straight)
were recruited at Cambridge as agents for the Soviet Union and worked their
way up in the UK and US intelligence communities during and after World War
II. The guide, Alan, was very amusing (e.g. "When MI6 decided, after the
war, to set up an Anti-Communist section, the Soviet Union thought it would
be better if one of their people were in charge of that, so Kim Philby went
for the job and got it.") and led us through a section of town (St. James
and Mayfair, mostly) that we hadn't ever really explored. My favorite story
of the whole thing was about Guy Burgess, a real character, who for thirty
years told anyone who would listen that he was an agent for the KGB and
tried to recruit them and responded to the security guards' inquiries about
the contents of his briefcase with variations on "State secrets for the
KGB...idiot!" and was never caught.
After the walk we went back to Picadilly Circus. Jason stopped in at HMV
and then picked up tickets to the opening day of The Lord of the Rings,
while I went over to Lush and restocked on bath bombs. We thought about
seeing another movie, but decided we'd had enough of crowds for one day and
came home instead to order pizza and watch DVDs.
On Sunday we had a quiet morning--I talked to steve and Jason redeemed
himself by going out and getting me McDonald's for breakfast--and went over
to Islington in the afternoon to meet Barbara. Together the three of us
went to see the Harry Potter movie at Screen on the Green. We all enjoyed
it, but felt like it was a bit flat, providing an excellent visualization of
the book without adding anything of its own. After the show we went a block
down to Gallipolli and shared a big plate of meze (Middle Eastern
appetizers: falafel, hummous, tabouleh, etc.) and then each had a plate of
grilled meats. On our way there, we'd found that Manor House tube was
closed and on Sundays the direct bus only runs every 20 minutes, so we
caught a cab home.
And that was our weekend. Hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving. It was
great to talk to those of you I managed to catch during the course of the
weekend.
Barbican--stopping to get a rare roast beef sandwich for me and a pastrami
sandwich for Jason, both rarities in London but available at a shop near the
theatre--to see the Royal Shakespeare Company's production of The Merchant
of Venice. I believe this brings us to 18 different Shakespearean plays
this year and we have tickets to see Twelfth Night on Boxing Day.
A few months back we took a walking tour with a guide who is also an actor
and told us he was annoyed because he'd turned down a role in something else
because he was just sure he'd get the role of Shylock with the RSC, only to
have the director cast her boyfriend, instead. If so, that was the best
decision she made, as his was the strongest performance in the whole show.
The other roles were a mixed bag from reasonable to tolerable, but no one
really impressed us and several of the director's decisions (e.g. five men
smoking cheroots onstage in a small space during the first scene) seemed
questionable. But especially since this was one of the ones Jason's never
seen, it was good we were able to catch it.
After the show we walked across town to the West End. We had wanted to see
the movie Amelie and when we noticed that we were passing a cinema where it
was playing in fifteen minutes, we decided to jump at the chance. That was
a delightful movie and we recommend it to everyone. Jeunet is a wonderful,
whimsical director (previous movies include Delicatessen--this is similar,
but with a much lighter tone) and the main character did a beautiful job
with the role.
When we got out of that we were hungry, so we walked down Charing Cross Road
to Leicester Square and went to Bella Pasta so Jason could have one of his
favorite things: penne with chicken, pancetta and bell peppers in a cheese
sauce. Then we came home to call our families as they were gathered in
Clifton Park, NY and Alpine, UT for the holiday.
On Friday we had a pretty quiet day. I've been working to get the pictures
from our recent trips ready for the website, so I mostly focused on that.
I got up fairly early on Saturday to talk to steve. I woke Jason up in due
course and hoped to get to McDonald's for breakfast--something I enjoy once
in a while, that hasn't happened in a whole year of living two blocks from
one--but by the time he was showered and dressed and we got down there, they
had stopped making breakfast. So we went on to Sainsbury's and did a big
grocery run before coming home and making lunch.
In the afternoon we went down to Picadilly Circus and took the London Walk
called "Spies & Spycatchers' London." While mentioning various other spies,
real and fictional, the guide's real focus was on the Cambridge Five. They
(Kim Philby, Anthony Blunt, Donald McLean, Guy Burgess and Michael Straight)
were recruited at Cambridge as agents for the Soviet Union and worked their
way up in the UK and US intelligence communities during and after World War
II. The guide, Alan, was very amusing (e.g. "When MI6 decided, after the
war, to set up an Anti-Communist section, the Soviet Union thought it would
be better if one of their people were in charge of that, so Kim Philby went
for the job and got it.") and led us through a section of town (St. James
and Mayfair, mostly) that we hadn't ever really explored. My favorite story
of the whole thing was about Guy Burgess, a real character, who for thirty
years told anyone who would listen that he was an agent for the KGB and
tried to recruit them and responded to the security guards' inquiries about
the contents of his briefcase with variations on "State secrets for the
KGB...idiot!" and was never caught.
After the walk we went back to Picadilly Circus. Jason stopped in at HMV
and then picked up tickets to the opening day of The Lord of the Rings,
while I went over to Lush and restocked on bath bombs. We thought about
seeing another movie, but decided we'd had enough of crowds for one day and
came home instead to order pizza and watch DVDs.
On Sunday we had a quiet morning--I talked to steve and Jason redeemed
himself by going out and getting me McDonald's for breakfast--and went over
to Islington in the afternoon to meet Barbara. Together the three of us
went to see the Harry Potter movie at Screen on the Green. We all enjoyed
it, but felt like it was a bit flat, providing an excellent visualization of
the book without adding anything of its own. After the show we went a block
down to Gallipolli and shared a big plate of meze (Middle Eastern
appetizers: falafel, hummous, tabouleh, etc.) and then each had a plate of
grilled meats. On our way there, we'd found that Manor House tube was
closed and on Sundays the direct bus only runs every 20 minutes, so we
caught a cab home.
And that was our weekend. Hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving. It was
great to talk to those of you I managed to catch during the course of the
weekend.
