Last night I couldn't sleep and at 2:30am, I called Aileen to gush about my trip (don't worry - it was 7:30pm in LA). We talked for 30 min. I couldn't stop talking! $.99/minute. Oh well, it was worth it!
This morning I woke up at 8:30am. Went down and had breakfast in the crappy hotel and it was 10 pounds (which is about $17) for bowl of cereal, canned peaches and a glass of apple juice. Then, I switched hotels! Went to the new place to leave my luggage (got lost again after I got off the tube - I really need a compass, but I haven't found one yet!)
Then I went to Westminster Abbey, Buckingham Palace & the Houses of Parliament:
After that, I sat at a cafe and had a smoothie and a muffin because my feet hurt a lot and I just wanted to people-watch (a fascinating activity in London!) And I finished some more postcards while I was there. Then I did some shopping for gifts for family and such. Found good things for my nephews and my friend Mary in MN.
Then, I saw Private Lives again! It is always interesting to me to see a show several times to compare performances, etc. Still way more impressed by Matthew Macfadyen and Simon Paisley-Day than I am by Kim Cattrall. She's decent, but not great. After the show, I met up with a woman who was there on Tuesday by the stage door. Since I didn't get his autograph or a decent pic on Tues, I was determined to do that today! Waltraud, from Austria, and I agreed that Matthew tossed a few on Tuesday night before he left the theatre and he was much looser and sweeter than. Today he was still nice, but there was a noticeable difference. Anyway, Waltraud and I were joking about asking him to sign his autograph in a funny way, so when I did, I asked him to sign "Gil Hollis" - his OCD 80s character from Ashes to Ashes. He said, "Gil Hollis?" Then he thought for a moment and said, "Oh yeah, I know who that is." I said, "I hope so!" and he laughed a little and signed 'Gil Hollis' and below that, his name. Then Waltraud took my picture with him (I took hers with him for her too), but she cut me out of the picture accidentally, which is just fine with me! I still got to stand next to him for several seconds while she took it (he's so TALL)! Here's the picture:
Tomorrow I'm going to Windsor Castle and to explore Berkshire to see where Jack comes from. Not sure how I'm going to get around out there, but I know I can take the train from the Paddington station, which is my nearest tube anyway. Still have yet to ride the London Eye, and other than that, I've seen most of what I really wanted to see!
One more observation about the London Phil concert last night. When the soloist was playing, I kept thinking about that Private Lives was going on at the same time, and that this soloist's virtuosity was on the same par with Matthew's performance. He's like a virtuoso of acting. I love that I have a life where I can recognize different levels of art on the same parallel! That calibre of performance of any kind strikes me equally as powerfully, yet in very different ways. It's riveting, in either form!
Truly Fabulous!!!!! It's perfect!
ReplyDelete