The London Blog #6

Took sooooo many pictures today! About 70 to be exact!

This morning, I had breakfast at my hotel (good food, and included with my room, unlike the other crappy hotel!) Then, I took the Paddington train out to Windsor-Eton Central, to see Windsor Castle. It's really pretty amazing, and the town of Windsor is very pretty. She was home (the flag was flying atop the round tower). I took lots of pics here. 

Saw the changing of the guard. A whole band plays while they change, both before and after.

After Windsor Castle, I hopped back on the train, and instead of heading back into the city at Slough, I went west toward Reading, which is where Jack is from. I could see enough from the train journey that I made him from the right place!  After my exploration of Reading, I went out to Basildon Park, which was used as Netherfield Hall in Pride & Prejudice.  After I got off the train, I had to take a bus to a stop which is near the entrance, and the bus driver sent me the wrong way when I got off the bus. I ended up walking around the backside of the grounds (up hill all the way), then finding a back gate, which is actually the exit and said no entry, but I walked in anyway, because I wasn't about to walk all the way back.  Turns out that bus stop was only a few hundred yards from the entrance and I walked about 8 miles out of my way the way he sent me! But I did get a lovely walk through the woods and grounds (and more blisters on my feet, plus it was drizzling and about 55 degrees and I had short sleeves!)  And finally, stumbled upon the place.  The first thing I encountered was the Pride & Prejudice exhibition. Spent about 20 minutes in that room reading a lot of stuff I sorta knew already.  Here's Matthew's bio/pic that's on display there:

 Then I toured the house.  Here are some highlights:

A lot of it is under construction, but it was still great to see it!  I took a lot of pictures here because Jack's fictional house would have been built about the same time. This is the grand staircase, which looks much bigger in the movie! 

This is the dining room and it took me a minute to figure out that they actually shot the dance sequences in this room. Again, much tinier than it looks on screen (that's always the case, actually).

This is a really cool bedroom and it's like a little side part of the room with this funky carved ceiling. I thought it was pretty and would have been something like Jack's mother's room. Those are fur coats on the bed.

This cracked me up!  When we were kids, we made a tree chair out of plaster for one of the sets on one of the shows I was in - my brother worked tech crew and somehow, he got to take the tree chair home with him and it was in our house for years! Anyway, when I was leaving, I was walking down a path with this "tree chair" and I had to take a pic for Alden!

After I left, I went back to that bus stop and there was no schedule for that direction, so I wasn't sure when it would, but i was guessing it'd be about an hour. So I went into a convenience store and he gave me a number for a taxi. I didn't want to walk - it was another 3 miles back to the train, and my feet really hurt! Unfortunately, the taxi couldn't come for an hour. I went back in and asked if he knew another taxi company, and he didn't, so I went back outside and of course, the bus went flying by! I tried to stop him, but he wouldn't stop, even with me running down the street shouting at him!  So I called the taxi company back and said come when you can get here, and this really nice guy (and very cute!) who was pumping his petrol overheard me and offered me a ride to the train station! I was so relieved and grateful! When I offered to give him some money for gas he told me, "Don't be daft!" We talked a lot about LA (he's been there, plus San Diego & Vegas) and how he likes San Diego best. Very cute guy, too! Wish I had taken a picture of him!

So, I came back to Paddington and had a little stuffed chicken breast (and a glass of wine) for dinner at an Italian place on the way back. Now I am soaking my very sore feet!

Tomorrow, I will finally ride the London Eye!  Although, of course it's supposed to rain.  I'm going to go down to Mayfair for a bit, then out to Twickenham, where Jack's sister lives, and then ride the Eye, and then I'm meeting somebody before the play for dinner at 6 in front of the theatre.  Good times...

The London Blog #5

I have actual blisters on my feet now. I haven't hardly eaten all week either, so I hope I lose some weight this week!
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:

After this lovely moment, I went to Covent Garden, which is a really cool place! I got some more gifts for Mom & Aileen and walked around there for quite a while. Lots of shopping & people watching and there was this amazing opera singer in one of the food courts.

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!

The London Blog #4

Wednesday, April 28, 2010
11:12pm

Started off my day by going to Trafalgar Square to pick up my London Pass, which gives me free entry to 55 places.

From there, went to the Handel House Museum, about Georg Friedrich Handel, who was born in Germany, but lived in London most of his adult life. On the way there, I got lost - it's very confusing when you get off the tube and you can't tell which direction you're facing and there are lots of little alleys and half-streets, which aren't marked well; only the major streets!  Anyway, while I was looking for it, I ran into Alicia and company! Such a huge, bustling city and we meet again!  They had a map and with their help, I found it. It was boring. Plus, I sat in gum (fairly fresh gum) and my butt smelled like wintergreen. Weird.
From there, I went to the Benjamin Franklin museum.  Got lost there too, because it's on a wonky side-street that wasn't marked well!  This one was an actual tour, and it was pretty cheesey, despite my interest in Benjamin Franklin.

After that, I went across the Thames (this is a pic of the walking bridge across from Embankment to South Bank) to find the National Theatre and before that, I came across the Royal Festival Hall at South Bank, where the London Philharmonic plays. Lo and behold they had a concert tonight featuring a cellist doing Prokofiev Sinfonia Concertante, so I bought a ticket (more on this later).

Then, I found out the tour of the National Theatre wasn't until 5:15 (it was 2:00) so I bought a ticket for that and went back to my hotel to change and freshen up.  Then I went back to the National and while I was waiting for the tour, I sat down to read the Evening Standard directly across from...Richard Eyre, former director of the NT and current director of....you guessed it: Private Lives (the play I'm seeing 3x this week!)
I sat there for 10 minutes, pretending to read the paper, and trying to get up the guts to tell him how much I love this production, but I was too shy and finally, he got up and walked away. Just after he did, I confirmed with a woman who said hi to him when she passed him that it was in fact him. 
Then I took the tour. What a fantastic facility this is!  I don't think anything in LA compares - maybe Dorothy Chandler, but that's all.  They have 3 amazing stages there that seat 400, 750, and 1200. We got to tour the entire facility - scene shops, craft shops, backstage, onstage, rehearsal rooms, etc. The tour guide was very good too.

After the tour, I went to the concert.  This cellist, Danjulo Ishizaka, was phenomenal!  The Prokofiev is incredibly difficult - it's not so much a showpiece, but it's got a great deal of personality and my only complaint is that he could have done a bit more to enhance that. 2/3 of the way through, he broke his A string. They had to stop and he went off and changed it, then there was some kerfuffle about where to resume the piece. They also played Myaskovsky's Symphony #6, which is a nice piece too. Oddly, it features a choir in the last movement, and for whatever reason, they sang crowded in the corner entrances of the choir loft and it seemed like about half of them weren't even all the way into the hall. I've never seen anything like that before.

Tomorrow I am changing hotels in the morning, so I have to work that out, find the new hotel, etc. I will go there and leave my luggage because I have to check out of here by 11 and can't check in there until 2. Am seeing PL again at 2:30 tomorrow, so will officially check in after the play.  Still trying to decide what sightseeing to do.

Au demain...

The London Blog #3

April 27, 2010
11:50pm
(Written last night, posted this morning)

Just got home from the theatre and am readying myself for bed. Went to meet Alicia from Spain early, thinking I would wander around the neighborhood for a bit, but when I got off the tube, two people in a row gave me bad directions and sent me the opposite direction! Oops! I walked about 6 miles out of my way (3 miles the wrong way, 3 miles back!) and finally gave up on finding it and hailed a cab. Of course, it was right around the corner from where I was. But I got there on time and met Alicia! She had 3 friends with her from Spain, and only one of them spoke English pretty well. It was quite comical and amusing attempting to translate for each other, but they were lovely ladies and we had a good time!


“Private Lives”! Wow! It really was incredibly well-done! Kim Cattrall gave me the decent performance I would have expected from her. She didn’t wow me, she was just decent.
Simon Paisley-Day was very good.
Wasn’t crazy about Lisa Dillon, but I think I just don’t like her character. I dunno, she seemed disengaged sometimes.
Matthew WOWed me! He really was beyond incredible and stole the show, and I swear I am not saying this because I’m biased; I do know quite a bit what I’m talking about! I will admit there were a few moments where it seemed he was rushing his responses a bit too much to be listening carefully, but he really was spectacularly good! He really seems to be in his element in the theatre. He’s barefoot throughout the second act, and all I could do was stare at his gigantic feet!
The chemistry between Matthew and Kim is amazing. At one point, when they decide to run away together, they both were practically in tears, which I loved! I would have to guess though that last night wasn't their best performance - timing was off a bit and they were rushing/not listening all the time. There's always the danger after so many performances of things going stale and I think they were all suffering from a bit of that last night - especially the women, and I could tell Matthew was fighting that. Still, it was excellent and I can't wait to see it again!

After the play, we waited at the stage door for nearly an hour for Matthew. He came out with two friends and he looked very tired – to the point where his speech was a bit slurred (was he drunk? He might have been!) Oh, and even though he looked very tired, he looked really gorgeous in a pink shirt, brown blazer and tan pants. He is even hotter in person, he looks a lot younger and he really is a huge guy! Anyway, at the stage door, he was so gracious and patient with everyone: he got lots of gifts and did lots of pictures and autographs. I didn’t get an autograph or a pic with him (my camera batteries went dead after 2 pics of him and I don’t care too much for autographs), but I am going back 2x more, so I will do it later. I did give him my gift though (a CD-Hush by Yo-Yo Ma and Bobby McFerrin, which I think he will enjoy listening to with his kids), and he thanked me and this woman from Germany that I had been talking with earlier tried to tell him, "She came all the way from Los Angeles!" but he didn't hear her (I was glad he didn't). Then one woman told him “You are the only actor”, basically telling him there was nobody better than him, etc., etc. (she’s right, of course!) and he said, “Did you really think it was good tonight? Even on a bad night, huh?” So, that confirms my suspicion that it was sort of an "off" performance for him, for whatever reason. But even though he was having a bad night, he was still brilliant onstage and a complete gentleman at the stage door! I have so much respect for him! Also, all the other fans I met at the stage door (there were about 20 of them) were very nice.

Now I will go to bed for the first time in about 36 hours!

THE LONDON BLOG #2

Tuesday, April 27
3:23pm

Arrived in London without incident. Got through immigration ok, took the tube to my hotel (3 different trains), which was easy.
I don't like the hotel. They nickel and dime you to death. They charge for internet access, they charge to use the pool, etc. The room is TINY!  I have already made a reservation somewhere else for the last 3 nights. I have confirmed that they at least have free wi-fi.
I intended to sleep for a couple of hours, but I'm too excited to get out and see the city, so I'm going to head over by the theatre early and maybe see Covent Garden.
You don't really see much of the city while riding the tube - the parts you do see are just rows and rows of detached houses and everything is very old. I got off the tube at Kensington High Street, and then I got the full effect of being here! I'm fascinated already and I've really only walked about a block! LOL
I have 30 postcards to send. Whenever I go on vacation, I send my students postcards, plus other VIPs. Better get started.

THE LONDON BLOG #1

April 27, 2010

8:03am

The fabulous Douglas Haverlation took me to the FlyAway in Van Nuys, I arrived at the airport on schedule, ate some lunch around 3:00 (hadn’t eaten since 8:30). Talked to Mom twice yesterday – she’s in Seattle. She will disembark in Long Beach Thursday and stay at my place until I come back next Sunday. She has a boyfriend, Barth, who lives right in Long Beach. They’re going to hang out. I can’t wait to meet him.

It’s about 90 minutes until we land in London. We’re somewhere west of Ireland. I’m in the middle section of the plane, and I wish I could see out the windows.

This is the longest flight I’ve ever taken. I see this as the “pain for pleasure” part of the trip. When you’re my size, flying isn’t fun for you or anyone around you. I tried to circumvent this lack of fun by buying 2 coach seats for myself, and the fact that the arm rests don’t go up all the way on this particular plane has made this a futile effort. I thought I could spread out, but I have an arm rest basically across my boob. I do fit in one seat, the belt buckles just fine, but I always feel bad for the poor guy next to me. I would have attempted to upgrade to first class, but it was already full. See, if I upgrade, they get 2 seats and I only take up one. Maybe on the way home.

They fed us really well! A snack when we took off, followed by chicken or beef dinner with salad, dessert, etc. And breakfast a bit ago was an omelet and fruit and yogurt with oj, hash browns, a tomato. There is built-in on demand entertainment built into every seat. Movies, tv, games, etc. The lavs get pretty disgusting after this long though.

I’m not as tired as I thought I would be, even though it’s the middle of the night in LA. I did manage to get a little shut-eye (of course, I’m yawning as I type this).

I have about 30 postcards to send. I should get on that pretty much as soon as I get here. I have a feeling I will want a nap when I get to the hotel though. And I’m meeting Alicia from Spain at 6 at a Caffe Nero, down the street from the stage door to the theatre. Can’t wait to see “Private Lives” tonight at the Vaudeville!

I love being surround by other travelers from all sorts of different countries. Lots of Brits and Kiwis on board.

On my landing card for entry into the UK, as occupation, I listed musician and writer. ‘Cause that’s really what this trip is – research for the book. It made me wonder if at some point I will list yet another occupation. I’ve been cellist, teacher, actor, director, writer. I don’t think I’ll ever settle into just one of those. It takes all those things to keep my juices flowing.

Time to pack up for landing.

Busy bee

34 of my amazing students played/sang in our two recitals on Sunday.  The first featured 16 different piano players and came off quite well, which is commendable considering the kids were 13, 11 and all the rest 8 and under! The second recital was enjoyable, I'm told, but entirely too long (just shy of 2 hours) and I will be figuring out a way to combat that in the future.  There were 18 kids, but it was all instruments and switching between instruments takes a great deal of time, because each player requires a different setup. In the future I will probably have 3 recitals and put like instruments back to back, as boring as that makes it.  Anyway, I was slightly less pleased with the performers at the second recital, but overall, the day went very well.  I wish I had pictures. I never have time to take any, but there is a DVD on the way, and hopefully some people will forward some to me (hint-hint!)

This volcano in Iceland, which has sent an ash cloud all over Europe, almost put a damper on my trip to London. I was very worried for a few days, but now flights have recommenced and barring any further eruptions, I should be okay to depart on Monday at 4:30pm.  I would be beyond disappointed if I didn't get to go. Yes, I would get my money back on the flight and can cancel my hotel without penalty, and I would lose the theatre tickets unless I could sell them, but the play closes the night before I leave and I would not get to see it if I rescheduled for later.

I'm incredibly anxious to do my research in England about where Jack comes from, and incorporate it into the book, because it's the last thing I have to do in order to start looking for an agent/publisher. That activity will begin when I return from my trip.  I have started on the second book and am about 77 pages into the first edit (out of about 235 pages). But I am in a section of that book that takes place in England as well, so that will take shape after my trip.

When I get back from England, my mom will be staying at my apartment (she gets off her ship in Long Beach next week and will come to my place to stay for a bit before she goes home to MN) and she has a new, pretty serious boyfriend who I am anxious to meet!  It will be very good to see her, as this last cruise was "Around the World" and she can really only call us in US ports, and she wasn't in any, so I've only talked to her on the phone once since December.

On the 9th, I got to play in a studio orchestra at Capitol Records for the day, on a film score for "With Great Power", which is a documentary about Stan Lee (the guy who created Spider-Man). It was a 100 piece orchestra, and it was very exciting!  This is a pic from that day.

On Easter, I went to San Diego to visit my oldest friend Barbie Virkus Smith and her husband Ben and kids, Greta & Wyatt. I haven't seen them since the kids were 3 or 4 and they're now 8 and 7. We went swimming in Mission Beach when I got there, then went back to their hotel (Catamaran) and spent the afternoon poolside, then went out to dinner. While we were at the pool, the 7.2 earthquake that hit Mexicali that day shook us up for about 45 seconds. It was the strongest earthquake I've ever felt and they live in MN, so it was their first earthquake. Ben was particularly freaked out, because he was in the hotel room on the 9th floor when it hit. We could see the building moving back and forth. Anyway, it was a great day with dear old friends and gave us lots to talk about!  Greta & Wyatt are two of the nicest, best kids I've ever met!

I continue to swim at the Y every weekday. I like swimming very much, but it has done nothing at all for my weight. I weigh exactly the same as when I started, even with the increase in vegetables and cutting sugar out of my diet. I don't get it.  Maybe the pituitary tumor is back.  I have no way of knowing, since I will not be eligible for health insurance until 2014.

Time to go to work.