webcowgirl | Entries tagged with londinium

Ah, work. As usual coming back from vacation meant my motivation was gone and everything seemed more unreal than usual. As the work on the reorg continues, this is especially true; no one seems to have any motivation or focus, and God knows I've got no feedback on anything I've been doing for well over a month. My boss is gone for the next two weeks, and due to so many other people being on vacation, apparently I'm Big Man On Campus next week and get to go to the Very Very Big Meeting on Friday (I will wear my nicest suit even though it's casual day on Fridays; it's a good chance for me to raise my profile to upper management). I've been thinking about bringing my tiara to make sure people know I'm the queen next week; for a while on Friday I was wearing a bean bag frog on my head to get people (including me) used to the idea. I'm sure it created exactly the right impression.

I'm trying to live a slightly less mad life these days (i.e. now that summer is, basically, over) and as part of that I'm visiting

booklectic once a week. My thought is that I could go over, make dinner, and have a visit, ensuring she's got company on

dr_d's karate night and giving me a chance to hang out with someone I like (as with a new baby she's not exactly getting out a lot). This Thursday was my first go of that and it was really just very fun; it was fun to cook for a group again (

dr_d was actually there this time and apparently will get home in time to eat leftovers, so I will make sure to cook for three regularly). I have not been motivated to do much in the kitchen these several months, and that plus the visit with my friend(s actually) made for a really good evening.

Friday was see Scott Pilgrim night and I really enjoyed it. I went with someone I mostly only know off of Twitter; at the end of the night (after the Japanese dinner where we discovered a shared, hearty enthusiasm for ELO's Time album), as we parted at the platform for the Northern Line, he asked, "So what is your real name, then?" It was perfect as I didn't know his, either. Ah, social networking, so much potential and yet frequently so limiting. At least it got me someone to go see a movie with Friday and we did really have a good time.

Today was supposed to be Spend The Day With

wechsler day, but he decided to bail on Accomplice in favor of chill-out time. This means I saw it with someone I didn't know well, but she and I had a great time (review here). I liked the whole run-around-outside-treasure-hunt-mystery thing, and liked even more that it was set on the South Bank, which I visit a lot; each spot we stopped at will be a little special to me now.

Actually a funny thing is that we crossed places I'd been earlier in the day with W, first the Rabat Cocoa Estate shop (where we got caffeinated beverages and I was plied with chocolate numerous times while waiting for said beverages, you can bet I'll be back), then the Southwark Cathedral where we'd sat and ate our lunch after buying the ingredients for dinner. Returning there after we split up gave the day a somewhat circular kind of feeling. At any rate, when the show wrapped up, I headed home and gave a go to a recipe I'd seen in the New York Times two years back: Pisto Manchego, a veggie soup made of yellow and green summer squash (zukes/courgettes, I used pattypan squash), tomatoes, garlic and eggs (simmered in the sauce right before serving, you could skip them if you want and make it vegan). It was fab and just perfect with the solid whole-wheat bread W'd picked up at the market. It's hours later and I'm still full, too. Time possibly to move onto the new Sookie Stackhouse book

booklectic lent me: hard to believe I've had it for two whole days and not finished it already!

Well, I've been doing a poor job of seeing less shows this year, as I've actually seen ten more as of today than I had this time last year. Pathetic showing. I blame

wechsler, after all, if we were hanging out more I'd have less reason to be hiding out in a theater night after night. Worse yet, I could be at home surfing the web for Alice in Wonderland earrings. Totally need these like a hole in my head, but that's why I have two, right, to hang the earrings from. Hurry back from France,

wechsler, my impulse control is weak right now.

Eh. Well, I've been very social this weekend, going to see the all-male Pirates of Penzance not just with Amy (whom we'd just spent a week with in Italy) but also Chantal whom I'd met from Twitter and my old coworker Cate. Somehow it all wound up running long and we didn't get back home until midnight. That wasn't about the show, of course, it was all about the gossiping and catching up.

Saturday was rather a quick rush out the door after breakfast to make a 12:30 showing of Cinderella at the Royal Opera House (I've been writing it up tonight and just finished it.) It made me wish that PNB would take on a few shows from abroad: I'm sure the Seattle audiences would eat this up. I sure did.

Afterwards it was off to Bou Tea (just down the road from the ballet!) for another stab at their delicious tea menu, then off for a round of rarely possible Saturday afternoon shopping, which led to new jammies & undies (M&S), groceries (Tesco), bread (Paul), and contact lens solution (Superdrug). I know, almost too exciting for words, but it was great to have so many of these stores so close together, basically between the ROH and the tube, and to actually have them all OPEN.

Then home and a wonderful

dreamsewing came over for tacos. We fiddled and chatted and ate and (yay!) bought tickets to go to Madrid in June, then finally got off of our tails and went to Chez Blondes for further socializing. Somehow we stayed until almost midnight, then dragged ourselves back home for a rather too-late bedtime.

Morning and I was making French toast with yonder bread from Paul. M headed off after breakfast, while I got to work on cleaning house and self prior to yet another ballet engagement. J showed up with groceries while I was in the shower, and we then headed off to Bou Tea again, where we met

mabel_morgan, Amy (again) and her cousin (who'd house-sat for us and needed to return the keys, which I do really hope I put in my bag). Then we went to ENO to see Ballet Nacional de Cuba, which wasn't entirely rocking it for today's show, but we loved our dress circle seats (an unusual extravagance for me) and the second act really picked up.

Theatrical irritations of the weekend: 1) girl singing along with "Modern Major General" at Wilton's Music Hall 2) child singing along with the violin during a rather emotional selection from Swan Lake. Okay, awesome that the kid knew the music that well, but FOR CHRIST'S SAKE I could hear him from across the freaking hall STUFF A SOCK IN IT.

Home then and cooked Moroccan chicken with less success than my first go back at

wechsler's flat three years ago (what am I doing wrong?), but the leftovers will serve us well during the week. And now it's 10:30 and really time to go to bed. Should I bother reviewing the Ballet Nacional show? Probably not, as it's now over. Pilates tomorrow and bed VERY soon tonight.

This is the single worst day of the year to not have a car and be in London, one of the biggest cities in the world. Here's what TFL says when I ask them about transportation options:
CHRISTMAS DAY: Please note that there are no London Buses, London Underground, National Rail, DLR and Tramlink services on Christmas Day. Journey Planner may return the first available journey on Boxing Day or last available journey on Christmas Eve in such cases.

I liked it much better in New York when the transport services were fully up and running on Christmas day - what with the overtime pay and the multiplicity of religions, it's not like there was a shortage of people to do the work. Maybe the US is just a more secular place than England - who knows! I wonder if Mexico City and Paris are also completely shut down today?

Okay, time to get my company clothes on and walk over to Streatham ...

Today I spent my time inside a building in the cool old heart of London, being trained in the use of a content management system. It's knowledge I hope to not really have to use. As I was getting through the lessons pretty quickly, I was able to spend some time writing up my review of Forbidden Broadway, which I went to see on Tuesday with J and

booklectic and

wechsler. It was really just a grand time and I'd like to go back.

View from St Michael's Churchyard, while on my back in the gr... on Twitpic

After killing a bit more time at St. Michael's Churchyard (next to the site of the first coffee shop in London, a deliciously old part of town), I headed over to Waterloo and thence to Worcester Park, where

shadowdaddy and I enjoyed a meal made by

adjectivemarcus and then watched True Blood with him and

booklectic and

dr_d. It was a really good evening and we even made it back home before 11 PM. I want to watch some more of it soon; we only got to the middle of the second episode. But we had raspberry whirl ice cream with fresh, delicious strawberries so I thought it couldn't be seen as anything other than a great evening. This means I'm four for four this week; except for the sleep, things are definitely going well, though it's actually still running rather warm for London. Remember, there's no AC almost anywhere, even in most offices, people don't have it at home, and the tube gets up to 100 degrees and more - it was at least 95 on the Central line around noon on Monday and Tuesday, and when you're commuting for an hour it can get brutal.

This has been one of those great weeks where I get to really plunge deep into the offerings London has. In addition to the Royal Ballet (Monday), I got to see "dark cabaret" band The Tiger Lillies last night and then ultra-high culture viola da gamba player Jordi Savall tonight (swoon thank you lj user=wechsler> for getting the tickets and also for going with me). Meanwhile I've just put up the review for Wednesday night's thing, the first part of the cycle of new plays about Afghanistan the Tricycle theater is mounting. I liked it enough that I would go back and see the other two sets if the opportunity was available.

Meanwhile I'm mourning two other things that have slipped through my fingers. Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf at Trafalgar Studios managed to sell itself out three weeks ago (and nary a return has come up as far as I've known), while Punchdrunk's Tunnel 228 is totally booked out. I know half of you think I do too much, but what's frustrating to me is that I still just can't keep up with all of the great stuff that happens here.

Tomorrow: big plan is housecleaning for hours. Oh, and the patio set

wechsler got us as a housewarming present is shown up - with luck perhaps I can eat lunch outside!

I think this list of puntastic London shop names really captures a cultural difference between here in the states. In this case, it's one I very much enjoy.

Note also the link to "Part One," in case you find yourself enjoying this and want more.

My big goal for today was to do my French tutoring at Saint Albans - but when I showed up, not only was the other girl who pair-teaches my two kids there (last week was spring break so we were confused about who picked it up again), the entire class was gone on a field trip.

So off we tromped back to Lacon House, only instead of going back to work, I called

shadowdaddy back to meet me (in The Walks in Grey's Inn) to resume our walk. We decided to go to Lincoln's Inn Fields (shades of Charles Dickens!) and promenade. Sadly the crocii were all shut up due to the cool weather, but the swaggering wood pigeons were putting me in mind for a nice roast dinner. We finished up at Sainsbury's across from Holborn Station, where I discovered (joy!) the Castillo de Calatrava wine I'd enjoyed so much at

lovelybug's was not only the cheaper of the two options, but was still on sale AND fantastically priced at £3.99 (

wechsler and

shadowdaddy, we must stock up). Sadly, the store itself was out, but hopefully the one in Tooting will still have some.

Back to work I am, then, with a fresh bottle of spring water for my tea, and nothing at all pressing to do. I suppose I should use this time to learn how to do automation, though I don't really want to at all. I'm still in a pretty good mood from yesterday evening and don't want to spoil it with a sudden attack of feeling ignorant and incapable.

First, there's a three day event this weekend, "The Big Draw," taking place at the Wellcome Collection and other sites, that I'm pretty excited about.

The website says, "Drawing on Life' is a free interactive festival celebrating drawing and life, with leading artists and scientists, in a jam-packed programme of events and activities exploring what it means to be human."

Doesn't that sound like fun? I'm especially interested in "Paper Diseases: the Little Theatre of Disease and Desire presents a theatre of bodies, bones and operations; a stage on which diseases perform, where quack doctors and grave-robbers play the hero and bodies are excavated, dissected, investigated, formed and re-formed through drawings, animations and paper cut-outs." "Snails in Art, the Art of Snails and the Joy of Camouflage" and "Deadly Pretty Things" (aka draw your own flow-in-the-dark disease) also sound like fun.

I can really only go on Saturday due to plans on Sunday and, er, work on Friday. Does this sound interesting to anyone else?

Second, this quote from Proust is perfect for autumn: "The patches of white in beards hitherto entirely black rendered the human landscape of the party somewhat melancholy, like the first yellow leaves on the trees when one is still thinking one can count on a long summer, when before one has started to enjoy it one sees it has already turned to autumn." (Finding Time Again p. 235.)