Happy New Year!
Well, we made it to 2006. I can't believe 2005 went by so quickly! Amazing.
Friday afternoon we did go to the British Museum, but we were so exhausted and it was so rainy and gross outside, that we did a quick run-through of the money exhibit and the early greeks & romans, and then had to go sit down for a while. Dad came and found us and we all went to dinner at the Punjab (I knew we'd have Indian food at least once, and we just happened upon this place, between the Museum and Picadilly, where the theater was.) It was YUMMY. Top notch. And we're lucky we got there when we did - by the time we left, it was very crowded!
Phantom was wonderful. I am glad I finally saw it, and now I understand why Sarah Brightman became such a big deal when she appeared on the scene ... the vocal range of the soprano part is in the upper stratosphere! I might have to get the original soundtrack. And the theater was absolutely beautiful (Her Majesty's). There were a few points when the orchestra was louder than the singers, but overall I really liked it. Even dad walked out and whistled the "Music of the Night" all the way home.
Saturday morning we had to go to Portobello Road market, to check out the antiques. I hadn't been there in a few years. At least it wasn't raining... the weather has finally started to improve. The influx of eastern Europeans, particularly Russians and folks from the former Soviet Republics, is amazing. They're everywhere. You hear more Russian than English spoken at the markets across the city. Dad found some nice stuff, and I got a penguin pin by Lea Stein (I get the feeling my mom is going to start me a penguin collection because of the whole DreamWorks thing we did at work last year...). Lea Stein pins are gorgeous, they have a bunch of them on eBay. I might start collecting those instead -- just what I need, another collection! ;)
From there, we took the bus across town to Waterloo. While the tube is faster, the bus is nice (especially the upstairs on the double-deckers) because you get to see what's above ground. From Waterloo station, it was a short walk to the Old Vic theater [Artistic Director - Kevin Spacey], where we saw the last 'panto' on Mom & Dad's schedule, "Aladdin" with Sir Ian McKellen. I bought the program for this one. :) It was rated the #2 pantomime of the season.
Apparently a key feature of the panto's every year is a man in drag. In this case, Ian McKellen played Aladdin's mom, the Widow Twanky. (The story is a wee bit different from Disney's Aladdin, but it still involves the cave of wonders, the lamp and the bad guy engaged to be married to the princess that Aladdin loves -- although her name is not Jasmine.) But panto's are something that we don't get much in the States - they're all about audience participation. When the bad guy comes out on stage, everybody boos and hisses. The actors would be looking for something and the audience would yell, "it's behind you!" and stuff like that. The jokes are very topical (they don't like Prez. Bush much over here either!) and scatalogical. It was a blast! But by far the most amazing thing was... Ian McKellens LEGS! He has GREAT legs! You should have seen him singing and dancing around in the little short skirts and glamorous gowns. Too funny. They even did a joke about "the Ring" that sent him off into a Gandalf moment.
They do fireworks in London for New Year's, but we weren't sure what tube stations would be open, and it was going to be super-crowded, so we stopped for a drink at the Firehouse pub next to the theater, and then went back up to Fitchley Road and had Chinese food. Also very good (although we were definitely hungry later!) :) Someone across the street was shooting off (very expensive) fireworks, so we got to see those from our front door -- but they were a little early, around 10pm. We watched the London countdown and fireworks on the big flat-screen tv... they were shooting fireworks off from the London Eye - it was really incredible. It was both a New Year's celebration and a "we got the 2012 Olympics" celebration. They showed the fireworks display from Sydney - I'm sure Bryan got to watch from a good spot - so we decided to call him... after all, it was already almost 11am there. Turns out he hadn't gone to bed til 6am, so he was a little groggy on the phone. poor kid. ;)
Friday afternoon we did go to the British Museum, but we were so exhausted and it was so rainy and gross outside, that we did a quick run-through of the money exhibit and the early greeks & romans, and then had to go sit down for a while. Dad came and found us and we all went to dinner at the Punjab (I knew we'd have Indian food at least once, and we just happened upon this place, between the Museum and Picadilly, where the theater was.) It was YUMMY. Top notch. And we're lucky we got there when we did - by the time we left, it was very crowded!
Phantom was wonderful. I am glad I finally saw it, and now I understand why Sarah Brightman became such a big deal when she appeared on the scene ... the vocal range of the soprano part is in the upper stratosphere! I might have to get the original soundtrack. And the theater was absolutely beautiful (Her Majesty's). There were a few points when the orchestra was louder than the singers, but overall I really liked it. Even dad walked out and whistled the "Music of the Night" all the way home.
Saturday morning we had to go to Portobello Road market, to check out the antiques. I hadn't been there in a few years. At least it wasn't raining... the weather has finally started to improve. The influx of eastern Europeans, particularly Russians and folks from the former Soviet Republics, is amazing. They're everywhere. You hear more Russian than English spoken at the markets across the city. Dad found some nice stuff, and I got a penguin pin by Lea Stein (I get the feeling my mom is going to start me a penguin collection because of the whole DreamWorks thing we did at work last year...). Lea Stein pins are gorgeous, they have a bunch of them on eBay. I might start collecting those instead -- just what I need, another collection! ;)
From there, we took the bus across town to Waterloo. While the tube is faster, the bus is nice (especially the upstairs on the double-deckers) because you get to see what's above ground. From Waterloo station, it was a short walk to the Old Vic theater [Artistic Director - Kevin Spacey], where we saw the last 'panto' on Mom & Dad's schedule, "Aladdin" with Sir Ian McKellen. I bought the program for this one. :) It was rated the #2 pantomime of the season.
Apparently a key feature of the panto's every year is a man in drag. In this case, Ian McKellen played Aladdin's mom, the Widow Twanky. (The story is a wee bit different from Disney's Aladdin, but it still involves the cave of wonders, the lamp and the bad guy engaged to be married to the princess that Aladdin loves -- although her name is not Jasmine.) But panto's are something that we don't get much in the States - they're all about audience participation. When the bad guy comes out on stage, everybody boos and hisses. The actors would be looking for something and the audience would yell, "it's behind you!" and stuff like that. The jokes are very topical (they don't like Prez. Bush much over here either!) and scatalogical. It was a blast! But by far the most amazing thing was... Ian McKellens LEGS! He has GREAT legs! You should have seen him singing and dancing around in the little short skirts and glamorous gowns. Too funny. They even did a joke about "the Ring" that sent him off into a Gandalf moment.
They do fireworks in London for New Year's, but we weren't sure what tube stations would be open, and it was going to be super-crowded, so we stopped for a drink at the Firehouse pub next to the theater, and then went back up to Fitchley Road and had Chinese food. Also very good (although we were definitely hungry later!) :) Someone across the street was shooting off (very expensive) fireworks, so we got to see those from our front door -- but they were a little early, around 10pm. We watched the London countdown and fireworks on the big flat-screen tv... they were shooting fireworks off from the London Eye - it was really incredible. It was both a New Year's celebration and a "we got the 2012 Olympics" celebration. They showed the fireworks display from Sydney - I'm sure Bryan got to watch from a good spot - so we decided to call him... after all, it was already almost 11am there. Turns out he hadn't gone to bed til 6am, so he was a little groggy on the phone. poor kid. ;)
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