Tales of the beard 31

Marking the first appearance of the grand-dad hat! I've been trying on hats like this for years. Finally found that works for me.

The sun will come out….Today!!

Greetings families and mates! (I told you I would try using that phrase more. I’ve not been good about that up till now, but every commitment has a beginning right??) After two very satisfying days in London and its surrounding area, we had plans to head to Reading for the day, about a half hour’s train ride out of London central. Reading may seem like a very random stop on such a huge trip but it made our agenda because we had plans to meet good friends from our first Carnival contract there. Ross and Kylie are a super fun pair from Wales and Scotland, respectively, who danced a contract on the Paradise while we were there. Ross is now in the UK run of “Annie” and we had tickets to go see his late show that night. So Reading it was, but not before a (all together now…) WALK to our train station to get there. Honestly, I think our feet have given up protest and our now working with the rest of our bodies and not against them to help us achieve our never ending footed adventures. But with our ambitions to keep everything in backpacks that allow free hand and arm movement, our shoulders are starting their own line of complaints. It’s not without reason. Though we have managed to leave behind quite a bit on this trip, our backpacks are still heavy. They are still holding everything we’ve needed for these 6 weeks. So alas, walking always comes with some discomfort, but I really think we’ve done quite well and have avoided any serious injuries.

After our short ride, we made it through Reading town center to our hotel, which, much to our surprise, was a true hotel, the nicest of almost any we’ve had on this trip. Ironically, the place was 5-10 pounds cheaper than our previous 2 nights stay in London and probably 30 times nicer. I suppose that’s really a testament to London’s prices. So we were thrilled to be in the less demanding Reading for the night, awash in our huge bed with comfy duvets, a full on rain shower head and complementary breakfast and internet. I write this now from a train heading to Brussels, where I know the self-confessed hostel we are staying in will be nothing like that. So we enjoyed it as we could and took unnecessary showers before meeting up with Kylie. Ross had a matinee to be in, so we spent a couple hours catching up with her before the 4 of us ate in a restaurant, which has honestly been a fairly infrequent activity for us. Most of the time our trip has come down to either seeing this or eating that. We have mostly decided to see this, whatever this is. Food will come soon enough. The places we’ve seen will most certainly not.

After a delicious dinner we headed back to the theatre and enjoyed the two hour rendition of “Annie”, particularly Ross’ scenes and lines, which included a commendable attempt at an American accent. Before they had to set off to drive to Scotland through the night, we snagged a drink (Kris trying an apparently locally famous PIMMS) The night became late and sleep was short but sweet. Two trains today. One to London for our third and final time and an onwards train to Brussels, where my expectations are decidedly more earnest then Kris’s. This is my pilgrimage to take in the famous Belgian beers. Kris just wants to relax. Who could blame her?? More reports soon.

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At Wembley Stadium. If I look excited, well DUH!!

MUSE!!!

Clearly Muse, a personal favorite of both Kris and I’s, was going to be the highlight of the day. We had been waiting for this concert going on nearly 9 months now and had talked about our desire to see them play in their own backyard for years. Today we got to see the dream come true. Jiminy Cricket would be so proud. But before I give you the highlights, I’ll recap the rest of our day.

We allowed ourselves the chance to sleep in a little today. Sleep, on a trip like this, has definitely come in spurts. We take it where we can get it. After reading our confirmation email for the concert more closely (thank God we did!) we saw we needed to have the email printed out, so our first order of business was finding a place to print the email. 10 minutes walking we found our place. A pound and 20 pence later we were on the move again. We walked down to Covent Gardens and took in the shopping masses and street performers. We figured now would be as good a time as any, maybe our only time, to get our magnet and our “remember London” souvenir. We found both within an hour or so, as well as a new hat and scarf, for me and Kris respectively. We also made quick stops at Trafalgar’s and Piccadilly Circus. QUICK stops. It was getting later in the day and we had a decent train ride ahead of us to get to Wembley.

The train ride to Wembley was long and hot and rather amusing. You had lots of junior high/high school age kids getting on, clearly in their best “rock concert” outfits, intentionally trying to look unintentional in their dress. You also have the folks who wear the Muse t-shirts to the show, which in most concert circles, is a big no-no. I was not judging, but couldn’t help wondering if these people knew that or not. Really by the time you get to the stadium, they have t-shirt vendors everywhere and a lot of people throwing on their shirts. We both got one and Kris did put on hers, probably to keep warm as much as anything. We also noticed a significant increase in food sale prices getting closer to the arena, so after getting our tickets we headed back in to town to get much cheaper food, eating at a silly little place that I’m sure enjoyed concert nights for the quadruple amount of business they must get.

By the time we found our seats in the upper areas of the stadium, we got a chance to enjoy the band before the band before Muse. That being The Big Pink. They played a decent gig and gave way to Lily Allen, who was a lot of fun. A spunky British solo artist, she’s something of a Liz Phair/Pink type but with better music sensibilities and more enjoyable lyrics, in my mind. She finished by 8:15 and we were left with a half hour to wait for our band. You could feel the energy growing in the stadium, a gathering storm that would erupt as soon any indication of the start of Muse showed. And erupt it did! With the help of about 150 extras marching out with flags and the use of maybe 300 lights, sounds effects and props, Muse blasted right into the set with Uprising off their new album and did not stop until two and a half hours later with a glorious rendition of Knights of Cydonia. In between we enjoyed song after thrilling song, including Starlight (our recessional song at our wedding), Plug In Baby, Stockholm Syndrome, Super Massive Blackhole and even their latest, Neutron Star Collision. I think Tina and I spent the first half an hour or so with a permanent giddy smile on our face, like a kid at Disneyland for the first time. They really threw out a show for the ages, sparing no expense in the name of the performance, even including a Cirque de Sole-type dancer balancing from an enormous spaceship-esque blimp hovering above the crowd.

We spent the next 45 minutes after the show running and weaving like mad towards the train to try and get back to our stop by midnight, thinking we only had until then to exit the train on our day passes. As the minutes passed and our tension grew, we were given a permanent reprieve 10 minutes to midnight when a guy riding with us overheard our concerns and assured us we had until 4 in the morning to exit the underground. So the huffing and puffing was for not, but the relief of being able to get off the train without extra pay was more important. We made it back to the hotel, our voices shot, our bodies weary and our minds still racing from possibly the best live show we have ever seen.

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Thames! or Tims. Or whatever.

Jacked up for London! (Union Jacked that is…)

Thursday we completed our circle and arrived in London for the 2nd time. The train ride was smooth as a pickle, though we were surprised by the fairly thorough questioning by UK immigration patrol before the ride. About 15 questions or so proved that maybe relations between the US and UK weren’t quite what we thought they were. That or it’s just us, which is possible. We seem to be magnets for strange things, the both of us. Nevertheless, we arrived in London early and set our bearings on the hotel. Getting there early, we had hours to kill before we could check in. I set our course for the day’s events while Tina got a turn at the local Laundromat for our last load before home. We were able to check in by 1 and drop our stuff off.

Ok so our London hotel has some pretty goofy priorities. Hotel Langland, just north of Soho, it has the feel that you might expect from a local, cheaper hotel. But not all their services are even remotely on the same level. On the bad side, there were 3 bathrooms to share for about 20 rooms or so. We never had to deal with lines for them or anything, but being communal they got kind of gross and very unappealing. So with that in mind, it made for pretty small rooms with little sound-proofing. On the other hand, they offered free internet with decent speed and free breakfast that was actually pretty tasty. So, whatever, not a bad experience. Just a strange one.

After checking in and everything, we set out in London with the handy, dandy guide we got from Hans and Lisa (thanks guys!!) that gave a good experience for the day unlike the usual tourist one you might have. Making our way to east London we moseyed (always loved that word) down Brick Lane where the kids who try painfully hard to be hip sort themselves out. We got organic garlic bread, new shades for me, a couple café drinks, and sampled bagels from the battling bagel (beigel) stands two stores down from each other. It was a fun area. After that we rejoined the visiting masses to watch across the Tower Bridge, walk down the Thames riverwalk and get a chance to catch the London Eye (ferris wheel) and Big Ben/Parliament at sunset. This brings us to my favorite part of the day. The book we had gotten from the Robinsons contained a page talking about the oldest pub in London, Ye Olde Chesire Cheese. Apparently this place has been around for 300-400 years and is still running strong. Beyond their delicious food and drink options and reasonable prices, they dedicate themselves to maintaining the pub’s authentic feel, with little rooms, crannies and nooks everywhere you look. We settled on an arched spot close to old storage door in the cellar. It was clear this was a favorite spot for the after-work crowd but we felt like we had stumbled on a gem of a place, away from the lights of main thoroughfares and high prices. With bangers and mash and beer settling in my stomach and some tasty cider chicken in Kris’ we played some cards, taking our time to rest our, once again, weary feet before getting back “home”.

We were thankful to have gotten to take a bit of a different approach to London today. We still got good pics of the Tower Bridge, Big Ben, St. Paul’s and the Eye but also enjoyed places known only in some circles. We had both been to London in the past and didn’t feel the urgency to take in all the main spots. We’ll probably get in Trafalgar’s and Covent Gardens tomorrow before the concert but for today we’re happy to be locists. (tourist/locals)

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The lawn of Versailles. After about 20 shots trying to get the Palace behind me I finally asked Kris to take it.