London, Day 4
It’s Sunday afternoon and I’m sitting in the Bristol Train Station as I write this. My train leaves in a little under an hour to take Arune and myself back to London. Arune decided to go next door where the Bristol Comics Convention is being held to pick up one more thing and I’m sitting in the pub at the station typing this up, and sucking some juice from their outlet.
Well, I’ve got Friday to write-up, which shouldn’t take as long since we weren’t able to get quite as much done that day.
Friday morning we woke up and did our regular continental breakfast thing. Sleep has been easy here. Usually when I’m away I don’t sleep well, but since we’ve been running around like mad since we arrived my body needs the extra rest. Where it usually takes me 30 � 45 minutes to fall asleep, in London I’ve found that within minutes of putting my head on the pillow I’m out like a light. I also don’t wake up numerous times in the night. Only problem has been waking up early, by an hour or so. Apparently I’m not quite adjusted to the time change yet.
Arune and I have to hop on the tube at 1:00 to go to the most northern portion of London tube accesses to meet Mike Carey. He’s a comics writer who currently writes “Hellblazer” and “Lucifer” for DC Comics/Vertigo. So, our time is limited today. We’ve decided to make our way to the other side of the Thames to check out the New Globe Theatre and the Tate Modern museum if we have a chance.
The trip to the Globe is a bit confusing, but we make it. We’ve not been on this side of town at all and it’s much less touristy it seems that central London.
[Note: It’s still Sunday, but I’m now writing this while on the train to London.]
The New Globe Theatre is located about 200 meters from the original location of the Globe Theatre, which burned down hundreds of years ago. The New Globe was finished I believe in 1996 and it’s quite amazing. We arrived at 10:30 and purchased a tour ticket for 11:00. We killed time by checking out the exhibition that discussed the building of the New Globe.
The theatre is quite impressive, in the open and without many luxuries. It’s built to the original specs and is very faithful to the original plans. For instance, the beams that hold the theatre together are made of Oak and connected with wood rivets or whatever you would call them. They didn’t use nails on the original building, so they don’t use nails on the new one. The only modern changes made to the building is placing glass in the windows, adding fire protective coating on the thatch roof, a sprinkler system to kill a fire should there be one and some electricity to light the interior. Previously plays were held at 2:30 in the afternoon, but in modern times, with the availabile electrical current, they hold plays in the afternoon and at night.
The theatre is not supported by the government at all, so they make all their money off of tour fees (cost is 11 pounds for the tour) and ticket sales. The season at the New Globe has just begun and their first play is an all female production of “Richard III.” While there the troop was doing a technical rehearsal. Since the money the theatre makes off of tours is so critical, they never stop the tours and the actors have just gotten used to crowds coming in to check out the theatre. So, when we were taken inside the theatre we got to watch the actors work on various scenes. Unfortunately, since they were there, no pictures were allowed. That’s a shame, because the theatre is amazing looking. It’s an all-wood structure. It’s the circular design you’ve seen in pictures, with an open middle and seats in the round. The stage is intricately designed and painted. There are four columns that hold up the stage overhang made completely of oak. Each column is painted to look like marble. Tickets range from about 35 pounds to five. The five pound tickets are standing room only, in the center of the theatre. You can fit up to 600 people on the floor today, but in the 1600’s they’d try to fit as many as 1100. One of the nice things about standing room only is that you can mill about when you’re watching the play and you can even rest with your arms right up on the stage. The drawbacks to standing in the center are, well, the standing and the fact that if it rains, you get rained on. The show goes on rain or shine. No umbrellas are allowed, only hats or ponchos of some sort. The theatre will hand out plastic ponchos if you’ve not got anything. The term Groundlings is used to describe those who stand during the performances in this theatre. It was generally considered a bit of an insult, a term used for those who didn’t have money to afford their own seat.
After spending some time in the theatre, Arune and I decided that we’d need to come back and check it out some more. So, once the tour ended we made our way to the box office and purchased tickets for the 6:30 performance on Sunday night. I hope to get a chance to take some pictures of the inside before the play. Really looking forward to it, despite the fact it’s been 16 years since I read “Richard III” and can’t remember a single thing about it.
Once we finished at the Globe we had to head back to our hotel to acquire our bags and catch the tube to the High Barnett station off the Northern Line to meet with Mike. We caught our train at around 1:15, thinking 45 minutes would be plenty of time to get to High Barnett. Turns out the stops between stations as you get further into the suburbs are spaced much further from one another, so we showed up about 15 minutes late. Oh well! Mike met us there with Adrian Brown. Adrian has done some writing for two British comics magazines, “Borderline” (an online PDF magazine) and “Comics International.”
I have to admit I was really looking forward to the drive. Up to this point we had not yet been in a car in London. Sure, we’d been on a bus a couple of times, but being in a car is much different. You’re much more “in the shit.” Driving on the opposite side of the road with a right hand drive was just bizarre. Having the fast lane be on the far right with exits on the far left, well, it was a bit disorienting. One of the big surprises for me was learning they measure distance in miles. I was sure they’d use kilometers, but nope!
The drive was to take about 2.5 hours from London and the conversations were fascinating. Comics, politics, sports, you name it, it was discussed. Mike’s very politically active and very critical of Blair and Bush, so we had much to discuss. I have a far greater understanding of British politics now and of the general feelings the British people have towards Americans right now. What I’ve also learned is that the British people love Americans as a whole, but have massive ideological and political issues with our current administration. As a whole they have a great respect for former President Bill Clinton, considering him to be one of our greatest Presidents in a long time. As for their own Prime Minister, Tony Blair, approximately 2/3’s of the citizens dislike him and vehemently disagree with his decision to join with the Americans in the war on Iraq. Interestingly everyone I’ve spoken to believes Blair will be reeleteced easily considering the opposition is most unorganized and weak. Sounds similar to what we’ve got going on in the States.
Also on the drive Adrian filled me in on the sports situation in England. Yes, it’s all about football, or as we like to call it in the states, soccer. There are 12 different professional football teams in London alone and it’s not uncommon for the more rabid fans to hop on a train to catch their team up North. There are 90 teams total. Rugby is probably the second most popular sport and gaining in popularity. Baseball, Basketball, American Rules Football and Hockey are almost non-existent in the UK. I was also curious to learn whether American sports play well here. See, every year when we watch the Super Bowl in the States the broadcast team makes a big deal about how over a billion people world wide are watching the game. Adrian tells me that while the game is shown in the UK, the number of people who watch it is not all that great. One Billion people my ass. Or should I say arse. Nah, ass.
One of the very odd highlights of the trip for me was the brief drive through the town of Slough. While I understand Slough is really a shit town, it was a big moment for me. See, I’m a HUGE fan of the BBC show “The Office,” which takes place in Slough. I’m guessing Slough is to London what Bakersfiel is to Los Angeles. Mike and Adrian were very amused by my fascination with the town, so Adrian pulled out a map to show me where we were in Slough and where Sir David Brendt’s office was located. AHHHHHH! We were probably five minutes away! YES! Sure, maybe I’m easily amused, but this was great fun for me. The first season of “The Office” is still being shown on BBC America and the second season should start soon. The producers of the program opted to only do two series of “The Office,” hoping to end the show on a high note instead of letting it go on for too long and languishing, much like happened with the British version of “Men Behaving Badly.”
We arrived at Bristol and checked in and here is where my trip slows down considerably. There’s not a lot to do in Bristol. It’s a pretty town that apparently has a large college crowd and is quite cosmopolitan, but the part of town we were located in didn’t have much going on. That’s okay, I needed some downtime anyway.
So, Friday night we went to dinner with Mike and Adrian and a number of other British comic pros, most of whom I’d never heard of before. Went to a great restaurant called the Glasshouse. This restaurant had all glass walls, located on the river that runs through Bristol. The kitchen was actually located on a ship, docked right next to the glass building we ate in.
After dinner it was back to the Hotel and I decided to pack up the laptop and find an Internet Caf�. I asked at our hotel, they knew nothing, but over at the City Inn the staff knew where one was, but it was a good 10 minute walk away. OH WELL, time to start hiking.
Now, it’s 9:00 or so and it’s still light outside. Apparently this is the part of the year where it stays light the longest, but still! It’s 9:00 people! And the sun wasn’t ready to fully set for another 45 minutes or so. I guess being that far north makes your days a bit longer during this time of year. I made my way to the Internet Caf� only to learn they close at 9:00. OH well, back to the Hotel.
Got back there and Arune finished with the Gym while I logged in using a crap ass modem connection. It’s very expensive to call from the Hotel, so I spent little time online. Once we finished up in the room I realized I was hungry again, so the two of us decided to go for a walk to find a grocery that was open late. We asked at the front desk and they told us where to go, but when we got there it wasn’t open. Shitballs. I could feel I was getting hungrier and was actually starting to shake. We walked around for another half hour or so, trying to find anything, asking people along the way where to go. We got a number of suggestions, but everything was closing up. WHAT THE FUCK IS UP WITH THIS CRAP ASS TOWN? Having finally had enough I flagged down a cab and asked him to take us wherever I might be able to buy food of any sort. He took us to a gas station where I picked up an assortment of Pringles and Coca Cola. The meal of everyday champions! I chowed down on the Pringles like a cow infected with that mad disease on the walk back to the Hotel. It took me about 30 minutes to feel completely normal again, at which point I crashed. I was exhausted. Poor Arune had to put up with me through this. I just got very antsy and there was nothing I could do about it unless I got food.
That’s Friday, day four. Day five saw our trip to the comics convention, a lunch made up of lager and a very spicy, but very good Indian meal for dinner. More on that later.
