The Occasional Blog of Jonah Weiland

Finally I’m getting around to finishing up this journal. It’s Friday May 29th and I’ve been home for four days nursing a rather nasty sinus infection that’s turned into an ear infection in my right ear. Nasonex and Augmentin (that’s the anti-biotic) has been my diet. Good news is that the infection hasn’t broken through the ear drum like it did two years ago. At any rate, onto finishing up the journal.

Day six in England occurred on Sunday. Arune and I woke up early to have our breakfast and make our way over to the Bristol/Temple/Meads Train Station. We purchased an 11:10 ticket for London that would get us into town around 1:00 or so. I hung out in the pub for a while, typing stuff up on the lap top with a pint by my side (yes, at 10:30 in the morning I was drinking beer) while Arune tried to go back to the convention for a while to pick up some stuff.

I’ve always loved traveling by train. If you’ve never done it you should try it at least once. It’s very relaxing and easy to do. You hop on, find a seat, and watch the country side fly by. Taking the train from Bristol to London gave me an entirely new perspective of the United Kingdom. The countryside is absolutely gorgeous and incredibly green. At one point I took notice of just how many shades of green there were. Hell, even the weeds are green over there! In Los Angeles you have the option of green, tan (mostly dead grass) or brown (completely dead grass). Absolutely gorgeous country side. I spent some of the train ride writing up stuff on the lap top, the rest listening to the iPod watching the country side go by. At one point I handed the iPod over to Arune to let him listen to what might possibly be the greatest song of all time, Tenacious D’s “Fuck Her Gently.” He enjoyed it.

We arrived at Paddington Station, headed over to the Underground to jump on the Circle Line back to Gloucester Road to drop our backs off at our Hotel. Once we got situated, we made our way back to the Underground and headed over to Camden Town. Camden has a lot of shopping and is also home to the Camden Marketplace. The best way I can describe it is by referencing shopping areas in Los Angeles. Take the Venice Beach area shopping and add the shops along Melrose and multiply it by five and you’ve got Camden. Loads of clothing merchants, touristy crap, club clothes, drug paraphanelia sellers and much more. Really cool place and I probably would have bought tons of clothing if I had the time, money and if it weren’t so hot. Arune and I walked around there for two hours. All I ended up buying was a techno CD and some hemp pants (again with the hemp!). There was a very nice hemp clothing store there and considering how hard it is to find hemp clothing in the states (I know of only two stores in all of Los Angeles, only one of which has men’s clothing) I felt I needed to get something.

After we were done with Camden it was time to head over to the Globe. We took the Underground to the Mansion House exit, crossed over to the other side of the Thames via the Millenium Bridge and arrived at Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre. I spoke about the Globe Theatre in my Day 4 journal entry so I’ll skip over the description of the theatre. We arrived pretty early, so we ate at the adjoining café before the play. Once we were done we picked up cushions for our seats (the seating is wood benches and the cushions are a must for a £1 fee) and also bought some snacks. The Globe doesn’t offer you the typical candy as snack food, rather chocolate covered fruits, dried fruits or a selection of nuts. I picked up some dried fruit and a bottle of sparkling water, Arune got himself some nuts and regular water. We made our way to our seats for the all female performance of “Richard III.”

I mentioned earlier when I gave my review of “Dance of Death” how I don’t feel I’m good at reviewing things. It takes a certain flair and over use of adjectives to effectively communicate your feelings about your subject. It also helps if you’re some sort of an expert on what your reviewing. Now, I’m not theatre expert and my use of adjectives is generally limited to “that’s a bitchen’ thing.” But once again, I’ll do my best.

To start with I was skeptical of this performance. “Richard III” is a mostly male cast, so an all female production had me a bit worried. That being said, I had faith that this theatre company wouldn’t intentionally put on a bad performance. My faith was well founded. This was easily one of the finest theatre performances I’ve ever attended. Funny, emotional, dramatic and faithful to the original text. The woman who played the part of King Richard, played by Kathryn Hunter, was absolutely astounding. Simply amazing performance. So much so that by the end of the play I was brought close to tears. I’m not one who is prone to such dramatics, so this was quite a feat.

Now, the performance was enhanced dramatically by the use of the theatre. As I explained in my previous description of the theatre, the center portion of the theatre is standing room only. Upwards of 600 people can stand and watch the play for the small sum of £5 (about $8 US). They can walk around during the play, lean up against the stage, whatever. The only thing they can’t do is sit down. Throughout the play the company will use this area filled by the Groundlings. Towards the beginning of the play there’s a funeral processions that starts in the audience and makes its way to the stage. At another point, when Richard is being crowned King, the Bishop gives his lines from within the audience. It’s fascinating to watch the audience very respectfully move out of the way of the actors. It’s like Charleston Heston parting the Red Sea! Plus, the actors often will interact with members of the audience, as is called upon by Shakespeare. There is no curtain that the actors can’t cross, the entire theatre is there for them to use. Equally impressive was how easy it was to hear the actors without any electronic amplification.

For me the most amusing moment of the play was when it began to rain. Instantly the Groundlings came to life, reaching for their jackets, pulling their hoods over the heads or rushing outside to rent a plastic parka. While a bit of a distraction, it didn’t detract at all from the performance. It was an added little bonus.

Finally, as the performance came to an end and the audience was very rightfully going wild, something interesting happened. See, “Richard III” is very much a tragedy and Shakespeare hated his audiences going home depressed. So, in his day he would end his play and the troupe would exit the stage, but when they returned instead of first taking a bow, they would engage in a rather complex dance. Staying true to the presentation style of the 1600s Globe, they did the same thing on Sunday night. The entire troupe returned and engaged in what can only be described as a very jolly and fun Irish Jig/Stomp type performance. The musicians played a lively set and the actors danced along and the entire place clapped in time with the music! It sounds corny to say, but it really was quite magical.

I don’t feel I’ve really done the performance justice with the above, but if you should find yourself in London, take in a performance at Shakespeare’s Globe. It’s not expensive and most certainly worth your time.

Once the performance ended Arune and I walked back over the Millenium Bridge, got on the Underground and went back to the Hotel. I spent the rest of the evening at the Internet Café across the street and got back to the room sometime around midnight.

Monday my flight time was 3:00 in the afternoon, which meant I should arrive at Heathrow Airport around Noon, so there was no time for sight seeing. I simply had breakfast, spent an hour at the Internet Café, saw Arune off and made my own way to the Airport via the Underground. Heathrow security was much less hectic and more organized than at LAX. Once through the security check points they drop you off in this massive duty free area. There’s a small and very impressive mall inside Heathrow! I did some last minute shopping, enjoyed a small lunch and boarded my Virgin Atlantic flight back home.

Before I wrap this up I must sing the praises of Virgin Atlantic. I’ve been told by numerous people that the only way to fly coach to Europe is via Virgin Atlantic. While I have no other recent experiences flying to Europe to compare mine to, I thing I can say with confidence I’d agree with them. Virgin Atlantic is phenomenal. While on other airlines you’ll end up paying for your alcoholic beverages, not on Virgin! That’s good thing #1!!! In addition, they really take care of you by providing you with a care package that includes a tooth brush, tooth paste, comfy socks, a night mask, ear plugs, a pad of paper and a pen. The night mask and ear plugs come in real handy if you want to attempt sleep. Plus, every passenger is given their own pillow and blanket. Not like on other airlines where you have to fight to get one, on Virgin it’s sitting in your chair when you get on the flight.

Easily the coolest part of the flight has to be the personal view screens. Sure, this is a popular feature on most airlines now, but I’ve never seen a system quite as complex as this one. The one on my flight home featured a TiVo like system which allowed you to start and stop your movie as you pleased. You could pause, fast forward or rewind as you were watching. They gave you a choice of 75+ different movies, 50+ different television programs from both the US and Britain, various information channels about tourist destinations, a view screen that showed you precisely where your plane was in the world, its air speed and current altitude. In addition, you could place phone calls from your seat (which is way to expensive naturally) or you could text message a mobile phone in the U.S. or Europe. This came in real handy since I needed to send my pick-up at LAX a message about when to meet me, so I slip my credit card into my remote control and for $2 I messaged Emiliano from the plane. Sure, $2 is expensive for a text message, but it proved an invaluable feature for me.

On the flight home I watched the Spike Lee film “25th Hour.” Not his best movie, but I enjoyed it. Ed Norton’s always good. Then I watched a recent episode of “Friends.” THEN I discovered something that brought overwhelming joy to my life! You all know of my love for the BBC program “The Office.” So far only the first out of two series have been shown in America and the second series doesn’t appear to be coming to BBC America anytime soon. Offered as part of Virgin Atlantic’s inflight entertainment were two episodes of series two of “The Office!” HOG HEAVEN, BABY! I watched both episodes and watched one of the two twice it was so good. I thought the first series was insane, but in the second David Brendt is even more mad! I can’t wait for the second series to come out on DVD in Britain this October. Once it does I’ll be purchasing it and viewing it on my new multi-region DVD player.

With all those options at your fingertips it really helps your flight go by quickly. Couple that with discussions with the British couple next to me and the flight just whizzed by.

We landed in Los Angeles an hour early, at 5:30 PM local time. I thought crap, I’ll be waiting here forever for Emiliano who was supposed to pick me up at 6:30! I called him and he said he’d be right over, but it didn’t matter really as customs in Los Angeles was a long and laborious process. Nothing bad happened, but it took fourty-five minutes to get through and was, once again, not all that well organized. British customs was a well-oiled machine in comparison.

So that’s it. Finally I’ve finished with my journal. In the next day or two I’ll share some quick impressions gleaned from my trip to London. I’ll also finish putting up captions for all the images in the gallery I’m about half way done right now.

I hope someone out there found this enjoyable. I did this mainly so that I wouldn’t forget anything on my trip, so I hope it wasn’t too boring. I really do need to go back through it and correct all the various spelling and grammatical mistakes that I’m sure exist.

Thanks for reading.

It’s Wednesday very early morning as I write this wrap-up of Day 5 events. I arrived home on Monday evening very lagged and very sick. I spent most of Tuesday recovering and my sleep is way off. Plus I’ve got a blooming sinus infection. Oh well. Here’s what took place on Saturday.

Saturday was probably the least exciting day of the trip. The day started with breakfast, followed by a trip to the train station (a five minute walk) to figure out what our plan would have to be for Sunday to get back to London. We got the travel times and made our way over to the Bristol Comics Festival, which is right next door.

This comic show is very unique. It’s the largest of its kind currently in the United Kingdom, but even then it’s pretty small. Maybe 2000 attendees throughout the weekend compared to the 50,000 + crowds that attend Comic-Con International in San Diego. In the States we have numerous conventions the size of the Bristol convention, but none of them attract the caliber of talent that the Bristol convention does. A very impressive number of major talent and company brass were in attendance at this show.

I walked around the show a bit with Arune, talking with different creators. As many creators in comics as I am familiar with, I know very little about the British comics scene so there were a number of creators whose work I’d never heard of before. Comics like “2000 A.D.,� a weekly comic in the U.K. with a monthly distribution of over 100,000 copies, gets very little to no play in the states, but it’s big time in the United Kingdom. Many creators who contribute to that were in attendance. Adrian recommended I meet the “Louis� creators who go by the combined name of Metaphrog. Spoke with them for a while and bought two of their books. Very nice stuff. Also ran into Adrian and he gave me a copy of the British comics magazine “Viz.� Essentially it’s “Mad Magazine� on speed, with a coke chaser. Insanely funny, outrageously rude and completely over the top. I loved every minute of it. Big thanks to Adrian for picking it up for me.

At 11:30 it was time for Rich Johnston to do the live version of his column at CBR as a panel called “Live-ing In The Gutters.� The panel was extremely well attended and Rich did an excellent job entertaining the masses with rumors and news, some of which not entirely fit to print! Well done.

After Rich was done I headed over to the train station to enjoy a lunch of lager and chips (fries for those of us in the states). After two pints and a half a stray of chips, I was quite satisfied! It was weird enjoying beer for lunch, something I never do, but man, that was a good lunch!!! After lunch I headed back to the show to walk around a bit more, then at 2:30 I bugged out, having done everything I needed to do.

Once back at the hotel I decided I needed to spend some time at the local Internet Café. I loaded up my gear and made the 10 minute walk. When I arrived I tried to make arrangements to use my lap top at their location. The supervisor on duty said, “Well, it’ll be a couple of hours before you can use your lap top because you have to use a specific station and that one is being used right now.� Made absolutely no sense, I could have used a connection anywhere inside the café, but it was clear the guy had no idea what he was talking about. I didn’t want to wait any longer, nor did I want to argue with the shlub, so I just used one of their stations and did my best to get my work done. I spent about 3 hours there checking e-mail and making sure things were running smoothly. The place was packed the entire time with students. Around 5:00 Arune made his way over, spent some time on-line, then we both decided it was time to leave. Before we made our way back to the hotel I decided to take us on a detour and found a pretty cool little flea market. Lots of cool stuff, both new and old. Lots of counter-culture items, clothing, etc. I picked up a shirt and a new shoulder bag made entirely of hemp! This thing kicks ass. Nice bag, very strong. Great thing about hemp product is that it’s stronger than cotton, more durable, and is far less destructive to the environment during the manufacturing process. Once we were done there we made our way back to the hotel.

I decided to rest at the hotel while Arune went back to the show to pick up some stuff. While he was out I went on a short walk to take some pictures of a gorgeous, albeit bombed-out, church down the street. You can see pictures of the church, as well as images from the convention, in the day four section of my England pictures in the Gallery.

That night Arune and I had Indian food with writer Andy Diggle and artists Jock and Frazier Irving, who brought along his girlfriend Maya. I was surprised to learn that Frazier had moved to Croatia a few months ago and he told me a lot about where he lived. Sounded fascinating and I’d now love to visit some day. The way he described it made it sound so beautiful and untouched by tourism. The rest of the meal was incredibly fun, getting a perspective of England from Jock and Andy, talking politics, television, etc. … “Six Feet Under� is huge in England right now. They’re only in the second season, but they’re loving it. Andy was also a big fan of “24� and we bonded a bit about that show.

Once dinner arrived Arune had little to say due to the fact that he ordered his food extra hot. They weren’t fucking around at this establishment. I tasted a bit of his food and for the next twenty minutes my sinuses were raging and I had a thin layer of sweat all over my body. Throughout dinner Arune was glistening with sweat, determined to eat the whole damn thing. Watching him take a bit and try to recover amused us all to no end.

That night went back to the hotel and hung out in the bar at the Holiday Inn for a while, where I spent some time talking with Rich, Mike Carey and Avatar Press publisher William Christensen. Then around Midnight I headed up to bed.

See, I told you not a very exciting day? Overall a good day, but nothing very exciting.

Sunday saw our train ride back to London, a visit to the Camden Marketplace and a play at the New Globe Theatre. More soon.

I have a sinus headache.

All the pictures from Day 2 are now in the Gallery as are Day 3 photos. Enjoy! Don’t view while naked.

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.

I’m actually writing my wrap-up of Day 3 events, stuff done on Thursday, Saturday afternoon in an Internet Cafe’ in Bristol, England. Thursday night was hectic and Friday was even more, so keeping up was impossible. Trying to keep a log while traveling is hard, but I’m determined to keep these memories alive for myself by having a record of them. So, without any further delay, here’s a run down of Thursday’s events.

• Started out the day with the typical Continental Breakfast at the Kensington Rooms. Fruit, pastries, cereal (corn or wheat flakes), yogurt, toast (it’s actually just bread) and jam, tea. I’ve never been much of a breakfast eater, but I’ve found I really like this set-up. May have to adopt this once I get back to the states.

• First thing we did was hop on the tube to Trafalgar Square. Arune and I got confused and thought Trafalgar Square was where we were to go to pick up discount theater tickets. WRONG! Lescter Square. No problems, Trafalgar Square worked nicely. We checked out Nelson’s Column, then made our way over towards the Houses of Parliament and Westminster Abbey by walking a bit, then hopping on a bus once I realized the walk would be longer that I liked. Arrived at Parliament and checked out Big Ben. Pretty impressive standing there. Reminds me of the feeling I had the first time I saw the Capitol Building in Washington D.C. back in 2000 (pictures from that trip can be found here).

  Directly across from Parliament is Westminster Abbey. Gorgeous. Simply gorgeous cathedral. I’ve seen some of the finest in the world and this ranks up there. I’ve visited the Vatican, seen the Cathedrals in Venice and Florence, saw the National Cathedral in 2002. Westminster Abbey ranks right up there. Unfortunately no photos were allowed while inside Westminster, but I took plenty of the outside. The Internet Cafe I’m at now won’t allow me to plug in my laptop (LAME) so I can’t upload pictures now, but when I get back to London on Sunday I’ll try to upload more photos to the Gallery.

• After we were done there, Arune and I made our way to Lecster Square to pick up those theatre tickets. Rich Johnston had recommended either “Jerry Springer: The Musical” or “Dance of Death” starring Ian McKellan. Once we arrived in Lecster Square we found the right ticket agent (there are numerous rip offs. If you visit you want to go to The Original Discount Ticket Broker” or something along those lines.) and opted for tickets to “Dance of Death.” More on that a bit later.
• Once we had our tickets we decided to take in a movie. We both had been running around like mad and needed a break, so we took in “The Matrix Reloaded” and the Warner Village Theatre in Lecster Square. Nice theatre that apparently is owned by Warner Bros. and Village Roadshow Production, the two companies conveniently behind “The Matrix Reloaded.” Nice theatre. I escaped to do my thing in the bathroom during the annoying Zion scenes, and slept through the other boring bits, but saw all the good stuff again so I really enjoyed this showing! The movie needed a good edit and I was able to give it one.
• The movie ended and we made our way to the Tower of London and the Tower Bridge. The Tower Bridge is that very familiar bridge you see whenever scenes of London are shown in movies or on the television. Pretty cool being there. We decided not to take of Tower of London tour as we didn’t really have the time. The play was at 8:00 and it was already 5:30 and we needed food, bad.
• Took the train back to Kensington, changed and had a great meal at an Indian Restaurant that got great reviews down the street. I’ve tasted Indian Food many times before and it can range from very good to just right plan bad. Bad Indian food suffers from over spicing and soggy meats. This place was quite phenomenal.
• After Dinner it was back to the Lescter Square area. We got off at Picadilly Circus, it’s at the far end of Lecster Square. Picadilly Circus is another very famous area of London, with the huge digital advertising billboards you’ve seen often. Made our way to the Lyric Theatre to see “Dance of Death” and found ourselves in the middle of what could only be described as a red light district. Clearly I had made a wrong turn! Arune and I didn’t have time to enjoy the craziness as we were running late, so we asked some folks directions and got to the theatre on time.

  Now, asking for directions of anyone in London is a nightmare. See, street signs are a rare occurrece in London and when they do exist, they’re even harder to find. So, when someone gives you directions it goes something like this:
  

  “Go up that away, take a left at the first street, then take your second right. Go up and take a left at the You’re A Pissed Face Jackass Pub, four blocks up on your right is the Place You Get Shit Fucked At Tavern, where you’ll turn left, go past the shops and up the way, then when you see the She’s An Ugly Bitch Pub and Tavern you’ve arrived.”

  Sometimes it’s better just to wander around and hope for the best.

• “Dance of Death” was playing at the Lyric Theatre, which is one of the original theatre’s in the theatre district in London. Very old and very classic and very nice. This is how theatre houses should be. The play itself was fantastic, but sadly during the first half I was right exhausted. So much so, that I fell asleep for about a minute at one point. During intermission I got myself a Red Bull which kept me wide awake through the second half, where the play really picked up.

  “Dance of Death” is essentially about a very sad, very evil couple celebrating their 25th anniversary together. Their cruelty towards one another is astounding. Ian McKellan played the husband and wow, was he utterly fantastic. All the actors gave phenomenal performances. If you’re interested in learning more about the play, there’s a nice review here from the BBC.

After the play it was back to the hotel where I fell asleep immediately. See, I’m the kind of person who usually needs complete darkness and total silence to get to sleep. Arune was watching the end of the Matrix on Channel 4 in our room, which was being followed by the TV showing of “The Last Voyage of the Osiris” or whatever that “Animatrix” short is called. With all that stimuli going on, plus the window to our room being open letting in the noise from the street below, I still fell asleep immediately. This is rare. Clearly my body was telling me “Sleep shitball.” I did.

That’s it for Thursday. Hopefully I’ll be able to upload some more photos before I come home and will have a chance to write up Friday and Saturday.

I’m finding that the more I get into this trip the less time I have to put into the Journal here, so I’ve been keeping a shorter journal just to remind myself what I did do so that when I have the time, maybe on the flight home, I can write it up in more detail. Here’s a run down of how we finished Day 2.

* Rich pointed out during lunch that the population of London varies dramatically. While there may be 3 Million permanent residents, tourism and schooling is so huge here that there may be another 3 Million non-permanent residents here to check the city out, or to get an education. No wonder why on every cross walk are printed instructions to Look Left or Look Right when crossing the street. Believe me, it’s handy at times. Only once so far have I almost been run over by a cab.

* Went to the Virgin Megastore on Oxford Street. Pretty much the same as in the states, just a totally different selection. Picked up a techno collection CD and also the first season of “The Office” on DVD. Looks like I’ll be needing to purchase a multi-region DVD player.

* Visited Forbidden Planet and Gosh Comics in London. Forbidden Planet is the local chain comic shop, with many, many locations. Nice store, but Gosh Comics, while smaller, had a much more impressive selection of Graphic Novels. Nice place, and conveniently located across from the British Museum.

* Went to the British Museum. Checked out history from around the world, including the Rosetta Stone.

* That night Arune and I enjoyed an incredible Indian meal at a restaurant right down the street from our Hotel (which for those of you who know London, we’re down the street from the Gloucester Road exit on the Picadilly Line). Arune being Indian knows Indian food and said this was of a great quality. Local critics praise this place.

* That night we made our way to Lecster Square to check things out there. This is a main locals and tourist destination in London filled with movie theaters, clubs, live theaters, restaurants, casino’s, etc … it’s got everything. Also this night was the UK Premier of “The Matrix Reloaded” and apparently all the stars came out to the Odeon Theatre in Lescter Square and we just missed them, but a large crowd was still there, waiting to see them come out. We walked all over Lescter Square, stopped in a pub for a pint, then headed home around 11:30.

* Observation: London is a city full of sirens. About once an hour you’ll here one.

That pretty much wraps up Day 1. I’ll come back later for more from Day 2 in which we saw the Houses of Parliament, Nelsons Column, Big Ben, Westminster Abbey, the London Tower and the London Bridge. Plus, Arune and I took in a play, seeing “Dance of Death” starring Sir Ian McKellan (Magneto in “X-Men” and Gandalf in “The Lord of the Rings”).

To sum up Day 2, or my first full day in London, I saw the Queen. Seriously. More on that later.

Wednesday began with a trip down into the subbasemenet of the Hotel for our complimentary Continental breakfast. Pastries, croissants, yogurt, fruit, cerea, toast.. Pretty much the most boring breakfast you can have. And I LOVE IT! First weird surprise for me was that Toast is not toasted. It’s just fresh bread. It hasn’t been put in the oven to crisp, it’s just straight bread. Ooooookay!

After breakfast Arune and I hopped on a city bus (they’re almost all double decker here which gives you a wonderful vantage point on the city) and took it down to Hyde Park. On the way there we passed Harrods of London which is indeed massive. The weather early on in the day was nice. A bit chilly, but no rain.

The ride to Hyde Park revealed just how bad the congestion is in London. People in the states love to talk about the traffic in Los Angeles. Okay, I can tell you first hand that the traffic in Los Angeles is bullshit compared to London. It’s terribly congested with way too many cars, cabs and busses on extremely small roads. I find it surprising that I’ve yet to see a single accident take place considering how close these cars get to one another. Clearly they know how to drive here.

We arrived at Hyde Park and took a look around. While we were there this large procession of Royal Guards of some sort came riding buy on horse back. Included amongst them was a band playing, well, music. We had no idea what this was all for, but enjoyed the view as they passed by. Check out the Gallery for pictures.

We stuck around Hyde Park for a short while and then made our way to Buckingham Palace, on the way checking out some sights. I can’t recall the names of the monuments off the top of my head, but once I get back to Los Angeles I’ll look up the names and add them to the Gallery.

We arrived at Buckingham Palace which is a pretty damn expansive and amazing place. The crowds outside began to gather for the Changing of the Guard at 11:30, which was an hour away. Arune and I hung out, found a spot to camp in and just hung out, talking with the tourists and checking out the weirdos. Then, at about five till 11 something very unexpected happened. The main gates to the palace opened and out rode a number of police on motorcycle, followed by Royal Guard on Horseback, then a horse drawn carriage. Sitting in the back seat of the carriage was Queen Elizabeth and her Prince. I’m not fucking with you, the Queen actually came out! The crowd went a bit nuts, cheering, everyone trying to gain a good position by which to take a picture. I got a quick one off before she rode out of view. VERY random. We had no idea why she was taking a stroll at the time.

Hung out for a bit longer to watch the Changing of the Guards. Pretty much it’s a bunch of yelling, a bunch of marching, then a bunch of music followed by more marching. Marching. Yelling. Marching. Music. It was pretty cool, but didn’t blow me away. When the band first started playing I was certain they were playing the theme to the “Dating Game.” Clearly they won’t, but I was freaked for a while. They played a number of songs I recognized, but I can’t name most. I believe one is called “Fanfare for the Common Man,” but I’ll need to look it up when I have more time.

After a while, and basically when it go boring, we left. I said goodbye to the nice South African lady and her son that I chatted with for a while and we made our way down the road to St. James Palace for the tube station near there. We decided to go visit Rich Johnston for lunch, who writes the “Lying in the Gutters” column over at CBR. He’s out in Soho, so we had a couple of trains to catch.

While walking down the road towards St. James we saw another procession coming towards us. Sure enough, it was the queen again going back to Buckingham Palace! Son of a bitch! This lady’s everywhere! Got more pictures of her, followed by her guard, and then a procession of armored vehicles! What the hell is going on? Is this the sorta of craziness that happens daily in London? Found a police officer who told me that today was a pretty special day. It was the day for “Changing of the Colors,” an event that occurs once every ten years. We just randomly happened to be in the right place at the right time without even knowing it! Excellent.

Got on the Underground to catch Rich in Soho. Lemme tell you that public transportation in London is fucking fantastic. It took about half a day to fully understand, but I am now Master of the Tube! Wait, that doesn’t sound good. Fuck, whatever. No need to take cabs, unless it’s after midnight when the trains have stopped. The underground is incredibly extensive and goes very deep under London. There’s a true underground city here. There are musicians all throughout the Underground playing music. The Underground has numerous levels, which leads to numerous smells and temperatures. Nothing horrible, but when you go down five stories it can get a bit warm.

Took the train out to the Holborn station and emerged there. Called Rich and he met us at the station. Good thing I know what he looked like since he’s never met me. He knew it would be pointless to try and have us come to his work because it’s almost impossible for a foreigner to understand the streets here. Very few street signs. I’m starting to get the hang of it, though.

Rich treated Arune and I to an excellent restaurant in the middle of Soho. Excelelnt nouveau Italian fare. The restaurant was in the middle of the media district of London. Filled with radio, tv and film types, the conversations in the restaurant, that I could understand, were all focused on business. Having lunch with Rich was fantastic. Very dynamic guy that’s a real pleasure to talk with. He’s a fast talked, as are most British, so we had to ask him to repeat himself a bit. Hope he doesn’t think we’re complete deaf morons!

After we left Rich he directed us towards Oxford Street for some shopping. He pointed us in the direction of two comic shops to check out, and the Virgin Megastore since I had some DVD’s I wanted to purchase.

Okay, I’m cutting this short here since Arune is ready to take off. I’ve uploaded 55 pictures from my first day and have another 30 or so more to upload. Click on over to the Gallery to see what I have so far. I’ll upload more later today when hopefully the connection at this net caf� is faster then and will finish up my first days worth of activities which included a visit to the British Museum and our visit to Lecster Square.