Sleep Spent

On Thursday night, Brian, Ruth and I played speed Scrabble. We all three really enjoyed the game, and we only got stuck (where no one could use all their pieces) once.

On Friday Brian took me to the Eden Project. It’s in southern Cornwall. You can see from the website, but it’s like Kew except with more of a Disneyland-meets-the-hippies feel. There was a great focus on environmental impact and responsibility, which was refreshing. And the food was really, really good; Brian and I had Caribbean Chicken Curry for £7 each. Yum!

In the evening, we attended a village party. Lots of people were there, and almost every one of them had a connection to California. The host and hostess had stayed there for 18 months a few years ago, and Brian’s neighbors had a son living there right now, and a second son on his way to visit the first. We all had a good laugh about that, and about the differences in definition of the word flapjack. The hosts provided vegetarian fare, and it was scrumptious. The last half of the party took place around a bonfire which I was charged with keeping alight. I wore my shorts, and flip-flops, but around the fire it didn’t matter.

On Saturday, we went to Exeter and shopped. I bought books... it’s a weakness I have. I picked up one that’s full of Sudoku puzzles. I’ve done several since, and I even woke up on Sunday thinking about them. Which was quite scary. :-)

Brian had told me about Arrested Development, which he’d just gotten on DVD, and he really wanted to show me some episodes. I was game, and so we watched three of them. It was hysterical! I’d heard it was funny from a couple people, but this show didn’t receive nearly as much buzz as it should have in my little part of the universe. Must... watch... more... episodes! Scrabble again this night.

Sunday, Brian and I went hiking on Dartmoor. He was looking for a particular path which he never was able to find, but we got plenty of time in tramping around in the woods. And my goodness, the scenery was beautiful! Got some splendid pictures. On the way back, we stopped to take some pictures of a prison that was built on the moor in Napoleonic times and is still running. It’s extremely foreboding. Then we stopped for Devonshire Cream Tea. Mmmmmmmm!!!!!

Back at the ranch, I Sudokued for a bit and then we went to the Mare & Foal, the pub literally out the Ridgers’ front door. My steak was great, and I had it with English mustard. (The poor waitress gave me a blank look when I asked her for steak sauce.)

A couple more episodes of Arrested Development in the evening, and then bed. Brian dropped me off at Exeter St Davids in time for the 1002 this morning.

I’ve spent the rest of the day wandering around bookshops. Brian pointed me towards a four story Waterstone’s that really is magnificent. I think it’s actually bigger than the Picadilly Circus one, in terms of floor space. It’s certainly easier to get lost in the one on Bloomsbury. And the big bookshop paid off: I found the dictionary of nautical terms I’ve been looking for! And a couple other books besides, of course. :-)

Now I’m on my way to Mary Poppins the musical, which is supposed to be great. We’ll see. I leave at 1000 tomorrow.

See you all very soon.

On Wednesday, I got up at a reasonable time and checked out. Headed over to Paddington (the station, not the bear) to buy my ticket and stow my backpack for the day. That done, I took the tube down to Picadilly Circus and wandered around Soho looking for some lunch. After the Indian buffet (not terribly good, but not awful), I decided on my matinee. Today it was Death of a Salesman, and the performance was outstanding. I mean, it was really, really good. I cried twice. I had never seen the play, never read it. I only knew it was supposed to be the epitome of drama. Well, this performance delivered. The set kept moving around, while the actors were onstage. They’d actually walk along against the circular movement of one of the pieces, for example, and you would see them approach the kitchen of the house, for example, but they wouldn’t actually be moving from their location on stage. And the acting was just excellent. Brian Dennehey played Willy Loman. I really could see him essentially going crazy, being caught up in his past and not seeing a way out of the terrible situation he was in.

When I got out of the play, I felt somewhat adrift, emotionally drained. I stopped and got a smoothie to try to come down a bit. Headed back over to Picadilly Circus and over to the 6-story Waterstone’s they have there. (A giant bookshop.) And then I went made my way to Paddington and caught the 19:35 to Plymouth. There was a terribly annoying girl who got on at the first stop. She was either listening to Eminem on her headphones loud enough that everyone in her half of the car could hear the beats, or else she was jabbering on her cellphone about the texts she exchanged with some chav. Eventually I got fed up with it and put on the new Dredg album. (Brilliant, by the way. I’ll put a track up on SOW once I get home.)

For the past few days I’ve been reading Master and Commander, the book the movie was (half) based on. It was written in the 20th Century, but you wouldn’t know it to read the speech patterns of the characters, or to see the depth of knowledge the author has of naval terms. He was pretty free with them in the first two chapters, and didn’t bother to explain was a ratline or a top or a topgallantyard or a shroud was. But all that was covered in chapter three, in a rather ingenous way, so I’m quite well versed by now.

Arrived in Exeter at 10:15. Brian was waiting for me, which was very kind of him. We drove to his house and I ate a little soup. We talked for a bit, but I was quite tired, so we went to sleep pretty soon after. I thought I was going to get up aroudn 9, but it ended up being 11:20. Brian and I went driving in the afternoon. Went round to Ruth’s work to drop off some lunch first, then drove up to the border of Dartmoor and went biking for a bit. (I shouldn’t have worn boxers [d’oh!], but it wasn’t a tragedy.) The scenery was beautiful. The very definition of bucolic on one side, and wonderfully desolate on the other. Saw a few tors on the moorland.

Now we’re back home, after stopping at Waitrose (a Whole Foods-type supermarket) to pick up food for the next few days. And now Brian and Ruth are waiting for me in the next room; dinner will be on shortly.

I’ll blog some more later.

Went to a shorts screening in the morning. Several really good ones, but Blake’s Junction 7 stands head and shoulders above the rest. Find info about it here. There’s even a trailer, though I don’t know if it works.

After that, I had lunch at a very nice vegan restaurant I found in Soho. Had a nectarine I bought off a street merchant for dessert. Wandered around a bit, caught another shorts screening. Again, some crap, a few gems.

Got a haircut!! It’s good times. Will post a picture if I can. The stylist was named Nino, and he was from Macau (spelling??) which he said is the “Asian Las Vegas.” It’s near Hong Kong. He was Portugese, though. And he had a lip piercing.

Took in The Producers to wind up the day. It was all right. I felt sort of like I felt at Reduced Shakespeare: lots of cheap jokes. I was annoyed. The singing was great, the music was fine. It was overall an OK show, I guess. But not up to my standards, sadly. I’m not sure what I’ll catch the matinee of today, but I’ll let you know tomorrow.

After that tonight I’m heading to Exeter. Must go now, my time’s expired.

Internet Explorer is the worst browser ever. I just lost TWO first paragraph drafts to this piece of shit.

In the morning, got up rather late. Missed breakfast. :-( But it’s because of that that I got the chance to meet one of my roommates, and Aussie named Martin. Great guy, very friendly, very liberal. :-) We had a good 45 minute, wide-ranging discussion about politics and culture.

After that, I tracked down Mr. John Makey. We then had lunch (fish and chips! How I do love tartar sauce...) and he recommended a couple theatre productions to me. It was good to spend time with him again. We even discussed my OED book, briefly. Apparently Mr. Winchester has written other books related to the topic, and John had read one of them. Very little (American) politics in this discussion, but he did let me in on the whole fox hunting debate. Not that I had strong leanings one way or the other, but I think he succeeded in changing my half-made mind. (He’s against the ban, by the way.)

Then I headed over to the Tate Britain. I really enjoyed myself there; I hadn’t been to it before today. I don’t much like Turner, but I did find a few pieces by him today that were stunning. And there was plenty else, besides. It was an great mixture of the old with the new. I tend to like my paintings in the 1650-1900 time frame, and that was very well represented.

After the Tate, I took the Tube up to check out something that had been advertized in Time Out as a free photo exhibit. Turns out, it was a gallery with works by this guy for sale. And it was very small. And there was just one man in there, the man who would be selling these prints to me, presumably. I decided not to check that out. I had lunch instead, a passable tuna fish sandwich. Then I went to an internet cafe and found out where Abbey Road was. (Just one stop north on the Jubilee line, as it turned out.)

Met a quarto of South Korean girls there, who had me take their picture. That done, they took mine. And then they asked a passer-by, who took a photo of all five of us. One of them said she liked my smile. But then, I have that effect on women. :-P

That done, I went one further stop on the Jubilee line to Swiss Cottage, where the Hampstead theatre is. Bought my ticket to one of the shows John had recommended to me, What the Butler Saw. Walked around for a bit afterwards, found a Hungarian pastry shop that sold me a fantastic chocolate bearclaw-like thing. Then I went back to the theatre, hung out, and watched the performance. It was really, really good. Very funny, in an excoriating way, and there were extended scenes with a blue-and-black-briefs-clad 20-something who played the bellhop. Geoff something-or-other. Would you believe it, he even managed to be undressed through all the bowing at the end?

But I’ve gotten distracted. YES, the play was great. It was about a psychiatrist who tries to seduce a young woman who has come to apply for a job. She is very naïve, and he is about to get it on with her when his wife comes in. Of course, he lies about it. And then he has to keep lying as a series of other characters come in to complicate the story. It was outrageous, unbelievable, cynical, and just generally great. Quite well-acted, too. Bravo!

To bed with me, now. I’ve got to be up early tomorrow to see some of the shorts at the shorts festival. (And yes, that’s film shorts, you sick bastard.)