Sleep Spent

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.)