25 December 2006
Christmas
If you haven't figured it out yet, the subtitles so far are episodes of the Prisoner, my favorite British television show.
I learned, while Karen was showering in the TOO HOT shower next to our room, that the tickets I had prearranged through Ticketmaster for Merry Wives: The Musical were for December 23rd. Yes, that's right: The day we arrived in London. I have no idea how it slipped by me. I don't know if it was my mistake or their mistake, but suffice it to say that I felt REALLY awful, sitting on the bed in our disappointing "hotel" room, staring at the wreckage of a perfectly good (and well-looked-forward-to part of the trip) and generally beating myself up about it. I resolved to stay calm until I could procur a phone card and call Stratford-Upon-Avon and confirm (I'll tell you now that we did not end up going to Stratfor-Upon-Avon at all, but *did* get to see the Portobello Road Market instead).
We watched a weird special recap episode from a comedy show (similar to US late night comedy talk shows, but with sketch comedy) the night before that left a rather interesting impression. The show is called The Friday Night Project, and is pretty funny.
While at Sainsbury's the night before we picked up some candy (as well as the pain relief items), including: Aero (a milk chocolate from Nestle with minty "bubbles"), and two kinds of organic chocolate bars from Green & Black (which we learned later we CAN get here in the States).
(These last two paraphrased entries were made in an attempt to stabalize my mood and to capture memories for posterity)
We left the hotel room a little after 11 am. We took our normal route back towards Victoria Station, along which we observed what we assume was a junkie breaking glass of some sort. We walked by on the other side of the road, but he didn't seem to take much interest in us (something I am quite pleased by). I wanted to take his picture (for the police), but we thought it best just to move on somewhat quickly.
From Victoria we headed down Victoria Street to Westminster Abbey (where we took some pictures and listened to the Christmas bells), then on past Downing street (where there were six or so guards with automatic machine guns in and out of the black, box-like, metal gate), through Horseguards, up the portion of the Mall by the column under the Duke of York, and on to Picadilly Circus. We expected to catch tube, but it was shut for the day, so we started the search for food instead.
Next door to the Burger King (I opted not to get a picture of this menu, but it was similar to the situation with the McD's from the day before) was a little donut shop (titled, appropriately, "Donuts and Baguettes") where we bought a Mozarella and Salami baguette and a coke for £7.94 (it was FAR too busy to even try to get a seat), then down the street (west) to another little place called "Piazza Espresso Bar Italiano" where we picked up a Mordatela, Avacado, and Bacon for £3.95 (the better taste, the better deal, and not at all busy). After eating we went into a tacky tourist shop, then decided that we still hurt enough that we might as well just head back.
Back at our hotel we discovered the simple joy of the British version of Deal or No Deal. It is completely different in the Mother Country, and quite a riot to watch, because the contestants all get a box and stand around in a circle, and seem to be *genuinely* upset when the open a bad dollar amount for the playing party. Plus, the monetary offers that are made in no way reflect the expected value of the case at the time. In general, funny, but we wouldn't have watched it if there was something better on one of the other three stations. :)
We exchanged foot massages and while watching Remains of the Day tried not to fall asleep FAR too early...
...Except we did. We fell asleep at 6 pm, and I was awake again by about 11:30.
By 12:30 we were both awake and we watched the end of a strange movie with Robert Downing Jr and Heather Graham. After that we watched Laws of Attraction (Pierce Brosnan and Julianne Moore as divorce lawyers) while I tried to figure out our shopping excursion for Boxing Day.
We watched Boys on the Side (did I mention the Britiish don't censor movies?) while we planned everything we could, napped from around 4~4:30 am to 6 am at which point I tried to shower upstairs (but from that point on I didn't even try to make the attempt, and walked down three flights every morning).
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