La Vie En Rose

Kristen and Michelle are visiting right now, and Anne is arriving tonight. Michelle has been here for 6 weeks or so, and she met Kristen in Paris over the weekend. Now they are both staying with me. We had a fun day yesterday, a pub lunch followed by a bus tour: the no 11 from Liverpool St which takes in most of London’s main sights. Then we came home and chatted and soaked our ‘feetsies’ in the tub, and I coerced Michelle into giving me a footrub. She gives the best foot rubs! I can’t believe she has been here for 6 weeks and I haven’t made her give me one yet. We are all looking forward to Anne’s arrival and the potential of pedicures. It was so fun just hanging out with them. Being over here I guess I forget what it’s like to be around people who know my family and all the goss, and who have known me for longer than 2 years.

You may have heard that we are having a tube strike. You might think of me as the type to be in sympathy with strikers, but I say bring it on! Tube drivers already make way more than the average person and they want a 5% raise during a recession when most people consider themselves lucky to find a job. Well, apparently most drivers themselves don't agree, because as I discovered this morning the Northern Line is running with minor delays, so all my careful plans to situate myself in a location where I could walk to the BL were for nought. Also actually walking was quite an enjoyable experience, or at least it would have been if it hadn't been for the rain and complete chaos surrounding king's cross.

While theoretically I'm an advocate of freecycle, the utility of trekking about London to get something that may or may not be what you actually want is questionable, as evidence by the time I walked half an hour to get what I thought was a yoga mat but was actually, fairly enough, some other type of "exercise mat." The chances of someone near you having what you want to spare -- and of them being on freecycle -- are greatly reduced when "near you" is limited to walking and public transportation. Sad. Well in London something else has popped up to fill in the gaps left by freecycle: street cycle. It's amazing how many times I've walked past just what I needed discarded to the street for anyone to take. Wooden fruit boxes for organizing. An organiser file. The other week it was a pair of uggs! They were filthy and a midge too small, but I threw them in the washer, thinking I don't have much to lose and since the main thing I wanted them for was evening trips to budgens, it hardly matters. Free! That's the way I like it. Of course, there are disadvantages. It's probably not legal. Extremities of weather might damage the item before you get to it. The uncertainty of whether a suitable new owner will come along before the trash collection does. But as far as convenience and serendipity goes, it can't be beat!

I kept meaning to write about Eurovision because it was the best time ever, but as usual I manage to fail entirely at things I want to get done, but maybe later today. Amanda is here right now with her bf and they have completely crashed at this point being very jet-lagged. She brought some Ricks Steve's guidebooks with her so we made a reservation for a cheap hotel in Paris and went on a walk from Buckingham Palace to Trafalgar Sq by way of Westminster. Then we got falafel at my favorite place in Soho and I went to a seminar while they came back here.

In other news things are really falling into place for my trip to Serbia this summer. I booked a flight and I'm going out June 22. My friend Kent of Azbukum fame is leaving this week, which is unfortunate as I won't get to see him again, but at least it does mean that his flat is free so I am going to live in it for the summer. It should be really great, in the meantime I an doing half a dozen other major projects such as finishing a chapter draft etc etc... It's all a good time.

My cousin Laura is here visiting, so yesterday was quite an adventure. It might not be possible to "do" London in a day but we certainly tried. We took the tube into Green Park, walked through to Buckingham Palace, over to Westminster to see houses of Parliament, up to Trafalgar Square, where we stopped in the Waterstones to settle some small point on Harry Potter, being the nerds that we are. There was some kind of Sikh festival going on at Trafalgar Square so it was really crowded, music and free food! That was a real spot of luck. We were chilling on one of the fountains eating our free lunch when I noticed a media crowd and along walks Boris Johnson!! He was walking through the crowd shaking people's hands and stuff. I didn't put out my hand to shake because I don't really like him and also I was a little bit in shock. It was pretty random. He doesn't like so goofy in real life. Anyway so that done we poked our heads into the national gallery to look at some impressionists and then crossed charing cross bridge and walked along southwark... and walked and walked. We stopped at the Tate modern to go up to the top floor to admire the view and use the toilets, and an a pizza express that had set up a gelato stand. And also at the globe, hoping to buy tickets for today but sadly there is no show! We continued to walk and walk till we got to Tower Bridge, which we then crossed, and examined the tower from the outside. From Tower we hoped on a bus which took us through the city, down fleet street and strand, through picadilly circus and oxford circus and down oxford street to marble arch. We had seats at the front of the top so had a pretty good view of all these things. Got off the bus finally and entered Hyde park to gawk at speaker's corner and sit on the grass and eat a picnic of pb&j. Then walked along the serpentine to the peter pan statue (I remembered, Aly!). Up to Lancaster gate where we got the tube to Tottenham Court Road. We walked all the way down tcr then Euston rd to King's Cross for traditional platform 9 3/4 pictures. After much confusion and ado, we met up with some friends for fish and chips in a greasy spoon. Then finally, exhausted and defeated, home. We walked miles. I must have worn poor Laura out; I know I wore myself out, but it was great fun.

It is one of the first really nice days we have had so far and it felt wonderful to be running around in a t-shirt only, light out till almost nine. Everyone was out, and in such a good mood because it's a holiday and the weather is fine. So nice to stroll along the Thames or sit in the grass at hyde park with so many other people who are in just as good of a mood. I wanted to skip (and I sometimes did) just for the joy of fine weather. One thing living here has certainly taught me is to not take it for granted.

The weather has changed just in time; I'm going tomorrow to pay a visit to my friend Aleks in Greece and "get some sun." But hopefully it will be even better there; I'm going to bring my swimming suit and hope for the best. Today I am just staying in, cleaning, grooming, packing and thinking, thinking, thinking. I am so glad it's sunny, both literally and figuratively.

It's cinco de mayo, so if you have to go on a desperate mission to save France, be prepared. Last year this time I was thinking how strange it is that the world continues to turn when it seems like, for all intents and purposes, it should have stopped. Now I am feel it more than ever, but am starting to feel it might not be such a bad thing. Please let this feeling stick!

On Saturday night I went to see The Sound of Music at the Palladium. As my siblings will (fondly I'm sure) remember, this was my favorite movie growing up, at least until I saw The Little Mermaid, so I was really excited about it. Well, it was pretty good and I enjoyed it. Some of the actors were better than others, unfortunately these were usually the supporting actors who were better. Max and the Baroness for instance, although Max was a lot older than he is in the movie so that threw me off! I have to remember the play came before the movie. There were a couple of songs that weren't in the movie, some of them quite good. But there was very little chemistry between Captain von Trapp and Maria, also Maria looked quite a lot like Hillary Clinton which was distracting. Also there wasn't as much development of their relationship as there is in the movie. I suspect a lot of that is those scenes they added in the movie would have been very boring on stage.

Overall it was really enjoyable, though. The main thing that struck me was how overtly political it was; much more so than in the movie. The Nazi question is central in the relationship of several of the characters, for instance it is actually the reason why the Baroness and Captain hastily end their engagement. The von Trapps' flight from Nazis becomes even more clearly the climax of the story; though, to be fair, my muddled view of things from the movie might have to do with those compulsive re watchings at the age of four, when I had no idea about anschluss or Nazis or anything like that. During the music festival scene, all these Swastika banners came down from the sides and the ceilings of the theatre, a very powerful evocation which made me a little bit uncomfortable! Also Rolph. In the play he actually doesn't betray him, but becomes compliant in their escape. A bit unfair on him then! Well, I actually think it works better but the logistics of theatre wouldn't have allowed for the heart-in-throat chase that ensues. Which is too bad because the nuns with the car parts are pretty much the best part of the whole movie.

Anyway a good time was had by all (me) and now I think I should work in a few more plays before the summer. It's globe season again!

I also realized that the Captain von Trapp would have been serving very near by stomping grounds during the FWW. Hmm...