In Which The Games, Mrs. Hudson, Are ON!

Loveliest of readers,

Too many things have happened within the last 28 hours for me to write about all of them in this post, for which I apologize.  So here's what we'll do.  I'll tell you about the Opening Ceremonies festivities and this afternoon in this post, and we'll save MY FIRST OLYMPIC EVENT for tomorrow.  If it helps, you can pretend that we're just taking a very long tea break in between posts.  I would suggest actually making yourself a cup of tea to pass the time.  Or, you know, watching the Olympics.  Whatever floats your boat.

Let's begin where we left off yesterday.  We were joined in the afternoon by Cindy, a good friend of Suzanne and Daniel's (and at one point, my first employer), and we all made some delicious homemade pizza with the 100 million vegetables that I brought back from Borough Market:

Then we took off for the local park, where the Opening Ceremonies were to be shown on a gigantic screen.  It seemed to be The Thing To Do, and people were planning picnics and bringing booze and such.  We arrived at 9pm on the dot, and lo and behold, the park was jam-packed and would not admit a single extra person.  So we hightailed it back to the flat to watch there.  This turned out to be an even better Thing To Do, as we made Pimm's Cups (a classic British cocktail) and sat on the couch to enjoy the show.

And what a show it was!  We missed the very beginning (the bit with the livestock, as I understand), but switched on in time for the really cool melding of the rings in the sky.  Things only got better from there.  [I'll take a moment to add that I'm assuming you've seen the Opening Ceremonies.  If you haven't, shame on you.  Go watch them on youtube or something before you read this.]  Since we all saw the same performance, more or less, I'll just tell you my favorites, in order of preference:

1.  Rowan Atkinson, the London Symphony Orchestra, and Chariots of Fire.  This was probably the funniest thing I have seen in a very long time.
2.  James Bond and the Queen 'parachuting' into the Olympic Stadium.
3.  The copper buckets that turned into the super awesome Olympic Torch (it gave me chills).
4.  Gigantic Lord Voldemort, J.K Rowling reading, Mary Poppins, adorable children, and actual NHS professionals dancing (the prediction was right!  more or less).
5.  The fireworks.

Normally, I find fireworks boring.  But guess what?  Those fireworks were visible from the flat.

This is without zoom; exactly how we saw them from the flat.

And this is because I like to brag about how great my camera lens is.

As we were out on the balcony taking pictures, many people in the general neighborhood cheered throughout the fireworks, and we joined in.  The sense of national pride here is understandably palpable and rather beautiful, I think; it's hard not to be swept up in all of the excitement for Team GB here!

A few final random thoughts:  I believe that Team USA looked almost too preppy for their own good, but certainly nicely put-together, the Italians looked fabulous as always, the Independent Athletes looked like the happiest and most fun people in the stadium (not counting the Queen, of course), and whichever team it was that came prepared with the bright blue wellies and umbrellas (and, thank goodness, didn't need them) won my personal award for most cleverly dressed.

The Ceremonies ended at something like 12:30 am (sooo glad we stayed in the flat), but I was too keyed up to sleep.  So then I was up until 3 am.  Oops.  (I'll be up until at least 2 am working on this abbreviated blog post, so I guess this isn't much better.  Also, you're welcome.)  Consequently, I slept until noon, at which point we all had brunch before heading out to Broadway Market in East London.

Along the way, we passed a lovely museum 'round the corner from the flat that was once a poorhouse and is now a museum of home and garden design throughout the centuries.

An essential element of any British home, regardless of century: a tea set!

So we went to Broadway Market, and bought a few more tasty things, but really only a few, because the fridge is filled to capacity from the Borough Market extravaganza.  We then took a scenic detour through London Fields park:

And proceeded to walk for 45 minutes through all sorts of strange backstreets until we arrived at a store that sold a very particular sort of haircolor (hint: it's bright blue) which Daniel required for proper self-decoration in honor of the Games. 

Here, my friends, I must leave you, for it is nearly 2 am and I have to get up in the morning to do things and such.  But I solemnly promise to tell you all about the event—you may have even watched it, a little something called the Men's Artistic Gymnastics Qualifier?—sometime tomorrow.  Until then, dear readers, I leave you with this, as I think the Queen ought to have the last word:

In Which THE GREATEST THING IN THE HISTORY OF THINGS Occurs

(Am I driving you crazy with my outlandish titles that promise oh-so-much and then probably fail to deliver?  Maybe don't answer that.)

Hi-o, wonderful readers!

As promised, I went out and did Fun Things after sleeping away my first day and a half in London.  So after shaking off the residual lethargy, I hopped on a bus to Liverpool Street Station and met up with my Aunt Suzanne at a street performance held as part of a series called the City of London Festival.  We caught the tail end of an excellent African band (and watched the amusing dance skills of a few shirtless older men, which is actually an experience that I would have been fine with skipping):

We then watched a half-hour performance entitled, "Dig a Hole" by a troupe of acrobatic highway workers called "The Bureau of Silly Ideas."  Much mockery of British Health and Safety rules as well as the absurdly long and convoluted process of carrying out a simple bit of roadwork occurred, as well as, most importantly, some very amusing pre-Olympics gymnastics:

We met up with my Uncle Daniel and ventured onward for some food.  Along the way, we ran into some curious characters:

This is Mandeville.  He is one of the London 2012 mascots.  I cannot for the life of me figure out what he is actually supposed to be, or why he is decorated in this manner.

And this is Wenlock.  The other mascot.  Same problem.

Then we had a great dinner at a cool bistro/bar in Spitalfields Market, and as it was a beautiful evening (despite my daytime grumblings, the cooler evenings really are quite lovely), we walked back through pub-goer-infested streets to the flat.  When we asked what was going on that had everyone out in the pubs, the consistent answer, delivered with a casual shrug, was simply, "It's Thursday."

Believe it or not, I somehow managed to get myself onto UK time overnight (huzzah!), and after changing my clothes three times this morning because the weather simply refused to commit to either "hot," "cool," or "rainy," I hopped on another bus (such a local) to London Bridge (which, I am happy to report, still has not fallen down) and met Suzanne at her office.  Her building happens to be immediately next door to the Shard, which is now the tallest building in Europe, and, as the name suggests, is extremely tall and pointy and made entirely of glass.  I couldn't have even hoped to get a picture of the thing from where I was, so I didn't bother (sorry).  You can look it up if you are so inclined.

Anyway, I met up with Suzanne, and then, the GREATEST THING IN THE HISTORY OF THINGS occurred.

I met Michael Price.

[Insert your raised eyebrows of "really, Vanessa?  This is the great big news?  I don't even know who this is" here.]

You may not know his name, but you're likely familiar with his work.  You know that little show that I kind of enjoy [read:  am completely and utterly obsessed with], "Sherlock"?  (If you don't, stop reading this blog and go watch it RIGHT NOW.)  Well, Michael Price composes the music.  So yeah.

He also happens to be a new personal friend of Suzanne's, so I may have begged a little bit for her to set up a meeting with him.  And he was nice enough to agree to hang out with us for a bit today.  So we took a short walk from the Shard to Borough Market (which is my favorite place in all of London), and wandered around buying coffee and croissants and this interesting mushroom pate stuff and looking at all the tasty things, then suddenly realized that the Torch was about to pass by on the Royal Barge, but we missed it, so we just kind of sat by the Thames and chatted for a while.

The torch is somewhere over there, by the Olympic rings.  But, um, tada!  Olympic rings!  On Tower Bridge!  Arent' you glad that I showed you this picture?

Michael Price is a super nice guy; youngish, attractive, incredibly friendly, down-to-earth, and, oh yeah, rather musically gifted.  And he had such interesting things to say!  For instance, he recently wrote the score for a movie called "The Mountain," in which a group of disabled individuals climb Mt. Kilimanjaro, and as research for the project, he climbed the mountain with them!  Despite the horrific cold and the altitude sickness, he says it was one of the greatest experiences of his life and would recommend it to anyone.  Apparently, "It's not actually that difficult.  You just kind of walk."  Ok, sure.

We also talked about music more generally, the crazy schedules involved in composing for movies and tv, and then, of course, we talked about "Sherlock."  He has, of course, met everyone in the cast and crew, and has sat in on the read-throughs.  My favorite anecdote was when he sat in on the "Reichenbach Fall" read-through, and the first time that Benedict Cumberbatch spoke (his "Sherlock" voice is different from his regular voice), Michael said, "the table sort of rumbled with the vibrations of his deep, rich voice, and all of the women in the room started sort of fanning themselves—and about two-thirds of the men too—we were all like 'whew.  ok then.  ahem.  carry on.'"

Other interesting tidbits:  "Sherlock" is currently up for 16 Emmys, including one for the score, so Michael will be off to LA in September (fingers crossed!) for a score that he had ten days per episode to write.  10 days!  He also said that every scene in the show gets about two takes, and that's it, which I find incredibly impressive.  This sort of economy led to the unfortunate mis-match of the on-screen violin playing with the score in the second season, which upset Michael greatly, but he assured me that this will not happen again in season three (which starts filming in January!). 

To top it all off, he brought me a cd of the second season score, which he signed for me [my inner fangirl still has not stopped squealing], and then, at Suzanne's insistence, I showed him two of my "Sherlock" tea blends (if you're curious, you can find here), which he was so excited about that I gave them to him [Again, inner fangirl is still carrying on at an incredibly high pitch in my head].  We chatted a little bit longer, and then we saw him off (he gave me a kiss on the cheek goodbye!!!).

AAAAAHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!  ahem.  sorry.

 
So what does one do after the greatest thing in the history of things occurs?  One goes shopping, of course!  We stocked up on a few necessary provisions from Borough Market:  chocolates from my favorite chocolatier in London, lots of olives, bread, cheese from Neil's Yard, approximately 1,000lbs of produce (according to my shoulder, which had the pleasure of carrying said produce), and a few other delicious delights.

We bought all of these vegetables.  Approximately.

Finally, we headed back to the flat to recover for a while.  And recovery is absolutely necessary, because tonight, ladies and gentlemen, are the Opening Ceremonies!  Details to come tomorrow.  Until then, dear readers, enjoy the spectacle, and go listen to the "Sherlock" soundtrack for me. 

In Which Mary Poppins Fights Voldemort and I Hold a Staring Contest with a Pigeon

Hello, my lovely readers!

I apologize for the delay in letting you know that I have arrived safely in London.  To be honest, I have actually spent the past day and a half attempting to recover from my flight over here.  This has actually resulted in the breaking of a few personal records (this is kind of relevant to the Olympics, yeah?):

1.  Drank something like 20 cups of water yesterday in an effort to combat severe dehydration. 
2.  Slept for maybe 1.5 hours on the flight over (remind me next time I try to fly on a red eye that it's a terrible idea), but then slept for fourteen hours last night/this morning/this afternoon.

You may be thinking—as I certainly did every time that I was awake for ten minutes together—that sleeping away the majority of the day is a terrible waste of limited time in London.  Again, I'm not really going to argue with this.  But now that I no longer feel like I'm going to collapse every time that I stand up, I think that I've made the right decision.

Ok, enough of that.  Let's talk about other things.

As you may have heard on the news, London is supposedly packed to the gills with tourists already.  I don't know if I showed up in the wrong London (or at the very least, the wrong part of London), but I sailed through customs at the un-crowded airport and took an un-crowded tube trip across town to East London where I walked down un-crowded streets to the flat.  So that was a pleasant surprise. 

Another pleasant surprise:  you can see the Olympic Stadium from the balcony of the flat.  They were running a rehearsal of the opening ceremonies last night, and while it was much too far away to see anything specific (sorry), I can tell you that a great many lights and flashy things are involved.  (Rumors abound as to what the ceremonies will feature; I'm personally hoping for this option.)

An unpleasant surprise:  the weather in London is hot and sunny.  Normally, this would fall under the pleasant surprise category, except that the Brits don't believe in air conditioning (see the archives of the blog for how they also don't believe in adequate heating during the winter).  So while everyone else is running around exclaiming how wonderful it is that the weather is so uncharacteristically gorgeous, I've been laying sprawled across the sofa waiting for a breeze to come through the window and grumbling about how I just left this sort of weather and would really appreciate it if the rainy, 60-something conditions would come back now. 

Also, the fire alarm just went off.  But it stopped before I made it out of the door.  Which is a good thing, because I would have forgotten to take the keys with me.  And then I would have been locked out of the flat for the second time in two days.  But we don't need to go into that.  Long story short, a fire alarm has gone off in nearly every single hotel/flat I've stayed in since I was last in England, including this same flat, a year and a half ago.  It's a gift, what can I say?

In other news, my British accent keeps making random appearances when I try to have conversations with people.  And by random, I mean that one or two words will unintentionally come out with a British accent in the middle of a regular American-flavored sentence.  I think I really confused the customs officer when this happened at the airport.  Oops? 

Well, my friends, I think I have carried on about uninteresting things for long enough.  So after I finish holding this staring contest with the pigeon that seems determined to fly through the balcony door, I'm going to leave the flat and do interesting things, so that I can tell you about them tomorrow.  Sound good?  It's a deal.

Cheers!

SPECIAL OLYMPICS EDITION!

(By which I mean: special, Olympics edition.  Not the Special Olympics.  There's kind of a big difference.)

Hello hello, my dearest readers!  It's been quite a long time since this blog had some authorly/readerly love.  But I've decided to drag it out from the dusty archives of the internet and shine it up a bit in honor of a most wonderous occasion: the London 2012 Olympics!  Yes, my friends-- I am returning to the land of marmite and fuzzy-hatted soldiers for the Olympic games, and I couldn't be more excited about it.  Except that it still doesn't feel like it's actually happening yet.

I'm about an hour and a half from leaving my house, and five hours from jetting off across the pond, and I still haven't quite processed that today is in fact the day that I leave.  But it will happen soon enough, I'm sure.

The real reason for writing this post, however, is to simply welcome you back (if you are an old friend of the blog) or to welcome you front (what, isn't that the opposite of 'back?'), if you've never visited before.  Also, if you plan on going through the archives, please allow me to apologize now for the mechanical mistakes therein, as well as the posts that can be more or less condensed to "wahhh I have so many papers to write."  I'll try to update as often as I can, but please do be patient with me.  Comments are strongly encouraged, and may even speed up my rate of posting! 

So stay tuned, dear readers.  Next stop, LONDON!