Day 03: London

Let's start with some news from the present: I've been watching Blackadder almost non-stop and in probably lethal doses over the past 2 days. Haven't watched it since oh so many years ago, but watching an episode on the plane and having Harris recommend it to me many times must have galvanized this craze into action. Seriously it's funnier than Monty Python, and everyone should have a go at it. Go on. Season 4 particularly.

Also a certain biannual event, a major theme in JC life, is just 'round the corner', as everyone so affectionately describes it. Mid-years! Of course it's important so of course I haven't started studying yet. Actually dabbled into abit of maths today with the lit trip gang™ (Phoebe Jeremy Mark Meiyi). A total of three pages actually. Fascinating stuff. At this rate I'll be ready for mid-years by the time A's are over.

And now back to day 3 proper.


Woke up early enough to enjoy an exploratory walk (with my camera) down the street outside our hostel, with my roommates Daniel and JingHan. There's a little lake just a few metres down the road, and was the scene for quite a few nice photos.
Returned for breakfast, again English (What did you expect, Chinese? In fact this sets the scene for a sarcastic joke later on during about day 7). Bus was late, so returned to the lake in greater force to better terrorize the pigeons and feed the ducks. Leftover bread from Meiyi's breakfast was more than sufficient, especially if you know that Meiyi's leftovers are greater than whatever she eats in the first place. Took several group shots, then returned to hostel only to find that said bus had still not arrived. But it's amazing what you can do with a bench and a pack of cards. Sit on it and play bridge. Respectively.


Bus finally arrived, everyone boarded bus, bus drove off, 1.5h of sleeping later, bus pulls into London Imperial War Museum. Also known as the "Imperial War useum" in the programme booklet. This visit was meant to give us a better first hand account of World War I and life in the trenches. [I can't help but think of Blackadder Season 4 as I type this bit] There was a great bit which re-enacted the trenches and you could actually walk through them with the utterly life-threatening blare of red and yellow lights abovehead. We finished the WWI bit of the museum within the scheduled time, before realising it was a war museum, and that there were still 3 more floors, WW2, the Cold War, the pre-war years, the inter-war years, yes, the post-war years, and even other misc conflicts. Sadly, no time! (throwback humour w.r.t. previous post)



Boarded bus again, took off, pulls into Shakespeare Globe Theatre. For the sad literary recluses amongst you, it is a reconstruction of the original Elizabethan theatre opened in Autumn 1599, in the same place, and still many popular Shakespearean plays are staged there today with large crowds of audiences. [I did not refer to wikipedia. That's for recluses.] We had a sort of tour-cum-workshop where we learnt how actors acted in the Globe, which was quite a tricky stage, since it was open-air, it was a fixed set, and the lights were mainly on the audience. It was quite useful, especially since we were gonna watch Othello in the same theatre that very night.


But there was still plenty of time after the workshop, and we had a sandwich lunch outside the theatre, by the Thames. Harris then brought/shepherded some of us to Covent Garden Market, passing by St Paul's Cathedral along the way. Think Harris was quite irritated with me and Warran since we were always lounging far off behind taking photos, while the group had to stop a few times to pick us up. Covent Garden is this large marketplace with plenty of shops, cafes, and most entertaining of all, buskers. Spent half an hour watching two great buskers (their act was great, especially with extremely humorous improv).
Spent the time wandering around, viewing the myriad of shops before making our way to Pizza Hut for a nice unique English dinner. We (read:Warran) kept lamenting the fact that the England-Brazil match was on this very night at the nearby Wembley stadium, but sadly we had a date with Othello which we couldn't stand up.

Othello was a wonderful experience, especially after the mishap that was The Seagull. It probably was a good play, really, but one cannot downplay the seriousness of 20h jet lag. Anyway, we had 'groundling' tickets, which meant we had to stand in front of the stage for the entire length of the play, excepting the intermission, of course, where we were allowed to grovel in the dirt like the peasants of old (the bloody teachers had seats). But having the actors themselves pushing through you to get on stage, and hearing the main actors yelling right in front of you is better than sitting way behind. In fact, it's better than TV. Infinitely better. And, I didn't realise this, but Harris told me that the main actor (Iago) was actually one of the actors in Blackadder!

Play was three hours long and ended at 11pm, so headed back to the hostel where we chanced upon the recreation room and played bridge, poker and bluff for another few hours-all the while repressing Warran's urge to go clubbing/pubbing-before sleeping. And that was day 3.