Musicals, Travel Preparation, and the Regent Street Festival

After all of the festivals and what not that's been going on - things have definitely quietened down a bit. Could be the case that less is on now that summer has ended and the grey and rainy London that everyone knows and loves has set in... or that i'm just getting lazy of late. So what's happened recently? Well, musicals are one... and the Regent Street Festival. is another.

Now that i'm in London, heading over to the West End to see some shows is something that was recommended to me. After having a look around at what was on offer, and what was cheap, a couple of shows came up. Sister Act and Avenue Q. Tickets were cheap, but that's because they're finishing up. Haha! Whatever, cheap tickets are cheap tickets :).

Both shows were great, and I ended up getting quite good seats at the end of the day! One by pure luck, and the other because there were some vacancies (read: I moved there). The singing performances of the leads in Sister Act were just awesome, and Avenue Q was quite entertaining... not as rude as I thought it would be - I loved the Bad Idea Bears - yeeeaaaaaayyyyyy!! (If you don't know what that means... go see Avenue Q).

What else have I been doing in my downtime? Well, i've been getting ready for South America! One of the most important things i'll need to do to ensure a quick return into the UK from South America is to have a Yellow Fever shot done, and proof that i've been vaccinated! Last weekend, I did just that - I went across to the Sameday Doctor and got the Travel Pack Plus. Three needle jabs later and I was a cocktail of disease! By the time the 16th of October rolls around - i'll be all set!

Finally, nothing like a little festival to finish up the weekend. Last weekend was the Regent Street Festival. Apparently the Regent Street Festival is a celebration of shopping. Fair enough. Apparently, there is a theme each year for the Festival and this year it was fashion... "The Mile of Style" was the slogan... perhaps to coincide with the close of London Fashion Week.

Regent Street was closed off to traffic and all of the stores in the area put up sales or specials. Some offered discounts on their wares, and others offered gifts that accompanied purchases... all of which were helpfully pointed out with a festival guide. I'm not exactly sure if the stores did well or not, but they got no help from me as I didn't end up buying anything.

One thing that was good for the festival was the presence of a catwalk, which was set up in the middle of the street. The catwalk was used to showcase what was on offer. Smart. I decided to wait it out and see what the fuss was all about, i've never seen a live catwalk show before. I parked myself in one of the seats in the front, and waited for the show to begin.

The catwalk show seemed to last twenty minutes or so, but time passed pretty quickly. Models of both genders wandered in and out promoting various brands. The clothes that were on show weren't all following the one theme - from casual to formal, and from light to bulky... it was all there.

After watching the catwalk show, I did come away thinking that I should really look at getting a jacket for winter. Advertising so works. One of the things that I thought as the show progressed was - just because something looks nice on one of the models, doesn't necessarily mean that it'll be nice if I were to be in the same position. Meh.

Finally, i'll close up with an unexpected twist to the catwalk. Towards the second half of the catwalk one of the female models burst out in underwear. Yes, that's right - just lingerie. The cat was let out of the bag, a lingerie store exists on Regent street. Gasps rippled through the crowd as the first female model came into view. The girls in the crowd got a bit of a show as well as the male model that came afterwards ripped his shirt off. Hah. The second last model, female, revealed a tad much... and the last model - she was the hottest. Anyways, that's it for now.... time for some photos.

Open House London 2010... and the Pope!

Last weekend it was the London Open House Weekend - two days in which many buildings that are typically closed to the public are open for exploration. Although you could probably guess that from the name. I spent both days wandering around London to see what was out there! In other news, the Pope (yes, the holy father himself!) was in town and I managed to catch a glimpse of him.

Prior to arriving in London, I had no idea about the event and what it aimed to do. Now that i've experienced it, I think it's a fantastic idea! The aim of the London Open House Weekend, organised by group called Open City, is to ensure that everyone appreciates, learns about, and understands good architecture. Given that London is a city rich with culture and history, it's a fantastic place to start up an initiative like this.

Now, the London Open House Weekend actually kicks off on the Friday night with either a 10 or 20 mile walk, beginning at 7pm. I didn't end up going to this as it was too late for me to become involved! Something for next year, perhaps. The Night Hike is actually a walk that supports a charity - Maggie's, a centre for those who are suffering from cancer.

Saturday was the first day where I headed out to experience London Open House. The first stop was the Chartered Accountants Hall. Don't know why I started with the Chartered Accountants Hall... probably because it was on the way to the Bank of England - the Bank being on my 'must do' list. The Chartered Accountants Hall was built in 1890 and was alot larger on the inside when compared to how it looked from the outside! The Chartered Accountants hall has a modern presentation hall with plenty of space and a lectern, but also has an older hall that's quite Victorian - a domed reception hall with a chandelier, a painted wall and even a century-old clock.

Next it was off to the Bank of England. Well not quite. Upon arriving at the Bank of England there was a line along one of the walls of the bank... unfortunately the line wrapped along three of the four walls around the bank. The expected wait to get into the Bank of England was two hours. I didn't wait, but made a mental note to get in early on the Sunday.

The Leadenhall Market, Lloyds of London and the Royal Courts of Justice were waypoints onto Westminster. Some of the notable things along the way included seeing an actual shipping logbook from the HMS Euraylus as part of Lloyds' Lord Nelson Collection, and seeing a clothing demonstration at the Royal Courts (one of the crowd got to don a full Justice's uniform)!

After hopping on a bus from the Royal Courts out to Whitehall it was off to Admiralty House and then the Horse Guards. Nothing too flashy to note here, and that statement is inclusive of the changing of the guard. Upon leaving the grounds of the Horse Guards a crowd started to gather on the main road. Bizzare. On closer inspection it wasan anti-pope rally! Why people would bother protesting the pope's presence is beyond me.

Based on the rally's location it wasn't too hard to guess that the pope was going to appear nearby. After asking around we found out that the pope was indeed going to be present. This was confirmed by the large police presence. The pope was going to move from the Treasury building, past Buckingham palace, up the Mall, and all the way over to Hyde Park.

I set up camp outside the Treasury building where the barriers were to be placed. Best spot. The only caveat for locking down this spot was that I was over an hour early. So just like how I had to wait for the fireworks on Waterloo bridge for the Thames Festival, I had to wait over an hour for the pope to pop out of the Treasury building in the pope mobile.

The wait for the pope passed by slowly, but this was helped by having a chat with a couple of the policemen that were milling about. Found out that the policeman guarding the gate directly in front of me is in the last 100 to be one of the two-dozen or so policemen lucky enough to escort the olympic flame as it makes its way through England in 2010.

Finally, at long last, the pope came out of the Treasury building.... in his trusty popemobile! As the popemobile pulled out of the Treasury building and turned right onto his way to Hyde Park I got a wave from the pope. If not, well... close enough. As the popemobile trundled down the road at a brisk walking pace the pope continued to wave. A few of us in the crowd started running along-side the popemobile hoping to see as much of the pope as possibe. After a brief chase, I gave up and headed on home... as the crowds thickened, limiting mobility. An eventful first day of the London Open House, with a special guest appearance!


After all the excitement on the Saturday, Sunday just couldn't compete. Having said that, Sunday was still an eventful day. I was able to see the Bank of England, made it out to Greenwich, before heading back to City Hall.

Woke up early on Sunday morning to make sure that I could get in and see the inside of the Bank of England. I arrived at 9:45am, just in time for the 10 am opening. Not early enough. By the time I got there, there was already a line.. and it was long. It was 10:45 before I got to the doors of the Bank of England.

Out of all of the open houses, I learnt most by attending the Bank of England. Learnt that the Bank of England was initially a commercial bank not originally owned by the state, is built on top of some Roman mosaics, took over a local parish, has its own internal water supply, and is quite elaborte inside! My pick for the weekend.

After the tour of the Bank of England was complete I had a quick look at some of the currency on display. Knowing that I didn't have too much time to play with (as many of the open houses would have closed by 4pm), I quickly headed out to Greenwich via the DLR - my first ever journey on the Docklands Light Rail.

Why Greenwich? The Old Royal Naval College. No particular reason other than wanting to see where budding young sailors went to train so that they could defend the Empire. Given the importance of the Navy to the British, I thought that it would be a neat place to go.

The Old Royal Naval College is still in use today, in parts... as it's a part of the University of Greenwich. I was a bit late for the tours around the College, so I went for a bit of a wander. Really nice place, although much of the grounds are being refurbished. The Chapel and the Dining Hall are amazing, extremely elaborate... and I imagine outrageously expensive to kit out back in the day.

The Royal Observatory was the next stop on my pass through Greenwich, although the Observatory is usually free. Even though it wasn't a part of the London Open House, I was nearby, so it was still worth a visit. Didn't really have the time to go through all of the bits and pieces that the Observatory had to offer (i.e. the educational aspects of astronomy). Toured the grounds, took a few snaps of the Prime Meridian, then it was back to town.

I finished up my London Open House weekend with a trip to City Hall - the work place of the Mayor of London. The most notable aspects of City Hall are the strange spirally staircase going through the heart of the building, the large satellite photo of London on the floor of the ground floor, as well as providing a nice view of Tower Bridge.

Another busy week comes to an end.

The Thames Festival and the Proms in the Park

Extremely busy weekend this one, as it was the Last night of the Proms on Saturday as well as being the weekend of the Thames Festival. There seems to be quite a bit happening in the City of London of late! Good thing I haven't headed offshore yet - fills up the weekends :).

After getting up in the morning it was off to the Thames Festival - one of the bigger arts festivals in the UK... presumably to pay tribute to the importance of the River Thames. Funnily enough, I only really came across this event after walking through the London Information Centre one week prior! Knowing my luck, i'm sure i'll have a full annual calendar packed with things to do and see... upon the eve of my departure back home to Australia. Haha.

So the Festival itself was sprawled over four zones, along both banks of the River Thames - from Embankment to the west all the way out to Tower Bridge in the east. On the Saturday I began under the Huntingdon Bridge, traced my way through the southbank underneath the Oxo Tower, along the Jubliee walk and finally across Southbank Bridge. Not too many highlights on the first day - just the sand sculpture work and the Rivers of the World gallery making it into the mildly-interesting book. Clearly the first day of the Thames festival was not the best planned by me.


One of the reasons why the first day of the Thames festival was somewhat uneventful, was due to the fact that there was something planned for the Saturday evening - Proms in the Park. I delieberately cut the day short. Now, for those that are unaware of what the Proms are - it's effectively a two month long series of shows that features mostly classical orchestral music. The highlight of the Proms would be the Last Night of the Proms - which features some very patriotic British songs... some of which include Rule Brittania, Jerusalem, and Land of Hope and Glory.

Interestingly enough, some last-minute discounted tickets appeared and it was off to Hyde Park to see Proms in the Park! Arrived reasonably early, approximately 5pm, to get a good spot. Managed to find a good spot close up to the left tv screen, in front of the front left lighting tower. Some tips for those who want to get a good show is to get there early, bring a portable chair, bring a jumper, and bring a flag to wave.

Funnily enough, I would have thought that there would be more classical music playing at Proms in the Park given that the Proms itself is somewhat of a spotlight on classical music. However, Proms in the Park had a lot more variety. Proms in the Park ended up being a bit of a mini-ABBA songfest and a mini-Neil Sedaka featurette. Very fun given that everyone in the crowd was getting into it. Plenty of sing-a-longs and much dancing.

After the warm-up acts mentioned above, along with a few others, it was time for the main Park event - which included singing from Dame Kiri Te Kanawa, singing from José Carreras, and a neat little percussionst duo act. Once the entertaining live show in the Park concluded, it was time for the patriotic part on the big screens - straight from the Royal Albert Hall. Although I didn't know all of the words to the British tunes - they did have karaoke style text overlaying on the live feed into the Hall. Phew. Overall a great night, will have to go again next year!


Why not fill up an already busy Saturday with a Sunday filled with just as much. After a bit of a sleep in on Sunday morning, and following some domestic chores, it was off to the second day of the Thames festival. As I wasn't really all that interested in the going-ons in Zones 3 and 4, I decided to explore the key areas that I somehow missed on the Saturday - Jubilee Park.

There was much more happening at Jubilee Park, and good thing too - as I needed to do something before the Night Parade and the Fireworks. Jubilee Park was the home of the Freedom Stage, the Freedom Space and the Focus on Korea Stage. The definite highlights of the afternoon were the Taekwondo show (i.e. kicking blocks of wood) and the breakdancing shows in the Freedom Space.

Once the afternoon passed by it was time to get into a good position in preparation for the Night Parade. Only really got back just in time as the celebrants were already lining up along Victoria Embankment! Jogging down the street I found a nice place to set up shop, standing on the rails along the median strip some way down Victoria Embankment, nice and high above the crowds below.

Just prior to the commencement of the Night Parade the Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, wandered up Victoria Embankment to meet the crowd and get the parade started. Something I unexpected. The parade lasted for a good hour or so, and by the end of the parade itself my feet were absolutely wrecked! The parade was entertaining, and I felt that it was better than the one held earlier at Notting Hill. Having said that, many of the participants of the Notting Hill Festival were back once more to participate in the Thames festival. One of the highlights that I clearly remember was the robot - interacting with the crowd with its booming metallic voice!





The last spectacle of the night, following the Night Parade, was the Fireworks. The fireworks were scheduled for 9:45pm between Waterloo and Southwark bridges. As I was towards the head of the Night Parade proceedings I arrived early at Waterloo Bridge at approximately 8:30pm. Having said that... by the time I got to Waterloo Bridge it was already packed, thankfully I managed to slip into a spot approximately one third the way down from the north bank.

The hour or so long wait wasn't exactly exciting, however it's easy to be observant when there's not much going on. A couple wandered past and hovered around me as there was a small sliver of a spot next to me. Strange couple. Looked like a foreign lass of european descent and a local British lad. Much awkward conversation - perhaps it was the language barrier. Over the course of the time that they stood waiting there I found out that they had brought nothing to eat or drink, and they both were out of cash. After approximately half an hour of waiting and a bit of pressure by the lad to head back home, they were gone.

Onto the fireworks - they started on time, and all of us that were watching got a bit of a heads up prior to the main event with the release of some test fireworks going off along the south bank. To be honest, I wasn't really expecting much of the fireworks. In the end, they were quite reasonable. The fireworks lasted about ten minutes, and there was a good mixture of colour, size, and type of firework. A good way to finish off my post - with one of the happy snaps of the evening.

Borough Markets, British Library and the London International Animation Festival

Exploration and culture was the main flavour of the weekend. Borough Markets, the British Library, and the London International Animation Festival was what filled up the weekend just past. Still haven't been offshore yet, i'll get there!

After stumbling out of bed on a slightly overcast Saturday morning it was off to the Borough Markets (the weather wasn't quite good enough to trek up to Primrose Hill). I took the tube down to Moorgate and walked down accompanied by a friend from work. Admittedly, heading to the Borough Markets wasn't quite my idea... but a good idea nevertheless.

There always seems to be drama on my way to go see something. Bizzare. Last week it was wedding busses, now this week it was Nike leggings advertisments. On the way from St.Paul's towards Tate Modern (along the Millenium Bridge) there was a reasonably attractive lass jogging up and down on the spot, holding her hair up. Odd. She then stopped, rolled up her top to ensure that her midrift was exposed and did it again. Something was clearly not right. I continued walking across the bridge, and it all became clear. A cameraman was filming - I just didn't see him as he was behind a light shield (I didn't know it was one of those light shields until I focused on it properly). Below is a quick snap that I took of the situation.


After a stroll eastwards along the Thames from the Millennium Bridge we finally hit the Borough Markets. It was quite obvious that we had arrived based on the fact that there were umbrellas with the words “Borough Markets” emblazoned across them. Another good indicator besides the glaringly obvious was the mass of people milling about the banks of stalls inside three large connected pavilions. The stalls inside sold plenty, as variety seems to be the name of the game. Goods on offer included things such as cheeses, vegetables, cakes, seafood, wine, bread, olives … even plants!

One thing about the Borough Markets is that it isn’t all that big. There are just the three pavilions and everything is packed in fairly tight. You could easily do the entire circuit inside of an hour. Having said that, there’s definitely plenty on offer! I didn’t end up buying anything – with the exception of lunch. As it was roughly lunchtime I settled on a Bratwurst Roll with Sauerkraut, Ketchup, and Mustard. A decent feed, albeit a bit pricey.

There were a few things in the markets that were a bit more appealing than my lunch. The first notable item was a cheese stall. You could smell this stall from a mile away, and there were quite a few people queued up to sample the stall's wares. The interesting thing about this was that they had a block of cheese held in place under a flat rectangular prism heating the top of the block of cheese. Now, it was open for people to see so you could see the cheese ripple and bubble as it cooked. Looked quite tasty!


Another set of items to note was a pyramid of giant meringues. I’m not exactly a meringue connoisseur, and I’m not exactly sure how big they are supposed to be… but these things were massive. Each were a great deal larger than a fist! The stall that housed these meringues were at one of the extreme corners of the markets, so it didn't get alot of foot traffic. Several people did stop by and sample one though! Picture below.



A couple more shots from the markets:







On Saturday afternoon, after all was done with the Markets, I headed off to the British Library to see the Magnificent Maps exhibition. I decided to round out some sight seeing with some culture. The exhibition was great and is really something to see if you’re nearby, as it closes on the 19th of September. If I’m a bit of a nerd for visiting the exhibition, so be it. I used to love looking at the Altas when I was a young kid, and my relatives always used to quiz me on the geographic details when I was younger – “What’s the capital of Venezuela?” and “What’s the highest mountain in South America?” would be prime examples. Alas, age has stripped this information away from me.

Anyway, back to the reason why I enjoyed the exhibition. The exhibition appealed to me as it brought maps into perspective. In the modern age, we just take maps for granted and they effectively are a vehicle of factual information. If you want to find out where you are – a smartphone with GPS can tell you where you are and directions on where to go (if you so wish). In a not so intelligent sense, the maps scattered around London city provide a similar function.

Maps in ages past were used as items of prestige, a way for monarchs and aristocrats to display to guests the vastness of their dominion or estate. Maps were also prime vehicles for propaganda – something that isn’t immediately obvious in the modern age. Also, you get an understanding of knowledge at the time the map was created. For example in the Fra Mauro World Map of 1450, Earth was viewed as the centre of the universe!

Alas, no photos allowed inside the exhibition. Maybe it was no flash photography, but I was busy reading all the plaques and scrutinising details of maps, in anycase.

Finally, on Sunday evening it was the finale of the London International Animation Festival. I actually stumbled across this as I was wandering around the local shopping centre – and I must say that it was a pleasant surprise. I’ve never really been to an Animation Festival before, so I didn’t know what to expect. I’ve watched Anime (Japanese Animation) before, but I imagined that this would be quite different… and it was.

By the time I found out about the Festival it was just about over. That’s not an issue though as the very last session that had an available ticket was the “Best of the Festival” session at 7pm. Nice. Why sit through hours of both good and bad clips, when you can just see the good ones. Genius!

The show had an assortment of clips sourced from the competition as a whole. Some of it I didn’t enjoy – things like abstract computer-generated pieces, and sketch films that literally went all over the place. I’m sure from a technical standpoint they were great, but entertainment value was not really up to the mark. However, for every one that I diliked there was one that I thoroughly liked.

One of my favourites was a cute little animation from Canada about a runaway train, where the runaway train hits a steep hill after smashing through a bridge. In order to keep going they needed to burn items for fuel. Compounded by an exchausting supply of coal, the passengers reverted to burning clothes and part of the train itself to continue to struggle up the hill. An entertaining part was when money bags from the first class carriage were being passed to the back of the train, in exchange for clothing coming back to fuel the fire at the front of the train.

The other couple of clips that I enjoyed included a rebellious (read not-PG) clip where the oppressive state (represented by orange) struggles to contain a movement led by a man in a blue Gordini (sports car), a psychologically profound clip of a violent father from the perspective of the father’s son, and a somewhat dark/depressing wood-carved animation about a grandfather who passes away wanting a nice coffin in a poor ration-based state.

Clearly a busy weekend!

Notting Hill Festival 2010

Last weekend was the August Bank Holiday in the UK - where Bank Holiday equates to a general public holiday. On the Sunday and Monday of the Bank Holiday I went to one of London-town's big street festivals - the Notting Hill Carnival. Wasn't sure what to expect upon arrival, but it was a decent couple of days out - pulsing music, decent food, and plenty of colour!

Sunday marks the first day of the two-day festival, and it's designed to be the day for kids. In actual fact, spent much of the first day just wandering around the carnival area - getting bearings for the big street floats the next day. Sunday was therefore quite sedate - there were several parades milling about the streets but nothing significant. This may be due to the fact that I was in the wrong area altogether, or that there weren't all that many groups doing the rounds.

Bank Hoilday Monday was where it was all at. Since I already did the rounds on the Sunday, Monday was all about finding a good spot to see the show! Got to the show early and parked a little way down from the Judging panel. Great idea, right? Almost.

The layout of the judging area was that all the judges, the support tent, and vip guests were all along one side of the road... whereas the rest of the gathereres would be on the other side of the road. This meant that at times, the crowd near the judging area would only see the back of the dancers/revellers/whatever you'd call them. That and occasionally you'd have your view blocked by minders, official photographers / cameramen, and or police (although the police did do a good job managing the crowds).

A few representative pictures of the days events is posted below. Most memorable thing about the event is the music... carribean accented words blaring out of the speakers... "Part-eee Hard" thump, thump, thump, "Part-eee Hard!"... or "Wah-ter", boom, boom, "Wah-ter". Sometimes the music got so loud that it felt like the beats were pushing me away. Intense. Anyhoo, enough for now!