Straight out of West Central London

[doubleshiny]

I decided this weekend to go to London, visit some friends, hang about, see if i could get run over by a pushbike, that kind of thing. Let's skim right over the part where my card was declined at the hotel (through a series of errors and 'issues' which were uncorrectable because banks aren't open on Saturdays, you know, when everyone needs them) because that story is more tedious to re-tell than it was to live.

I ended up at the St Giles Hotel which was very nice and right by Tottenham Court Road tube. I met up with my mate Clarry in a pub called the Princess Louise and we talked hysterical bollocks for a few hours and did a podcast, which should be making its way towards www.thegreatbarred.com very soon. At least, within the next month. Or before Christmas.

Clarry was off to a Veronica Mars convention at the Thistle Heathrow so I called my pal LiLi and she suggested a trip to the pictures to see Gone Baby Gone, which was an enormous pile of crap. The photography was good, and Casey Affleck was okay but the female 'sidekick' was a simpering idiot who constantly needed defending or rescuing. The dialogue wasn't bad but the script itself was structured like an ADHD sufferer's nightmare and the ended was completely unbelievable. Good job I was drunk through most of it and trying to eat chicken nuggets out of a bag.

Next day I was pretty skint because of the hotel debacle so I set about trying to prove that you can have fun in London without spending too much money. I went to St James' park, which is one of my favourite places in London. I like watching the fat, fearless squirrels grabbing at Japanese tourists' nuts and the pelicans who always have a crowd of people around them. There are some great views from the bridge over the lake of the london eye on one side and Buckingham Palace on the other side. There are kids cooing at the ducklings. I thought I might jog over to the Cabinet War Rooms but it was £12 to get in so I jibbed that and headed for Trafalgar Square. The National Gallery is free so I went in there to look at Van Gogh's sunflowers, Botticelli's Venus and Mars and Turner's The Fighting Temeraire amongst others.  There was also an exhibition by Alison Watt called Phantom, which may have looked okay in the Tate Modern but alongside the old masters it just looked like a dodgy canvas print that you could pick up in IKEA.

After I went to the National Portrait Gallery,  which I preferred because they had a lot of photographs and they make more sense to me. I think the fact that the medium has self-imposed limits it what I like, it shows real accomplishment when people's photographs make you gasp because scientifically the medium is restricted by light and image production. They had loads of pictures by Bryan Adams (yes, that Bryan Adams) which were actually really good. 

I was meeting my friend Stephen who's in a play at the Kings Head in Islington which is like a pub with a theatre in the back, In fact it's exactly like a pub with a theatre in the back. The musical was called Betwixt and it was great, entertaining and with some really good songs. It was camp as Christmas which to be honest is what I want in a musical. Ste was playing the lead which was great for him and he's next coming up to Liverpool to play Oberon in A Midsummer Night's Dream.

So that was that, I had a pint of Hoegaarden which cost £4.50 for God's sake but apart from that a nice trip. Next week I'm going to eat Chinese, play Rock Band and record a Cribscast with Kev and I think that will be just as good, plus cheaper.

Comments

[gossi.livejournal.com]

When I was last in London for the tibet stuff I had absolutely no money - not even for the tube to get to the demo - so I walked everywhere and tried to keep myself occupied. I, too, took a tour of the parks. I had to stay in London until 9pm to get the train back (damn you Virgin Value fairs), and hadn't eaten all day. By 8pm I considered eating a chocolate bar I had found in Euston station. I won't say if I did or not.

It was grim.