London - 19 Jan 06

19 January 2006

It might happen on occasion that I will get home too late on a night to write anything coherent in my journal for that day. Such was the case on the night of the 18th. It was a long day of classes topped off with a pantomime of Aladdin, starring Sir Ian McKellen as the Widow Twanky, at the Old Vic. It was a surreal experience, seeing such a great actor on stage just a few feet away from me. At one point, McKellen broke from Twanky's voice into his Gandalf voice to say, “One ring to rule them all.” Later on in the pantomime an actor held up George Bush’s underpants. Widow Twanky said, “That is so Tony Blair can hear what President Bush is saying.” This was in reference to the flap in the rear of George Bush’s underpants. That line might have received the biggest gasps and laughs of the night.

Today involved an awkward run through at my publishing internship. I think I met about thirty people. I start Tuesday and I don’t know what the heck I will be doing. I also set up a new blog specifically for this trip. I am calling it the Piccadilly Line, in honor of the Underground line that I use most. Lastly, I saw A Comedy of Errors at the Novello Theatre near the Strand, but on Aldwych I believe. Tomorrow is a day trip to Bath. It will be fun.

I speak with Kate every other day. There is so much to fit into a shorter in length, but much costlier conversation. I miss her and oddly enough I feel like she is quite close, and not in the middle of the country on the other side of the Atlantic.

I forgot to mention that on the first Saturday here, during the bus tour, I saw a 10 block long line for one opening in the next Harry Potter movie. Doubtful it is that all those young girls had any acting experience at all. My eyes are shutting down.

I didn’t write as consistently as I would have liked to, however, I did catch the highlights and details about what I did almost everyday I was overseas. I would see Ian McKellen in another play in April. He is good onscreen, but much more impressive on the stage.

I don’t know why I felt Kate was so close. I think I spent a lot of the time daydreaming about the sights Kate and I would get to see together when she got there. She is always in my thoughts, but the amount of time and energy I spent thinking about her seemed to increase with the miles that separated us.

The Harry Potter line, gosh, I wish you could have seen it. It was ten blocks long, but it also went down and up every alley or side street that intersected the main avenue the line was on.

Happy Thanksgiving!