"Thanks for pepping up the matinee"

The last couple of days have been truly rad. On Wednesday we had to part with Emi as she is returning home after ten months of traveling...lucky thing! (The traveling, not the going home...) It was sad, but we had the best time with her. It rained all of that day so Bron and I took refuge in a cute little pub called 'The Bear and Staff' for the afternoon. I then got to meet up with another friend from school, Maddy. Catching up with people from home in British pubs is pretty much amazing...you should all come over here so that you can do it too. Today we're meeting up with Dan Tuckerman and Sam :)

Yesterday we went back to The Globe to see Henry IV part 2...it was truly magnificent! I don't know where they find such talented actors, but everyone in it was incredible! One of the things I love most is that all of the actors have done screen work, but they just keep coming back to the stage - it's great. After the show we went to 'The Swan', which is the pub at The Globe, to get a pint. I was sitting outside minding a table when I glanced inside and saw Bron coming towards me with the ultimate "Oh my god, oh my god, oh my god" look on her face. I went inside to see what the deal was and Jamie Parker was standing at the bar. Our conversation went something like this...

"Excuse me, sorry to bother you but can we please have a photo with you?"
"Yes, absolutely. In fact I insist! Shall we all have a pint in our hand?"

Then we all stood with our pints while another member of the cast took the picture for us. You'll probably notice the mildy goofy look on Jamie's face...it's because the picture was taken while he was in the middle of saying "Say Shakespeare!"

"SAY SHAKESPEARE!"

We then had a lovely little conversation about the show and he said "Thanks for pepping up the matinee, it was lovely to meet you" and then went outside and took our table. A few seconds later he reappeared and went to hand something to the bartender saying "Someone left this outside..." ... it was my wallet. Woops. What a gentleman. And if, like my mother, you're wondering, my wallet still had everything in it - he didn't touch the £80 or snatch my credit card.

That is basically the end of my story. It was an amazing day - Bron and I are still grinning.

In other news, we went to the Victoria and Albert museum and saw a 'Fashion through the ages' exhibition - it was pretty cool. My favourite dress was this cool pearly one which belonged to Princess Diana.

It looks so heavy...

Cool sculpture made of trees!

Bron and I danced across Westminster Bridge...we may or may not have been pretending we were in Doctor Who...she was The Doctor, I was Rose.

We went shopping on Oxford Street. I think we spent a total of like £6 each because they have some ridiculously cheap shops here. Emi bought a pair of shoes for a pound!

We explored the Tate Modern, which is in my opinion one of the ugliest buildings in London. It did have some cool art in it though. However, it also had children in it. Who takes their small children to a gallery of modern art? There was also a baby at The Globe, crying through the performance...who takes a grizzly baby to Shakespeare? Ugh, children....is about all I have to say.


We also went to Covent Garden and bought the most amazing punnet of strawberries I have ever eaten. They were amazing...we even took photos of them...

That's all for now, must head to the pub.

<3 Courtney

P.S. This was my 'post Jamie Parker face'

P.P.S As fabulous as this blog post is, it still hasn't quite captured the crazy happiness. And everyone should check out Roger Allam, coolest man alive. Bron xox

Why Does It Always Rain On Me?

The other day we moved hostels over to the other side of Hyde Park. Really, it's probably about two kilometers away, so it's a pretty awesome location still. It has decided to rain though. The weather here is so odd. I had the idea that we'd have rainy days where it would rain and just keep raining, but at the moment the norm seems to be if the morning is cloudy, it will rain at some point during the day, and then stop, and then rain... and then stop. Regardless, I'm still walking around in shorts and no jacket and feeling very comfortable. It's kickin'.

Something else I've noticed is that there are no car parks or parking lots anywhere in London. As far as I can tell, they go out of their way to make driving in London as unpleasant as possible so as to deter people from driving. It's a pretty awesome idea. I'm so used to the 'let's knock some shit down and build a car park' mentality of Canberra. Then again, the public transport here is infinitely superior to that of Canberra.

The other day the three of us went up on the London Eye to check out the view. We were on there for about half an hour just slowly going around. The view was fabulous, but I'm convinced it would have been a lot better if it was spinning really, really fast. We also spoke to our first Welsh person. Every now and then through out the day Courtney would just say 'I can't believe how cool her accent was! So cool!' I'm not sure how she'll cope when we go to Wales. Probably just giggle all the time.

On the 'Eye'

The view: House of Parliment, Westminster... That builing from 'Party Animals'

We went to the London equivelent of the Labor Club (we didn't choose it. It was pretty horrid) to meet one of Courtney's other friends the other night, in my least favourite part of London around Oxford Street and Piccadilly Circus. It's so touristy. Full of Ripleys believe it or not and chain stores and other horrid shit. For example: tourists. But we did try pimms for the first time and it was quite pleasant. I still don't know what it is though...

We also had a quick squizz at the Victoria and Albert Museum, which I may go back to a little later today (yay for free entry!) As it is, we just checked out some sick sculptures and a 'fashion through the ages' type exhibition. For the record, the ages have had some pretty shit fashion. Some of the clothes were extremely gorgeous though. In the next few days we might check out St Paul's Cathedral and the British Museum. We drooled over St Paul's a bit last week before noticing that it was something like £12 entry and scurrying away. It does seem like something not to miss though.

The Globe again yesterday too!! But more on that later... To sum it up, this was the general facial expression we had for several hours after.

EEEEEEEH!!

Love,

Bron <3 <3

The Smell of the Stage...

It seems Courtney has told you all that I'm going to go crazy writing about the Globe. I mean, I was going to anyway, but she's left me with a lot of responsibility!!!

Sittin' against The Globe

On one of our walking days we pretty much accidentally stumbled across The Globe. It's just nestled amongst a bunch of buildings next to the Thames and we were like 'Hey man! It's the freakin' Globe!' And It was the freakin' Globe. We proceeded to walk around it in awe and 'ooh' and 'aah'. As Courtney mentioned, we love a movie called The History Boys, which has a character in it called Scripps, played by an actor called Jamie Parker. He's our favourite character, and on researching what was going to be playing while we were here Courtney found out he was playing Prince Hal in Henry IV Part 1 and 2. We love Jamie Parker, we love Shakespeare. We lost our shit a little bit.

Jamie Parker!!!

We bought tickets to the 'Groundling' area (where you stand in the area in front of the stage) for £5. £5!!!!! It's unbelievable!! Cheaper than a movie, better than a movie, and all taking place at the London Globe. We took a little guided tour of the theatre before heading to the play and found that they can fit 900 people sitting and 700 standing. Now, if you could see the Globe, you'd think this was impossible. I still think it's impossible. It must be a TARDIS... In our over excitement we decided to line up an hour early, chow down on some lunch and get us some prime standing spots. We were RIGHT ON THE STAGE!! Our elbows were on it!

This brings me to the title of this post. The stage smells magnificent! Really, it just smells like wood, but it's such a pleasant smell. That coupled with being no more than about three metres from the actors at any one time made it my favourite moment so far. One of the disclaimers on the map of the theatre is that the action is going to be obscured at some point regardless of where you are in the theatre. The only time the action was obscured from us was when there was an actor reclining in front of us. Yep.

We were standing at the bit where the stage goes out at an angle!

I feel sorry for Bell Shakespeare now. They are never going to be able to live up to our Globe experience. I haven't seen a production from them anywhere near as good as this was since Hamlet, and I'm pretty sure I was like 13 when they did that. You know what's the most exciting though? We're going to see part two on thursday!! More Jamie Parker! More Shakespeare! More stage smell!! I love The Globe so very much.

I think that counts as a rant. Job done!

Bron xoxoxox

'Panic on the Streets of London'

Not really... Just lots and lots of walking.

On our first day we just decided to suss things out and check out how many things we had to do before we left. We chose to walk, which really isn't that bad. London is pretty damn small and the streets are relatively easy to navigate. We were so enchanted by all of the buildings and landmarks from documentaries and BBC productions being right in front of us that we strolled and strolled, barely noticing the many hours that had passed. By the time we were near that weird giant gherkin building when Courtney stopped and exclaimed 'Fuck!', we had gone from Gloucester Square in South Kensington all the way to Monument. Courtney said 'Fuck!' because her stupid sneakers had given her blisters (back to wearing boots!)

First day from Kensington to Monument, Second day from The Tower of London to Westminster. Eeek!

Benny Boy

THE GHERKIN!! I think it's very cool.

St Pauls and Millenium Bridge. Courtney was pretending she was in Harry Potter. Thankfully the bridge didn't fall down though.

On our second day we went to the tower of London to check out the crown jewels and and epic awesome giant ravens. It seems the Monarchy has got so paranoid that they've caged them all up so that it's impossible for them to leave. They also all seem to have gone slightly crazy, which we thought may have been a reflection of the Royal family... The crown jewels were actually amazing. They had the Koh-I-Noor and the Cullinan. Ridiculously large diamonds set into crowns and sceptres. We also decided that we'd rather like to live in a castle. Of course. We then walked all the way back to Westminster (on the opposite side of the Thames to last time. Courtney has come to the realisation that she is terrified of those creepy living statues. There are heaps of them dressed as Charlie Chaplin and Gorilla's. A chameleon too. Fucked if I know why...) We haven't been in Westminster or St Pauls yet. They're so expensive we're trying to bring ourselves to part with the £12ish entry fees.

Castle life.

Crazy Raven

OH! We met some squirrels too!!! One came out in front of us in Kensington and satisfied the tourist in us by picking up an acorn in it's mouth and scampering off. I'd forgotten they existed so spent the rest of the day pretty much staring into every tree we passed. We then went to Kensington Palace (basically a big, mean brick house) and found ourselves surrounded by them. A guy was there feeding them and calling them Charlie. Apparently squirrels are called Charlie... Every time a tourist spots one they squat down, put their hand out and start making a clicking noise at them. The squirrels just kind of stare like 'What the fuck mate? I'm not that stupid.' Little champs.

Charlie and Friend

Gettin' low

Plus, Tourists are gross. Courtney and I thought we were bad until we started doing proper touristy stuff. When we watched the changing of the guards, safe on top of a two and a half metre wall we scrambled up, the mounted police looked as if they were just about to lose their shit. I don't blame them. Their horses looked pretty chilled though...

Gross Crowds. There were even more people than this.

To top all of this off, the tall blonde Swedish boy in the bed above me decided to bring a gal home the other night and have loud, ten person dorm sex. I was busy being horrified, but Courtney tells me that there was a guy awake on his lap top and a couple of Spanish dudes talking to each other above her. I thought we'd experience some of this eventually, but not on our third night!! Oh, and she sounded less than satisfied.

Love,

Bron xoxox

P.S. We went to the globe yesterday and it was my favourite thing so far. Possibly ever. Brace yourselves for some ranty posting about that!

Cardinals and Kings

One of the things I really wanted to do overseas was convice my tastebuds that they liked beer. I decided that the best place to start was a good old fashioned London Pub. On Saturday my friend Emi arrived in London. To celebrate this (and to prepare ourselves for a Tony Abbott victory) we decided to find our first pub. Gorgeous Joseph Gubler of Dendy Canberra had recommended 'The Cardinal' to us, so we google-mapped it up and went hunting. It was basically the best. The bartender was ridiculously friendly and let me try the different types of beer, I then purchased my first pint of lager.

(That's actually how excited I was...)

Five hours, four pints and one plate of fish and chips later we left. I plan to go back very soon.

The Globe theatre was built in the late 16th century and was one of the most popular theatres of its time. In 1613 a spark from a stage cannon ignited the thatched roof and the theatre was burnt to the ground. In the 1990's the Globe Theatre was rebuilt, and it's amazing. I'm not going to go on too much about this, because Bron's on the computer next to me and I imagine she's writing about this too... The production we saw was Henry IV part 1. We partly chose this one because the part of Prince Hal is being played by Jamie Parker (Scripps in 'The History Boys' for those of you who have seen it). We love him. It was amazing. We paid £5 for our tickets and literally got to rest our elbows on the stage as we watched the show. Immediately after we went and bought tickets for part 2. I'll let you know how it was.

That's all for now, breakfast is on... <3

Two men on a tree stump...

The other day Bron and I were strolling through Hyde Pard and we saw two men in suits sitting on a tree stump drinking wine and eating cheese. I fell in love. Unfortunately, when we walked past them they showed no interest in us...sigh...

Hyde park is my favourite place in London so far. It is amazing. It's full of people walking their incredibly cute dogs, people having picnics and people just strolling through. We had a picnic there yesterday. It consisted of ham and cheese sandwiches, crackers, £1 brie, jaffer cakes, cider and beer. It was swell.

I also love the Albert Memorial. It's just across the road from Royal Albert Hall. The first time we went there we sat on the steps and watched old folks drink champagne out of plastic cups before heading into the BBC Proms...we're going to do that next week.

Fun fact: It would appear that drinking in public places is not illegal in London. Aww yeah.

This was my first blog post ever. I hope that someone reads and enjoys it.

<3 Courtney <3

P.S. The beer I was drinking was called 'Fursty Ferret'. Expect more on the subject!!! Bron xox

'I have some fucking Jaffa Cakes in my coat pocket!!!'

Seriously, I do. Well... I don't have a coat. But I do have Jaffa Cakes. They're something that I've been very excited to eat thanks to Spaced (If you don't know what Spaced is, google it, and then watch it. Amazing.) Turns out Jaffa Cakes are just as good as I was led to believe and they may be mine and Courtney's down fall. We also bought them from a Sainsbury's, which was exciting maybe the first two times.

On our first night here we didn't want to fall asleep, despite the fact that we'd been on a plane flight for eleven hours. An eleven hour plane flight where we left at 1:25 and arrived at 5:30. To stay awake we went for a wander down the road in Kensington, which is SO GORGEOUS! All of the houses are Victorian Terraces (Courtney tells me) and are pretty much immaculate. There are little flower boxes, and red phone boxes (Yay!) and people walk around during the day cleaning up rubbish, washing the pavement and watering the plants. It's nuts!

Flowers, Terraces, Courtney, and some bloke.

Just down the road is the Natural History museum, which I thought was the most beautiful building I'd ever seen for about ten hours. Another hundred metres and you're at the Victoria and Albert museum, and just to top it all off, we strolled down to Buckingham Palace to say high to the Queen, who according to the raised flag, was home.

They're everywhere!! I called mum and dad from the one on the right. So cool.

Natural History Museum

I pretty much love London.

Love Bron xox

P.S. I called my Mum from the telephone box on the left... <3 Courtney

Korea?

Courtney and I are sitting in the hotel business centre of what is probably the poshest place I will ever stay. In Korea. Which is weird. There's also some kind of massive bible themed park being built over the road, which we observed whilst eating breakfast and dinner. It's also weird...

To be honest, we're a little bit embarressed. Neither of us did any research on Korea and neither of us, past the fact that it's near the air port, have any idea where we are. We are so white...

It's 30 degrees here and there isn't a whole lot of air conditioning at the airport, so we hopped off the plane and sweltered a bit. Then saw some dudes walking around the airport with big guns, making us realise how very sheltered we are.

Sydney was also nice, but we had the vegemite song stuck in our heads for ages in the excitement of Courtney remembering to pack some.

Will write with more interesting news soon, got to go catch a plane!!!!!!!

Missing you all already! (Seriously!!!)

Love Bron xo

PS: I miss you all too! And will blog soon <3 Courtney <3