Green Park

Alright, back. Sharing a park bench with 2 old Italian ladies. Cute. It's very quiet and peaceful.

In the distance there are people sitting in the sun with their beach chairs. Bless these English people who have to treasure every little bit of sunshine.

This morning I went on a backstage tour of the National Theatre. It was built by (I'm sure those aren't the right words, but I can't find the right ones) Lawrence Olivier. It is a fully working theatre, and so we got to see all the sets and tech stuff backstage, and we got to watch a bit of an understudy rehearsal. It was really interesting getting to see a theatre in action. There's so much space backstage and so many different levels and ao many different things going on at once. The Theatre is a production house as well as a theatre, which means that the sets and props are also made there. They have a metalwork section, a carpentry section, then a scenic production section that will paint the sets and all that. We got to walk onto the set of one of the current productions, A Woman Killed With Kindness, about a woman in the who is unfaithful to her husband, but instead of raging at her, her husband tells her she can live in any of his mansions, but she can't see him or their children. It sounds really good, and our tour told us at the end that students 16-26 can sign up online for a free entry pass thing and you can get £5 tickets. Probably comes with a whole lot of spammage about their shows, but I'll check it out when I get home.

Anyway, the point about the sets was that pretty much everything is fake, made to look real. Everyone else probably already knows this, but when I go to see a show I try and enjoy it, and I don't think about things like that. The set was of a house, and everything was made of wood. Like staircase, which was painted to look like stone, and it DID look like stone. Except when you walked on it, it sounded hollow. Out tour guide was young, she was really good and enthusiastic and... Innocent in a way. She didn't play things up and make the storied elaborate, just told them really earnestly. The tour did go overtime a little bit- it was meant to be 75 minutes but went for almost 90, but that was okay because it was interesting (unlike the Kew Gardens one with the old lady) and also I hadn't exactly planned what to do after that.

Then I took a nice walk across the Thames and took the train to Green Park. This weekend the Thames Festival is happening, so along the river there were all these little stalls selling food, clothes, souvenirs. I took a slow walk through a little bit of it.

I was headed to the Curzon Mayfair, to get tick-

Wow that was odd. I just happened to look up while blogging and there was a guy walking past and he did a double take and told me that I was pretty and that I should be a movie star. He had an accent. He asked if I was Japanese. Then he asked if he could sit down next to me (the italian ladies had left). So he sat, a bit of a distance away so he wasn't uncomfortably close. Then told me I was really pretty again. I said ummm I'd rather study, thanks, then he just had a little monologue with himself about how if you study hard God will reward you. So I smiled and nodded, being aware of the phone that was in my hand and the bag that was next to me. After a while he said he'd give me his card, if I ever wanted to have dinner. I was like ummm no thanks, but he gave it to me anyway. It was a brochure for Kleftiko Fully Licensed Greek Restaurant. 0207 7603 0807, if anyone's interested. So I asked if he was Greek and he was like yeah but I'm British. Then he said bye and upped and left. He was just being friendly. I think. Or maybe that's just how European guys are. He didn't seem sus and I don't expect to see him again, but if I was ever looking for a Greek restaurant... I now know one! (uhh that was sarcastic, it's okay dad. And Dave.)

Ummm so about the Curzon. I kinda have to go there now, update later!



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Location:Spur Rd,London,United Kingdom