The Earth Beneath Her Feet

The Aussie guy I met in Tokyo popped up in London again yesterday and asked me to meet up in Leicester Square with him and some friends at 6pm. I vaguely remembered Leicester Square was a bad idea, so jumped out at Tottenham Court Road and walked down the road towards the square. I was almost there when I heard screaming. Lots and lots of screaming.

That's Cracker Robbie Coltrane, aka Hagrid, being interviewed on the big screen at the soggy premiere of Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince. A group of teenagers next to me were squeeing over a slightly damp notebook with autographs. It wasn't possible to get any closer and anyway the others had texted to say they'd found refuge in a pub back up Charing Cross Road.

Just as I'd left the square, a well-known actor came hurrying down the road past me, presumably on his way to the premiere. Annoyingly, I couldn't remember his name. He'd been on Inspector Morse once but I wasn't about to wade through 12 series on IMDB to find him. Fortunately, Wingnut came back from the Netherlands an hour ago and helped pin it down, it was Simon Callow, who was Gareth from Four Weddings and a Funeral, Dickens in Dr Who, and the band manager in Lewis. I shall sleep well tonight.

It's long been a habit of mine to have a dinner break in Brussels before catching the Eurostar back to London. It's not my favourite of cities but I just like to wander round to see what I can see. There's always something good.

My Dutch uncle from NZ recently reminded me that language is still a vexed issue in Brussels. He twice trotted out his hastily learned French only to be told a little gruffly that "you can speak Dutch, it's not all French here no matter what they say." I guess it's not something that presses itself onto my attention -- I always speak French in Brussels but the worst that can happen is that someone drops a word of English into the conversation to show they're onto me. :-)

It's been a fun few days in the Netherlands, but London calls so I'm back again and starting to sort through some of the photos before heading to my own bed.

Presenting part two of why you should sleep over at an SF fan's house:

Their child's bedroom has this view too. I am unspeakably envious.

There was heaps to do in Hammersmith (west London) last Thursday lunchtime. The Lyric Theatre's public rooftop garden opened earlier this month to provide some much needed greenery. It still looks a little bare, but that will improve with time.

From my vantage point, I took some shots of the lunchtime entertainment in Lyric Square. When I came down for the next performance, I realised the kid who'd volunteered to help the unicyclist was still there, so I asked the adult with her if they'd like to see the photos. It turned out that they were from Arizona, although the grandmother was originally from Ireland and was also an old Londoner. She reckoned the area used to be a real dump and Lyric Square certainly wasn't called that in her day.

The next performance was courtesy of a small delegation from the BBC Symphony Orchestra, members of which were playing in London throughout the day to promote the new Proms season. They had a challenge or two to contend with. After one or two Beatles songs, the person who was tinkling away on the "Play Me, I'm Yours" piano (one of 30 scattered around the city) was asked nicely to be quieter during the performance. That settled, the gusts of wind got so bad that the cellist and a violinist had to put a foot on their music stands to stop the sheets escaping. While continuing to play as if everything were normal. Don't think that'll be necessary at the Proms but it was impressive nonetheless. :-)

It's a little early as I'm actually leaving on Wednesday (and then only for a few days) but this vid dropped into the mailbox this morning and amused.

Goodbye London - Luke Jackson. It's worth going fullscreen.

The animations mostly visit Camden and Hampstead, but there's a little bit of East London towards the end.