It doesn't change the fact that yesterday was a blast. Decided at the last minute to drive into London instead of taking the train---as it's safer and faster coming home then---and spent the entire trip in trying to get the congestion fee paid for on the telephone. Which meant getting our car registered first. Which got interrupted when we went through the tunnel. Still, it all got done in the end, so that was good.
We arrived around 3pm and since we weren't meeting
i_digress_uk until 5ish at the restaurant, we hit up Starbucks, and then hit Charing Cross Road. I *love* Charing Cross Road. Basically, it's a book lovers wet dream. Row after row of used book stores, Borders, Blackwells, Foyle's...sigh. We managed to kill that 2 hours like it was nothing. (Oh, and be prepared for Charing Cross to feature in my William fic. One of my favorite bookshops along the strip sparked the idea in the first place. Hee. I told Craig I need to go back at least a couple more times to more accurately do my research.)Dinner was absolutely wonderful, and we had a blast with Emma. It's so nice to have grown-up conversation! The theater was across the street, and we finally got into our seats about 10 minutes before curtain. The show was called "Sweet Panic" and is about a child psychologist and the various people that surround her over a week or two time period. Very black comedy. Nowhere near as brilliant as the play Emma and I saw in the same theater last fall.
Still, it was enjoyable. The woman who played the psychologist, Victoria Hamilton, was absolutely topnotch, with a mostly outstanding supporting cast. John Gordon-Sinclair had the funniest bits outside of the lead, as a nerdy transport expert who has just published a book on the London Metrobus---the first to do so---only to find out a German academic is doing the exact same thing. Rupert Evans played an ex-patient, and while he started out quite strong, by the time he got to his big scene in the 2nd act, I wasn't quite buying him. Still...he's very pretty. :) How ironic he was in the stage version of Venetian Heat.
The play's problem wasn't in the execution, but in the inconsistent script. It never quite made up its mind what it wanted to be and suffered for it. Plus, Craig and I still aren't sure what its point was. It raised a ton of questions and theories and didn't answer or stick with any of them. I wouldn't consider it a waste, though. We mostly had fun and walked out with smiles---albeit confused ones---on our faces.
Of course, we wanted to shoot the bitch three rows ahead of us who left her phone on and had it ring near the beginning of the second act. And then didn't get it turned off until it had rung 6 times. It might not have been such a big deal if mobile phones weren't playing an important part in the play; I think half the audience thought it had something to do with the show since she was sitting so close to the stage.
Ooo! And I found a great shop that was selling tons of Buffy stuff, including the Spike standee for £24.95. Not that I'll ever get it because hey, I have to draw the line somewhere (that, and the fact that Craig has made it *very* clear I'm not going to get one), but still, nice to know there's one in close range should the situation ever change. :)
I hope to get the next Rook chapter up Sunday or Monday, and I'll let everyone know which fanart won. It's weird, but the 2 favorites from the poll were *not* the favorites from the readers on my update list. Still haven't finished going through my e-mails, though, so maybe that will change.
