London, yeah!

I am currently in the Montreal Airport on the way home, waiting for my plane. Thank you Montreal for having free wireless. Apologies for being behind in the posts, but I figured I'd better live the adventure and blog about it in the gaps between. I hope you agree.

Last I left off, Greg and I had just arrived in London - city of history and expense. We were wonderfully able to stay with my Aunt and Uncle (thank you!) in London, allowing us to exist in the expensive big city world.

London was a "coming home" of sorts for me - having lived there (England) for the past year. Goodbye euros and hello pounds! London was the last stop for Greg who had never been to England before. My only regret was that I didn't see my cousin Nicky (and Rav) and my newborn niece Mia in those four days. Next time...

We began by diving right into the Thames. We walked the entire length of the river from Westminster Abby, the Houses of Parliament and Big Ben to Tower Bridge and back. South and North sides. It was a wonderfully exhausting walk that gave us great views of St. Paul's Cathedral, Tate Modern, London Tower, Shakespeare's Theater and the London Eye (which is so expensive, you had to sell your soul for the high view. We opted to keep our soul and steal a view from the top of the Tate Modern - for free!)

What tour of London isn't complete without a trip to one of my fav places on Earth - the Natural History Museum. Greg was impressed by the dinosaur skeletons and I was impressed by the lack of crushing crowds. Everyone wins! The robotic T-Rex was exceptionally good this time round. Scaring kids...hehe...

After introducing Greg to the 'Pub Life' in England ("Can anyone murder a Guinness?"), we explored Leicester Square and picked up half-price tickets to two "Broadway" shows: Avenue Q and Spamalot. Both beyond spectacular and a very nice change from the norm Phantom of the Opera and Les Miserables.

Avenue Q is a small show about life in on a run-down street on the edges of New York, where 20 and 30-somethings search for their purpose while dealing with adult situations. Also, most of the characters are puppets. Imagine Sesame Street all grown up and having lost all it's money. Princeton (puppet) moves into a tenement run by Gary Coleman, falls in love (and other stuff) with Kate Monster (puppet), and lives with other puppets and humans. Trekkie Monster (Cookie Monster without ANY morals) stole the show. Left humming the songs. Highly hilarious!

The next night, we had back row of the top top back balcony nosebleed seats for Monty Python's Spamalot. With the last tickets available, we entered the theater only to be told to talk to this woman. Confused, we go and see her. We are then suddenly upgraded to floor seats with fantastic views! A few minutes later, the curtain rises and the laughs never stop. In fact, I'd have to say that Spamalot (The Search for the Holy Grail movie put to musical) was one of the funniest things I had ever seen, ever. If it comes to Vancouver, SEE IT. Your muscle spasmed face and sore sides will thank you!

And we had one more treat for us before we left. Cousin Dave had alerted me to a special film opening we all attended our last night in London. Death Proof, Quentin Tarantino's new film, was premiere-ing at the theater Dave works at - The Ritzy in Brixton. Not only would we see the film, but Tarantino himself (master of Pulp Fiction and Kill Bill) was there for a question period! One of my film mentors passed me going into the cinema, looked at me and said, "Hey there!"

The film was actually better than I expected (sexy girls getting stalked and killed by Kurt Russel and his killer car) and Tarantino was great. He did not fail to show off his arrogance, child-like giggles and general happy director guy. Very cool!

Goodbye to Greg...
And on to New York for me!