ommadawn.dk - London

London, 2002

Wed, 04 Jun 2008 00:00:00 +0200

Tags: Books, Events, London, Me, Movies, Music, Pictures, Science fiction, Vacation

In the summer of 2002, July 3-9, I had a summer holiday in London. This time I didn't have much planned before I left home - only some addresses, some vague ideas, and a feeling that I would get up every morning and then decide what I wanted to do that day. Actually I ran out of ideas the last day, bought a guide book, and went to the first place that sounded interesting. It worked!

This review of my trip won't mention dates and stuff like that, and I won't include every single thing I did. Only those I found very interesting, and would recommend to others.

Forbidden planet

For the first time I had a strong feeling, I would shop while in London, and this feeling primarily had something to do with going to Forbidden planet. This shop has everything a fantasy and/or science fiction fan could wish for: books, videos, merchandise, autographs, a discount system for Star Trek fans... I found some books, I very much look forward to reading, including a book of Star Trek quotes - boy, at some point I was planning to do one of my own! It feels great to have been here (I heard about it for the first time a few years ago), it didn't quite meet my expectations, but I will still come back here, I hope.

The store

Tate and National Gallery

One of my big plans was to see a lot of paintings, and I had a couple of guided tours at Tate and National Gallery. I have this feeling seeing a painting is just like reading a book: a story is being told, or a feeling is being conveyed, or... Trouble is, in this case the book is in Japanese, or in other words: I don't quite know the language of painting yet. Which is why I need the guided tours, because they translate the paintings for me. I saw a depressing picture (1), and didn't know that depressing was "bad" at the time it was painted - today it is accepted. I saw a picture with nature showing its teeth (2) - and didn't know, that at the time grandeur of any kind usually was connected with the greatness of God. And then one of the really complicated pictures, where everything was a symbol for something (3): the number 9 on the sun dial (the holy trinity if I remember correctly), the poppy flower (opium addiction), the dove (innocence) and so on. I saw Virgin Mary in a blue dress (4) - blue usually meant royalty, because the color blue was very expensive. And so on, and so forth. I just loved the guide mentioning the hover tiger (5)! And for some reason, I quite liked the few van Goghs I saw (6). And of course, with some pictures (7), the story wasn't that important - the colors were beautiful, that was everything that mattered. And with other pictures (8), I never quite understood why the painting was ever done - there was no story I could see, it was ugly and so on.

The boring details. (1) The field of Waterloo; JMW Turner. (2) The fall of an avalanche in the Grisons; JMW Turner. (3) Beata Beatrix; Dante Gabriel Rossetti. (4) The virgin and child; Masaccio. (5) Tiger in a tropical storm (surprised!); Henri Rousseau. (6) Sunflowers; Van Goghs chair; Long grass with butterflies; A wheatfield, with cypresses; all by Vincent van Gogh. (7) Norham Castle, sunrise; JMW Turner. (8) Sunny morning - eight legs; Lucian Freud.

A wheatfield

IMAX

Before leaving home, I accidentally read about 3D movies in London. I sought out IMAX and saw Space Station 3D. They were very friendly at IMAX - I bought my ticket very early, and was allowed to see the end of the movie before mine! The 3D effects were very good - at some point I was sure I could have touched a thing on the screen! Alas, that was only the intro - the actual movie was very sober, and didn't abuse (?) the effects... It was a good movie, with a serious narrative by Tom Cruise. I learned a few things I didn't know about ISS - a project that has sort of snuck up on me, a big surprise for an old space program and SF fan!

Space Station 3D

Elvis

Saturday night I was lucky enough to be at a party. Some of the music was live, a man and a woman and a tape player or something. Suddenyl the man left, and in came - Elvis! I guess my fast mind thought: if he can be an Elvis copy, I can be a fan copy! So I threw myself on the floor in front of him, fondling his knees, looking at him with big, wet eyes. Well, he liked the joke, and played along! Before I knew it, he was singing a love song (Can't help falling in love with you) mainly for me, we were dancing and holding hands, and I even think he gave me a kiss, before finishing the song. The other party guest also liked the joke, and laughed. This was a very personal, very strong experience for me: Elvis sang a love song to me! And the biggest thing I remember from this vacation.

Smiling

Les Miserables

I had half a plan, and found the energy to turn it into a full plan: buying a very good ticket for Les Miserables. The musical, you know. Running for 18 years or something like that. Way back when it was playing in Denmark, everybody asked me whether I had seen it - after the show had ended! So for 10 years, I've wanted to see this. And now I had the chance! I knew the music quite well, but hadn't quite figured out the plot. Well. Now I know the plot. And I like this musical, and have plans to see it again, if possible. I actually cried a couple of times near the end - only quality does that to me! Since then, I've read the book.

Miserable child

The loot

And finally. As I said, I shopped a bit. And here's the loot.

Books and stuff

London, 1998

Tue, 20 May 2008 00:00:00 +0200

Tags: Concert, Events, London, Me, Mike Oldfield, Pictures, Vacation

(This was originally an email to Amarok, the Mike Oldfield mailing list. Sent 4 days after September 4, 1998, and the world premiere of Tubular Bells 3, at Horse Guards Parade.)

Hejsa!

Yes, I know, you've already heard all you need to know about the concert... But I have a few scattered thoughts...

One thing I haven't heard much talk about. I thought it was quite fascinating to watch Robin Smith (conductor of TB2, and now TB3, also playing keyboards). He conducted in a quite casual way: a bit here and there, but most of the time just playing things I couldn't really hear on the keyboard (maybe complementing chords of the others?), rocking along and looking quite relaxed and happy. And if it comes to that: I think he's quite cute, but Obi doesn't agree?

Am I the only one who thinks the bass player was not only tough looking, but a bit arrogant looking?

It was great being at the concert with friends from all sorts of places. We were 9 Danes, who went to London together. I also met lots of other people, I mostly know by mail or email. It was quite good. And it's fun seeing my own name mentioned by other people who were there. I have witnesses: I've been to the MO concert! So with that in mind: Chris K., Sunjammer with friends, Paul Ha., Chris D., David P., Simon L., Ralf, Stefan N., Jens L. and probably others, I can't remember right now - good seeing you there! (If you have the picture taken at the DS convention: I'm the one on the right with the ponytail, at that moment getting a signature from Tom Newman!)

Lise

And yes, I can prove I was there. Apart from the picture mentioned above, there was also a picture (384 KB) taken from the stage. This smaller version of it shows me, Ian and Obi. I'm the one on the left, in white, pink and blue.

If you were there, you remember getting wet. That the rain started less than an hour before the concert was to start, and continued - actually kept going for 24 hours. It was rather wet and cold to sit there. But the concert ended with some wonderful extras - and by that time I was dancing and jumping up and down, and had forgotten all about being cold.

And final proof: my ticket.

BTW, if I am infringing any copyright by hosting a copy of any of these pictures, please let me know. I don't remember the source of these pictures anymore.

London, 1997

Tue, 20 May 2008 00:00:00 +0200

Tags: Events, London, Me, Pictures, Vacation

This text covers April 20-24. The links in the text will lead you to pictures.

Intro

Hejsa!

As you may (or may not) know, we've been to London (we being me and my boyfriend, Obi)! Just for 4 measly days, but even then a lot happened, and I feel like writing it down. And why not tell it to you while I'm at it?

We were away Sunday-Thursday, we arrived late Sunday, just with time for a phone call (making plans for later evenings), and then went to bed. Thursday we had almost a whole day, before we had to be at the airport, and were home past midnight, a little later than expected. The days April 20th - 24th became almost as good as expected!

Sunday

This day was just for traveling, and settling in at the hotel. We left home at 16.00 (Danish time, 15.00 English), and arrived at our hotel room at 21.30. We used train, bus, plane, train and train to get to our destination. It took 45 minutes from arrival before we had our luggage, that felt like a long time, waiting at Stansted Airport. And the last train (the underground) was a bit confusing. We had planned on using the circle line (that night and almost exclusively for the whole stay), and suddenly discovered it wasn't running that night. But apart from that, it was a very smooth journey. 6.5 hours to get there.

Monday

Up at around 7.00, this day and the others. And almost immediately we were drawn to the window. Why was there a crowd down there? (Tourists on a sightseeing?) And why did they seal off the street with those strips? (The queen coming by? Somebody threatening to jump off some building?) Never mind, probably not our business. Then we arrived at breakfast. People talked about not being able to leave. A bomb? A bomb threat? The breakfast room had windows facing the street, and the tables there were empty. Getting a bit scary now. After breakfast we called the reception: yes, it was true, nobody could leave the hotel. The news on CNN and BBC didn't leave any doubts: all of London was affected by several bomb threats made by the IRA, and airports, major underground stations and so on were being searched. And as our hotel is nearly on top of Paddington Station, one of the biggest...

Anyway. The facts are that the street, we lived on was affected from 7 to 12. That meant, we couldn't leave at 10 as planned, and were a couple of hours late. On the other hand, it felt like forever, because we didn't know how long it would be. The result was, that I didn't go all the way to Kew Gardens to the Steam Museum at Kew Bridge. It would probably have taken a bit longer than usual to get there. And it would have meant me leaving Obi, and I felt safer with him close by...

Instead we went shopping in Soho. This was Obi's plan for the day, and we went to a place, where he could see some record stores (his main objective was to find Oldfield records), and I could visit Games Workshop (as an old gamer, I'd heard of this place, and wanted to see it for myself). Games Workshop? Big disappointment. Maybe I should have gone to some other, bigger GW, but I'm not sure it exists? Anyway, this was a very small business indeed (the one in Oxford Street), and it took me 2 minutes to get bored. Luckily, there was a scifi shop within sight, and I spent the next half hour there. They had real souvenirs, photos with autographs, original footage and so on. I got a borg key ring, and a t-shirt, that tells people, that all I need to know about life, I've learned from Star Trek... :-)

Then we joined forces again, and went to some more record stores. Obi didn't find that much, and I just found a book with Queen quotes.

And that seemed to be it. We didn't have more energy, and didn't really have time to gain some new energy, so the night ended with us eating deep pan pizza / chicken at the hotel restaurant, and watching some TV.

Tuesday

This morning was for sightseeing. That hasty glimpse of the buildings, we've heard about. And with somebody to tell us what we were looking at, and a bit of the history. Like "Ho Chi Minh worked as a pastry chef here"... Anyway, we saw Westminster Abbey, "Big Ben" (actually it's just the bell, that's called Big Ben...), Tower Bridge / of London and so on. A tour of 2.5 hours. (With a bit of a delay, because we passed Buckingham Palace when they changed the guard.)

An obscure Oldfield reference: we also saw the tower of the Oxo building!

Then a walk through Hyde Park, and a glimpse of Royal Albert Hall. (Time to think of Mr.Oldfield again...)

And then on to the Science Museum. It's big, and we didn't take time to see half of it. (I can't spend more than a couple of hours on a museum without getting a headache anyway.) The exhibition about space, with Apollo 10 as the center piece was good. Suddenly somebody came by, claiming to be a crew member of that vessel. His story about what space travel felt like to him (or rather, the person he was impersonating) was the best part here. There's also a good exhibition about computers, but it stops 15 years ago! Ah well, it was fun seeing ancient computers :-)

Oldfield reference: the A.C.Clarke room was also a pleasant surprise. There was a replica of Magellan from The Songs of Distant Earth, but no CD's... Shame on you :-)

This night we were meeting Matthew among others, Australians, friends by email, originally through the Mike Oldfield mailing list. They're in Europe for a couple of months, and we planned our trip to London accordingly. For a couple of reasons, we met later than planned, and just had time to eat at the Aberdeen Steak Houses (steak for us, took a long time to make, and were a bit boring), before we went (ran) to see The Mousetrap. Not star quality in any sense, but interesting. Nice evening!

Tower Bridge

Oxo Building

Wednesday

More shopping for Obi. And this time I went alone to the Natural History Museum. Their exhibition of dinosaurs was beautiful, and taught me a lot. The experience of an earth quake was a novelty, but not that impressive. (Does it really feel like that? I go through worse going to work on the Danish subway!)

Steak & kidney pie for lunch. Not that bad...

Getting together with Obi again. Not any real luck for him this morning either. On to Covent Garden. Nice place to be, atmosphere, live music, small shops (found a book taking place in Neil Gaiman's universe of the Sandman, real cheap at the Banana book store!). But I couldn't find the exhibition on holography. Maybe it's not there anymore. Anyway, I didn't know the place was that large, and I didn't bring the correct address. Bad luck.

St. Pauls Cathedral. Wow! What a place. Big. Impressive. Nice mosaics. (I spent an hour just reading about them and looking at them.) And I stayed for a service, to hear a choir sing here, and enjoyed experiencing how service was done. A bit different from the way I'm used to.

Then we spent the evening with Ian Braidwood, (ex?)-co-founder of The Shining Ones in GB. He introduced us to the Indian food, and we had a pleasant night talking about this and that, and Oldfield of course.

Dinosaurs

Covent Garden

Mosaics

Ian Braidwood

Thursday

First stop was Buckingham Palace. We got a hint that it would be smart to go to St.James Park, and take a look at the people involved in changing the guard, rather than going directly to BP. It didn't work out as expected, but even then we got a good look at some of the guards, an orchestra, and a goat! They pack impressive guns, by the way...

Close by we experienced a nice fountain, very flat and close to the ground, water just streaming down the slightly tilted surface, and decorated with maple leaves. Canadian related. Everybody was walking on it, which was very tempting, and I got some nice pictures. And belatedly saw the pleading sign with "Please don't walk on the monument"...

Lunch bought at Pret a Manger (very good sandwiches).

Oldfield reference: lunch eaten at Bedford Square (can't be named after that guy...).

British Museum. Egyptians, I just love them. But by now my feet were complaining almost constantly (4 days of walking took their toll), and I found it hard concentrating. I do remember the Rosetta Stone though. Wow! Then I took some time sitting down, while Obi explored the stone age.

And then it was time for us to go to the airport. We started out from Liverpool Street at 17.00. Dinner was just a whopper jr. At first it seemed the plane would leave earlier than expected. Then it got delayed a bit. And a bit more. Almost an hour later than expected, we could finally get in. Back home, we took a cab to get near our beds as fast as possible, and in the end, we were home at 0.30 (Danish time), also a journey of 6.5 hours.

Goat

Fountain

Rosetta Stone

Outro

This was a nice trip. Next time we'll know more about how to get around the town, what to look for, where to go (the places we didn't have time for, for starters) and so on. It felt good being there, and it did feel like vacation. Record hunting wasn't that good, but maybe they were out of season :-) As you can see above, I'm still bubbling with delight.