The rest of the week after my parents left was spent trying to recuperate. To clarify, London is a "walking" city, by and large, and even though I've been here for nearly four months now, and I walk roughly a mile to the train station and back every weekday, when you're walking around in London for a few days, it will wear you out. If you've been to New Orleans and have spent a couple of days there walking about, try multiplying that by two or three, and I think you've got the idea. I think we went into Redhill that weekend, but only very briefly, and spent most of the weekend lying about.
This past week has been relatively normal, at least as far as normal goes here. We did try the Chinese place up the street again, and found a couple of dishes that were reasonably good. What we would call "lo mein", they call "chow mein", so a little bit confusing, but overall, I thought it was better than the previous offerings we had tried. Michelle heard about a place in London that put on free theatre (the Scoop), and suggested that we go there this weekend. However, the forecast for the weekend wasn't too good, so she ended up bringing the kids up for a show after I got off work on Friday.
As an aside, just when I started getting settled into my work building off of London Bridge, we moved to a new location. It's not that distant, really, and it is a much nicer building and location, although not as convenient. Previously, when I left the London Bridge station, I could just turn left and walk into the office building - not even leaving the awning of the station. Now, we're in Hay's Galleria, which also contains a neat little shopping area, and the odd little ship sculpture shown below. It's supposed to be a temporary location until they finish our building in more London, which, not incoincidentally, is where the Scoop (and free theatre) was located.
So, anyway, Friday afternoon we met up at London Bridge station and headed down to Hay's Galleria where we got a light dinner from The Bagel Factory. We then went to the Scoop for their free presentation of "The Jungle Book". I have to admit that I'm not exactly sure what I was expecting, but the show far exceeded any expectations that I had. The props and costumes were simple, yet the actors and actresses put on a show with such creativity that it was really quite impressive. The singing was well done, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. I think it was one of those experiences where you realise what theatre can be, even without the grand backdrops, elaborate scenery or costumes, or full orchestras. The presentation of Kaa, the Snake, was particularly enjoyable, as was King Louie, the Monkey. Afterwards, we wandered through the "more London" area, which is by Tower Bridge and the HMS Belfast. They are currently doing a little Gibson guitar exhibit, where they've designed and painted various large model guitars and gotten a few performers and players to sign them, including Paul McCartney, Robert Plant, Les Paul, among others. We also stopped for Dalton to use the restroom in a little public toilet (only 20p) which could probably go in my parent's "Weird Toilets of Europe" collection. No pictures (maybe later, if we go back), but the toilet seat actually retracts into the wall to be washed between uses.
All that being done, we headed home, and amazingly, made it back before 9. Plans for the weekend are to clean the house a bit and generally lounge.
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