March 25, 2004

Went to the Science Museum.  I like the dioramas recreating scenes from the history of medicine.  Lots of noisy schoolkids.

Then I went to the Natural History Museum around the corner.

Afterward I walked through Battersea Park before leaving the South Kensington-Chelsea area.

Took photos of the Royal Albert Hall and the Albert Memorial seen from Kensington Gardens; the Victoria & Albert Museum with the Natural History Museum in the background; and the Peace Pagoda in Battersea Park.

Dinner was Burger King.

Went to Mozart's The Magic Flute, another translated English National Opera production at the Coliseum.  that opera's always delighted me, in a rather Bohemian spirit, and this was a good production indeed.  The Queen of the Night bore a resemblance to the Bride of Frankenstein!

March 24, 2004

Dreamed of the 1960s British TV show The Prisoner; walking along a high wall next to a London sidewalk (and managing to balance myself!).

In the morning I met Madeline Melling and Val Martin, whom I remember from my period at William Goodenough House in 1995.

Did the laundry at noon.

Lunch was beef curry.

Went to the Imperial War Museum in the afternoon.  I like the uniforms:  they make the wars of the past seem more real.  They had an exhibit on women at war, including some of their uniforms.

Took a photo of the Imperial War Museum; and one of St. James Park at dusk.

Dinner was KFC.

Saw Hershey Felder's one man show Gershwin Alone at the Duchess.  It was wonderful. (Felder resembles Jerry Seinfeld a bit.)

Phoned home in the evening.

March 23, 2004

Dreamed of a non-existent Milli Vanilli song called "Tonight It's Going Over"; an actual Peanuts episode where Linus gave the opinion that people who cite the patience of Job don't understand the story; a chapter of The Cartoon History of the Universe talking about America just after World War II.

Went out to Greenwich and visited the National Maritime Museum.  Afterward I went up to the Royal Observatory and saw their collection of timepieces.

Took two pictures of the view from the observatory, and one from inside the Greenwich pedestrian tunnel that goes under the Thames River.

Spent the rest of the afternoon at the Museum of London's Docklands branch.  (I was there for the first time.) Its subject is the history of London as a port.

Dinner was McDonald's.

Saw the Tang por Dos dance show at the Peacock.  One guy was walking on his hands! (Of course, I was reminded of my dance teacher Cynthia.) They were pretty impressive.

March 22, 2004

Dreamed of meeting Moira and telling her I had liked the book Cold Mountain; the funeral scene in The Searchers where the woman urged John Wayne not to let the two young men waste their lives seeking vengeance and he ignored her.

Spent the afternoon at the British Museum.  They had a special exhibit of Japanese artifacts.

Lunch was chicken.

In the late afternoon I actually had an hour or so to spare! (I read Private Eye magazine.)

Dinner was lamb curry.

Saw a play of John Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men at the Old Vic, after another race to get there in time. (Like the National Theatre, that place shows lots of interesting plays.) Steinbeck's social realism is pretty depressing, but it makes for good theatre (and cinema). They had a good Lenny.  The audience had a lot of noisy schoolkids.  I got a front row seat!

March 21, 2004

Dreamed of burning the last of the wood in the fireplace of the Sackville house; reflecting that Star Wars was basically about teenagers in space age hot-rods; seeing the Lost Horizon musical on TV and reminding Moira that she'd called it the worst movie she ever saw. (Or was it Margaret who said that?)

Went to Primrose Hill.  Then I went to Hampstead and walked along the Heat a short distance. (I got caught in a cloudburst.)

On the way back, I picked up four Sunday newspapers for the people back home.  Between them, it's a heavy load!

Took a photo of the Chinese gateway in Chinatown; London seen from Primrose Hill; Hampstead, where I think I got a picture with a rainbow [It didn't show up]; Hampstead Heath; Tavistock Square, with its statue of Gandhi and monument to conscientious objectors.

Dinner was a pork chop.

Saw Takeshi Kitano's Zatoichi at the nearby Renoir cinema. (It cost more than The Rhine Gold!) It's a samurai swashbuckler about an invincible blind swordsman (Takeshi).  A familiar story, directed with new-age hipness and terrifically entertaining. [I liked the final sequence with most of the characters dancing!]

Phoned home in the evening.

March 20, 2004

Dreamed of being back in Canada; being about to sing karaoke; walking along a Mississauga street near a theatre about to put on the opera Aida. (There's an actual local company putting on Aida just now.)

Went to the Museum of London.  There was a special exhibit on London in the 1920s.

The weather was really windy.  My hat blew away more than once.

Phoned home late in the afternoon.

Dinner was an Indian dish:  cauliflower korma with rice.

Saw Gilbert & Sullivan's The Pirates of Penzance at the Savoy (the theatre they built). It's probably their most pantoish work.  It was well enough executed here (especially the choreography), but I can't quite get into this brand of silliness.

Took seven pictures, including one of the antiwar demonstration being set up in Trafalgar Square; one of the London Wall ruin; one of Mecklenburgh Square; and four of London at night, including three of the view from Blackfriars Bridge.

March 19, 2004

"I was completely cleared!" "Let's hope you stay that way"--Democracy

Dreamed of trying to remember how old I was; thinking I was 18, then 28; finally remembering I'm 42.

Went to the Design Museum.  Some prizewinning designer was given 30,000 pounds to spend on all the interestingly-designed objects he could find around the world, and they had a number on display there.  Stuff like a spoon that could double as a straw; a hot-water bottle that didn't have to be filled, which you microwaved; a system for baling hay in cylinders.  John would have liked it.

Lunch was fish and chips.

Went to the Tate Gallery, where there were two exhibitions.  The one about pre-Raphaelite landscapes was wonderful.  I especially like those artists' use of colour, just a bit more intense than real life.  The other one, called "In A Gadda Da Vida," was works of provocative "shock" art by present-day avant-gardists like Damien Hirst.  If you ask me, the joke is old by now.

Dinner was linguini with calamari (very spicy!).

Saw Michael Frayn's Democracy at the National Theatre. (I had a bit of a race getting there in time.) It's an excellent play about the complex relationship between Willy Brandt and the communist spy who ultimately brought him down.  Intelligent and funny.

Finished Never a Day So Bright.

March 18, 2004

Dreamed of the Strauss waltz "Roses From the South"; trying to play a certain cut on a record but failing to find it; an arthouse showing a Warner Brothers movie from the 1930s with Humphrey Bogart.

Went to the Royal Academy of the Arts. (I'm putting a lot of stuff on my credit card.) One exhibit was about the post-impressionist and early modernist Edouard Vuillard, whose large-scale paintings are especially impressive.  There was a big crowd for that.  I also went to an exhibit of the Canadian-born abstract expressionist Philip Guston.

Had an easy afternoon.  I just did my laundry .  I bought mineral water from a vending machine so I'd have enough change for the dryer.

Took a photo of the Canadian war memorial in Green Park; one of Buckingham Palace; two of guards in marching bands; one of the South Bank seen from the Embankment.

Dinner was chicken stirfry.

Saw The Reduced Shakespeare Company's The Bible:  The Complete Word of God (Abridged) at the Criterion.  Lotsa laughs. ("The greatest story accepted as fact.")

March 17, 2004

Went to the Victoria & Albert Museum in South Kensington.  It's full of all sorts of objects that are nice to look at.

On the way back I visited the Cartoon Art Trust Museum in Brunswick Centre, near the place where I'm staying.  It had an exhibit of H.M. Bateman cartoons from The Tatler between the World Wars.

Phoned the parents in the afternoon.

Dinner was beef stew with mashed potatoes and turnip.  They were having a big St. Patrick's Day occasion in the dining hall. (In the street in the evening, I saw quite a few revellers wearing these big, outrageous hats with the Guinness Logo.)

Saw The Rhine Gold, the first of Wagner's Ring operas, in an English National Opera production at the Coliseum, which has just reopened after a handsome restoration.  It was in English, like all ENO productions (hence their name), and the ticket cost just five pounds!

It was an enjoyable staging, amusingly transferred to a modern-day setting. (They did some clever stuff with the lighting.) Alberich the dwarf pulled a knife on the mermaids, pole-dancers in flapper dresses, and the underworld god Loge--my favorite character--was a badass in a leather jacket.  I love the finale where the gods (who at one point were dressed like in a Spike Lee movie!) cross the bridge into Valhalla.

March 16, 2004

Dreamed of reading in an old publication that health officials in 19th-century Sackville, N.B., sprayed stray dogs with a puree made from wild beets so that hoboes wouldn't eat them; telling John that I liked a girl once.

Waited at Covent Garden again and got a ballet ticket for tonight for just 14 pounds!  Then I visited the nearby Theatre Museum. (Very noisy.)

Went to the Roy Lichtenstein pop art exhibit at the Hayward Gallery.  His work is pretty fun.

Met Mrs. Vickers at lunchtime. (She was warden of Goodenough House when I was a resident there.) Lunch was linguini with meatballs.

Took pictures of the City of London seen from the South Bank, the John Bunyan statue, and Piccadilly Circus.

Spent another afternoon at the National Portrait Gallery--and I'm still not quite finished!

Saw the Royal Ballet doing Tchaikovsky's Sleeping Beauty.  It was a lovely production, colourful and imaginative.  But I'm not sure I'm a ballet fan. (This time I was in the top balcony.)

March 15, 2004

"How shall we arm ourselves when all we have is our tears?"--Samson & Delilah chorus

Woke up at 6:00.  I waited an hour before the Royal Opera opened and got a 25-pound ticket for tonight. (I rule!) It was windy and I should have worn my sweater.

Went to the London Transport Museum with its buses and stuff.  I liked the exhibit about future options.

Took photos of Covent Garden and Leicester Square. (And I may redo the latter because there wasn't much sunshine.)

Lunch was lamb and zucchini with couscous and pita bread. (And a cherry-cranberry drink from Australia.)

Visited the National Portrait Gallery but only had time for the 20th-century stuff.  There was an exhibit of photographs of people in Trafalgar Square on historic occasions.

Dinner was Burger King (at Piccadilly Circus).

Saw the Royal Opera production of Camille Saint-Saens' Samson & Delilah.  It was fabulous!  My seat was at the right end of the stalls circle and I couldn't see the right end of the stage, but that didn't matter:  I was as close as the front row!  I especially loved the choruses.  I guess they had "suicide bombers" back then too.  Incredible Bacchanale ballet.

March 14, 2004

Dreamed of playing the Tom Cruise role in a movie about a guy fleeing cars that suck away your memory; doing a scene near Moncton, N.B.; getting too scared to continue the movie; reading a (non-existent) diary of my life in 1981.

It was drizzling so I didn't bother taking any pictures.

At a London KFC you can get corn on a cob section as a side order.

Got a photocard in a booth in case I need it for a Travelcard.

Saw the rest of the National Gallery.  I like those Camille Pisarro landscapes.

Dinner was salmon with barley.

The TV show Panorama had an interesting report on the Blair government's avoidance of the tax issue. (Too bad about the intrusive graphics.)

March 13, 2004

"War is hell but peace is fucking boring"

--graffiti-style adline for Buffalo Soldiers

Dreame of our family lending decorations for an outdoor Christmas pageant with Santa Claus; being part of a group filming a TV documentary involving a famous story of a broken-down husband being cuckolded, where the host explained at the end that the husband's version was dishonest.

Took pictures of Mecklenburgh Square, Russell Square and Trafalgar Square.  I think I'll concentrate on outdoor scenes.

Signed a couple of anti-Mugabe petitions for some people who'd set up shop on the Strand.

Spent almost three hours at the National Gallery.  And I still left the 18th and 19th century sections--my favorite part--for later, since the museum's like those 17th-century Dutch paintings of town scenes.  It's better than hurrying through in one trip.

Got some apples, oranges and carrots at Safeway for breakfasting. (My fondest memories of my extended London stay in 1995 include shopping there.)

Dinner was Thai duck curry.  Goodenough College has a good caterer in Baxter & Platts.

March 12, 2004

We landed about 11:00.  I didn't have to wait long before going through Immigration because the rugby team went to a place for groups.  There are lots of people-movers at Heathrow, but I stayed off them for the sake of fitness!

Got into my Goodenough Club room at 13:15.  Phoned home. (My phone card number doesn't seem to work; I made a collect call instead.)

Slept for the rest of the afternoon.  I turned on the TV just after 19:00.  The last time I visited London the news was all about 9.11.01.  This time it's about the Madrid bombing.  My visits seem to cause someone bad luck.

Went online with one of the basement computers.  The Goodenough hallways are labyrinthine and easy to get lost in.  Which is part of the fun!

Watched a talk show hosted by Jonathan Ross, Britain's wannabe David Letterman.  His first guest was Johnny Rotten, my hero when I was a teenager.  I don't like Ross--he's what the English call "a big wally"!

Still awake at 01:00.  I turned on the TV again and saw the real Letterman.

March 11, 2004

Finished all my packing before lunchtime.

Got to Pearson Airport at about 17:00.  I was in line behind a girl's rugby team going to some games in Britain.  I brought along a couple of New York Times crossword puzzles to pass the time, along with my book Never a Day So Bright.  I also took this diary.

Dinner was Harvey's. (I ordered a veggie burger for a change.) I also played a pinball machine, based on the game Monopoly, for the first time in donkey's years!

We took off on the flight to Ottawa about 20:15. (I put my backpack as well as suitcase into check.) I finished both crossword puzzles.

After waiting two hours at the Ottawa airport, we took off for London about 23:40.  They showed Master and Commander, but I'm waiting for a big screen to see it on.

March 10, 2004

Mrs. Lincoln on General Grant's cigar smoke: "Land's sakes, how did all that smoke get in here?"--Abraham Lincoln

Dreamed of the Duck Lady, someone who actually posted in the Mr. Cranky forums, waiting for a newspaper in Amherst, N.S.; reading on the Internet that she'd died and reporting it in the forums; her turning out to still be alive; a computer game in which you're about to be sacrificed to a man-eating beast, but if you flip a rare coin the beast will attack everyone else instead; watching a TV channel broadcast in HDTV, with a poor signal [this was almost a decade before we actually bought an HDTV set]; seeing the 1980s TV show The Edison Twins, but with twin girls instead of boys.

Headache.

Baked rye bread.

We went to Revue and rented a couple of Videos.

Filled out my tax form.  I should be getting a $97.30 refund. (When I stapled the bank statements together, the stapler came down on my thumb.  Ouch!) I forgot to inclue a $250 Canada Savings Bonds statement and had to mail them an amendment.

Dinner was roast chicken.

Saw the video of the Catherine Parr episode of The Six Wives of Henry VIII, written by John Prebble.  The parents thought it the best episode yet. 

Then we saw D.W. Griffiths' Abraham Lincoln.  Like many of the early silent movies, it was slow and awkward to the point of unintentional humour.  Walter Huston played Lincoln like a pantomime. 

March 9, 2004

Woke up around 05:00 but didn't go back to sleep because I was getting up early to see my shrink Dr. Hassan.

Went to the bank and got the money order for Goodenough College in London. (They didn't put it in an envelope!)

Took a long nap in the afternoon.

Dinner was fish in batter.

Tried to print out my diary entries again, but it looks like you have to install the printer using TCP/IP.  We'll have to ask Donald about it.

March 8, 2004

Dreamed of singing "Comedy Tonight" from A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum; riding in the top half of a London bus to the seacoast; levitating from downtown to home in Sackville, N.B., and rising through the clouds; hanging out with a young Mickey Rooney, and trying to sing the Chinese song "The East Is Red" with him; feeling sickened by how badly things went for me in Grade 7.

My coat went out to the dry cleaner, so I had to wear my spring jacket in today's cold weather.

Went to the Cinematheque office and bought another load of tickets.  Then I went to Tilley Endurables at Queen's Quay and bought a new hat. (My old one was almost seven years old.) Then I took the wrong streetcar and was quite a while getting home.

Dinner was steak. (I got home just in time.)

Went to see Anthony Minghella's Cold Mountain at the Kingsway. (I wore my new hat, which is largely like my old one, but the colour of white chocolate.) It was a lame, arty adaptation, competently made but all wrong.  It's frustrating to watch this much talent expended on a miss.  I loved the novel, but maybe it wasn't filmable. [Renee Zellweger could have played either role, but I saw Nicole Kidman more as Ruby than Ada.]