Good god, way too much to catch up on.

[peasantrevolt]

SATURDAY:

Woke up and walked most of the way to Baker Street for a change of scenery, caught the bus from Swiss Cottage cuz I didn't quite know the way. Had a Starbucks (ICED drinks in February!) and attempted to read, but it turns out Sebastian Faulks is preeeetty overrated. Decided to wander Marylebone High Street, which is the most loveliest of places. Stopped in at Cabbages and Frocks first where I sampled chili cheddar cheese til the woman came over and engaged me in coversation. It is such good cheese, if I'd had a fiver on me I would've bought it. The woman suggested I try the pesto and I said I'd had it before and it was good, and she said yes she thought she recognized me. Dunno if she was thinking of someone else or remembered the last time round Christmastime when I came and ate all her chili cheese samples. From there I went down the street til it got boring and then came back on the other side. I love the high street. It is so classy and not over-posh and has excellent shops (including a great bookstore in a really cool building AND an oxfam bookstore) and really really cute pubs and cafes and everyone was sitting out at the patio tables cuz it was another gorgeous day. Plus, I'm gonna go down and shop at The Natural Kitchen once I have a job cuz they have EXCELLENT fake meats and it's not all that expensive and not that that far to go to. So anyway I love it, I would love to live round there. Once I came back up I walked over to Regents Park and wandered around taking pictures for a few hours.

Spent a great deal of time by the pond. There was a goose that looked sorta retarded, so of course I fell in love with it. It was like waddling cuz it was fat, like the rest of the geese, but also just looks sorta dumb. The guy feeding the birds had to drop food right in front of it or it didn't know what was going on. It reminded me of Clem. I was enjoying the big fat dumb goose, thinking 'Birds aren't so bad! They're cute!" when I was come upon unawares by two geese from my left. One of them was hissing-- I sorta felt compelled to yell at it, "I don't have the food!" There were also a bunch of blue-footed boobies, which I don't really like, but there was one that was looking at the ground and possibly sneezing, so it looked like it was metal detecting with it's head. Quite weird.

I love Regents Park. I love the wildness of the Heath but there's something quite timeless about Regents Park. You can sort of easily imagine women with trains and bustles walking arm in arm on their way to the gardens to have iced drinks on the veranda or something. And like a manservant paddling them across the lake as they daintily hold a parasol. Or even nurses and their shell-shocked patients on afternoon leave, stoically pushing a wheelchair with a patient with a blanket tucked round their legs. I mean maybe it's just those things if you have an overactive, weird imagination. Basically it's just like a painting come to life.

Once I was done with time travel, I walked most of the way home again, stopping in quickly at Books etc and Steve's Sainsbury's, which is fucking massive by the way. Took the bus from Frognal Lane cuz I was starving and thought I might die on the road home if I walked it. Had dinner, hung out, read about LAMDA (literally every page of their website), watched The One and Only (I have reached a new low), Wife Swap, and City of Vice.

Notes on City of Vice:
-Mmm mmm Peter McDonald.
-Was that Super Hans??? It was! What an eagle eye. He played someone named "Salt". Awesome.
-He is just such the epitome of badassness. Especially when he doesn't even have lines. Fielding tried to be all woe-is-me and was like, "I am no stranger to misfortune, Mr. Jones." and Badass McDonald just went "uh huh." In the best tone EVER. God damn why is he so awesome.
-He was so good when he overcame the overacty-ness inherent to the show on just like total throwaway lines. He said a couple of things all quietly and sorta hoarse, "What d'you know about it? ... You remind me of my father", and I was gonna cry! And there was hardly even any plot!
-You can't just go around blinding people, Fielding! You can't say you're all about the rule of law and won't stoop to bargaining with thieves, and then go cut a man's eye out and carve at his face til he tells you where Peter McDonald is! John, we all wanna know, but that's just not the way to go about it.
-Uh, are we supposed to be in favour of the hanging of Patrick Jones?! This show makes NO SENSE.
-Ok, ultimately they didn't hang him, but still, I am no fan of the Fieldings. With all the hangings for minor crimes, excessive and frequent fires, and rampant disease and starvation in 7 Dials alone, I'm surprised there's anyone left in London! I guess there won't be, if the Fieldings have anything to say about it.

SUNDAY:
Was supposed to hang out with Katie today in Primrose Hill. I decided to go early to Camden Market and look for a jacket for my interview and then walk to Chalk Farm to meet Katie at 12. Camden Market decided to burn down. Not the whole thing, not even really most of it, but weirdly, the store I was going to go to is totally gone. It was very bizarre, the station was like a ghost town, since it's usually packed with like 50,000 people and it was like me and two other people this time. Everyone was milling around on the half of the street that wasn't blocked off by police, watching the firemen put out what was left of the fire. There were all these press photographers around and vans with satellites, and once I took the detour through the neighbourhood, everyone was congregating on their stone front steps talking about it. It was just really bizarre to kinda be among it I guess. Ultimately, Katie realized she'd lost her debit card the night before and so wouldn't be coming out (whatever, whole other issue); I, COMPLETELY FORGETTING ABOUT CHINESE NEW YEAR, decided to go into the city to see how the BAFTAs were shaping up. The surrealness of the day kicked up a notch between Camden Town and Mornington Crescent stations, where you could momentarily see the other train in the tunnel going by. I have never noticed that, I'm pretty sure it's never happened, and it's one of the weirdest things ever. You're all in the dark and then suddenly the psychotic flash of a ghost train. It is seriously so weird, you really feel like you're looking at a train full of people from the beyond.

So, COMPLETELY FORGETTING ABOUT CHINESE NEW YEAR, I decided to get out at Leicester Square station. Biggest mistake of my life ever, as it descended me straight into the pits of hell. I couldn't get out of the station, I was trapped with a million people, all not moving, AND they closed off three of the exits. So the entire population of China was trying to get out at exits 3 and 4 with me. I got out RIGHT as a stupid fucking dragon parade was going by, so I had to press up against the window of the Angus Steakhouse and slowly make my way along for several yards. It seriously took like 10 minutes to go 10 feet cuz people just wouldn't move!! When I was momentarily stalled, TRAPPED in the crowd of morons, this woman stopped right facing me with her cigarette and basically blew smoke in my face. I waved it away and coughed basically in her face with no shame or remorse cuz SHE is a disgusting pig and YOU'RE NOT ALLOWED TO SMOKE IN CROWDS. Chinese New Year made the whole day horrendous; I couldn't top up my phone when I needed to cuz all the shops were packed to the brim with retards, every child in London was given those little popper things you throw on the ground AND those stupid bird noise makers and used them all day long everywhere, there were neverending crowds around every corner, and 'fireworks' (explosions) every hour on the hour from 2 o'clock on. Seriously, everything that was wrong with this day had to do with Chinese New Year. As I told Miki, I would've rather the city been overrun by rats. The combination of everything was seriously murder-inducing. Though today I honestly had the urge to murder too, so the problem may actually be with me. But I don't think so. At least not on Sunday; anyone I would've killed Sunday would've deserved it.

I escaped to Covent Garden and enjoyed a juice and coffee on the steps of the street performer piazza. As I was sitting there, something about the gathering next to me seemed familiar; I think it's cuz they seemed to be rehearsing cheering. I thought it might be Beautiful Stu (this is the name he gives himself, I didn't make it up), the street performer of yesteryear, but was convinced I wouldn't be able to recognize him. I decided to get up and have a look, and if he said "If you're just joining us, MY GOD what you've missed!" I'd know it was him. I got up to have a look, and he was wearing the same outfit, so I immediately knew it was him, and then of course, a few minutes later, everyone began to cheer, the tiny child volunteer bowed over and over, Stu joined various parts of the crowd pretending to be just another bystander, and then he came back to the front: "If you're just joining us, MY GOD what you've missed!" I stayed to watch the show, it was just as hilarious and now even more impressive cuz all that stuff that seemed off the cuff was clearly well-rehearsed. Plus there actually WAS an unrehearsed element. This child kept running out wanting to play with the bowler hat when he was trying to flip it onto his head and he said something funny every single time she ran out, which was a lot. Plus, Margo, another child volunteer I think from the same family, was holding the hat up later in the show, and after like 10 minutes of it, Stu was like "Most people see that it's a put-on after a few minutes", and then turning to Margo, saying really urgently, "Margo, hold it higher!" I don't know if that comes across. Anyway, the whole thing's damn funny.
-"If you're just joining us, all these people are giving me 5 pound notes for no reason!"
-"People on the balcony, don't worry, I'll come up!"
-"You sir, and you, the man laughing at his misfortune."
-"It's highly unlikely that I'd kill a child in the course of this show... twice in one day."
-"You'll notice I've just given Margo a fiver; even though she didn't do much, she was really entertaining!"
-"Margo, come here woman!"
-"Any Americans here? Don't be shy-- you wouldn't be though, would you?"
I gave him a pound and went on my way.

I wandered the streets between the Strand and Covent Garden for awhile, taking pictures of all the BAFTA preparations. They had taken over so many seemingly-unconnected streets and covered them with BAFTA-ness that I turned a corner near the Marquess of Anglesey and was CONFUSED as to where I was! If there's anywhere I know, it's Covent Garden and surrounding areas, and I was just so thrown off by all the red carpets and scaffolding and policemen everywhere.

On another wander into the square, I paused to have a samosa and went and sat on the barriers in the corner of the square I NEVER go to, the one off Henrietta Street. I looked over to my right and I'm pretty sure there was Kaiser Chiefs drummer and North of England stunner Nick Hodgson (and his girlfriend). Instead of being subtle in any way, I took OFF my sunglasses and stared a long time, probably mouth agape. They'd just sort of wandered over, had a bit of a discussion and a cuddle, and decided to go wander away somewhere else. I allowed them a few moments lead, thinking my stalker tendancies wouldn't get the best of me this time, I could just be a normal person, but then I got up and started following. I really just wanted to get close enough to hear him talk so I could be sure it was him. So, like a creepster, I went round the corner by HMV after them. There was a bit of a crowd and a ruckus and he's not as tall as you'd think and very quickly, I lost them. For some reason I was convinced they went into Mufinskis, but in reality I think I just lost them in the hustle and bustle and they got away ahead of me. Damn my initial desire not to be a freak! Next time I won't hesitate, I'll just embrace the creepy stalkerness. He was wearing black pants (fitted, lovely), trainers (for no reason I thought he'd be wearing like dress type shoes and particularly noted that he was wearing trainers), a lightweight black peacoat, and a lightweight black beanie pulled tight over his head. His somewhat bird-like/less-severe-Mackenzie Crook-type features seemed to stand out quite prominently. As mentioned, he didn't seem that tall, I think he just appears so cuz Ricky is a midget. But he was oh so delightfully lanky. Much like the Orlando on the tube thing, I think it was him, if it wasn't, this guy needs to cash in on those looks.

So that was a nice interlude, but the day ended with further nightmares and surreal flashes. I was sitting by Embankment station sending a text when a guy came up and said he was looking to make a friend and wondered if I'd like to have a drink with him. He didn't seem mental, but needless to say, I said I had other plans. Soon after, I went to wait for the bus on the Strand, getting to the bus stop right as the 13 pulled away. Not the best thing that ever happened, but even on a Sunday it should only be like a 12 minute wait. And so I waited. And waited. And kept waiting cuz at some point it became like a test. But after, no exaggeration, 45-50 minutes, I was pretty sure there were no 13 buses left in the world, and I begrudgingly went to get the tube at Embankment. I walked onto the platform and made an audible groan when I saw an Edgware train wasn't coming for another 8 minutes. That may not seem like a lot, but I'd seriously just wasted an hour, the hour it would've taken me to get home, and now I had to wait some more. As I was sitting there, something else annoyed me and I literally made a sound right as a guy went past, and I think I freaked him out. I nearly started crying several times cuz I JUST COULDN'T GET HOME. All day people were always in my way, blocking the escalator, stopping so I'm stuck somewhere, smoking when we're trapped in a crowd together. I think the day is perfectly encapsulated in this actual tube announcement heard while I was waiting 8 minutes for the train: "The Waterloo and City line is closed, there are partial closures of the Piccadilly, District, Central, Hammersmith and City, and Victoria lines and minor delays on the Circle, Northern, Jubilee, and Bakerloo lines. All other lines are operating a good service." That last sentence is totally real.
THERE ARE NO OTHER LINES.

Once I eventually did get home 15 hours later than planned, I ate something and watched telly. Wife Swap (with 'freegans'), the news (The Camden fire looks FUCKED UP), and the BAFTAs.

A play by play of the BAFTAs:
-Atonement not Best British film?! Come on! I don't even know what This is England is about.
-Lives of Others won Best Foreign Film!!!!
-Why is Jeff Goldblum wearing sunglasses indoors? He's like in character for Speed-The-Plow. He kinda looks like a douche every time they show him.
-I like Alfonso Curon. He seems nervous, like he's worried he won't understand the next word on the autocue.
-Ulrich Muhe looks like he was a nice person.
-You should definitely give a long, complicated speech to someone whose first language isn't english. Poor Marion Cotillard. (Although not THAT bad off, according to the London Paper: dating Guillaume Canet!)
-Kelly Reilly's having a long weekend; it's back to work on Monday Kelly! You're not getting the understudy in just cuz you have a BAFTA hangover.
-Orlando, are you drunk?! He's like being overly earnest and then fucking it up.
-People can say whatever they want, say other movies are better, I think Atonement is SUCH a beautiful and heart wrenching film. I just hear that music and I start crying.
-UGH, Emily Blunt. HOW are you dating Michael Buble??? HOW?
-The Golden Compass' effects were SHITE! These awards are bollocks.
-Oh my god, WHAT. What is Tilda Swinton wearing!? Please look it up, please please. She looks like a creature. Decent speech though.
-Eddie Izzard at least has a sense of humor. "Isn't it good to be back after the news? All those people doing that stuff?" And then just going for the envelope and ignoring the intro speech: "Oh I was just gonna announce it there!"
-Ooooh that mirror backing doesn't do Hugh Laurie's bald spot any favours.
-I knew Diablo Cody was gonna win. I better see this movie before I start hating on it prematurely, cuz it is so getting there.
-Daniel Radcliff started out pretty lame and then turned out to be pretty funny, based on his inability to read. "...his early work in the Harry Potter films. 'Early work'? No, you'd been working for years by then! What am I talking about? I misread the autocue, but we'll carry on like nothing happened." He pulled it together for a few lines and then fumbled it up again.
-Atonement, There Will Be Blood, Lives of Others, No Country for Old Men, and then BOURNE! For gods sake.
-Joe Wright didn't win, that's the biggest load of bullshit I've ever heard. The only person with any discernible style, and nufin. Biggest load of bollocks ever.
-Marion Cotillard was so cute when she won!! [Rosamund said something to Joe and he nodded and said "I know". I think she said something like "she's so cute."]
-'Sersha' is the closest pronunciation I could get of Saoirse Ronan's name. Crazy Irish. And I thought the Welsh were weird.
-Surprise surprise, Daniel Day Lewis beats James McAvoy. BULLSHIT. These awards are really starting to suck.
-Guh, they showed James as Daniel Day Lewis was walking to the stage and he turned to that unattractive wife of his and winked. Can I please please please have that man.
-Woah beardy! Viggo, have a razor.
-Jason Isaacs? Is that you?
-ATONEMENT gets the one that matters. Yeah, it's definitely the best film, but not the Best British Film, and the Actors, Director, and Script were shit. I'm not saying it had to sweep all categories (or am I?) but how much sense does this make?: This is England + Marion Cotillard + Daniel Day Lewis + Joel and Ethan Coen + a script by Diablo Cody = Atonement. Yeah, that's right, none.
-Oh my god, I wanna marry Joe Wright! (like more than before) I've never really heard him speak before!! I love him!!! "Thank you Keira and James and Vanessa and Saoirse and thank you Rosamund for loving me the way you do. And this lot and everyone, and I'll let this guy talk now."
-I wish I was friends with Anthony Hopkins and could refer to him as "Tony".
-It was nice sentiment but I did have to laugh when Dickie Attenborough was talking about Tony's great performances and how "they will be etched on my memory, by your genius."
-How in a career retrospective of Tony Hopkins do they not have a shot of him in Legends of the Fall, barging out of the house wearing like a whole bear as a coat and brandishing a shotgun???
-Good god, the friendship between Tony and Dickie Attenborough is making me WEEP.
-How old is Tony's wife? Bit weird.
-Orli looked like an awed teenager after that speech!! haha.
And the bits not screened for telly:
-Haha, of course Ricky gets the biggest laugh of the night! Short film: "To the losers, it's some consolation, this award won't make the telly."
-Ha, Rosamund presenting and award to Atonement (production design). Bet she rigged it. I would.
-Ah that's why Jason Isaacs is there (no offense meant), presenting cinematography and costume awards.

And then I slept, quite fitfully.

MONDAY:
Got up at 8:15, got ready, was out the door by 8:45. Despite how long it seemed, I was in Hammersmith by 9:30. Cased the area, managed to find LAMDA based on the fact that I remembered what the front archway looked like, NO thanks to ANY maps given by anyone. Once I found it, it was about 9:40, so I went back to the little cafe to wait it out. Got an apple and pomegranate juice and a tea-- I splurged and got a medium cuz outside central London at little cafes, a medium tea is 70p! Mental! I ate my apple and was surprisingly calm, til about 5 after 10, when I was pretty sure the apple/pomegranate juice was actually prune juice, and smoke and the smell of full English breakfasts was wafting all over the place, and I literally thought I might have to find somewhere to puke. It sort of passed, but only cuz I got up and walked away, too early it turned out, so I had to loiter by the building for 10 minutes til I could go in 10 minutes early and wait there.

Essentially, the interview was fine, aside from the weird vibe. It was with the HR woman and the Registrar and was over in like 15ish minutes, and then there was an informal chat with members of the team, who were my age and really nice. I'm no good at judging these things, we shall see how it ends up. Nothing reminded me of The Office, though, so that was a plus. I may have just been too busy focusing on my nervous neck spasm to notice though.

When it was all over half an hour later, I ran back to the safety and comfort of Covent Garden. What I would've really really liked to have done was take a nap in the sun somewhere, but I don't really like doing that when I'm alone and can't consciously account for my possessions at all times. So instead I did the next best thing, which is wander around Covent Garden, occasionally taking extended rests to sun myself at one of the pillars or next to St. Pauls Church. Beautiful Stu was at work again, weird to see him two days in a row, like it was a regular 9-5 or something. Actually the weirdest thing is that that outfit is like his costume, he changes into normal clothes afterwards. What is it about that outfit that he thought "Yep, this is the look I want to go for for this act!"? Anyway, when I wandered over he was just finishing up so I stayed for the eating of the crisps in the middle of the tightrope and then wandered off again.

I decided that I could have whatever I wanted for lunch, but that proved harder than anticipated. I didn't really want a pasty, and I seriously wandered around in circles for MILES cuz nothing was just right. And then I went up an alley and saw Nandos and knew that was just what I wanted. I love Nandos. And I only got the one side and NO SODA! (I had a small soda later cuz I was really pissed off but I think the impulse to have a can of sugar when you're a little upset is better than the impulse to drink a lot). Anyway, best idea ever, exactly what I wanted, perfect amount of food, I didn't even mind eating alone.

Went to H&M to see if that coat from the other day was still there, since I was wearing my interview outfit and could actually see if it might look good for Wednesday's interview. (By the way, there was frost on the grass this morning so the green coat ended up being fine). The size 6 was gone, so that clearly wasn't meant to be, BUT, there were some skinny jeans and a lovely cardy that I had to have. I got excited that I could wear skinny jeans, ok? And I tried them on a different times so I was praying that when I wore them together my big ol' roll of fat wouldn't hang over the pants and be accentuated by the cardy, but I don't have a big ol' roll of fat anymore! I have some fat, but it's not grotesque like it was; this is seriously the first time I really feel like I can see the results of what I'm doing and I really really like it. Once I had my new outfit I went to Starbucks to change into it. I tried to be as fast as I could cuz there was a girl behind me and I only changed my pants and dealt with the cardigan later in public, but when I came back out there was a line of like 7 women, no joke. I ran off without a word.

Essentially, I don't know what I did all day. I went back and forth all over the place, in the end got very little done. I went up literally every street in or around Covent Garden probably 5-8 times, went up the Strand, both ways probably 3 or 4 times each. I seriously don't even know what I did, just picked a random destination and went there, and then once I got there, picked another one and walked there. Lather, Rinse, Repeat. A little after 4 I went over the bridge to the Southbank and read the paper hoping Katie would want to meet up after work. She didn't, so I went back over the bridge to catch the bus. Public transport at rush hour is such a nightmare, it always upsets me. I don't like taking the tube at rush hour cuz it's SO crowded and I never get a seat and it's awful, and I can get a seat on the bus but it takes about an hour and a half maybe cuz of all the traffic. I wish there was a third way, like a hovercraft. For some reason I can no longer recall, I didn't want to catch the bus on the Strand, so I walked BACK through Covent Garden, past the Donmar (I'm working through my negative association with them. Now I go by and I think 'maybe Tom Hiddleston or Ewan will be arriving just now'), through Leicester Square to Piccadilly, with a quick check to make sure nothing major was going on at the Comedy Store. Jon Richardson was performing tonight, but as part of a showcase. As he's at the bottom of my list of favourite comedians, I decided he just wasn't enough to make me sit through 15 other comedians, alone, again.

Continued on to Oxford Street and got the bus home, got some anger food and drink at the 24-hour mart, did not much til The Palace was on, watched The Palace, and am now gonna get some sleepies. Quite a long day.

Just a quick note to a few people I encountered today:
You're not allowed to step onto the bus, into the doorway, and then stop. Or stop immediately when you touch pavement when crossing the street. I'm still behind you, and there's a bus coming.

Just the tip of the iceberg.