BBQ's, Little Shop of Horrors, and Boobs!
Posted by charley on July 5th, 2008So i’ve had a long weekend in London, a very sunny London, until now.. Friday afternoon i made my way to Spalding train station awaiting a fast and comfortable journey to the big city, on the way i bumped into some old friends and had a quick natter to catch up with what they were doing.
Then on the central train to Peterborough i found myself sitting next to another old friend that i hadn’t seen since way before Christmas! Thinking this was my lucky day i bought the right ticket to Kings Cross (woohoo at last!) and sat myself in the cafe with a scalding hot cuppa.
This time i got myself an Oyster card instead of the individual tickets and topped it up with..hang on, i’m on my boyfriend’s iBook and it doesn’t seem to have a pound sign button! Hmm, well anyway i topped it up with Ten Pounds worth of travel and made my way to St James’ Park to meet Simon after work. Having a London Lite promptly shoved in my face soon after i exited the station (i’m fast getting used to that..) i decided to wait out the spare half hour sitting on the grassy bit opposite the Lastminute offices and give my mum a quick phone call. She reassured me it was alright to be there as i nervously told her that two policemen over the road were holding massive guns! Arriving on the 6th July i had to understand that security was going to be very tight over the weekend..
So that night Simon and I went to meet up with his friend to see The Little Shop of Horrors at the Ambassador Theatre near Leicester Square. We arrived late thanks to my unhealthy obsession with Oxford Street and some confusion as to where we were actually going. Missing the first few minutes we bundled ourselves into the theatre and enjoyed the rest of the show. As it was one of the shows first nights in it’s new venue it was a press night so i reckon we were the only members of the public to be there, and it explained the very personal applause’s some of the actors received. Sheridan Smith (of Two Pints.. fame as Janet) totally exceeded my expectations and proved herself to be a very worthy West End actress, even though my head kept whispering “it’s that chav from that BBC3 programme!”. Alistair McGowan was hugely funny as the dentist with a rather strange laughing gas addiction, lots of groin thrusting and hip grinding from him! and Paul Keating was spot on as the wimp Seymour. He reminded me very much of Rick Moranis in the 1986 movie adaptation, adopting similar acting techniques and even Seymour’s wimpy disposition was down to a tee!
Next was Simon’s BBQ on Saturday 7th to welcome him as the new housemate. The weather stayed perfect the whole day and as we struggled to carry bags of shopping home from Morrisons, (after this we were told never to visit that particular store again!) i began to think about how comfortable i feel in this City. The housemates are all lovely people and i had a nice time meeting them, being very grateful they have let me invade their house for this long weekend! I was very glad to hear that one housemate is a Vegetarian like me, wooo! this meant i didn’t feel awkward asking for my burgers to be kept away from everyone elses meat and kept a slightly moany Charley happy for the rest of the day! However it was a very long day and after two glasses of red wine and a can of Carlsberg i felt a stong need to sleep so popped off to bed at about half midnight (I’m such a lightweight, i feel my student days are already over).
Sunday was a nice relaxing day, such a change from my days at home…haha kidding. A nice long lie in was well deserved and in the afternoon we decided to explore the local High Street, which turned out to be full of my favourite shops! H&M, Topshop, T K Maxx, Peacocks (of which i am very happy with its new fashion direction, someone needs to be applauded for this!) and of course the token Waterstones. So the cinema was suggested and off we headed to choose a film, which turned out to be a decision between Fantastic 4: Rise of the Silver Surfer or Shrek 3. Fantastic 4 it was, and it turned out to be a pretty good film! For the life of me i can’t remember any of the first film, but it was a nice surprise to see Viktor return..oops! Did i just give it away?
I think the highlight of today, more so for Simon, was seeing a very funny open topped bus full of shouting scantily clad women, that scantily clad in fact they were only wearing fig leaves to cover their ‘naughty bits’! I recognised journalist Dawn Porter immediately, from probably the best programme in the world, ‘How to Look Good Naked’, funny late show Balls of Steel, and Super Slim Me, in which she went through the ordeal of a crash diet to get down to a scary US Size Zero. She had her fig leaves on, holding a sign proclaiming “Get naked with me” and looking fabulous on an advert on the side of the bus. Of course, the car horns were going crazy and as film crews documented this event i wondered what it was for! Maybe the new series of How to Look Good Naked? But Gok wasn’t there. Well i will keep my eyes peeled, but my ‘naughty bits’ hidden away…