On pressure and old structures, felt and visited

I have been remarkably remiss in my blogging lately, for which I apologize. The reason for my nonblogginess is not that very little happened to write about, but that more than enough happened to write about, and I felt pressured by myself to give you people as chronological a recounting as possible. Since this is hardly a real possibility for me, I write better about the things that just happened as they are still fresh in my mind, I got stuck.
So I decided to start of the new, non chronological blogging with a random rant, after which I will try to writ things in the order whit which they occur in my somewhat convoluted brain. That way, I ensure a reasonable blogging thickness, with a good chance of a rant every now and then, and some actual views into my strange but energizing life.

On whiz ze zchow…

A few weekends ago I, for the first real time in my life, had the choice to do the Bridget Jones thing and go away with Boyfriend for a weekend mini-break. More specifically, a weekend mini-break to London. Since I like London very much, and I like Boyfriend even more so, this was not a chance I would let pass, obviously. Given the fact he was also volunteering to pay for things there, providing I would just pay to actually get there, I was not going to complain about the situation anytime soon.
As it turns out, a friend of him lived in London, so we had a place to crash, and this for the small price of taking them out for a good dinner.

So plans were made, and guestrooms were appropriated. What was also done was the booking of tickets to two shows currently playing in London. I like musicals and musical theatre, Boyfriend was also not completely unwilling to give things a shot, and so we booked places for Avenue Q, already seen by me but wordofmouthed so hard I could hardly decline going again, and Spamalot, the Monthy Pythin musical. I myself am not really a fan of the Pythe, but hey, sometimes one has to do what one’s significant other wants to do, and I didn’t really mind going to see it anyways.

After a short and reasonably uneventful flight into the capital of Britain, I took a train to Tower Gateway, the stop close to the tower of London and in general my first stop going into this town. I like the tower, both it’s history and the way it looks, and to my mind no visit to London is complete without taking at least a swift peek at it when alighting there. No need to go in as Boyfriend was waiting for me around the subway station there and we had some ways to go still to get to the house of the aforementioned friend.

For those of you who have been to my house, I live roughly 45 minutes away by bus from the center of Amsterdam, which in Holland means you most likely live in a completely different town. In fact, I live two towns over from our Capital. In London, however, it means you are not even hardly out of town Center, which is funny, as almost anywhere in the real centre of London is less than half an hours walk from everywhere else in the centre of London. But anyway, having made the track to Putney, we found their house, took over the guestroom, met some new people, and went out to dinner, a good dinner, at a local Italian.

The Saturday was when it all happened, two shows booked, some shopping to be done, Boyfriend hadn’t been to London before so some sightseeing and subwaytravelling was also needed when possible, and of course some pictures needed to be taken.

The first show, Spamalot, was an experience. Not least because the show itself is quite good. Well, because it isn’t, really. As musicals go it is ok, and everybody goes into it with an enourmous effort, but really it is a rehash of Python jokes that we have all seen before, and at that it is not very well done. A shame, perhaps, but hey, something almost unavoidable. Still, it is a very enjoyable show.
Or at least it would have been. Had we had tickets anywhere near the stage. As it was, we had tickets closer to my house here in Holland. Which I could, incidentally, see, we were that high up.

Now let this not be seen as criticism aimed at the loveliness that is Boyfriend. The show was an “unknown”, as in there was no way of knowing it was going to be good or not, and as such forking out for the most expensive tickets might well have been (and would have been) a waist of money. Furthermore, he is from a country with a rather egalitarian view of things, which leads to the fact that apparently no seats in theatres there are really crap, only less desirable.
Well, these seats were… well, crap. Or they would have been crap, had any species of animal been able to survive the altitude to perform such actions. I myself was getting shorter of breath by the time we had climbed three or four floors up, and I had the distinct urge to shout “Ricola” when we were sort of halfway there. It was a good thing our theatre provided sherpas were willing to carry some of the books just purchased.

Anyways, after finally having crossed the snowline and slicing away the frozen remains of the guests perished there before us, we found that we were seated at an acoustically great spot. The sound was excellent where we were, if the stage was only the size of a postage stamp. On the other hand, a cleavage filled postage stamp, so perhaps I shouldn’t complain as much.
The show itself turned out to be, as said, ok. The seatprice was well worth it, and the fun to be had about the basic seatplace was worth it twice over.

A swift dinner and some more walking around later we took our seats for Avenue Q, a much better musical in my humble opinion, and the places, this time booked by me, were a good deal better accordingly. Boyfriend, as expected, had a great time, and I had a great time with him, so all was well.

The next day was regretfully already the return day, and after a good night spent at my place the weekend was sadly over. Not much exciting was done, to be honest, but it was a wildly enjoyable weekend I hope to do over sometime soon, if with different musicals, and perhaps from an hotel or suchlike actually a bit closer to the centre. But hey, beggars can't be choosers and all that.

Well, this as a quick “yes I am back to blogging-blog” Will try to keep updates coming again at a regular basis. Apologies this one was not all that interesting and a bit journallike. Will also strife to do better next time.

Grtz,
Kevin.