A night out with Gary Oldman

Monday morning, I got an email from a workmate notifying me of a live interview with Gary Oldman that night, in a little dive in Brick Lane. Needless to say I was thrilled by the opportunity, and had trouble sitting still for the rest of the day. After wandering, disoriented, through half of East London, I finally found the venue and settled into a comfy chair, near the front, with a pint of San Miguel (that was later to haunt me during the 3 hour interview).

The interview was conducted by Jack English, a photographer and friend of Gary’s. Jack has done a lot of on-set photography, including on Gary’s directorial debut Nil By Mouth. Gary, who had been in Paris only two hours earlier (working on the next Harry Potter film), came across as wonderfully down to earth and intelligent. He spoke about a number of his roles, to the accompaniment of short film clips, as well as generally on various topics.

I have summarised the interview as well as I can remember, and he made many comments that should be instructive for actors, writers and directors alike. (Please note, all quotes are paraphrased from memory.)

• On acting – Wouldn’t describe himself as a method actor, but uses whatever works. Menthol is used in the industry to make one’s eyes water for crying, but when asked to ‘weep’ (apparently a more difficult and subtle effect), he flicked through a book of photos of his absent son in order to appropriately upset himself. On Sid & Nancy he put small scratchy crystals in his eyes to irritate the lenses, in order to appear drunk and bleary. His enthusiasm for such tactics has waned as he’s gotten older, and he wouldn’t repeat that experience.
• On rehearsals – They are very valuable to both actors and directors, and were a key part of Nil By Mouth. However, they are more and more being sacrificed as studios try to speed up their production timelines. Wolfgang Peterson didn’t want to do any for Air Force One and was then stuck during production when Gary baulked at some crappy dialogue. Cheaper to discover such things at rehearsals!
• On choosing roles – Nowadays, he prefers jobs that are close to home and don’t take long to shoot, so he has more time for his family and script-writing. Ads are good (he's done one recently for Nokia).
• On aging – He used to get offers for 19 to 20 year old rebels, and now gets “bookish 35 year olds”. It's as if this change happened overnight!
• On playing villains – This was a running joke throughout the evening. However, if he 'll be paid a lot, and doesn't waste much time, he'll play a villain. Is currently considering whether to play the bad guy in Die Hard 4 on these criteria.
• On Dracula – Wasn’t in a good place at the time, and found himself at loggerheads with director Francis Ford Coppola. Later apologised to Francis at Cannes. Also, funny to note that Keanu Reeves didn’t like the homoerotic undertones between their characters. “Dracula has been around for a very long time. It’s clear he now swings both ways.” Makeup and costume took about 6 hours each day.
• On True Romance – His character, Drexl, only has a few minutes screen time, so Gary went to town in order to make a big impact. He got the works: a scar, a milky eye, dreadlocks and nasty teeth.
  
• On Hannibal – Gary plays the bodily paralysed, and horribly disfigured paedeophile, Mason Verger. Ironically, despite only being able to move one lidless eye, this was his most liberating role. (To get the required effect, there was an elaborate contraption under the prosthetic face prising his eyelids apart. Someone was on hand to add eye-drops.)
• Roles he has passed on – Didn’t really want to say, but mentioned My Left Foot (it was only meant to be a small BBC production under an untried director, whereas he had an opportunity to work on another film with a favourite director), and Schindler’s List (didn’t want to spend 16 weeks in Poland in winter).
• His favourite directors – Alex Clarke, John Cassavetes and Francis Ford Coppola (“the greatest living American film director”). Would like to work with Jim Jarmusch, Tim Burton or Martin Scorcese. However, Scorcese isn’t as good as he used to be. Complained about the casting of Cameron Diaz in Gangs of New York (didn’t we all?) as an example of Scorcese “starfucking”. Nonetheless, Gary is greatly enamoured of Scorcese’s recent documentaries No Direction Home: Bob Dylan and A Personal Journey with Martin Scorsese Through American Movies.
• On Luc Besson – His direction is very specific. Probably too specific. His films are all big cartoons. Praises Luc's first film, The Last Battle, as his best.
• On Oliver Stone – An excellent director. Gave him a lot of free reign on JFK, allowing him to research the character of Lee Harvey Oswald throgh interviews with ex-FBI agents and former acquaintances. However, notes that Oliver Stones “mindfucks” his actors, is “mean” and a bit of a “prick”.
• On the Scott brothers – Tony shoots with 5 cameras, and moves through scenes very quickly. Ridley, by contrast, is concerned with perfecting the mise en scene, even to the extent of pausing midshot to correct background details. Tony yells and swears. Ridley likes to do sketches on set, as he has an art direction background.
• On directing Nil By Mouth – As an actor, he has learned from his experiences with other directors. For example, he doens't want to be a meany like Oliver Stone. By contrast, actors thrive on praise, and being complimented by the director (for example, following the screening of dailies) will “get an actor through the week”. Once he’s got his master shot, he likes to let the actors try variations of their own. He also likes to shoot during rehearsals, when the actors don't know about it! Got his sister to act in Nil By Mouth, and gave her gin to help her relax. High praise for Ray Winstone and Kathy Burke. Was happy to use non-actors from his old neighbourhood. Liked having “dirty frames”, ie. where there are unfocused elements in the foreground etc. Describes some of the “happy accidents” that occurred during filming. For example, he noticed that the child actress wasn’t enjoying herself. He took her aside, and asked what the problem was. Apparently her parents were making her act in films when she didn't want to. Gary promised that she didn’t have to do any more dialogue, and in the end her character developed into a mute witness to the domestic violence, which was a lot more powerful. His favourite shot is the child in the playground who, with one backward glance, is able to penetrate through a character's “bullshit” and lies, straight to the “soul”. Jack English compared the opening sequence of the film to a Cassavetes film.
• On financing Nil By Mouth – Was initially very difficult to get money. Luc Besson happened to hear about the film and, on a napkin, wrote up a deal that got the film made. (Though this deal was very favourable to Luc.) When the film was released, a number of offended inviduals asked why they hadn’t been personally approached for investment. They had, but had turned the film down.
• On Hollywood – Gary was asked whether he thought Hollywood was out of ideas. He owned up to being part of the endless prequel/sequel cycle (with his roles in Batman Begins and Harry Potter), but noted that there are plenty of good films below the radar. He quoted Kevin Bacon’s The Woodsman as an example. (A great film!)
• The future – Currently writing an adaptation of Siamese Twin novel Chang & Ang. Ballpakrs the production costs at about US$50 million. Says the scriptwriting is easier for him than for Nil By Mouth (which was written, he says, over 30 years) because there is always the soruce material to fall back on. Has heard that listening to tribal drumbeats is an effective remedy for writer’s block, but he hasn’t yet tested this theory.

All in all, very interesting. I took advantage of the informal setting to introduce myself afterwards. I was able to confirm that his portrayal of Commissioner Jim Gordon in Batman Begins was based on Frank Miller's Batman: Year One comic book. Shame that he was underutilised by Chris Nolan.

Gary was also kind enough to sign my Nil By Mouth DVD and pose for a photo (taken by Jack English no less!). He even remembered my name at the end. What an affable fellow!

"The name's Ash. Housewares."

Quick on the heels of moving into our own chez nous, we set about furnishing it with a singularity of mind. Fortunately, the place came with the basics - bed, TV, couch - to which we immediately added a microwave and super-sweet laptop.

Next step was a day trip to Ikea, which is best described as a homewares theme-park. It's one shop, but it's about the size of 277. There's a one-way path through the shop, which itself consists of endless perfectly-done-up mock rooms, as though you've wandered onto a film set. This picture is Anna sitting in a full size mock studio apartment...

It's a bliss of bedding, a kingdom of kitchenware, a rapture of rugs, a treasure of toiletries. It has a warehouse section that looks like the final shot of Raiders of the Lost Ark.

Our new home

We have finally weaned ourself off the kindness of others, and have taken a nice, large flat for ourselves in Golders Green. We are now even closer to the Tube station, though there's a bit less foliage. Nonetheless, we still have a very pleasant, English outlook, and are in what appears to be a quiet neighbourhood (to the extent that we have even yet to see the downstairs tenants). Best of all - we finally have room to swing a cat (not that we would ever do that, because we love animals).

We also have a number of shops just up the road, a convenience for which we are grateful. I hasten to add that there are plenty of kosher bakeries and butchers - but I have yet to find a mezuzah!

Scotland - Day 3

We stopped at Invermoriston for our morning coffee and bathroom breaks while on our way to Drumnadrochit, to see if we could spot Nessie in Loch Ness! Fiona told us how the Scottish parliament had added the Loch Ness Monster to their endangered species legislation, to protect her should she ever be properly found.

Tales of an unknown animal living in the loch have been around for centuries. The earliest report is from the Life of St. Columba, 6^th Century. The Saint frightened off the monster with “his holy hand”.

Nowadays a popular theory is that the creature is a pleisiosaur. I have been fascinated with cryptozoology since I was a child (not that I used that word when I was six), and Nessie is my all time favourite cryptid.

Anyway, we stopped off briefly at the Official Loch Ness Monster Exhibition, so I could buy a bunch of tourist rubbish. We then went to the shore, where I was going to have a swim – but the ‘beach’ was far too rocky and painful to negotiate, so I had to settle for dipping my toes.

Despite staring into the depths for mere minutes here and there, we were not rewarded with a sighting. Que sera!

Afterwards we drove through Inverness, the capital of the Highlands, to the location of the Battle of Culloden, at Culloden Moor. This was the last civil war battle between the Jacobites and the people on the side of the British government. Fiona told us a bit about the battle, and how the government army decimated the Jacobite army in less than an hour (thanks to the absolutely rubbish command of Bonnie Prince Charlie), and proceeded to ruthlessly kill any wounded or fleeing Jacobites, and their families standing at the sidelines waiting to claim their bodies.

Of course, this story gave us an appetite, so we had to stop in Aviemore for a lunch break. The town is home to many ski-resorts in operation during the winter season – it looked a bit like Ohakune or the twon at Franz Josef. Anna and I had an awesome lunch at a bustling café run by a kiwi. In the summer the Blue Mountains actually look blue because they are completely covered in heather.

Next stop to check out the Bruar Falls and the ‘posh’ shops.

We passed through Perth, and as we made our way back into Edinburgh, we got a great view of the old Forth Bridge (Forth Rail Bridge) that was built in 1890, and has been named the #1 tourist attraction in Edinburgh! When it was first built it was regarded as the eighth wonder of the world.

After arriving in Edinburgh, and making our farewells, Anna and I had to hoof out to the airport poste haste to make our flight back. We made it just in time, then it got delayed on the runway for an hour, then the Tube wasn’t working properly and after a couple more hours delay we had to catch a series of buses home. Hooray! Welcome back to London! The greatest city in the world!

There was a note on the back of our bus. “Tiaraidhan drasda” - Until next time!

Scotland - Day 2

We started out driving through Kyle of Lochalsh, and over the Skye Bridge to the Isle of Skye. Stopped in Broadford for petrol and to have a nosey in the little gas station tourist shop (we bought fudge and a celtic pendant), before making our way to the ruins of Cill Chrisod (“Christ’s Church”).

This 16th century church was abandoned in 1840. Fiona showed us an example of a Celtic cross, which combines the Christian cross with solar symbology, as previously worshipped by the Celts. We explored the ruins (Anna found a giant slug, and I stepped in poo) and searched the gravestones for our Scottish ancestors (not that the names Beaumont or Travis jump out as being Scottish – although we did actually find Beaumont in a book about tartans).

Next stop Sligachan, where we walked deep into the rainswept heathers to gaze at the Cuillin Mountains (once active volcanos) while Fee recounted the battle between Scathach (Ski-han), warrior giantess of Skye, and Cuchulainn (Coo-cool-in), the giant of Ireland. [Mikey note: Cuchulainn was the inspiration for Slaine, comic fans!]

According to Fiona, they fell in love. According to Tiffany and the internet, they only trained together. On our way back to the bus, we could hear bag pipes echoing through the valley as a young boy played them on the bridge below. How authentic.

We then drove to Portree, capital of Skye, where we had lunch with Tiff and Alli at “The Isles Inn”. All four of us braved the Scottish culinary test of courahe – haggis.

Haggis is made with sheep's 'pluck' (heart, liver and lungs) minced with onion, oatmeal, suet, spices and salt – boiled in the animal's stomach for approximately an hour – and served with "neeps and tatties" (turnip and potatoes). And actually, it’s quite tasty. Ramirez needn’t have been so judgmental.

As we drove further on, Fiona pointed out the Old Man of Storr (it's the finger of rock sticking out in the photo). She explained that it was carved by a grateful brownie (brunny) as a monument for a man who had saved his life. Rather it is part of the Trotternish Ridge, a huge landslip, since eroded by climatic variation and anthropogenic disturbance during the mid-late Holocene.

She also told us that brownies live in the hills at the foot of the mountains, and that it if we were to meet a brownie and be invited back to the brownie world, to make sure that we didn’t eat or drink anything as time runs more slowly in brownie world. This is borne out by the special theory of relativity

We also learned about kelpies, half horse and half water-creature, who live in the Storr Loch and kidnap children into the depths. Brr. No mention of selkies though.

Photo ops at Lealt Falls and Kilt Rock (it's the textured bit of rock in the background - squint a little), then to the cursed ruins of Duntulm Castle. Lots of bad things went down here. For example - Hugh MacDonald was imprisoned here. He was given salty meat and fish in order to drive him mad. However, he only ate as much meat as was balanced out by the amount of water he was brought. So… they filled his tankard with sand. The resulting thirst caused him to eat his own hands.

The castle was abandoned in 1730 after a nursemaid accidentally dropped a baby out of a window and into the rocks below. It is now closed off to the public, as of two weeks ago, because a wall fell on someone. We all clambered all over it anyway.

We continued through the town of Uig, back over the Skye Bridge, and to the Plockton Inn for supper and beer. I had a veggie haggis, and learned some card tricks from a ‘friendly’ local.

Scotland - Day 1

For our first Bank Holiday, we booked ourselves a three day “Highlands and Skye” tour of Scotland. We thought it would be a good whirlwind introduction to the land of peat, lochs and rain.

After some hand wringing about the best way to get to our starting destination of Edinburgh (why not spell it Edenborough then?), we decided to take an overnight coach bus. Turns out that, unless you buy tickets about a year in advance, trains are as expensive as planes, and planes are too expensive! The bus is very cheap.

We didn’t have the best start, as the bus was really late to arrive and we were waiting in the rain. We were worried about missing our tour at the other end, but we got there in the end - after an excellent night’s rest (not).

By the way, Edinburgh looks great! We plan to come and stay another time…

So, tour – I believe there were 14 of us, plus our exuberant guide Fiona (Fee), an authentic Scots lass. We made friends with a couple of Canadian girls (from whom I am cribbing the following lovingly detailed itinerary – thanks Tiff!) and were at least on speaking terms with a few others. J Well, one has to make an effort. Especially when sharing the same bedroom!

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First stop was the Wallace Monument, just 2 miles outside of Stirling (Fee’s home town). Dedicated, of course, to William Wallace, beloved by the Scots for his passionate defiance against the English, for which he was ultimately betrayed and horribly executed.

A large tower, entirely funded by public donation, was built on Abbey Craig in 1869, where Wallace had watched the English army approach before routing them on Stirling Bridge.

Next we drove through the Trossachs and stopped in at Kilmahog to visit Hamish the highland bull. There was an opportunity to hand feed him some veggies (he has a big sloppy mouth) and buy Hamish-related merchandise. We picked up a couple of postcards. We also wondered how many “Hamishes” there have been over the years.

Then we drove through Tyndrum, and stopped at Glencoe, site of an infamous massacre. We stood in the wide green gully, with rain in our faces, as Fee recounted the whole sad saga. In 1692, on the order of King William III, Clan Campbell wiped out the native Clan MacDonald, in act of treachery so terrible that people with the name “Campbell” are still not welcome in town. Yikes!

This will be the first of many bloody stories about Scottish history.

On the way out of Glencoe, Fee produced a bottle of Tamdhu Scotch whisky (“water of life”) to officially welcome us. This made several rounds through the bus to choruses of “Slange-varr” (“Good Health” - “Slainte Math” in Gaelic). It didn’t outlast the trip.

Next stop, grocery shopping at Fort William. I remember that Deb spent a lot of time here, so I took plenty of photos for her. On the way out we stopped at a memorial for the British Commandos, who were trained just outside the village of Spean Bridge. From there we had a view of Ben Nevis, the highest mountain in the British Isles. No doubt they made the poor buggers double-time it with a full pack after extra rations of spaghetti sauce.

Last stop of the day was the castle from The Highlander! Hooray! (Also from The World Is Not Enough, but that film is better forgotten.) Eilean Donan Castle is apparently the most photographed site in Scotland. Well, there can be only one.

Stayed the night at the train station Bunkhouse in Plockton, opposite the Isle of Skye. We had pizza, salad, and bread for supper and then strawberries and cream for dessert, mmm!

Big adventures in Scotland-land

Last bank holiday, Anna and I got awae for three days in bonnie Scotland. We have lots to write about, and loads of great photos - so stay tuned to hear about the Rain! The Glen Coe massacre! That castle from The Highlander! The giant slug! The haggis (and the vegie haggis)! The magic tricks! The Loch Ness monster! The whiskey! The peat bog! The Isle of Skye! William Wallace!

Coming soon!

Pinewood Studios

How cool is my job? Popped out to our office at Pinewood Studios, home to James Bond, Aliens and so many brilliant films that my head explodes just thinking about it. Sadly it was between projects, and pretty quiet. Nonetheless, went and saw the big outdoor water tank, with its vast blue FX screen backdrop. Apparently there were still remains of a Casino Royale set up there until just recently, but nothing for me to see. Tried to get into the underwater tank, but it was closed.

Not to be defeated, I had a nice stroll around (though it started raining). They've named some of the streets inside Pinewood after Bond - Goldfinger Avenue, Broccoli Lane - and I saw a building labelled "Casino Royale FX". I circumnavigated the famous "007 Stage", for its day the largest sound stage ever built. Sadly it was recently damaged by fire, but it was interesting to see all the bits and pieces being cleaned out. I did manage to find one interesting piece of detritus - a thin wooden notice board with "Casino Royale" stenciled on it, and some production notes. (I will be a good boy and keep the details to myself.)

Not much else to see: the "Stanley Kubrick" building where they're working on The Bourne Ultimatum, Paul Greengrass' named carpark, studio for the The Weakest Link television show, Pinewood's Academy Awards and a shed full of facehuggers and latex aliens (plus something that I could swear is Arfur the Worm from Meet the Feebles).

I have walked in the footsteps of giants!

Paddington Station

At Paddington Station, I met a certain Peruvian fellow with a fondness for marmalade sandwiches and cocoa. (In all fairness, but for the hat, this bronze representation looks more like Alf.)

High density living

There are so many people in London, that everyone is super protective of their own little tiny piece of property. Hence the extremely common phenomena of the multiple authorial touch on a single roof!

Charles II

Anna and I caught up with my buddy Hugo (ex-Minters), who has joined us in London. Poor bastard has gone down the 'work in hardcore law firm' route, and is finding his hours happily eaten away by Simmons & Simmons. Anyway, we had a bit of fun unwinding in Soho. Nothing dodgy - just a few drinks, some average but overpriced Italian food, and some shenanigans involving a statue of Charles the Second.

London Underground

I work right in the heart of Soho, and am one of the several million lucky people who catch the Victoria line at 6pm.

On a happier note, I finally saw one of the famous little black Tube mice :)

Mr. Lawyer

I have been waiting to start my new job, so I took some temporary paralegal work this week, with one of the UK's big law firms. It's funny, there was a lot I missed about private practice - the fruit basket, the pretty good coffee machine, occasional free sandwiches - but sitting there in a suit and tie summarising contracts as part of an endless due diligence review... well, let's just say the in-house decision was a good call.

Anyway, it was still nice to play 'corporate' for a few days and the building was very flash. (For London that is. Due to the enormous property prices here, there is little additional spending on office overheads. Buddle Findlay is a million times more swanky than Slaughter & May.)

I now start my proper job on Monday, so am very excited. I had a brief meeting with them this week, and it looks like I'll be dropped in the deep end. But there's nothing quite like a challenge. And the promise of a trip to Amsterdam to attend a media expo. :)

Anna and I have been flat-hunting this weekend. Never a lot of fun, at least we are getting out and about and seeing a bit more of the city. We took a bus from Golders Green to Swiss Cottage, and then walked to Queen's Park via Kilburn. Our route took us (momentarily, and at the wrong end from the studio) over Abbey Road. One of the places we looked at has a nest of foxes in the backyard. If we end up living there, perhaps we'll SEE THEM!

Spent the afternoon in Knightsbridge. Anna was very excited about going to Harrod's, but when we got there we found a group of animal rights protestors outside the main entrance. Apparently Harrod's has begun selling real animal furs again. Very sad, and I hope they backtrack on this soon (especially since I found they had WWF brand plush animals for sale). We still went in, but agreed not to buy anything. It's still magnificent, and I felt like I was going back in time when I entered the toy department (I picked up a sweet racing kit here when I was six). What a shame...

Still, not to be defeated, we had a bit of a spree in the neighbouring shops. I bought a pair of jandals from that slapper Kelly Osbourne's shop for £2.40.

Life in Golders Green

We're settling into a routine at last - Golders Green is a very nice area. Our street reminds me of Victoria Ave: lots of big houses and trees. And as you can see from the picture, we can't really fault the view from our window, a far cry from where most of our friends are staying. We have a month to figure out where we want to live next, but I think we may now be looking for something with a comparable outlook.

Anna has just had her first week at work. It's been quite tiring for her - we're not used to getting up early! Not to mention the long subway rides on either end of her day, plus the heat. Yuck.

I have a job now too. I got a couple of offers, which was very nice, though I had a tough decision to make - choosing between £ and the chance to work within the film industry. Obviously I had to take the industry job (in-house lawyer), so I look forward to seeing how it goes. I don't start for another couple of weeks though, and despite looking, it doesn't appear that I will be able to get any temp work in the meanwhile.

Never mind, I shall enjoy seeing a bit more of London before starting. The acclimitisation continues - some times I feel almost as if I am back home, but then I'll find myself in Piccadilly Circus, another world entirely. I do get homesick, but the other day I stumbled across William Blake and Daniel de Foe's graves while travelling to a job interview, exactly the kind of life experiences we came here for.

I went to the Prince Charles Theatre on Friday - films for £1! - and finally saw the adaptation of Alan Moore's V for Vendetta. I was pleasantly surprised - they haven't buggered this one up! It was also wonderfully resonant to watch the film in the heart of London, where the story is set. On the way home I passed the Old Bailey, which is blown up at the start of the film. Neat!

Anna and I also had a nice big walk around Hampstead Heath on the weekend. It's very beautiful, and just the tonic for homesick kiwis - trees, bushwalks, fields, birds - but also foreign in its own way. We saw people swimming and fishing in duckweed-covered ponds, visited the Stone of Free Speech and spotted some rabbits and a squirrel. Finding a fox is our new holy grail!

Heatwave

Wow, it's been a busy few weeks since we arrived, and it's all taken place in the blistering heat and hideous humidity of London's record heatwave. Temperatures outdoors have been in the high 30s and the subways have been even worse, pushing upwards of 45 degrees. Believe you me, it is not the best experience to travel to job interviews in a suit, on a crowded subway carriage, in this sauna-like miasma. Yuck!

Nonetheless, we are determined to try and enjoy the heat as we know it will be all too brief, with an interminable winter to come. However, we spent the last week in a crappy little hostel room with no air conditioning and a broken fridge. We bought a fan from Sainbury's, and in order to get any rest at night we were having to sleep under wet towels. It's one thing to spend a day in the sun when you know you can cool off at home - quite another when your home is hotter than the air outside!

We've now been on three of the famous "London Walks" - guided walking tours with different themes. The first two were less spectacular than advertised, but the most recent was quite interesting:

Darkest Victorian London - a pretty good guide who does nice impersonations, but there's little to see as the city has moved on so much since then. Most interesting was the concrete builder's yard that hides a plague & pauper's burial pit with over 15,000 corpses.

The British Museum Walk - not a bad overview of the British Museum's highlights, but hampered by the massive crowd that turned up and the 'summary' nature of the information provided. Better to just see the museum for one's self, as everything is written up in detail. It was a nice surprise to find many of the 'missing pieces' from our travels here, including a large collection of the frieze decorations from the Parthenon - not to mention the Middenhall Treasure from the Roald Dahl story with the same name.

Eccentric London - quite interesting. Learn the background to a random assortment of monuments and statues around Embankment. Many good stories, but funnily enough, none are those described in the pamphlet...

In other news, we also spent a day at the Tower of London with Connor, went shopping for work clothes, celebrated Anna and Andrew's birthdays with a nice big combined evening at the pub, and did another pub walk with Ian, Nerida and Alison through Spitalfields. Also, congratulations to Anna on finding a job!

Here's an extra picture of us with Alisha at Anna's birthday drinks...

Drinking in London

Drinking is one of the national past-times in England (queueing is another). The poms don't miss an opportunity to sink a pint, and because London is so widespread, people tend to meet at pubs for drinks rather than staying in to drink. All of which means lots of drinking in public - moreso because the pub crowds usually spill out well onto the street. Last night we caught up for drinks with little Rebecca, her new boyfriend Richie and her friends from Netley - another Rebecca, Andrew, fellow kiwi Tony and Judith.

We were seated outside a pub, surrounded by a crowd that only grew bigger as the evening wore on. Picking up a round of beers could take almost half an hour, and the pub ran out of glasses and started issuing plastic cups. We also had a surprise visit from a band, installed on the roof of their car, who stopped outside to play some tunes and sell some CDs. Quite a clever initiative, and one that proved popular with the masses.

After a few rounds we took the subway to Picadilly Circus, with it's famous array of video and fluoro advertising boards (like Time's Square). Stopped for BK and then popped into a nightclub where we catching up with another party of people. Not really our scene, so we eventually left to catch the last subway home - very, very crowded.

I had a sudden inspiration, and wore the kiwi balanced on my head the whole way from the club home. This seemed to attract a lot of attention - I have never seen so many English people smiling. Viva New Zealand, spreading joy among the dour Isles.

Friends and museums

Job hunting continues apace. We've had a few nibbles each so far, but are waiting for something decent to come in. We're getting good feedback from our recruiting agents though, so it appears to be just a matter of time until we have job offers we actually want. It does get a bit depressing at times, but we know the process will take a few weeks so... watch this space.

In the meantime we've decided to get out and about a bit more, instead of sitting around waiting for the phone to ring. We went to our first movie this week - the Pirates of the Caribbean sequel at the Clapham Picture Theatre, with Ian and Nerida. Not much of a film, but a diverting enough way to spend nearly three hours.

More profitably we took a double-decker bus (great for seeing London in the flesh) to the Natural History Museum, where we enjoyed the dinosaur exhibitions but were somewhat underwhelmed by the rest. We were pleased to see a moa skeleton though.

Yesterday we caught up with our friend Connor, who has been here since June. He may be settling down for a bit, but is undecided as to whether he would prefer to return to Turkey for more sun-bathing. He has grown a rather splendid beard.

We went for a nice walk along the Thames, stopping for lunch on a river-boat before ducking into the Tate Modern for an hour or so of quiet, intellectual contemplation. The Tate collection, though a little thin, has wonderful accompanying texts, so we intend to return for a more thorough perusal.

Afterwards we all caught up for drinks with Ben, Tim and Nina before catching the first half of Corialanus at the Globe Theatre. It's a slow paced play, and our endurance was tested by the 'groundling' experience (ie. standing for hours), so we left part-way through for hot-chocolates instead. Oh well!

Sport, pubs n grub

Anna and I spent the week doing job interviews and hanging out with our hosts. It was Ian's birthday on Thursday - he is now an old fella! Anna baked him a yummy banana cake. We have also been watching a lot of sport, what with the Wimbledon and World Cup matches every day.

I had another day with Jan at Netley Primary - we took the kids to Regent's Park playground, where I pushed them on the swings and roundabout before heading out to the fields for some (barely) organised sports. Unfortunately, we have now lost the fleeting London summer, and were eventually rained out. The crappy weather hasn't really improved since...

Yesterday we did a bit of a pub crawl. We got up early to watch the opening game of the Trinations rugby at a pub full of kiwis and ockers. I'm pleased to report that the All Blacks handed out a pretty sound thrashing (not that we're bragging about it to our lovely hosts).

Afterwards we walked through the Brixton markets, then caught the tube out to Hampstead Heath. This is a huge park in northern London, where the rich people moved their properties to escape the plague. It's still an extremely wealthy area and, en route to the second pub of the day, we did a sight-seeing tour of the houses of the rich and famous including (apparently) Emma Bunton, Ridley Scott, Russell Crowe and Terry Gilliam.

Pubs n grub for the evening: the Holly Bush (Pimm's cocktails, a pint of prawns and a 'rarebit'- ie. cheese toastie), The Spaniard's Inn (fruit beers, cider and massive quarter-potato wedges) and Ye Olde White Bear (chickpea patties and salad).

Tonight - the Wimbledon and World Cup finals!

PS: cherry fizzy drink round-up: Cherry Coke flows aplenty in the UK, and I have also tried Cherry Tango (too sweet even for me) and Cherry 7-Up (delicious)!

Back in the U.K.

We have returned to London, and have brought the good weather with us. Temperatures here are in the 30s, and I've heard talk of a heatwave warning from the Government. What this means is a lot of white people with pink sunburns (not us, though).

Jan arranged some accommodation for us with friends. We are currently staying with Aussie couple Ian and Nerida (pronouced neh-REED-ah) in Clapham. Very nice of them to put us up, as we were complete strangers. I say 'were' because we are now best friends - they both cook wonderfully, and Ian likes beer and music. Top marks!

Spent our arrival day chilling with Jan, Ian and Nerida, drinking Grolsch (for the lads) and Pimm's (for the ladies) and watching the England vs Portugal game (I won't comment on the results). We then spent Sunday in the Golders Green commons (U.K. speak for park) with Jan, Nerida and Andrew - another of Jan's many friends, whose apartment we will be borrowing for a few weeks in August. We had a lot fun kicking a football around, playing frisbee and looking at the animals in the park's mini-zoo. Jan and Andrew had an OJ fight.

Anna and I will be busy this week finding jobs, buying SIMcards for our phones, and working out just what the hell we are doing here.

Farewell to the Continent

Seems to be a lot of nice shopping in Madrid, and it's surely cheaper than it will be in London. We had a look in a number of nice shops, but our only purchases were a couple of pairs of shoes each from Campers. They have a very interesting and trendy range of pseudo-rubberised and leather shoes %P

Also knocked off the last of the 'Big 3' art galleries, the Centro de Arte Reina Sofia. This is housed in a very large and impressive modern building - lots of glass elevators - and is perfectly suited to its collection, a veritable who's who of the last hundred years. We were in time for a special exhibition showing Picasso's famous Guernica with numerous preparatory drawings and a couple of contrasting works by Goya and Manet.

We've enjoyed our food this week too, having made a stop at the LP-recommended chain Mallorca, also popular with locals (a good sign). They have several display areas - sweet, savoury, salads, wine, bonbons - and we couldn't resist a few fancy pastries. These were lovingly wrapped in red paper and string, and even survived the journey home unscathed! (Though they didn't last long after that.)

Plus we had an awesome lunch at the art gallery restaurant, Arola. Very fancy, the kind of place Hannibal Lecter might choose to dine, though the cutting-edge modern decor (ie. crap lighting and werid couches) left a little to be desired. Here we had a series of exquisite tapas: mini fish pies, mushrooms gratin, brown rice and vegetables (done like a risotto), fried gorgonzola cubes, prawns... mmm...

Ah well. Tomorrow we will be back in the land of mushy peas and grim meat pies. Old Blighty - here we come!

Art galleries, oh my!

Madrid has an excellent collection of art spread over three internationally-profiled galleries. We dutifully bought our combined ticket, and knocked off two of them (the third closed early today).

The first, the Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum, had the most (relatively) minor collection, but was very well laid out. It was possible to walk chronologically, and lineraly, through the entire collection. This approach is very insightful vis a vis the history of art and its development from Romanesque to Modern, and we enjoyed the galleries very much.

The second, Museo Nacional del Prado, was so popular as to be Madrid's Louvre, but had a disappointingly schizophrenic and rambling lay-out. It was also run by frustratingly small-minded museum staff. I was looking forward to a particular painting by El Greco (it features on a Vangelis album cover, the music of which is themed to the artist's work) which, although part of the permanent collection, was hanging in the temporary exhibition space. It was visible from the exit so I asked the guard to let me have a closer look - afterall, I had paid to see it and I wasn't interested in the temporary exhibition (Picasso, of whom we'd already seen plenty). Long story short, after much heated discussion, he pointedly refused - despite the painting being only a few feet away. So close and yet so far - you may understand why I was so riled.

The second, Museo Nacional del PradoToday we saw work by Agnolo Gaddi, Barnardo Daddi, Simone Martini, Jan Van Eyck, Della Robbia, Uccello, Gozzoli, Veneziano, Holbein, Ghirlandaio, Piero della Francesca, Crespi, Tintoretto, Fra Bartolomeo, Fra Angelico, Carpaccio, Titian, Lorenzo Lotto, Bronzino, Raphael, Botticelli, Il Veronese, Tiepolo, El Greco, Caravaggio, Rembrandt, Goya, Velazquez, Bosch, Carreggio, Parmigianino, Cranach, Durer, Rubens, Brueghel, Corot, Gainsborough, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, Waterhouse, Fragonard, Manet, Whistler, Gericault, Van Gogh, Pissarro, Monet, Sisley, Renoir, Degas, Toulouse-Lautrec, Sargent, Pierre Bonnard, Vuillard, Gauguin, Munch, Braque, Otto Dix, Grosz, Kirchner, Mondrian, Leger, Krupka, Popova, Klee, Chagall, Magritte, Dali, Ernst, Miro, de Kooning, Pollock, Rothko, Bacon, Rauschenberg, Lichtenstein, Kandinsky, Robert Delauney, Matisse, Derain, Picasso, Juan Gris, O'Keefe and Modigliani, (in vague order).