Paul in London

A place to live... the search goes on Today I decided to look at a place in SE8... Canada Water on the Jubilee line is nearby, or rather 20 minutes walk away, and it was near the river but not quite on the river. The guy offering the room owned the place and was nice and friendly and we got on well, although he mentioned he was going out to XXL tonight and I wasn't sure what to make of that information... The room overlooked a common garden which looked charming in that English people who potter about on their garden plot on the weekends kind of thing, but what loomed large over the garden plot was a hideously enormous and monolithic Council Estate. I imagined waking up first thing in the morning and seeing this out the window and screaming. Even if I was here for just a few months I think it would be tough going. The Thames was a short five minute walk away and I was informed that there were plenty of restaurants and bars along the riverfront. Curious, I decided to wa

Theatre: By the Bog of Cats with Holly Hunter Holly Hunter in a West End play was too good to pass up at £15, so I went to Wyndhams Theatre to see By The Bog Of Cats tonight. The house was half full so there was plenty of room to stretch out in the theatre. It was an updating of the Medea story to Ireland amongst the peat bogs and the travelers who live in them, so that might explain why it hasn't found an audience. Holly Hunter could stand on stage and recite a list of vulgarities and it would be still worth seeing her act of course... At crucial moments in the story the man sitting next to me kept rustling his bag of nuts which was a bit of a distraction, and just before Hunter's character gets killed by a man with a white face (not sure about the logic behind that part) somebody's phone went off. The magic of live theatre... Miscellany * Liquorice Allsorts are back on my table. * Was followed tonight at Piccadilly Circus tube station by a man in a p

Politics: New Labour testing ground Labour is testing a series of posters that it may use in the election on the theme Britain is working. Don't let the Tories wreck it again (which borrows the same slogan from what the Tories used 10 years ago but anyway...). They are all are pretty underwhelming in the mudslinging stakes and surely must only appeal to the most die-hard of campaign fanatics... Meanwhile over on the Conservative.com site, the new slogan: "Are you thinking what we're thinking?" is being rolled out... Quite cryptic really... News: Crimes against intruders Amid concerns that crime is out of control (and depending on what statistics you look at you could argue this toss one way or another), in the battle over what people can do to protect their homes during a burglary, new guidelines released this week say pretty much anything now goes . You still can't set traps or punish a burglar by death, but anything else is fair game. The advic

Conversation: Haircuts Paul (to colleague): I am leaving work early tomorrow at 5.30 to get a Haircut. Colleague: : Is this allowed? Paul: Well I need to look my best now... Colleague: NOW???

News: Puttin' on a show Last year was a record year for West End theatres , and goddammit, I am sure I at least tried to see every show... or at least every other show, concert, live performance or whatever you call it. On the plus side now tickets for me a half the price they once were as I only have to buy for one... Going solo to a theatre can have other benefits too... Apart from eavesdropping on other people's conversations you just never know - if it is some enchanted evening - just who you might meet across a crowded foyer / room... Life: Support Broke the news to colleagues today... (the news that I am single). While unfortunately nobody chimed up with "Oh well I have this terrific friend..." (dammit), they have been great and let me pay out on them more so than usual today. One asked me, "But you seemed so happy," to which I replied, "Well that's okay, I was!".

Moving and all it entails... Notice has been given on the lease so I have six weeks to find short-term accommodation so have been reviewing The Gumtree , London Craigslist , Freedomlet and Gayshare . It has been so long since I had to look for something that I had to go back to the August 2003 postings from this blog to remember the names. Fortunately all the sites are still there... Should have some certainty by the end of this week about where I will be living. The other part of the equation is how much longer will I stay here. I have a job until Easter... maybe a little longer... but after that might be the natural time to return to Oz. Since I am looking for something for the first half of the year I have been debating should I go for miserable and frugal or decadent and expensive? I think I will make the decision on what's available of course but these thoughts cross one's mind... Plus something handy to public transport with regular Night Buses...

I need a new suit... of armour... You can never say you are at "the museum" in London. There are so many of them. After shopping for sales on Oxford Street I made my way over to the Wallace Collection where they have a very impressive display of armoury...  

Theatre: Grand Hotel Grand Hotel was a fabulous little diversion for the evening, the weekend, the month... The run at the Donmar has completely sold out and for good reason since the show is so stylish and cleverly put together with a great cast. There is not much set just the back of the hotel sign and a few props. The blanks are filled in with songs and dancing. So who could fault that? The history of this musical is that it was based on the 1938 film, but also on a failed musicalised version in the 1950s by the collaborators on Kismet. Half the songs were replaced in this version and it probably was for the best as while the shift in music styles is noticeable it also helps keep things moving. There is no interval but the one hour and 45 minutes just breezes by. This production tells a much darker story than the film, but that probably suits modern tastes. Best of all was the Baron, played by Julian Ovenden - who was eye candy and ear candy with his looks and tenor voi

The Green Park Shuffle. Friday Night. 

Theatre tonight Busy week, but at least I get to take the next two days off, and tonight will be heading to the Donmar Warehouse to see "Grand Hotel". I explained to a colleague that it was an old movie that they turned into a Musical. Greta Garbo's character is played by Mary Elisabeth Mastrantonionionionio.... What I'm listening to: Songs For a New World It's about one moment That moment you think you know where you stand And in that one moment The things that you're sure of slip from your hand And you've got one second To try to be clear, to try to stand tall But nothing's the same And the wind starts to blow And you're suddenly a stranger In some completely different land And you thought you knew But you didn't have a clue That the surface sometimes cracks To reveal the tracks To a new world - from "The New World" by Jason Robert Brown 1997 There's something in that for all of us