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Somewhere that's green: Potty the Plant at Wiltons Music Hall

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"I'm Potty the Plant," sings a potted plant in this odd little fringe concept of a show. It's hard not to get the tune out of your head, even if the show is brief. It's an earworm for a show that features a worm-like plant as a puppet. And given the show's brevity, running at only an hour, it's hard to get too annoyed by a lack of a coherent story, even if it still seems like the show could use a bit more development (which is underway). It has made its London debut at Wilton's Music Hall. The premise is that Potty, the plant, lives in the hospital office of Dr Acula (geddit?) and dreams of a life with the cleaning lady Miss Lacey (Lucy Appleton). But Dr Acula might be responsible for why all these children are disappearing while trying to romance Miss Lacey for her family's money that she doesn't have. Three nurses are on the case, trying to solve the mystery.  If the show settled on a convincing plot, location and set of characters, it could ...

Scenes from London Bridge Thursday 18:22

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Scenes from London Bridge Thursday 18:22 Originally uploaded by Pauly_ .

Scenes from Liverpool St Station Thursday 17:35

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Scenes from Liverpool St Station Thursday 17:35 Originally uploaded by Pauly_ . Watching England beat Trinidad and Tobago ... At this stage no goals but plenty of beer... While I didn't watch the game you could tell how well England was doing by the silence. If there was a roar that dropped off instantly you knew there was a near-miss. A roar that continues means there was a goal... England are now through to the next round. Interestingly at a hardware store the other day I was offered one of those flags for cars for free. I told the lady behind the counter I would be just fine without one...

Scenes from the City, Thursday 17:05

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Scenes from the City, Thursday 17:05 Originally uploaded by Pauly_ . The streets were empty but the pubs were full...

Scenes from Noel Coward Theatre Wednesday 22:29

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Scenes from Noel Coward Theatre Wednesday 22:29 Originally uploaded by Pauly_ . Trekkie Monster and actor Simon Lipkin post Avenue Q tonight. It is still in preview until the end of the month but if the audience reaction is as strong as it was tonight for the show, then Avenue Q surely will be around for a while in the West End. A great show with an amazing amount of energy where twenty somethings (some real, some puppets) sing about life lessons such as "What do you do with a B.A. in English?" and "The Internet is for Porn". The latter song is where we meet Trekkie Monster... Of course humourous songs aside, this show has a real story and a lot of heart. It is warm and fuzzy on so many levels. If the Muppets grew up (and were not sanitised when Disney bought them out) then they would be doing shows like this. A show for the Miss Piggy generation if there ever was one...

Scenes from Liverpool St Tuesday 17:51

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Scenes from Liverpool St Tuesday 17:51 Originally uploaded by Pauly_ . Rush hour home...

Scenes from Clapham Common Sunday 18:27

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Scenes from Clapham Common Sunday 18:27 Originally uploaded by Pauly_ . Love on the common... Even in this heat and with the shopping...

Scenes from Clapham Common Sunday 18:21

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Scenes from Clapham Common Sunday 18:21 Originally uploaded by Pauly_ . That lovely light effect is the smog hanging over the city. Nevertheless as temperatures hovered near 30 this afternoon, the punters flocked to the Common thinking it was a lovely day for fresh air... Across London high moderate levels of ozone were measured and it is expected to get worse over the next few days...

One last look back at New York

There is just one more thing I will mention about my trip to New York. It involves an exotic dancer and getting lost in the East Village until the wee hours of the morning. Of course no illegal substances were consumed. Read on…

Scenes from N1 Saturday 15:16

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Scenes from N1 Saturday 15:16 Originally uploaded by Pauly_ . It is going to be a quiet month if England do as well as expected in the World Cup . England's first match yesterday afternoon against Paraguay emptied the streets and filled the pubs. It also closed shops (such as this one). I was in a pub where the match was only on a 42" CRT television set so it wasn't quite such a focus of attention (a true sports pub should have nothing smaller than a standard issue plasma television nowadays)... Interestingly England's performance yesterday wasn't as crash hot as everyone was expecting . Their victory (thanks to an own goal by Paraguay) wasn't really celebrated on the streets of London. The reaction was more like relief... Assuming the team picks up their game, it is going to be a long month...

Scenes from SW4 Saturday 13:43

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Scenes from SW4 Saturday 13:43 Originally uploaded by Pauly_ . If you drive a really crap-looking car in London, then the chances are that you will have St George flags protruding from the back windows of it to show your support for England in the World Cup . The flags are sold everywhere and are really cheap. This makes up for the extra £10-20 you are likely to spend on fuel consumption due to their drag if you have them up for the entire duration of the cup. To be fair to England supporters, now that the cup has started other flags have appeared as well. On Friday I saw a Merc sporting both English and Mexican flags...