28/5/09

I went to the changing of the guards, which was packed. I couldn't see much of the beginning. Luckily the thing lasts forever, like an hour. The have the guards in the red suits and hats march in, many with instruments and then they play a bunch of songs. The guys next to me were joking that they'd play Indiana Jones or Star Wars. They did. Both. Ridiculous.

I don't even know when the changing happened but it was something I wanted to see, even if it was super boring.

I walked past St. James Palace where Henry VIII and Elizabeth I lived and made my way over to Bloomsbury are over by the British Museum known for being the hangout of many writers. I was heading to the Charles Dickens Museum, where he lived when he wrote "Oliver Twist" among others.

The house was interesting, how I sort of pictured it. Much of it was recreated, as was to be expected but they did a good job getting a number of interesting artifacts in there, even from other houses. I also watched a DVD on him in the basement, probably not original. It was crazy to think that Dickens walked around the same rooms. Particularly interesting to me were the books he read from on his reading tours that he had marked up by hand for parts he wanted to emphasize or not.

I wandered around the area and must have lost my Westminster ID card somewhere along the way, which is a bummer because it's £10 to replace. I hate spending money on stupidity. It bummed me out for a while.

I went by Fitzrovia Tavern, where the writers like Dylan Thomas and Virgina Woolf used to go. I peeked in, I think I'll go eat there sometime soon. I then made my way over to Fitzrovia Square where Virginia Wolf lived and hosted many of the literary meetings. Pretty cool, and really not all that far from where I live, just down my street a little ways.

I stopped at the Marco Polo Cafe for an Earl Grey and read the London Paper. It was a nice break, something I was to do everyday here.

I came back and hung out with Ali for a while and we talked about all our trips. She's going to Madrid and Barcelona and I gave her advice on what to do. I told her to go to Tangier.

I went down to Holburn to O'Neil's to meet Lauren, turns out I went to the wrong O'Neil's. But since I was in the area of Covent Garden, I went by Royal Drury Lane where "Oliver" starring Rowand Atkinson is playing. The show had ended and there was a big group of people outside waiting for an autograph, so I waited too. I had nothing for him to sign, but it was a pretty successful night when I got my photo with him. I asked if he if would be ok to take the photo and he said he would be happy to and asked who would take it. I told him I would and he stopped and smiled. I thanked him and and said he I was very welcome, a really nice man, especially after a performance.

I finally made it down to the right O'Neil's in Chinatown of all places and hung out there. It was good catching up with Lauren. Her friend Caitlin was there, and she's from Birmingham and her brother played on the Barons before I did when they were young. Crazy. They had a live band that was good but we left pretty quickly because they had to take the Tube.

It was a nice night so I walked back and called Sam and caught up a little before coming back to watch some of the Tigers.