London (last leg) - March 2000

9 March 2000

From Heathrow we took the tube to our hotel in London, the London Lodge Hotel. The desk staff seemed to consist entirely of beautiful young Italian women.

We checked into our room and each took a shower, before suddenly realizing that we were in real danger of being late for the play we'd booked the day before.

So we ran down to the Tube station, and hopped trains to the Barbican, the RSC's London playhouse, situated across the city from our hotel.

We arrived literally as the doors were closing, an exasperated usher let us in as the hall lights were darkening. We steped on the toes of everyone sitting on the left side of row Q, since our seats were right in the middle.

I've seen RSC productions before, but I had forgotten how enjoyable the atmosphere was. The play was Othello, which the RSC had set in the late 19th century. The actors and actresses obviously enjoyed wearing the now-romantic clothing favored by the aristocracy of the time.

When you watch a subtitled movie, it takes a few minutes to get used to reading the subtitles, but after a while you get used to them, and the movie flows quite naturally. It's the same thing with Shakespeare--it takes a few minutes to get used to the archaic language, but then the play seems to flow quite naturally.

I hadn't seen Othello before, and in fact knew little of the plot beforehand, but it was a great production and whoever played Iago performed brilliantly. The sets were also inspired.

The play let out fairly late (3 1/2 hours long), so we left the theater close to 11. We hopped the tube to Leicester Square, and had a quick meal at Bella Pasta. Then we returned to the hotel.

Coming back from the play, and particularly when heading up to Leicester Square from the tube, I was struck by the vast amounts of people moving to and fro. We stood on the up escalator, watching two down escalators carry people past us in a colorful stream. There were tourists, punk rockers, people out for a night of clubbing, as well as the odd yuppie in a sharp suit or skirt, returning home after a day's work, many of whom watched the crowds with the same sort of awed detachment as I.

10 March 2000

[Written 11 Mar 00]

The next day we awoke, had breakfast (the guidebook had specifically recommended the hotel's breakfast), and went off to meet Vasee. We had arranged to meet him at the Jubilee line's southern platform at the Green Park station at 10:30, and we found him their reading a book, waiting for us.

Vasee was in good spirits, as he'd just found out that he'd passed an important exam, and was now a member of the Royal College of Physicians, meaning that his list of honors and degrees is now officially longer than his actual name.

For our last full day in Britain we had decided to visit the Millenium Dome in Greenwhich. Think of a small, corporate-sponsored Disneyland under a single (domed) roof.

We first chose to visit the Money exhibit, sponsored by the City of London (the posh part of London where most of the banks are headquartered), which was abysmal. The point of the exhibit, as far as we could make out, is that we should be grateful that only a small part of the population is rich, and that the financial district of London is personally responsible for the day-to-day avoidance of a global economic meltdown. It was a bit of a letdown. I was particularly looking forward to the exhibit, which I thought might contain some interesting multi-user simulations to explain capital flows and exchange rates but instead was rather patronising.

BT's Talk exhibit, and Ford's Journey, were quite a bit better. Neither was fundamentally mind-blowing, but each contained a bunch of interesting anecdotes and a few engaging exercises. The Mind and Body exhibits were also pretty good value (I forget who sponsored them).

The middle of the day was taken by a lavish sound and dance [sic] production in the center of the Dome. Men and women in bright jumpsuits cavorted in time to some original Peter Gabriel tracks. Most exciting was the choreography of performers on wires high above the stands.

Chris and Vasee at the Dome's big performance.

At the end of the day we were crammed into the Skyscene (or some name like that) for a special Black Adder episode. It wasn't the best episode I've ever seen, but it had its moments, and Black Adder aficionados would appreciate some of the cameos.

From the Millenium Dome we took the tube up to north-central London, for Southern Indian food at Ravi Shankar's. Then we (once again) returned to Leicester Square, this time to a quiet bar that Vasee knew of. We drank expensive beer and listened to bad American music and talked for a while, then hopped back in the tube again.

We said goodbye to Vasee, then returned to the hotel.

11 March 2000

[Written 11 Mar 00]

This morning we had breakfast and once more returned to Leicester Square, this time for some last-minute shopping. Then we hopped on the tube to Heathrow.

So now we're sitting on the plane, flying back to Seattle. On my right side (out the window) are the unbroken ice sheets of the North Atlantic, while to my left (next to my brother) is a serious-looking man wearing a Simpson's tie.

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