Episode 21: Gluten-Free Starbucks Brownie, Hilarity, And I Never Want To Walk Again (But Have To Tomorrow)

Wow, was today loooooooong. It started off when my alarm beeped at 9 this morning. But I was so involved in my dream that the beeping was not my alarm, but a bomb that I needed to diffuse, but couldn't find. It actually took a few minutes of searching for the beeping to penetrate my subconscious and realize it was my alarm. Yes, I can get a little wrapped up in my dream worlds where I'm taking ballet ninja lessons (do you really want to know?)

Got everything together and headed to the bus stop. Luckily I allowed an hour and a half for travel to The Globe because I was putting on my sunglasses to help alleviate some of my headache from squinting in the glare of the sun, when the bus I needed to hail goes blowing past me. I only looked away from my vigilant lookout, but that's all it took. Luckily the next one showed up about six minutes later and I got to Waterloo with 45 minutes to walk to The Globe.

Yes, that's right. I said walk. As in I walked all the way from Waterloo Station to just a little past the Millennium Bridge. Just one little problem with this. The bridges I thought were the Millennium and London sooooooo were not even close. I walked, fairly quickly, for about thirty-five to forty minutes to reach The Globe. Don't get me wrong; it was a beautiful walk along the South Bank. But it was a little farther than I'd originally thought it to be. Okay, a lot farther.

Anyway, I eventually got there (on time even) and we did our tour of the globe and workshop for the play. The best part was getting to watch a little of the rehearsal for this new play called Anne Boelyn, in which Anne was blonde oddly enough. We also learned how there is no real lighting used or anything prerecorded in the way of sound and music. And if it rains, you just get wet. Also, this Globe is made using only the materials that the original was made with and is the first building to have a thatched roof since the Great London Fire in 1666 (in 1666, London burned like rotten sticks. This is a little rhyme Patsy taught us on our Shakespeare walk).

After this we had a break for lunch (yay food!) which was great since it was already 2 in the afternoon. I sat up in the cafe and ate my half sandwich while reading my Jude Deveraux book (which has totally sucked me in. Plus it has history I know. Yay history!) Before we met back up for class, I stopped in the Globe Gift Shop and bought a pair of pens that look like quills. I'd someday like to buy an actual quill and ink set, but they're expensive and unnecessary when I'm not sure how to use them yet. Plus they had Shakespeare's plays all turned into graphic novels, which actually looked really cool. I also saw what I think is probably my favorite Shakespeare quote, even though I'd never heard it before today (it even beats "Beware the ides of March"): "Hoods make not monks" from Henry VIII. Ironically, it was on a hoodie. :D

Patsy then took us on a little Shakespeare walk. We saw the sight of the original Globe theatre which had burned to the ground and the only house Shakespeare ever owned in London. We also saw the Globe's rival back in the day (which apparently is still going), The Rose Theatre, which is partially supported by Sir Ian McKellen because he doesn't like the feel of the Globe. After the walk we were left to our own devices until showtime.

Now, since I had already taken pictures of the Jubilee Bridge from the Waterloo Bridge (what I thought were the Millennium and London Bridges respectively) I decided to follow through with this idea of taking pictures of one bridge from another. Then I plan to frame them in some sort of shadowbox frame with miniature models of the bridges the pictures were taken from (Waterloo model in the Jubliee picture frame for example) and call it "Bridging The Gap". I think it has a nice ring to it.

The plan started with just taking a picture of London Bridge from the Millennium and vice versa. One tiny little problem. Since they build their bridges all at exactly the same height (except Tower Bridge), you can't actually see London Bridge from the Millennium Bridge. Actually, you can't see it from any bridge but Tower Bridge since there's a tram bridge in the way. But I have various other bridge pictures.

I have Millennium Bridge from Southwark and Southwark from Millennium. I have Jubilee from Waterloo and Waterloo from Jubilee. I have Blackfriar's from Millenium. I have London from the ground. And I have Tower from Millennium, Southwark, and London. Now I just have to go to Tower Bridge and get pictures of what bridges I can from it.

After all that I walked back to the Globe, stopping at the Starbucks across from it. Where, to my delight, I found a gluten-free brownie. There were actually a few gluten-free options which both surprised and thrilled me. Yay for yummy treats of the glutenless variety. I bought the brownie, went back across the street and sat in the cafe, where I ate my other half of the sandwich and read for two hours. Lovely.

At seven I made my way into the theatre to claim my spot. My spot on the ground. Yes, I attended this play as if I were the plebeian I would have been in Shakespeare's time. Which meant I stood for the entire play. I stood for 2 and half hours. It was a looooooong time to be on my feet, even with the short break for intermission (which they call Interval here).

However, the play was well worth it. I cannot even describe the sheer wondrousness of the play, though I am going to attempt it. To start with I should tell you that the premise is there are two sets of twins, one master to one servant (two aristocratic boys, two lower class boys) that are separated in a great storm when still babies. One set never knows they have brothers while the other set sets off to find their lost kin. They've been gone seven years when the father of the high born boys comes to the country looking for his sons, but being from a rival country, the law will put him to death if he cannot raise 1000 marks in 24 hours. Thus begins a series of hilarious mix-ups.

Now, to start with, though there are four characters between the twin sets, there are only two actors to play them. And yet, you never get confused as to who is who. One set has glasses while the other doesn't and the twins have very separate personalities. Also, pretty much all the characters play more than one character, which is hilarious to watch when they're supposed to be in the same room.

Also, they speak fairly fast and in Shakespearean tongue, but thanks to their gestures and body language, you are never confused as to what is going on. I think that actually seeing the play probably makes it twenty times as funny as it would be on paper. And this cast did it superbly. I couldn't even tell if some of the slip-ups were really that or preplanned to get more laughs from the audience.

My favorite part is right at the end when they wheel out cut-outs of the guys who play the twins so that both twins can be in the same room at the same time. Also, I loved the back and forth between the goldsmith and the duke (who were the same guy, but very different in manner. Plus, the goldsmith didn't wear a hat). I don't know how to properly convey how freakin' awesome this was. I absolutely adored this play. It was amazing!

Then I headed for the tube station with Montana, Lyanna, a couple other girls and a girl named Katelyn. Katelyn and I got a little separated from the others, but we stuck together. We also decided that you should always be able to blame things on the Death Eaters. Bridge instability? It was the Death Eaters. River frozen over? It was the Death Eaters. Train delay? It was the Death Eaters. It's the perfect excuse.

Took us a couple switches to get back, but we ended up on the fast train back to Waterloo and now here I am. It's 1am, but I wanted to write this up before bed. Besides, I can sleep in August.

Today's lesson: double check how close you are to somewhere before walking there. Also, don't stand for an entire play until you work up some muscle endurance. Ciao