Birthday party for a 1-year old, Shakespeare in the Park, The Dark Knight, learning PowerPoint.
Friday night Bryan’s colleague and his wife had a lovely little get-together for their 1 year-old daughter, Ameera’s, birthday. They live nearby, and had prepared delicious Indian food. It was a quite a departure from the last 1 year-old birthday party we attended, which included escort cards and seating, a sit-down meal, and hired entertainment. But that was Long Island, and look- I take all kinds.
We then headed to London’s most glorious park one block from us, Regent’s Park, for Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night performed in the park’s open-air theatre. In case I forgot how posh this area of town is, this is like Wolf Trap, although smaller, on steroids (some of you will get that reference). There were wine tastings, white linen tablecloths by the concessions, and the most discerning audience members this side of the Thames. It was beautiful and borderline out of my league. Well, that’s mostly because Shakespeare’s plays are filled with so many “wherefores” and “how nows” that I have to pay extra close attention. It’s like I even have to be sober.
Saturday night we saw The Dark Knight with friends. The theatre we went to is massive, and in Leicester Square (London’s slightly less obnoxious version of Times Square). These are the things I love about cinema in the UK (yes, you have to say cinema):
- You pick your seats before-hand. It could not be awesomer.
- A fun-loving rowdy crowd on a Saturday night claps at everything, including the ratings warnings, copyright notices, and triumphant scenes in the movie.
- People seem polite. I haven’t seen anyone talk on their cell phone to their babymama or landlord yet during the show.
- The bathrooms are inside the same room the film is shown!
Things I don’t like:
- They don’t put melted, processed, chemically-created butter on your popcorn. It’s just dry.
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It is warm in London. The kind of warm where you spend a lot of time thinking about how there is no air conditioning or screens on windows and your body temperature is such that you don’t want to move, but often have to move to smash bugs against your institutionally-white walls, since, well, there are no screens on the windows.
