Friday, December 21, 2007

Thursday, 20 Dec - London Redux

Arrrrgh! I brought my trusted Canon digital SLR over to London, but for reasons too tedious to go into, I can’t download them onto this laptop I’m using. So there will be no images. Right now, words and words alone will be what I can use to describe this episode of London Redux.

Day Two has been a most enriching day, taking me to places old and places new. The sun was strong, but the day was cold. Really really cold. It started off with me heading up the London Eye with HM, getting a panoramic view of the city in bright but smoggy skies, after which I just had to return to Queenway – to my favourite dim sum restaurant at Royal China. There, I attacked the assorted har gaos, siew mais, cheong funs and dan tarts with great gusto, accompanied by cups upon cups of Chinese tea.

After a post-lunch latte nearby, we set forth across the city to the Barbican, checking out the Seduced exhibition, which proved more cerebral than what I had expected. The private lives of the ancient civilizations, and what members used to get up to. Heh. But nehmind lah.

Later on, I headed up to the Hackney area for the first time – to the Hackney Empire for a pantomime performance. It was a performance of Dick Whittington, complete with his famous cat. I had often heard of traditional Christmastime pantomimes, but never had the good fortune of watching one.

"Hiya Hackney!", the girl playing Dick would go, beaming to the audience.

"Hiya Dick!", we'd all respond, loudly and exuberantly.

What great fun. All the elements were there: the bawdy jokes, the risqué humour, the pantomime horse, the cross dressing, and the breaking of the fourth wall, with stage performers addressing audience members directly. The jokes were simply awful and corny, but much of the music was good, but alas, we had to leave before the show was over.

For we had a late dinner appointment to keep, which was transformed into a nice and simple meal of Vietnamese noodles at the Royal Margin, which I had visited before. I’m writing this now back at SSG’s place, a bottle of Fettercairn whiskey open before me, thinking that even though I have a few more days left in this city, I should really plan my next trip to London soon.

3 Comments:

Blogger Unknown said...

and we FINISHED the whole bottle, you and i...wah lau :)

10:59 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Swinger, GNK, friend & made a toast to you lot in London at the agreed time of 2pm GMT (+ DST)=10pm S'pore time ... :) DH

5:43 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Aahhh, Fettercairn. What I won't give for a sip now! A whole bottle? I guess I have made whisky monsters out of you all!!! Remember that the Vinopollis Whisky Shop has a stock of it (evil grin)

sw

3:41 PM  

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