mothwing | One fannish weekend

Crocky and I spent the HD release weekend in London rather spontaneously, for the HD release, and also as a little treat just for the two of us to celebrate.

We went there with one of those bus tours where you spend 16h of the trip in a bus, trying to sleep in the confined space offered to you. I was glad that none of the tours the company offered were compulsory, I had not been sure about that from the beginning and we wanted to spend time together. Luckily, we were able to bypass the day trips they offered, although I would have liked to go to Eton. Another time - we need to go to London again, anyway, to meet our Pensievers there.

So, here are some rather general pics of London, I'll put the really lovely Piccadilly midnight release pics Crocky's taken in another post.

Tours with Crocky are always highly enjoyable, and suddenly hearing the sentence, "Ah doo believe in ferries, Ah doo, Ah doo..." - which is only funny with Scots pronunciation - from the right just pwns it all.

Sadly, "Ah dohn't believe in ferries" did not sink any ships, to our greatest disappointment, and in spite of several attempts. Boat trips early in the morning can do that sort of thing to you, I expect.

Most of the train stations on the Metropolitan Line are just gorgeous. I wish the Hamburgian equivalent, the HVV, would be using train stations as old. I don't know where the thing I've got with train stations comes from, but it's there.

... the shop which had Crocky squeeing, and...

... the museum which had me squeeing.
I really regretted we didn't go, it's one of those things which are eternally on my "next time I am in London" list, like the Tate! I SO wanted to go to the Tate this time, and I did not. Again. But since we went to see Wicked instead I really feel I can't complain.

♥ Ahh, Sherlock. When I was 10 I wanted to marry him and have his babies.

Random pub, taken from a bus.

Random pub in Hammersmith. I love those great, big lanterns they have outside.

A shop which scared the hell out of me.

Piccadilly. Which, I must say, looks much nicer when you're not walking across it at 3am, which we had to do last time we were in London, as none of the night buses would stop for us at any of the Request stops. Our hotel booking had been screwed up, and thus we decided to walk to Charing Cross, the station from which our train to East Sussex and our camping site would be leaving in the morning. That sounds easier than it was. There were no cabs left, only a highly dubious person who told us he was a cab driver, but just happened to have forgotten his license who insisted we should go with him. We did not dare, which was probably for the better, since he did not look like a privat hire cabby, either, and so we walked, while red double-deckers mockingly thundered past. Four girls, one of them 14 years old, with a 10kg tent. From Camden to Charing Cross, without a map of London, following the bus stops.
Definitely a night to remember.

Does anyone else feel that that little McDonald's sign on that building looks slightly... inappropriate?

I loved that dome. Fine, I know I do not take the most interesting touristy pics ever, but it was pritteeeh.

Another lovely corner with great, big lanterns.

Not a car commercial.

I fell in love with that house.

That's what happens if your exposure time has to be very long because it's dark and a bus just happens to go by while you are still waiting for the shutter to come up again.

It was a coincidence that we saw the theatre from the bus. We decided to have a closer look, and then decided to ask if there were still seats available at reasonable prices, and there were, and thus we ended up going. I was in two minds about it all the time, as I keep thinking that musicals are just too expensive, and whatever you pay is not really worth it.
Still, I do not regret seeing Wicked at all. It was a brilliant show, and much better than I had thought it would be.
The lighting! Amazing. The stage - it looked great.

I would have loved to be able to take it home and put it up as a wallpaper. SO pretty!

I thought I would inevitably be disappointed with the musical because I LOVED the book so much, and love Elphie so much. Not so, it was amazing, and the story the musical is telling is so far away from the story the book is telling that the changes are somehow less painful - I guess it was necessary that there were less characters in the musical, and since I am not a big Fiyero fan I did not really mind his character being changed and turned into Avaric that much.
Well, I did not mind the changes - apart from the last two songs. What on earth happened there? The friendship song - ok, fine, we see that Elphie is not thaaat evil and still has feelings, is human. I'd argue that we know that, but maybe the composer really needed to get that song into his programme, well, ok, fine. And for a dim audience... Well, still no. Anyway. It could have ended there. I don't see a reason why she should survive, because she. does. not. Of course everything inside me wants her to survive, but I know that she just - does not. This syrupy ending somehow... I don't know. It seems so incredibly pasted on.
I loved most of the songs, although I can't say that any of them turned into my favourite the way individual songs from other musicals have become, still, I don't think I ever enjoyed seeing a musical as much as Wicked, it was just great seeing it.
I wonder whether there'll be a DVD at some point, because I'd buy that immediately. I was slightly disappointed that they didn't have one when we were there. Well, that'll have to wait. I hope they do one, though, maybe they have done that with the original cast? I wish I could have seen those performances (like Astrum, who has friggin' met the cast...), because from what I have seen of Idina Menzel, she is Elphie. Well, she looks like her, anyway.