On this particular night..
Hello, friends.
You’ll have to deal with my high-flown rhetoric for a while, or at least for this post, as I am in a very literary place right now; this place being both mental and physical; being London and the essence of London as it creeps into my brain via all possible avenues.
Well, today was nothing to write home, or for that matter a post, about, but last night and even this night were just lovely. Last night I saw for the second time “A Midsummer Night’s Dream.” Even though the actor who played Robin Goodfellow (an honest Puck) the first time I saw it was incapacitated in some way two hours before last night’s show and another actor from the company had to read his part script-in-hand, it was amazing. The stand-in did a truly fantastic job, stunning given the circumstances, and I really got to enjoy the writing and acting having now seen the production at least once and having finally read it. Ugh! Just wonderful!
Tonight was a nice end to a boring day. With my flatmates all about the town, some with shows to see and others with pubs to – discover, I took a nice long walk through the heart of London. Very alone, but I wouldn’t have had it any other way. For the first time I got to really start to digest some of the things that I’ve seen and done and heard and tasted over the past few weeks. I walked from the flat down to Waterloo bridge, picking up some fresh, crispy, paper-wrapped chips along the way. Waterloo bridge at night is my favorite place in London (not that I’ve seen enough to make such a claim, although it really is, at least, so far, but I digress). I stood there for a long while staring out at the clock tower (inside which is a bell named Big Ben), and over parliament, and over the London Eye. Then I turned and looked at St. Paul’s Cathedral and just really let the sights soak in. I sat on a bench on the bank of the Thames and wrote a few short vignettes for a possible later work. I walked down to the Globe and listened to a crowd cheer the words of a man who died four-hundred years ago, and carried on to the original site of his theatre. Then I walked back over the Millennium Bridge and right to the base of St. Paul’s and then back to the flat.
A good walk. A good night.
And I pray one for you as well.
Love.
Shaun
ah…..chips……real English chips, soaked in salt and vinegar while enjoying the view from the embankment. Plus of course England just beat the smack out of Croatia.You are a lucky tool Mr Metzger……but you still have to visit a curry house if you really want to appreciate England!!