Now for something different

Sometimes it's difficult to find the time and possibility to get out of the run-of-the-mill day. Over the past week we made the effort, and had the luck of having interesting opportunities turn up on our door.

We saw The Artist the other day, which although I believe it's a great film, well thought through, and interesting throughout, I don't think we're going to see an emergence of lots more silent black and white films in the future, there's too many people brought up on just computer generated films that they won't be seeing this film, unless it's shown at school. But for the rest of you - go and see it, well worth the visit, even if you haven't liked silent or black and white films in the past.

 

Last Sunday we headed off to London with a short list of things we would try to do. We wanted to see if we could get in to see the Leonardo exhibition at the National Gallery, get discounted tickets for an afternoon performance of Cirque du Soleil's Totem, and depending on the weather, go around some of the famous sights taking pictures with my new camera (see previous post "Oxford Shooting").

 

The weather couldn't have been any better. Slightly fresh, but very sunny and not a cloud in the sky. We got on our early train to find that it's heating system wasn't working, so spent the whole journey (luckily only an hour) with hat, coat and gloves on. Arriving at the National Gallery at 10.30am we went to the ticket desk to ask about tickets to the Leonardo exhibition. The lady was a bit surprised that we would ask such a question at this time of the day (the box office had only been open 30 mins). Apparently people had been queuing since 5.30am to get a ticket for later in the same day. Pleased that we didn't freeze for four and a half hours outside to see pictures on tiptoes in a huge crowd of people, we set off to some of the other works in the gallery, which were also quite nice.

 

Exiting the building onto Trafalgar Square, it was the perfect moment to start taking some photos of such landmarks as Nelson's Column, Westminster, and the fountains around the square. We also happened across a gentleman that had a bird of prey he was showing off flying above us, hopefully scaring some of those pigeons away.

 

Working our way down towards Westminster, crossing the river and then taking a bus from the South Bank also gave some picturesque opportunities to try to capture. Arriving at Covent Garden we had a warming snack of a Ben's Cookie and Hot Chocolate drink whilst walking around the market stalls and shops.

 

We then set off to Leicester Square and after not finding any tickets for Cirque below 70 pounds per person, decided to pop into the Prince Charles Cinema where they were just about to show Melonchia. This is not a Hollywood film, so can be considered a bit weird, but sitting back in those leather chairs, we enjoyed it all the same.

 

With hunger starting to set in we headed off to Chinatown where we sat down and had dumplings, duck with pancakes and lemon and chili chicken. A quick walk to help digest, and then we caught the train (this time with the heating working) back to Oxford.

Later in the week we went to the Oxford Playhouse to see "Flamenco - Rafael and Friends". This was a great mix of Rafael on the guitar, with different types of drums / bongos, and lots of tap dancing (sitting down as well as standing up). The speed of those feet, and the mixes of voice, music and tapping really made for a great night.


What a great set of experiences to have enjoyed...

(more photos can be found here)