Brighton Pavilion
Stonehenge
3 Savile Row, London - the Beatles' Apple office and the site of the rooftop gig
me outside Paul McCartney's London officeTuesday 6 January
Hi Everyone,
It’s been just over a week, so here’s my first update.
Firstly, some of you have heard about my mid-air medical mayhem, but for those of you who haven’t, here goes.
The flight from NZ to Australia was fine, but from Aus to Korea I fainted twice on the plane, then spent the next five hours throwing up. Not fun. Still, nothing that 4 hours in a Korean hospital couldn’t fix. I’m fine now, but I was a bit wobbly for a couple of days afterwards.
It didn’t help that jet-lag then kicked in! I would wake up at 2am and not get back to sleep. The next night I deliberately stayed up late, and then slept in til 1:30 the next afternoon!
I spent a few days in London, staying at my sister’s flat in Acton (west London), and from there started exploring London. I still haven’t finished with London, but here’s a few pictures I took. Of course I hit the galleries and museums – I saw Van Gogh’s sunflowers, Picasso’s Child with Dove, Monets, Manets, Klimts, Raphaels, and millions of other famous paintings.
London’s such a huge city, and to be honest, I’m not a huge fan. I love all the inside stuff – the galleries, the museums, the history – but I hate being surrounded by people all the time like that. People shove and push and there’s no personal space. It’s like being at the Regent 24 hour Book Sale at 8pm on the Friday night – crazy.
But what I do love about London is the theatre. Later on in March Kenneth Branagh will be directing Jude Law in Hamlet, Rowan Atkinson is starring as Fagin in Oliver, Derek Jacobi is in Twelfth Night and Sanjeev from the Kumars at No. 42 is King Arthur in Monty Python’s Spamalot. Kate (sister) and I went to see Spamalot – very funny. Not quite as good as the film, and it goes off in some weird tangents, e.g. instead of having to get a second shrubbery, they have to produce a West End musical, so Sir Robin goes into this big and song and dance number about needing Jews in the musical????? Oh, and Lancelot is gay and ends up going out with Herbert (“huge tracts of land”). It was a very odd adaptation, but with some great moments (King Arthur speaking Hindi???!!!).
I left for Brighton on Monday. The main attraction for me was the Pavilion, created by The Prince Regent (later King George IV, or Hugh Laurie in Blackadder). It was absolutely amazing. He built it in the 1820s a getaway palace down by the sea. For any of you who have read Regency Buck (Georgette Heyer) the Pavilion is where Judith Tavener fainted in the Prince’s company when he showed her one of his new statues (although, I wasn’t sure which room this was).
The Pavilion is decorated incredibly lavishly, in the “Chinese” style that was popular at the time. The music room (far out, if only I had one…) is massive. It’s about the same size as the Glenroy Auditorium. There’s an organ at one end. You can see the pipes, but the keyboard is hidden behind a secret door. Rossini performed here in 1823(?).
I went through Salisbury (pronounced: Sauls-bry), which is where Stonehenge is. The stones are impressive, but it was so bitterly cold I didn’t stay long. The stones come from Wales, and no one knows how they came to Salisbury, or why.
In 2000 a team of people tried to bring a stone similar in size from Wales to England as a special project to mark the millennium. They failed. The stone sank at the first river crossing. Yet, somehow, 3000 years ago, all these stones were transported by human labour alone.
I’m writing this from Bath (and I will stop soon, I promise!). For me, Bath is all about Georgette Heyer. Several of her books were set here and it’s really cool (well, really cool for a book nerd like me) to go around the streets and see the streets and places she talks about. I didn’t arrive til late, so I haven’t really had a chance to look around. That’ll be tomorrow until lunchtime, when I have to catch a train to Oxford (yes, more nerdy book stuff).
I hope you’re all enjoying the lovely weather back in NZ. I heard it’s been up around 30 degrees :P
See you in the next instalment. Remember you can email me at justinepierre@hotmail.com or I’m on facebook.
Justine
Hi Everyone,
It’s been just over a week, so here’s my first update.
Firstly, some of you have heard about my mid-air medical mayhem, but for those of you who haven’t, here goes.
The flight from NZ to Australia was fine, but from Aus to Korea I fainted twice on the plane, then spent the next five hours throwing up. Not fun. Still, nothing that 4 hours in a Korean hospital couldn’t fix. I’m fine now, but I was a bit wobbly for a couple of days afterwards.
It didn’t help that jet-lag then kicked in! I would wake up at 2am and not get back to sleep. The next night I deliberately stayed up late, and then slept in til 1:30 the next afternoon!
I spent a few days in London, staying at my sister’s flat in Acton (west London), and from there started exploring London. I still haven’t finished with London, but here’s a few pictures I took. Of course I hit the galleries and museums – I saw Van Gogh’s sunflowers, Picasso’s Child with Dove, Monets, Manets, Klimts, Raphaels, and millions of other famous paintings.
London’s such a huge city, and to be honest, I’m not a huge fan. I love all the inside stuff – the galleries, the museums, the history – but I hate being surrounded by people all the time like that. People shove and push and there’s no personal space. It’s like being at the Regent 24 hour Book Sale at 8pm on the Friday night – crazy.
But what I do love about London is the theatre. Later on in March Kenneth Branagh will be directing Jude Law in Hamlet, Rowan Atkinson is starring as Fagin in Oliver, Derek Jacobi is in Twelfth Night and Sanjeev from the Kumars at No. 42 is King Arthur in Monty Python’s Spamalot. Kate (sister) and I went to see Spamalot – very funny. Not quite as good as the film, and it goes off in some weird tangents, e.g. instead of having to get a second shrubbery, they have to produce a West End musical, so Sir Robin goes into this big and song and dance number about needing Jews in the musical????? Oh, and Lancelot is gay and ends up going out with Herbert (“huge tracts of land”). It was a very odd adaptation, but with some great moments (King Arthur speaking Hindi???!!!).
I left for Brighton on Monday. The main attraction for me was the Pavilion, created by The Prince Regent (later King George IV, or Hugh Laurie in Blackadder). It was absolutely amazing. He built it in the 1820s a getaway palace down by the sea. For any of you who have read Regency Buck (Georgette Heyer) the Pavilion is where Judith Tavener fainted in the Prince’s company when he showed her one of his new statues (although, I wasn’t sure which room this was).
The Pavilion is decorated incredibly lavishly, in the “Chinese” style that was popular at the time. The music room (far out, if only I had one…) is massive. It’s about the same size as the Glenroy Auditorium. There’s an organ at one end. You can see the pipes, but the keyboard is hidden behind a secret door. Rossini performed here in 1823(?).
I went through Salisbury (pronounced: Sauls-bry), which is where Stonehenge is. The stones are impressive, but it was so bitterly cold I didn’t stay long. The stones come from Wales, and no one knows how they came to Salisbury, or why.
In 2000 a team of people tried to bring a stone similar in size from Wales to England as a special project to mark the millennium. They failed. The stone sank at the first river crossing. Yet, somehow, 3000 years ago, all these stones were transported by human labour alone.
I’m writing this from Bath (and I will stop soon, I promise!). For me, Bath is all about Georgette Heyer. Several of her books were set here and it’s really cool (well, really cool for a book nerd like me) to go around the streets and see the streets and places she talks about. I didn’t arrive til late, so I haven’t really had a chance to look around. That’ll be tomorrow until lunchtime, when I have to catch a train to Oxford (yes, more nerdy book stuff).
I hope you’re all enjoying the lovely weather back in NZ. I heard it’s been up around 30 degrees :P
See you in the next instalment. Remember you can email me at justinepierre@hotmail.com or I’m on facebook.
Justine
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