For the first USC event, we had a dinner and a play. John, the USC coordinator, took us to dinner near Piccadilly Circus where we met members of the USC Alumni Club in London. Yay Trojan Family! They gave us free T-shirts and invited us to view the USC vs. Cal game in Chelsea with them.
Then we headed to see the play Prick Up Your Ears at the Comedy Theatre. It's a play based on the diaries of Joe Orton, a famous-ish playwright from the 1960's. He and his lover Kenneth Halliwell and their busy-body neighbor Mrs. Corden are the only characters in the play. It details their imprisonment for defacing library books while struggling playwrights. Afterwards, Orton's rise to fame and Halliwell's fall into depression and addiction ends tragically when Halliwells snaps and hammers Orton to death. True story.
It's a very dark play with spots of humor, usually coming from Mrs. Cordon (love her!). I enjoyed it, I think it could definitely use some tweaking in terms of the length of the scenes, and the foreshadowing of Halliwell's madness. Not knowing anything about the play going in, they tipped their hand too early, and then dragged out the fighting couple for far too long. Really great actors, just needed some tweaking. The set was really cool, and the set changes, scene changes, transitions and lighting were just gorgeous and seamless. (I could go on for far longer about all this... but for those of you non-drama folks, it probably get unbelievably dull).
My next adventure was supposed to happen on Wednesday, but I got distracted by going to the grocery store. I decided to make beef stew, a new culinary challenge, which took up most of the afternoon. As I am only here for 3 months, I have no culinary equipment of my own, which means that I had to be creative. So beef stew turned into beef stew in one pot and a beef/vegetable/rice soup experiment in the other. Beef stew turned out fantastically, will definitely be making again. And the soup... it tastes awesome, but I got a bit overzealous with the rice, so its somewhere between a soup and a risotto. At least I have good, cheap food for the week.
So my adventure into Portobello Road was postponed until Friday, but turned out to be fabulous, probably better than on Wednesday. On the weekends it is mobbed with tourists, but on Friday, most of the stalls and shops are open, but with far less people. Portobello Road is in Notting Hill. For those that have seen the movie, it's right where his Travel Book shop is. It's also in Bedknobs and Broomsticks, and I couldn't get the song out of my head the entire time I was there.
It's a long meandering street filled with antiques booths with everything from old China and furniture to old printmaking stamps (made me think of Roberta)and Victorian toy soldiers. It's fascinating to look at. There are also trendy shops, discounted booths, second-hand clothing, and some good eateries. I spent about 4 hours wandering around doing the odd-bit of shopping, picked up some cool second-hand boots and other knick-knacks. Made a point to visit the Hummingbird Bakery, the Sprinkles of London, and got a fabulous carrot cake cupcake.
Then got back on the tube to meet up with Toni to head to Canterbury to visit Robin and see the sights for the weekend, but that my friends, is a different post.
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