“Being fooled by art is one of the primary pleasures of the middle classes,"*

Yesterday was awesome. Why? Because it started out gross but turned out glorious, I wandered around London, made a couple friends (well, bar friends, which I'll never see again, but still) and saw an excellent play with an actor I like before coming back and celebrating Mrs. H's birthday with her friends.

Things that happened:

+ There was an African drum circle happening outside the National Portrait Gallery and I watched them for a while, then one of the girls who had been drumming but stopped because her hands hurt got me up to dance to the beat for a couple minutes. I walked away with a giant smile on my face.

+ Went to afternoon tea at the same place as a couple weeks ago. Still delicious, still the least expensive place for afternoon tea that came up on my google search. (The cheapest google gave me was 25 pounds. I'm not paying 25 pounds for tea and goodies just for myself. And then there's Fortnum and Mason, which I want to go to, but again, pricey.) 6.50 for a pot of tea and two scones. Yummy.

+ I wandered up and down Savile Row and cried tears of fashiony joy. Stopped in front of Spencer Hart (who does the suits for Sherlock) and nearly died because a suit that looks like the one Benedict wore to the Oscars was in the window. (Seen here, here and here. And here's him in another SH. Swooning!) I snapped a couple pics, but with the sun the way it was, you can see me and the other side of the street more clearly than the suit.

+ Went to a nice place on Carnaby Street for an earlier dinner. Things were expensive and I wasn't too hungry, but I knew I should eat something, so I ended up having a really nice drink and spiced lamb kebabs with tzatki (sp?) sauce. The drink was 8 pounds and I walked out of there a little bit sloshy-headed (which is what I call drunk, since I really don't know what drunk is, but I do know that when I've had some, my head gets sloshy, so sloshy-headed it is).

+ I then headed down to a blues bar I'd seen earlier, which was rather small and didn't have food. I figured I'd go back after having dinner and by then, they had live blues players. I spend a good two hours there, had one cider, listened to a bunch of really good blues guitarists and singers and met a couple guys, who we'll get to in a minute. Ain't Nothin' But..., on Kingly Street. Definitely going back there again, because it was awesome.

+ A pair of brothers, Richard and Will (or Will and Richard, I don't quite remember which was which), who I met because they'd been out shopping and needed a place to put their bags, which happened to be next to me on the wall. (Apparently, they don't like shopping so when they do it, they do it all at once. It looked like a good shopping spree to me, haha.) Very nice, I think the first one (Richard, I'm going with) was the older brother; married (we didn't talk about it, but he had a ring, so I gathered married); had lived in Kingston, New York (!!!) and Edinburgh. Will was actually born in New York, which was really cool. They were very nice, perfectly gentlemanly, and quite hilarious. It made the weirder acts (open mic night, so anyone could go...even a banjo player...*shudders*) much more bearable to have someone to make sarcastic remarks to. All in all, very fun guys and I got kisses on the cheek from them as they left. (No, it wasn't getting hit on, I've noticed it's a custom amongst friends, when they show up or leave somewhere.)

+ I left a little after them, in search of some tea or coffee because no way was I showing up to the theatre sloshy-headed. I needed to be clear headed, clear eyed, and ready. So I stopped for tea at an espresso bar on Shaftesbury. Yummy. Good to sit, as my feet were killing me by that point. (I'd spent the last 6 hours or so standing in my heels. Ouchies.)

+ I still had some time, so I decided to go back to Piccadilly Circus which is, in fact, glorious at night. I was just chilling when some guy actually came up to me and said I looked really nice. I've never been hit on (and I mean, it wasn't getting hit on, he didn't try anything, he just legit said "You look really nice tonight and I just wanted to tell you, but you probably get that a lot" and then left.) and it was bizarre. Flattering, definitely, just something that does not happen to me. To be fair, I did look really hot. ;P

+ And then off to The Gielgud to pick up my tickets at the box office and go sit down. I got there too early, but it was better to wait impatiently in comfy seats than outside in the dark.

+ The Ladykillers was absolutely amazing. I wasn't entirely sure what the plot was going in, but I was kind of just there for the actors. It ended up being a really good story, absolutely hysterically written, and perfectly delivered. I enjoyed myself the entire way through, the lady who played the main character was perfect, Peter Capaldi was creepy and wonderful, and Ben Miller was in the same room as me!! Ahem, by which I mean, he was excellent. Actually, his was my favorite character, not just because it was him, but because he had a lot of really good lines. Lots of dark humour, my favorite. So very, very good. I was almost tempted to stalk the stage door, but decided against it because I wasn't prepared. (And my parents remember the last time I tried to talk to someone famous without being prepared...)

+ Here's a good review of the show. They can articulate it better than I, especially in my star-struck state.

+ By the time I got home, I was craving McDonald's (the girl across from me on the train had it and I died at the smell), but no one was home and my feet hurt, so I decided to just make something here. (It ended up being bad, but whatever, I had a Strongbow and it was fine.) And then suddenly, the entire party burst through the door and set up camp. I was invited to hang out with them and I really like them and their friends, so I stayed up with them for an hour or so. 12.30 found them dancing to music I didn't know and I felt I was intruding on a party of friends (they'd say I wasn't if I mentioned this, but it's okay, they're very sweet and I like them a lot, but I don't have the history they do), so I retreated to my room. Didn't end up going to bed until almost 2.

A most successful day, indeed.


* A quote by Peter Capaldi's main character, to the effect of lots of laughter and applause. A distracting amount, actually. Absolutely wonderful.