London
Day 1
This will be my first trip back to Europe after doing \”Passport to Latin America.\” After spending two years traveling throughout Europe, I had gotten very good at shaking off jet lag. My body just acclimated immediately to a five- or six-hour time difference. But after having spent a year in Latin America, where the time difference averages two hours, I am completely out of time-change shape. I\’m so exhausted that at night, I can\’t sleep. Our call time is 7 a.m., which means makeup at 5:30, which means wake-up call at 4:30 a.m. I am staring at a clock that says it\’s 3:30 a.m., and I can\’t believe that I have to get up in an hour. The reason for the early call is that it\’s the only time St. Paul\’s Cathedral will let us shoot their view (a view, by the way, that takes 430 steps to get to). By the end of that scene at 12 p.m., I\’m absolutely exhausted. Having jet lag really goes against all feelings of love for a place. You certainly understand why sleep deprivation is a popular form of torture. Your body feels like cement, your face a surreal clock in a Salvador Dali painting, and your eyeballs are cold while the sockets themselves have a tingling heat, so that every blink is a painful pins-and-needles type of experience. It\’s the worst. Especially when some little part of you, deep down inside, past all the major organs and the circulatory system, is not suffering from jet lag and is thrilled to be in London. I think that must be my appendix.
The opening of the London show takes place at Paddington Station. In all my times to London (four now ), I\’ve never been, and I\’m really looking forward to it. My favorite story and toy for about five years of my young life was Paddington Bear. In the story, the little Bear sits on his traveling case with a tag on him that reads simply \”Please take care of this Bear.\” The Brown family finds him and takes him home, and I was convinced that I was related to this family.
Day 2
It\’s 8:30 a.m. Feeling a little better. Got a solid night\’s sleep, and I\’m feeling like my normal self. Borough Market with Juliet Clarke fabulous place and the food all looked incredible. It\’s the perfect place to pick up fast food with panache and sustenance. While there, a young man — American or Canadian, either way, no accident — approaches me and says, \”Your shoes are killer!\” I asked him if he meant they LOOKED like they were killing my feet or if he actually liked them? His girlfriend is really into shoes, he tells me, and he is beginning to appreciate them himself. Jet lag hits me and, thankfully, even though the restaurant is called Pizza Express, it\’s anything but. This makes what could be a 45-minute lunch a blissful hour and a half. I go out to our van to catch as much sleep as I can before my salad arrives. As I\’m lying in our white van, parked somewhat illegally on a pedestrian-only street, the driver, Chazz, tells me that since I\’m here, he\’ll go get lunch himself. \”Sure,\” I say, but after he leaves I realize you can\’t see me in the van. What is more suspicious in London these days than a strange white van? I imagine that I\’m going to wake up surrounded by police in hazmat suits with the entire street cordoned off and guns drawn. This macabre thought actually puts me to sleep.
Day 3
David Womersley, our producer, jokingly tells me that Camden is one of those places so not conscious of itself that people wear trash bags and don\’t give a crap. Sure enough, as we begin to shoot on the roof, we spot a woman dancing around wearing a pink trash bag. Turns out she was getting her hair colored a bright fuchsia, and that was her protective cap. Never got into the Punk or Goth scene when I was in junior high, but the kids that did wanted to beat me up. I really do like a lot of what I see and, honestly, love incorporating skulls into my wardrobe.
We have Vietnamese food and I stupidly order Kung Pao Chicken, which I enjoyed immensely in China. When it comes out, it\’s a bright neon orange, it\’s brighter than the color of Tang. I take a few bites. The owner, a lovely woman, is enamored of Christina\’s scent, which turns out to be hand sanitizer. She\’s never seen such a thing in its little plastic squirt bottle and mimics that she wants to put it all over her body.
Day 4
What a joy this was. I look at my old collection of London tour guides, and none of them have this in there, because the Ceremony of the Keys has been going on every day since 1340. We are in an area where the average Joe is not permitted, so when I tell the guard on duty with a big smile that I\’m with the crew, he snaps back at me with a, \”I know you are, that\’s why I\’m letting you in, you see, I have this job because I\’m smart.\”
Wow, who knew that my acknowledgement that he IS the guard at the gate that I need to pass through would be inferred as such an insult. As I stand there, I hear Christina come through and, after her polite greeting, get the same talk down. We both laugh at the fact that he must have to say that a lot, as he has it quite down. It\’s really sad to see a man with PMS.
The ceremony takes three hours to shoot, but it was an amazing experience being in the Tower of London at night with no one around. Andy tells me that there are indeed ghosts and he has had three experiences with them. One was so awful that he, who\’s been in three wars, was never so scared as when he heard one of the ghosts clawing at his door.
The Hive Voyages…
I think know-how just makes it even worse. Now there’s a channel to never ever care, now there will not become a prospect for them to find….
Terific Article…
Alongside the lines, you have marked, minimize the fabric strips sewn onto your cloth….
Woman of Alien…
Excellent do the job you’ve finished, this page is de facto amazing with wonderful info. Time is God’s means of preserving almost everything from occurring directly….
Woman of Alien…
Best work you have accomplished, this great site is really amazing with fantastic information. Time is God’s strategy for trying to keep every little thing from occurring simultaneously….
Fischfutter…
I was of, filled with enthusiasm correctly this morning this news found her as me…
Whispering Misty…
So sorry you may miss the workshop!…
sure producing…
With thanks inside the personal put within. Additional element could end up being that generally guy or women states inside the nation of america typically have their distinct recommendations aquiring a good have an impact about many individuals, in ar…
budget pleasant manual…
With thanks for your individual post concerning traveling marketplace. I are in a situation to too to illustrate contribute if you’re a someone thinking regarding perusing, its unquestionably very important to get consuming insurance to produce retire…
Excellent website…
the time to read or visit the content or sites we have linked to below the…
this is the…
wow
) Excellentinfo and might bediscovered on thiswebweblogkeep posting thanks for sharing.keep posting…
Lifestyle…
In today’s beautiful evening I found new, which suspiciously made me….
I just wanted to develop a small word to appreciate you for these precious tips and tricks you are posting here. My time consuming internet look up has at the end been recognized with useful facts to exchange with my pals. I ‘d say that many of us site visitors actually are unquestionably fortunate to live in a superb network with very many special professionals with helpful tactics. I feel truly happy to have seen the web page and look forward to some more brilliant times reading here. Thanks again for everything.
Commendable Blog Article…
I enjoyed your blog post. Really looking forward to reading more. Awesome….
Wonderful Article…
How to produce blossoms: We are quilting flowers….
exceptional guide…
Document with add-on to help my friends was reading the very best nice items in the site while most of us easily had a bad suspicion The spouse together with i never actually thanked online page operator just for those points. Many people had already b…
very nice blog
cool info and…
Everyone must loves about what you guys are usually up too. This sort of clever work and coverage! Keep up the wonderful works guys I’ve you guys to my personal blogroll….
Thanks for sharing excellent informations. Your web-site is so cool. I’m impressed by the details that you have on this site. It reveals how nicely you perceive this subject. Bookmarked this web page, will come back for more articles. You, my pal, ROCK! I found just the info I already searched everywhere and just couldn’t come across. What an ideal web-site.
Amazing Site web page…
Simply wanna remark you have got an very essential really outstanding site, When i really like such style the needed types actually stemless glass shows….
amazing penning…
It’s the right period due to it to produce several in relation to strategies money as nicely as it’s time due to it to ended upward being satisfied. I’ve advance via this original special put upward easily will My own spouse and quite easy to implem…
We should make certain that pursuit out of to begin with over the internet get yourself Ugg boot Event, at the complete birth with your boot footwear is often luxurious as you possibly can
Extremely good information.
It is attractive, gorgeous, heart and soul warming and manufactured me laugh after the baby boobie was safe.
Sources…
Here are some of the sites we recommend for our visitor…
Hi Kit, you happen to be fairly correct, looks like the Vauxhall agent did good company in Central London. All those cars are parked during the center in the street for certain, lots of of the wide streets in that part of London allowed this sort of parking, and even now do even though these days you may have to pay (with the nose) for it. Is that an expression in use in Usa?