STARSTRUCK

by cdmarquis

Only one word can describe the last two days– amazing. Literally. So much has been seen and so little time to blog. But have no fear! For I will update you as best as I can.

So yesterday. We had class to discuss the next few days, which are going to be hectic. We had a play last night, visited Hampton Court today along with another play, going to the Globe tomorrow and another play, then a day in Brighton AND another play. Crazy. The play last night, A Small Family Business, was pretty good! The play was wrote back in the 80s for this theatre, The National Theatre, and it has returned! It’s a quirky story about a family and their business they run, and about all of the troubles that come from it. The set was what really amazed me, though. It was a huge house, that looked like a dollhouse, for the actors to go from room to room, and the whole set rotated so you could see the front of the house and the inside. BUT. Before we saw the play, we attended a church service at Westminister Abbey. The cathedral was breathtaking, no pictures allowed obviously. We were able to hear the actual choir perform and what a treat it was. The cathedral is near Big Ben so there’s a pic of that as well! We also went to the Sherlock Holmes Museum! YAYY! I’m quite a big Sherlock fan, movies and TV show, but I have never read the books, so I obviously bought the set from the gift shop (sorry, mum). The museum was at 221b Baker Street, where the actual stories of Sherlock take place. It showed the rooms of Sherlock, Watson, and their land-lady, Ms. Hudson, along with the living and dining areas. There were replicas of items from the stories and wax figures of the characters created. Sherlock wasn’t real, sadly, but it was a great time. Then we dined at the Sherlock Holmes Pub and obviously ordered fish and chips. Oh, and made a pitstop at Platform 9 3/4 (pardon my white legs)!

Today was a full day! We started off by visiting Hampton Court palace. It was originally built for Cardinal Thomas Wolsey, but then became the home of Henry VIII and his many wives. The following century, King William III began to rebuild after Versailles was being built. The building stopped in 1694, leaving the palace to be split into two architecture types, tudor and baroque. There are beautiful gardens around the grounds and a personal tennis court. Upon our return back to London, we rushed to the 50th anniversary showing of Zulu to see Prince Harry on the red carpet. We were literally 5 feet away from him. Then we raced to the other side of town to make it to our play just in time, Baskersfield Mist starring Ian McDiarmid (from Star Wars). The play took place in a trailer park in LA. The set was the inside of the trailer, and whoever designed it did their work. It was complete with Beanie Babies, a Dollar General bag, Hefty garbage bags, and an ACE Hardware sleeve from the newspaper (all things that aren’t present in London). The actors even came out after and signed autographs, and I got Ian’s! Man, I bet I could get a lot of money out of that… 🙂