The One where I talk about England, pt 2: LONDON, BABY

Sorry about not posting on Tuesday, but I was busy...

Here you are now, part 2 of our visit to England, this time focusing on my favourite city of 'em all... :)



So, due to the delay of your train, we arrived in London at around noon and headed over to our B&B *which took me 2 hrs to convince Christoph to actually book, since he wanted to go to a multiple shared bathroom *someting that I am not a big fan of ;)**, which was pretty much dab centre in Notting Hill... Had a wee bit of chillaxation time before heading out again to explore Portobello Road and Market, which was the sightseeing- programme of the day :)

Our very big room :P

My side of the room...



Christoph's corner...



Our bathroom *which was clean and had a tub and everything, so what more could we wish for?*



I just love Notting Hill and the energy and Portobello Road and Market and everything... Loooooooooooooove it!!! The houses are so cute and adorable and there is just something about this party of the city that just catches me everytime that I am there... And Christoph liked it, too, which was great, since I really wanted him to like this... :)

My favourite house, I just love the colour :)



London was actually a couple of degrees warmer than York, which both of us just relished in...



Little street off Portobello Road...



Hummingbird Bakery is my favourite bakery now... Their cupcakes look absolutely delish and they are so sugary sweet and all that I want to dive into them and just eat 'em all up... Of course I would gain like a gazillion pounds, so I am refraining... Yet still am contemplating of ordering the book on amazon... Christoph even took a film of me eating the cupcake :P

But he also took photos :)



Me eating the caaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaake... Man, I love cake... I love cake! *does a bad Little Britain- impersonation*



The little park opposite our B&B, where we could have gotten locked in, had Christoph actually closed the door that we came in through ;)



But thankfully he left the door open and we could get out and get ready for... THE THEATRE!!!

Yay!

Which brings us to the highlight of our trip...



THE MISANTHROPE!!!

A couple of months ago, I saw some posts on ohnotheydidnt that Keira Knightley was appearing in a play on West End called The Misanthrope, a classic play by Molière, adapted into the 20th century by a playwright called Martin Crimp... On the press photos I noticed a good- looking guy with her, and when I watched Goodbye Deutschland with my roomies, previews for a tell show called Life were airing, showing the same guy... Heh... So, naturally, I started to research him and discovered a new fandom, as evidenced in this post, in which I introduced Damian Lewis to my Flist...

Then, a couple of weeks ago, I saw a post by artic_fox in damianlewisfans where she wrote about going to the play *at this point in time Christoph had already agreed to my suggestion that us going to a play when in London sounded like a good idea and we had booked the tickets, even though the play had not yet been previewed or anything, and yet already the perfomances were close to sold out... :P* and then later stage- dooring...

Which started my weeks- long attempts to get Christoph to think that yes, it would be a great thing to do, to wait around in the cold January- air to get some autographs by the play's actors... I mean, come on, to get an autograph by Keira Knightley, even though I am not her biggest fan, why miss this opportunity? *and then there was also DL to consider :P... Ahem... :D*

I managed to get him onto my side :D *Christoph that is, not DL... At least not yet :P*

Piccadilly Circus at night, or 6pm at night in January :P



We had dinner at KFC after picking up the tickets and checking where the stage door was *thanks again to artic_fox who had told me where it would be...* I was so nervous about the play that I could not get a bite down *besides that, the food was roooooooooooootten!*, because I did not want to take Christoph to two evenings out that turned out to be not- so- good... SH had already been a bit of bust *though in retrospect it was not that bad, actually, just not that great either ;)*, so play had a lot of pressure on its non- existemt shoulders ;P



I needn't have worried...

Even though we sat up quite high *and can now confidently identify each of the play's actors when we see them from up top*, the acoustics were great and the audience lovely...





And DL was brilliant...



I honestly had kinda expected it, since I had done my research over Christmas *one needs to be prepared, after all :P*, watching Band of Brothers *when taking a break from studying* and the first episode of The Forsyte Saga and starting with Life, but it was KK that pleasantly surprised us both... The whole cast was superb, but DL absolutely shone *also might have been due to the hair, hahahahahaha* and the firsy part of the play flew by way too quickly *Christoph enquired why they were taking the first intermission after half an hour, when it had actually been an hour already*...

During the intermission I bought a poster *since my search for an SH- one had proven to be fruitless and would continue to do so :'(* and had already purchased two programmes and the adapted version of the play as a book :D...

The second part was just as great, though KK appeared smaller in frame, due to her clothes, which complimented her frail figure, but then kinda just took even more away from her later :(

Anyways, the play was great, but I could not get out fast enough, simply because I wanted to get a good place at the gate...

I should have taken a valium or something, because what happened then was just plain embarrassing *and amusing to the people standing around :P*...

I am 26- years- old, yet when I am in the presence of someone that I like or admire, I get all jittery and fangirl- y and lose all coherency and knowledge of language, English or German... So just imagine me standing there, waiting for DL and KK to come out... And I really wanted to get a photo with DL, Christoph had even said he'd take photos while I got autographs...

Phew...

I asked one of the two security guys if they took photos... Uhm... The moment the words had left my mouth, I knew it had been the wrong thing to say... Security Guy *SG* just smiled and said that yes, he was taking photographs, just not right now... Argh! I tried to rectify my mistake...

It went something like this:

loozy: No, actually, what I meant was, can we take photos?
SG: Well, it's not like I can stop you..
*those who are listening in are starting to chuckle*
loozy: Nonono, I mean, is it possible to ask them for photos?
SG: Sure.
*my face has probably by now turned the shade of lovely red tomato*
loozy: Do they take photos with us?
SG: You'll just have to ask them.

Ask them? HAHAHAHAHAHAHA! I mean, I stammered myself silly when just talking to him, I would not be able to actually talk to DL and KK! *I know, silly me... ;)*

Luckily, the guy *Nice Guy* standing to my right, took pity on me and we started to chat... He apparently had been there multiple times, collecting autographs by the actors for charity, putting them up for auction and stuff, and I then just asked him to ask DL if he would mind taking a pic with me? NG said yes...

Yay!

After about 20min, DL came out... And let's just say that my brain and mind froze, especially when NG shouted at him to come over to me first *he's very tall and his hair is really!!! red*... DL was lovely, actually, not just to look at, but also thanking us and commenting on how cold it was... Had I been of any sanity, I would have made a sarcastic comment, all in jest of course, something like, No, really? It is cold? We are standing out here in warm coats and scarfs and hats and gloves and whatnot, and you are here with just a lumberjack shirt *which had the top buttons unbuttoned, allowing a peak at chest hair *yes, I am obsessive, so what!!! It was just my brain that was frozen, not my eyes, thank you very much :P**...

But alas, I was not cool, just a doofus... At least Christoph kept his cool and took photos...







Finally, NG called him over again and just asked him if he could take a photo with me?

I think my pulse stopped there for a second *seriously, very very very gorgeous guy!!!*, whereas he was all professional and smiley, just asking where the camera was, or if someone had one at all, and all I managed was to point to Christoph handling it, stammering out some words that probably made no sense whatsoever... *DL must have thought me retarded or something... *facepalm**

SQUEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!



After that he posed for the photographers on the other side of the door *see evidence on Damian's Dominion and he was back inside...

While we were waiting, more or less patiently, for KK to come out...

And I was pretty much a puddle... I kept flicking through the camera to look at the photo *and yay for my eyes being more or less evenly- sized for a change, usually when I smile one is quite smaller than the other ;)* or look at the autograph he signed in my programme... :D



We swapped places for KK, with me taking reign over the camera and Christoph holding the two programmes *one for me for both autographs and one for Philipp, lovely roomie that he is, who asked for an autograph... Decided to make it his birthday- pressie *it was yesterday, a lot of much fun :)... Took a film of him unwrapping his present and not really getting it until he saw the actual signature... Hahahahaha...** Anyways, KK took her time getting out, and when she finally appeared, she was really quick, just signing her K to whatever was held in front of her...

I had the time to just take two photos, she was that quick ;)





Christoph and me then compared her two signatures, hoping for good ones in both programmes simply because of one of them being a present *I would have asked her to sign it For Philipp had she been a bit slower ;)*...

My version...



Philipp's version...



When she turned towards the photographers, there was such a mass of flashlights going off, it was blinding ;)

And once she had disappeared into her car, the area around the stage door cleared amazingly fast :P

On the way to a place where we could have drinks, I couldn't resist snapping one more quick picture of the poster on the side of the theatre ;P





We found a nice small place parallel to the Odeon Cinema on Leicester Square *after browsing through the HMV on Piccadilly which was open until midnight on that evening*... The Odeon was fully decked out in SH- stuff and when we walked in *I just had to make one last attempt to ask for a poster*, both Christoph and me decided that JL was actually a tad bit cooler than RDJ on the poster, what with him holding his walking stick challengingly and the moustache is really hot...

Leicester Square...



Christoph got to experience the West End at night, which was quite lovely and once we had found a place to sit and gotten drinks, we could finally relax *well, Christoph appeared to be quite relaxed and cool anyways...;)*...

Christoph's drink...



My drink...



At around midnight we decided to go back to the B&B but got off one stop too early and were now stuck at the corner of Harvey Nichols, Burberry and around the corner from Harrod's, which I then spontaneously showed Christoph *while we were there, I might as well show him was my reasoning ;)* and when we got back to the Tube station, it was closed...

Oops...

Seems as though the Tube does not run as long as I thought...

We took a taxi back and watched a bit of Goodbye Deutschland, since we were still too wired to go to sleep... ;)

Tomorrow *for real* I'll conclude the report :)

PS: Can anyone please please please make me an icon of the pic of DL and me??? :D