The Rest of the Trip - Part III

I woke up on the 28th of November and then Meredith, Denise, Tony and I headed towards the British Museum. We stopped on the way there at a place called Munchkins to eat. It was alright, pretty cheap but really I just like the name. Then we made it to the British Museum and did a best of kind of tour. We saw the Parthenon bits, Assyrian things, and then saw the 5 sculptures of statuephilia. Then we went to the Korean area since Denise is part Korean we had to make the visit. Then we saw some mummies which was pretty cool. After that we decided that we had enough museuming so we walked back to MTH. Then that night Meredith and I tried to go to the MGMT concert at Shepherd’s Bush Empire, it was quite an effort. She sent Denise and Tony on a ‘date night’, which was really just a nice way of ditching them since we’d been planning on the concert for a while and were both real excited. We waited for the tube for a while and when our train did come it was absolutely packed. We made space for ourselves and I had to hold Meredith in so that her jacket or anything wouldn’t get caught between the doors. The guy I was next to was amazed that we made room, I just said that we’re magic, that’s how we made space. So we took the tube to Shepherd’s Bush and went the wrong way out of the tube stop and that area is a little dodgy so that was fun. Eventually we found where we wanted to go.

We talked to a tout and he didn’t have tickets but told us to wait at a pub nearby and he’d let us know. Typically Meredith is good at talking down touts but for some reason it wasn’t her day, he asked what we were looking at paying and right away she said our top price. After she said that we looked at each other like ‘wtf?...oops’. So we headed into the pub and got a drink and waited. Then we went nearer the venue and didn’t see the original tout so we tried others. They had tickets but were asking 70quid and wouldn’t budge on the price. I wonder who would really pay that much to go to a concert, and MGMT no less. So we tried for a bit but eventually we just decided that it just wasn’t meant to be so we made a life plan to see them sometime when tickets are less than 70 quid. The thing that got me was that during the summer I saw that MGMT were playing and so I tried to get tickets, I actually had some ready to buy but I needed a UK mailing address to send them to so I got an address I could send them to but by then they were sold out. Sad day.

So we decided to head back to our area of town and decided just to get some dinner and hang out. We decided on Wagamama’s but it turns out there wasn’t one where we thought it’d be so we walked around and couldn’t make a decision so we ended up going to Garfunkel’s which is just a generic chain restaurant but it was good. Then we just walked back to MTH. We walked back on Marylebone High Street which had recently put its Christmas lights up. As we were walking there were these fire trucks going by but they stopped right where we were so we stopped and watched and gawked for a while and saw more trucks come and a guy on a crane going to windows and others hooking up hoses. I was expecting some big ‘Backdraft’ style fire and explosions but we stayed for a while and didn’t even see smoke so we gave up on it and went back. We just hung out and watched ‘Burn After Reading’, well we watched part of it, I fell asleep pretty quickly but what I saw I wasn’t a huge fan of. So it wasn’t a very eventful night but it was still good.

The next day I woke up and Meredith, Denise, Tony and I (I know, what a surprise that I’m hanging out with them…that never happens) tried to find a market but we took a wrong turn so we gave up and just got some food at a little café, then we walked to Camden. We just walked through the markets and looked at random stuff. One funny thing was that Meredith and I were in a vintage shop and I was looking through the t-shirts. I found a Harley shirt that said “Tomahawk Fall Ride 2002” so I asked Meredith, who’s from Tomahawk if there’s an annual fall ride there and it turns out there is. How random to find a t-shirt from the tiny town of Tomahawk in a London vintage store while with someone from Tomahawk. Woah. So we continued to walk around, I only bought a few things but Denise and Tony got a ton of stuff but mostly gifts. So we walked back to MTH and dropped off our things then we headed to dinner. We went to Wagamama’s which was delicious. I had plum wine for the first time and I loved it, but I had it with sparkling water not straight up which is guess it’s kind of gross straight up but it’s so good with a little fizz.

Then after we went to Ben’s Cookies and introduced Denise and Tony to the best cookies in the world. After cookies we went to see La Clique. It’s described as “a mélange of cabaret, new burlesque, circus sideshow and contemporary variety. Time Out hailed the show as ‘spellbinding, sexy and stunning’”. To put it simply it was great. It was at the Hippodrome which was a pretty small venue and we had standing tickets so we were behind everyone but were still very close. It was an extremely entertaining show with acrobats, a bendy man, a hula hoop extraordinaire, random variety like magic and object swallowing, and songs. It was a great show and very entertaining, we all really enjoyed ourselves. After the show we headed back to the ISHbar and hung out for a bit, the whole time we intended to go somewhere else but we got sucked in and hung out there for quite a while. Then a group of us decided to go to O Bar. We’d been there before, it’s ok but there are definitely better places to go. We got there and they were charging 5 quid at the door, which isn’t bad but a few of us just didn’t feel like paying to get into a place we didn’t like that much. So after the walk there we decided to walk back to MTH and call it a night since it was already pretty late.

Sunday I woke up and was hung around then I headed to the Natural History Museum. I went to the Wildlife Photography exhibit and I got in for free (because of me working at the Courtauld), so that was nice. The exhibit was great and had some absolutely beautiful photos of all sorts. There were different topics but all of the photos captured a certain beauty about the subject. After I saw all of the photos I walked around the museum a little then I went outside and got some chips and watched people ice skate and fall on the rink that was set up outside the museum. After that I headed to the Tower of London to meet some people. We had tentatively planned to go ice skating there but we ended up not but while I waited I watched more ice skating and people watched. Then we headed to the Sports Café and watched the Packers vs. Panthers game and hung out and ate. It was alright, pretty mellow, and the Packers totally blew the game but a cool thing was that I think I saw Ross on TV. It was right after a Packer touchdown and they showed the crowd and I’m pretty sure I saw the back of Ross when he was high-fiving people. After the game ended we headed back to MTH and I just got ready for the week and headed to bed.

La Clique Trailer
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N93EZ--A--M

MGMT myspace
http://www.myspace.com/mgmt