UVU peeps!

Yesterday I woke up in a hostel (by far the best I've stayed in) and, after breakfast, headed out toward Whitehall to pick up a ticket for Being Shakespeare.  On the way, I decided to grab a bike from Barclay's cycle hire, because it's only £1 per day, and who wouldn't want to ride a bike through Hyde Park, Green Park, and St. James's Park, heading right past Buckingham Palace and off to Trafalgar Square in the morning?

I got the ticket, then headed over to Gloucester Road to meet up with some of my absolute favorite people in the world for lunch.  We ate at Nando's, which is one of the few popular restaurant chains in Britain whose products actually look and taste like food.  Chris, Daniel, and Heather were kind enough to brief me on all the scandalous goings-on that I've missed, and let me tell you, some awkward stuff has gone down at UVU!  (Don't tell.)

I told them everything I knew about Sir Ian McKellen's serendipitous brush with the Grassroots Shakespeare Company (he made one of our new London cast members an omelet), and explained to them that we are moving back to Utah in October, and could they have some work lined up for me, pleaseandthankyou.

We went to see Simon Callow in Being Shakespeare, and it was just okay.  I felt like it was basically a really engaging lecture on Shakespeare's life, with a few memorable speeches woven in.  He looked and sounded professorial.  From what I could tell, the audience demographic consisted of old ladies, and a theatre group from UVU.

We were greeted after the show by buckets of rain, so I made my way to the shelter of Paddington Station to await my quick train back to Exeter.  Of course, the weather was great out here in the Southwest, and I biked home past the cathedral (and the 1,000-year-old church on High Street) without incident.