where I've been for a week
Jette Goldie
(Boromir in LotR, Sharpe in "Sharpe", 006 in "Goldeneye")
live on stage in MacBeth.
I discovered several things about London.
1) London is warmer in November than Edinburgh.
(I'd packed mostly sweaters - and sweated as a
result)
2) London is more expensive than Edinburgh
(by about 1/3 on everything)
3) London is NOISY - especially when you're
staying in a hotel just off Picadilly Circus, deep
in London's "theatre-land" and said hotel has
not yet discovered double glazing. Traffic in
Picadilly Circus goes on all night - 24 hours -
and the pedestrians get LOUDER than the
traffic late at night.
4) I don't much like London. ;-)
That said, now to the adventures.
The play - a very high energy performance. The
production uses the classical language of Shakespeare
but with quasi-modern dress costuming. Various
characters wear semi-military uniforms, with Duncan's
two sons being dressed in what looked like army cadet
uniforms. (looked bl**dy silly with crowns on though <g>)
MacBeth is dressed in a mesh t-shirt (looks like torn
fishnet), a leather breastplate armour and a long sleeveless
leather coat. At one point he "gets his kit off" (::thunk::)
and there's a particularly hot love scene with Lady M.
The sword fights were very well done - but some actors
are better at fighting than others - when it comes to the
big showdown between MacBeth and MacDuff, Sean had
to work hard to get the actor playing MacDuff to win <g>
(have I just been watching HL too long or what?)
There were a whole bunch of us from the Sean Bean
"Buffs" mailing list there as a group, plus a few folks
I know from the LotR webforum. After the play we
waited at the stage door - fortunately the rain had
stopped (when we'd gone in for the start of the play
it had been pouring down - London is pretty flooded
in places as it had been raining for days). Sean showed
up - last to leave the theatre - and very nicely signed
autographs for all. (there were at least 30 of us out
there and he looked tired). For all the volume and
energy of his stage presence, in RL he's quiet spoken,
appears shy and seems much smaller than the figure
onstage.
Here's a shot of him among his fans
http://www.jette.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/seanbrichmond.jpg
Hubby flew home the next day and I stayed on in
London to "do the tourist thang" with a friend from
another newsgroup. We walked, we shopped (that's
about 90% of my Xmas shopping sorted <g>), we
saw the sights, we went on the famous "London Eye",
which is a massive "observation wheel". It stands
beside the Thames near Westminster (Houses of
Parliament). Now considering that both Kathie and
I are slightly nervous (to put it mildly) about heights
and neither of us do roller coasters or ferris wheels,
I think this was very brave of us. The "Eye" stands
135 metres high and the viewing capsules are like
giant glass rugby balls. They don't just hang under
the wheel like ferris wheel gondolas - they are
attached in some way that allows them to always be
*outside* the wheel, so at the bottom you are under
the wheel, at the top you are above the wheel and
when you are at the side you stick out at a 90 degree
angle.
Here's the pics taken at the Eye.
http://www.jette.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/eye4.jpg
http://www.jette.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/eye5.jpg
http://www.jette.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/eye6.jpg
And here's a shot taken from the window of my
hotel late at night.
http://www.jette.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/hotelview2.jpg
BTW, the camera I used is a teeny tiny little digital
camera - darn thing is so small I can fold my hand
right around it. About 2 inches long by an inch
square and weighs less than some jewellery I've
worn. Doesn't have a zoom and a fairly low pixel
resolution - but good enough for webshots I think
you'll agree! It does have five focus modes - Auto,
Macro, Portrait, Group and Infinity - four special
effects (B&W, Sepia, Negative and Solarise) and
even captures short movies as mpeg files - 15
seconds at a time, but the memory card will hold
up to 20 minutes worth of those short movies!
And the best of all was - it was quite inexpensive.
--
Jette
(aka Vinyaduriel)
"Work for Peace and remain fiercely loving" - Jim Byrnes
je...@blueyonder.co.uk
http://www.jette.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/
http://bosslady.tripod.com/fanfic.html
Frankenmel
>Date: 11/8/02 12:25 PM Pacific Standard Time
>Here's the pics taken at the Eye.
>http://www.jette.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/eye4.jpg
WOW!!!
Sharon..Live joyously and love much.
Cathy Friedmann
Eye!
Cathy
--
"Staccato signals of constant information..."
("The Boy in the Bubble") Paul Simon
"Jette Goldie" <j...@blueyonder.com.uk> wrote in message
news:%4Vy9.741$1A3.5...@news-text.cableinet.net...
Jette Goldie
"Frankenmel" <frank...@aol.comnospam> wrote in message
news:20021108163319...@mb-md.aol.com...
> >From: "Jette Goldie" j...@blueyonder.com.uk
> >Date: 11/8/02 12:25 PM Pacific Standard Time
>
> >Here's the pics taken at the Eye.
> >http://www.jette.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/eye4.jpg
>
> WOW!!!
Not bad for such a wee camera, huh? <g>
Seriously, I've finally read through ALL the literature
for the camera and I'm VERY impressed with all
the functions it has! Plus it is small enough to keep
in a pocket anywhere!
Frankenmel
>Date: 11/8/02 2:43 PM Pacific Standard Time
>
>
>"Frankenmel" <frank...@aol.comnospam> wrote in message
>news:20021108163319...@mb-md.aol.com...
>> >From: "Jette Goldie" j...@blueyonder.com.uk
>> >Date: 11/8/02 12:25 PM Pacific Standard Time
>>
>> >Here's the pics taken at the Eye.
>> >http://www.jette.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/eye4.jpg
>>
>> WOW!!!
>
>
>Not bad for such a wee camera, huh? <g>
>
>Seriously, I've finally read through ALL the literature
>for the camera and I'm VERY impressed with all
>the functions it has! Plus it is small enough to keep
>in a pocket anywhere!
Spendy? What brand? Yes,very impressive.
Jette Goldie
"Frankenmel" <frank...@aol.comnospam> wrote in message
Sony - it's a "Cybershot U" or a DSC-U10 (first
is what is embossed on the camera lenscover
and the second what is printed on the front of the
handbook)
Cost less than 200 UK pounds - though that was
in an airport store who claim "tax free prices for
all passengers" (even if you aren't leaving the
UK).
Four special effects filters (B&W, Sepia, Solarise,
Negative), five focus modes (Auto, Portrait, Group,
Macro and Infinity), four flash modes (Auto, Red-Eye
Reduction, Forced Flash <always on> and No Flash),
three *lighting* modes ( Soft Snap - gives warmer
skin tones - Illumination - allows you to capture both
subject and night scene backgrounds - Vivid Nature -
enhances the blues and greens of scenery), Self
Timer and "Burst" - burst allows you to take five
shots in rapid succession half a second apart, to
capture a movement. Plus the movie function.
oh yes, and two different sizes of picture possible
- I set mine to the smaller size to get the most
detail without loss of resolution.
I love it! I'm going to be experimenting with the
functions for the next few days, taking shots using
them all and seeing how they turn out. Considering
that the ones I took in London are all just using the
"default" settings.
Frankenmel
>Date: 11/8/02 5:07 PM Pacific Standard Time
Sounds wonderful. Have fun being creative!