Speed Sight Seeing

Before I forget, because I will again, Laurie, I had a sip of alcohol for you! It was Maria's Reef in Edinburgh after Kate left, but it had alcohol in it!

Okay, onto the more pressing matters.

I left off last night saying that Moriah and I were going to go see Orlando again last night in the play. We got to the theater and we got in and we had GREAT seats row F right in the middle! Well, 10 minutes before the show was about to start these people come in and say we're in their seats! Turns out, the place we bought the tickets from had given us the 2:30 showing that they said was OUT! So we didn't even bother to look at our tickets (lesson learned). So we panicked and went to the box office and they gave us new seats - row N at the end of the row. They weren't the seats we had before, but the theater was incredibly small so it didn't really matter to be honest.

The play was interesting. Wasn't exactly what I expected. Maybe because Orlando was the only big name I thought he was going to be the main person, but he wasn't. The play is about 3 brothers who after many, many years had come to their parents house to celebrate their 40th anniversary and all that. Well, anyway, through this 24 hour period we learn about the family had a 4th and oldest brother who died at 7. The next brother was 5 (Andrew), then Colin (2), and Orlando (Steven) wasn't even born yet. Apparently the mother, after Jamie died shut herself away and wouldn't see Andrew for 6 weeks. He would cry at the back door wanting in, but the mother wouldn't bring him in. Then, apparently, she was going to kill herself, but remembered Steven so she didn't. Anyway, Andy, the oldest, had this perverse idea/sense about his mother and still resented his mother for locking him out and all this other stuff. Anyway, the acting was just amazing. It was really good.

At one point, Orlando hugs his father (after mayhem breaks loose) and it was very touching and a girl in the back audience (behind us) goes "awww..." and then people start to giggle. It broke the moment and I felt (and so did Mo) embarassed for Orlando. It made him not an actor working and doing his best at what he likes, but that pretty boy, heart throb for girls. I'm hoping he didn't hear it, but we think he may have. I just felt bad for him.

Anyway, afterwards Mo and I went to see if we could get ticket stubs since they took ours when they gave us new seats. We just wanted them to prove we were there or have for a scrapbook. The manager understood and was extremely nice about it. We went outside and stood around then. Orlando's car wasn't there like before, but a barrier. The guards were more laxed about where you could stand and such. To make a long story short, Mo and I got Orlando's autograph!! I was taking my program back after he signed it and he looked up at me! I said "Thanks Orlando" (totally lame), but I was trying to back out of all the people so someone else could take my spot. I felt like Orlando was really trying to get a look at everyone who he gave an autograph for. That and he would ask people if they saw the play tonight, if they liked it, how they were doing. Mo said at one point he said he couldn't see anything at all. LoL The guy had a million cameras and flashes going off. His assistant even had extra Sharpie pens ready for him to use. It was kind of amusing to see, but cool at the same time.

Mo and I are going back again tonight to see if he can sign some other stuff. We're going super early, though, as we want to be the first people there so we don't stand a row or two behind. It'd be nice to actually talk to him and tell him I thought he did a good job in the play. We also want to get the other actors autographs since they were really good in it too and we thought it'd be nice to get as many of theirs as possible. They always come out before Orlando and try to sneak off, but there's only one way out!

Okay, moving on from that...Mo and I went today to the Natural History Museum, Science Museum, walked past Big Ben, West Minster (I spelled that wrong...) Abbey, and Buckingham Palace and we saw the dismount of the Horse Guards all before 5pm. Not to mention found 3 post offices, went to Waterstones, and had breakfast.

Natural History Museum was neat, but the best thing was the mineral/rock place. Mo and I spent a long time in there for the first 10 rows, but then realized there was like 40 rows or something and it'd take us HOURS (not kidding you) if we kept going the way we were going. So we sped it up. The Science Museum was neat, but over crowded with kids. It was driving us nuts. I really think dad would have liked it. There were all kinds of neat things there. I was expecting more of a Tech Museum type place, but it really was more of a museum with old models and such. They had a telecommunications, computers, ships, marine engineering, energy, medicine, etc, etc, etc. It was pretty neat, but we sort of blazed through it, but it was neat.

We got back on the tube and went to the Abbey, Big Ben, Buckingham palace. We walked past them taking pictures as neither of us had the desire to spend the money to go into them. We saw the Horse Guards on their horses. I took a TON of pictures of the dismount, which is really not a whole lot. LoL It's about 20 minutes of inspecting them and walking back in. We did see a guard change on and off the horses, though. They dismount where we can't see them, which is kind of interesting. We're going to try and see the guard change at 11am for the Horse Guard tomorrow. We don't have a desire to see the guard change at Buckingham Palace since it's supposed to be insane because of the amount of people, but the horses we do! Mo likes horses too. :)

Tomorrow we also plan to go to Kings Cross and have our pictures taken at the 9 3/4 platform thingy they have there for people to take pictures at. Should be fun. We're also going to go to the British Library too. It's almost right next door to Kings Cross. Mo leaves tomorrow (has to catch the tube around 4 pm) so I'll be alone in the evening. I may treat myself to the Rainforest Cafe that is almost right next to the hostel (expensive as usual) or go see Orlando again or hang out in the internet cafe or go to bed early. I have to check out by 10 am on Friday, so I need to get up and pack and all that. I guess I'll see what I do. I'll be at the airport early on Friday since my plane doesn't leave till 3:15pm and it's only an hour-ish tube ride from Piccadilly to Heathrow, but I can hang out and spend the rest of my money I have in cash. It's just not worth exchanging it to US dollars.

Oh on another note, I got Harry Potter stamps today! They didn't have any of the special set ones, but they did have the stamps at least. Mo and I got some. A "sheet" is just the 7 books as a stamp. They're pretty neat. Not sure what I'll do with them, but it's something you can only get in the UK and it's special! I haven't found a whole lot of HP product. I did find some random stickers (I think they are) at Borders today. I bought all the different ones not even knowing what the heck they are. LoL They say "album stickers" on them. I went and a manager who had helped me the other night recognized me. It was kind of funny. :P

It rained a bit earlier today, but it's stopped so far. That's nice. It might be insane again tonight at the theater (it was last night because it didn't rain), but we'll see. I'm hoping it's nice again tomorrow.

Well, I should be off. I can't think of anything else to write.