I'm really sick right now. I mean, I'm drinking a lot of orange juice and taking vitamins and whatnot--I'm not even going out tonight like I was planning--so I'm slowly getting better. Still though, it's a pain in the butt.

Especially because my friend Paula is staying with me, so I feel like a bum for not going out while she's here. But she is sick too (ish) so it's okay with her that we're staying in.

These last few days have been immensely fun.

The story begins the night before Paula arrived here from Sicily.

It was Saturday, and I went down to Brixton.

Apparently it's the most dangerous part of London, but it seemed just as safe as my neighborhood (Mile End).

So either Mile End is much more dangerous than I originally thought, or Brixton has just been blown out of proportion...or something...I expect it's somewhere in the middle though.

I didn't randomly go down there--I went to see The Mighty Boosh Live (the Mighty Boosh has a TV show, a live show, used to have a radio show, and are working on a movie). Somehow, I totally lucked out and got third row seats. Pretty much, it was awesome.

Pictures weren't allowed, but I may never get to see the Boosh again, so I took a few. Here is one of them:

This is Julian Barratt, playing Howard Moon, expressing his love for a mannequin head...

I stayed up all night getting my room ready for Paula (it really wasn't that messy, I'm just lazy and had put it off until then). I then met her at the train station and we went back to my flat and took naps. Much needed nap (I'd been up all night, and she had been travelling).

We went out that night and saw Burn After Reading. It's pretty good. Not the best Coen Brothers film ever (that's easily a three-way tie between The Big Lebowski, Raising Arizona, an O Brother Where Art Thou?) but still, not bad at all. And Brad Pitt was SO good. He does a good job playing incredibly dumb people.

Monday we woke up early and since I didn't have any classes, we wandered around London a bit. We went to the Globe, the Victoria and Albert Museum, and maybe a few other places that I'm not remembering.

Pictures:

For some reason, someone thought that a Juicy Couture sweatsuit belonged in the fashion section of the Victoria and Albert Museum...I don't get it either.

So the original Globe Theater burned down forever ago and in the 80s, after years and years of fundraising, they started to rebuild it. In 1997 it was completed and at the opening gala, one of the actresses came dressed as Queen Elizabeth 1. This is what she wore....coincidentally, this is also what I want for Christmas....so, keep that in mind.

This is the stage at the Globe. It's REALLY pretty!

Then, on Tuesday, I had a nice long day of classes (okay, they actually only went from 9-11 and 2-4, but whatever--it's my longest day). During my break we went to the East End Thrift Store and had lunch on Brick Lane (a must visit place in London, should you ever come here...and conveniently located just down the street from my flat...) We bought our Halloween costumes, I'm sure I'll post pictures of them once Halloween has actually passed though.

That night, we journeyed to Chelsea to see Mr. Russell Brnad (again) doing a warm up gig in preparation for the Christmas special he is taping tonight.

Before I talk about the gig though, let's chat about the weather. As soon as we get out of the tube station, Paula asks "is it raining?" I didn't feel anything, so I said no.

So what happens? IT STARTS TO SNOW.

I later read in the papers that this is the first time it has snowed in London in October in 74 years. The last time it happened Hitler had just declared himself fuhrer and Alcatraz had just opened (according to The London Paper, which of course would never lie to me.) Those of you know know how much I hate snow can be sure that I was just OVERJOYED...except not at all.

Luckily, it melted quickly and became a freezing rain. Paula and I ended up missing our bus stop so we had to walk in the rain and it was just very not pleasant. We got the the venue 30 minutes befor the box office opened, so we decided to have dinner. We ate at a cute little Italian cafe just down the street a bit, and then headed back down to the theater when it had stopped raining.

We got our tickets, and then went into the lobby to wait for the doors to open. Eventually, Erin (my LiveJournal friend from the previous entry) and her friend Irene joined us in our wait.

Once the doors opened, there was a MAD rush to get into the auditorium (which turned out to be a very small black box, which made the theater nerd in me very happy). Erin and I pushed our way through and ended up third row, which was VERY nice.

The gig was really intimate, more than I was expecting. He made a lot of jokes about some stuff that has been happening lately in his life that will not be making it into the actual special (he recently had to resign from his radio show because of a joke that he and Jonathan Ross made on the air when the prank called someone....personally, I think it was a HUGE over reaction on the part of the guy they prank called and the fact that both he and Jonathan lost their jobs is entirely ridiculous and shows that people need to learn how to take a joke) and deviated a lot from the script to bug the people who were working on the show with him and talk to people in the audience and whatnot. It was really fun.

After the show he didn't do a meet and greet like he said he would, so we waited outside for a few minutes to see if we could meet him. He didn't show up quickly, so a lot of people left and soon it was just the four of us.

Erin and I decided to wander around back to see if we could find a stage door.

We see one, and as soon as we get there who should walk out, but Mr. Brand (accompanied by some girl and the security he's been forced to hire ever since he started getting threatening letters (usually from Americans) after his performance on the VMAs (yet more proof that people need to learn how to TAKE A JOKE)).

He walks by and I quickly ask "Russell, can we get a photo with you?" Being the incredibly sweet guy that he is, he of course agrees and this happens:

From left to right: Me, Paula, Russell, Irene and Erin is in the front.

He gave Erin a kiss on the cheek, it was REALLY sweet :)

After that, we ended up getting lost somewhere in Fulham (I think) and BARELY made the last train home.

On the tube, we met a man from Afghanistan who talked to us about the elections and told us that he only liked George Bush because of the changes he brought about for Afghanistan and whatnot, but that he didn't think Bush was good for the rest of the world. It was an interesting conversation because usually you just hear what a load of crap we did in Afghanistan, you don't hear from people who appreciated it.

We talked about a lot of other stuff too, but his appreciation of George Bush was what really stuck with me.

Yesterday, Paula and I went to the Andy Warhol exhibit at the Hayward Gallery and then to see the Martin Creed exhibit at the Tate Britain. Both were required for one of my classes, but luckily they were interesting. I seriously could have spent hours at the Andy Warhol one--his videos and TV shows and audio interviews were just incredible. And he had one TV show (his very last one, from what I can tell actually) that included Courtney Love, The Ramones, and his memorial service. It was totally lovely. And he made this sweet little movie about his mother....aw, it was adorable.

That night, we went to the Quantum of Solace Premiere in Leicester Square.

Oh excuse me, I mean the Quantum of Solace ROYAL WORLD PREMIERE.

We ended up getting a really good spot right by the doors to the theater, so even though my pictures are terrible the night was pretty good.

We saw: Bob Geldof (only famous in the UK from what I can tell...and I'm not entirely sure WHY he's famous...), Robbie Coltrane (aka HAGRID FROM HARRY POTTER), Elle MacPherson (supermodel), Jack White (he and Alicia Keys did the theme song for the film), Dame Judi Dench (whos is small and adorable in person), Daniel Craig (aka James Bond), and a bunch of other poeple who weren't that important to me.

Oh, and since it was a ROYAL world premiere, who else did we see?

Prince Harry and Prince William!

I swear to you that is them. You'd be able to tell better if not for the flash from the paparazzi (one side of the carpet was the fans, the other was the paparazzi).

It was a 4 hour wait in the freezing cold and I was tired from having walked around all day, but it was totally worth it because now I can tell people "Yeah, I went to a Bond premiere....and I saw the princes of England....no big deal or anything."

However, because of that night spent in the rain waiting for Russell (and wandering around before his show) and waiting in the cold at the Bond premiere, I now have a nice little cold and had to skip class this morning since I could barely move or open my eyes (seriously, I tried. I couldn't do it.)

But, it was all totally worth it.

:)