On January 11th, Sunday, I just walked around my neighborhood for a change. Recently, strolling around London has been getting my favorite pastime. The sites which I've never visited always interest me, and make me forget my daily routine for a while. In addition, it reminds me of the fact that I AM in a foreign country, and I'd better make the most use of this special opportunity in my life. In the morning on this day, I was looking at the map in search of any places suitable for a short trip of a few hours. Then, I found some tourist attraction called "Little Venice" was located very near my dormitory. I checked my tourist guide book as well, and I learned that you could take a narrow boat from there to Camden Rock Market through London Zoo on weekdays. This sounded really fun to me. Although I knew that I couldn't do it because it was Sunday, I set out in any way with my camera as usual. The scene was fantastic, it didn't seem like one of the areas in London, the busy metropolitan. It was like, just a few minutes walk took me to the spot like the countryside. I could see lots of boats on the canal, along which I took a walk for a while. As the picture below shows, some parts of the canal were frozen because of the chilly weather in those days, which surprised me very much, indeed. When leaving the site, I thought that I would come here again to take the narrow boat for tourists to Camden Rock Market.
On January 16th, I took a short bus tour to Kew Gardens by myself. Since I got a 6-month bus pass last October, I have always wanted to take advantage of it. The guide book tells that the fastest way to get there is taking an underground to the nearest station, but in fact you can go there by bus if you have time. I realized this through my investigation beforehand. Therefore, I took several buses in relay, and I could manage to arrive at the destination. The last bus I got on was no.391 to Richmond, from which you can also go to Hampton Court Palace by taking another bus. I will try this next time. I entered the garden around 3pm, which made the admission fee cheaper by 1 pound for the late entry. The attraction was supposed to close at 4:15pm that day. Although it was a bit cloudy, I could shoot some nice photographs. I was a bit in haste to look all the facilities, but I think I didn't miss any of them, though I had to run sometimes. Some of the scenes I met there really fascinated me very much. One of them is shown below as the picture I like, though it does not enough describe its magnificence. As a whole, I enjoyed looking around the traditional British garden.
On January 6th, I went to Theatre Royal in Drury Lane to see the play Oliver! Before that day I could manage to submit two essays, so I really enjoyed it from the bottom of my heart. This was the most wonderful experience in my life in London so far.
Last October, when I was on the bus to the college, I happened to see the advertisement posted on the body of another bus. It says "Rowan Atkinson in Theatre Royal." So I looked up the two words on the Internet when I arrived at the library. Then, I had learned that the famous British actor plays a role of Fagin in the drama Oliver! Acquiring the fact, I would like to go see it immediately, but, of course, first I had to book the ticket in advance. First of all, going to the website of Theatre Royal, I look at the performance schedule. I could go any day if I would want to do. So in the beginning I didn't come up with any specific date, which would be suitable for my personal calendar. Presently, I remembered that I had to hand in the course works on January 5th 2009, and that was what I was most worried about at that time. Considering my task at the outset of New Year, I thought that January 6th, the following day after I finished writing up the papers, is the perfect day to enjoy the play, and to celebrate the end of the first term by myself. Thus, I decided to make a reservation for the ticket on that day.
Leaving my room at 5pm, I took an underground to Covent Garden. I still had enough time to kill, so I took several pictures around the theatre. The first time I knew the name of this theatre was when I, as a junior at the university in my country, was studying Elizabeth Inchbald's play Lovers' Vows, which is featured in Jane Austen's Mansfield Park. Lovers' Vows was also performed at this site in the late 18th century. Therefore, as you know, this traditional theatre itself was very attractive for me, indeed. I was truly impressed with the thought that about 200 years ago Jane Austen walked around this area to see the play. Wikipedia gives us a brief overview of this theatre, a part of which I'd like to paste here: "The building standing today is the most recent in a line of four theatres at the same location dating back to 1663, making it the oldest London theatre. For its first two centuries, Drury Lane could "reasonably have claimed to be London's leading theatre" and thus one of the most important theatres in the English-speaking world. Through most of that time, it was one of a small handful of patent theatres that were granted monopoly rights to the production of "legitimate" (meaning spoken plays, rather than opera, dance, concerts, or plays with music) drama in London" (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theatre_Royal,_Drury_Lane).
Basically Oliver! is based on the original, Dickens' Oliver Twist. But it is adopted to the musical presentation. Since I had read the novel and watched the recent film version by Roman Polanski before, I could follow the story without any difficulties, even if sometimes I couldn't understand what the characters said in English. The play began with the most well-known scene at the workhouse, in which Oliver tremblingly comes forward, bowl in hand, and makes his famous request: "Please, sir, I want some more." When Rowan appeared as Fagin with just one word "What?" in replying to Dodger's call, I could hear a big cheers and applause from the audience. Through that scene, including the reaction from the gallery, I realized that he had already become the national hero now. The picture of the top article on the free paper (the right above), which I luckily got a few days later, seems to affirm my impression. The caption "Please, sir, can we have some more?" puns on the popular line of Oliver's above, and here again I can find the very British sense of humour, which I like.
Very fortunately, the date of the performance was also Rowan's birthday. He revealed this fact when he asked us to make donations for the theatre in the curtain call. As soon as he told it to the audience, some of them started to sing to him "Happy Birthday to You." Of course, I was willing to sing it with them. As a whole, I had a fantastic night, indeed.
During the intermission I took some pictures inside the foyer after buying a few souvenirs, which are pasted below.
From a few years ago, I come to have a New Year walk with my family in the beginning of every January in my country. Alone as I was this year in the UK, I had wanted to take a constitutional stroll because I had been keeping myself to my room for those several days in order to write up the course works. It was very fine weather on January 3rd 2009. So I felt like having an outing very much. First, I searched for a nice place by referring to my tourist guide book with the condition that it was not so far from my dormitory, and somewhere I've never been to. Then, I found the best site which meets these purposes, that is, of course, Hampstead Heath. Before leaving my room, I got some information about it. I've learned that, as I wrote in this blog before, there is a former stately home called Kenwood House in the spot, which is now managed by English Heritage, and it is in possession of Johannes Vermeer's masterpiece Guitar Player (the picture in the left above; I borrowed its image from Wikimedia). Besides, originally I was aware of the fact that one of the scenes of the movie Notting Hill was shot there, and I made sure of it through several websites. Finally, I checked the route to get there. Fortunately, I found that just a 30-minutes bus ride would take me to the nearest stop to Hampstead Heath. These preparations made me a bit excited when I went out of the hall. I had only to take a No.46 bus from Lancaster Gate station. Arriving at the Hamstead Heath station, I headed to Kenwood House. I was surprised that some pounds in the parkland were frozen because of the chilly weather in the previous days. Some people was trying to break them by throwing stones. When I walked for about half an hour, I saw the white walls of Kenwood House shining, which really impressed me indeed. Taking some pictures of the building and landscape, I entered the house for free of charge. When I passed through a few rooms, a Japanese attendant of English Heritage asked me in Japanese what I was looking for. So I answered her that I had come there to see Guitar Payer. Then, she told me the way to the room where it was. Not only European tourists but also some Japanese were there, so I learned the popularity of Vermeer's painting again. Through this experience, I think I killed several birds with one stone; I could appreciate the work of art in the tourist attraction, and take the air. Hampstead Heath did refresh me mentally as well as physically. The other day, I borrowed Notting Hill on DVD from my college library, and I referred to the scene shot in Hamstead Heath, which is uploaded below.
I bought a USB terrestrial TV tuner for my Christmas present on December 23rd, 2008. In my country, I had not yet enjoyed a high definition of the pictures brought by the digital terrestrial signal. So I am really happy now that I enjoy UK TV programs with such a phantastic TV system. But there is still one problem; I don't have much time to appreciate them. Yet, I recorded what it seemed to be very British TV programs on an external hard drive, which I had brought from Japan. I used to watch soap opera "Eastenders", "Merlyn", and "Little Dorrit" on the BBC website through "iplayer". But now I can enjoy other broadcasters' programs with this tuner. The first program I recorded was the Queen's Christmas address to the people, and the second one was the animation film of "Christmas Carol". I learned that different versions of "Christmas Carol" was being broadcasted on Christmas Eve. On New Year's Eve, I recorded Elton John's Count Down Live, which was really impressive.
You can watch some of Japanese films and anime here. Among them, the film "My Neighbour Totoro" impressed me. It was completely dubbed in English, and I could listen to the characters speaking very well because I had already known the content. For anime, "Pokemon" seems to be popular also here, which always reminds me of my nephew, who likes it. Now I sometimes record some of the series so that I can send them to him, hoping that they will help his learning English. Now my favorite program is "You've Been Framed" on itv, which is the program consists of video recordings of common people, and shows a series of accidental happenings. So I can understand it without carefully listening to the narration in English.
On 22nd December 2008, I took walk to Savile Row for a change. As I wrote in the introduction for this entry, its name is purportedly known as the original for a Japanese word "sebiro", which means suit. Before going out, I had got some information from Wikipedia. What I learned first there is that the English term "bespoke" ("おあつらえ" in Japanese, I suppose) is also "understood to have originated in Savile Row when cloth for a suit was said to "be spoken for" by individual customers". So I think I've also acquired a new English phrase "bespoke tailoring" through this experience. According to Wikipedia, this row is called "golden mile of tailoring" because many famous people, such as Winston Churchill, Napoleon III and Prince Charles, have had their suits made here. Reading these explanations made me feel like going to the site right away. Accordingly, next I checked where the street is. Wikipedia taught me that it "runs parallel to Regent Street between Conduit Street at the northern end and Vigo Street at the southern." I've already known the location of Conduit Street as well as Regent Street, because I often walk around the latter which is more famous. Therefore, I didn't have any difficulties in visiting Savile Row. Although I arrived there in the evening, and the shops were all closed, I could see the displays in their show windows.
In Savile Row, you can see everywhere lots of suits displayed in the windows. I was really surprised at this scenery. I think I have never seen any street like this. As you can see from the pictures, many tailors are crowded in this row, indeed. Since Wikipedia tells that the offices of "The Beatles' Apple Corps were at 3 Savile Row", I took a picture of the site, too.
I have written in this blog before that the local supermarkets seem not to have any point cards, but I was wrong. I just didn't know at that time they DID have them. In those days, I was not even aware of the student Oyster card (the top in left). It's called the Oyster photo card. If you are going to take a course of 14 weeks or more in any language schools, universities and colleges, you can get on buses and undergrounds for the student price. All you can do is to apply for it online, but your educational institution has to be registered in Transport for London. Now I've got a 6 month bus pass, with which I can board on any buses in London. So now I'm making the most use of it.
Tesco Clubcard is below the Oystercard. First of all, I got an application form in the store, and filled in it, and posted it. That's all. I didn't have to pay at all to apply for it. Although I have to walk a bit long to the nearest Tesco, but sometimes I go to that Tesco, and use this point card.
The card I use most often is Nectar point card (the middle in right). I always use this card when I go to the nearest Sainsbury in the Paddington station. This is not only for the store, but any facilities affiliated with Nectar club or loyalty program. I don't know about this program in detail, but I do know that when I earn some points I can exchange them with some items. For further information, refer to http://www.nectar.com/NectarHome.nectar.
Boots is a pharmacy basically. They also have a store card for any Boots stores. I've got it by applying for it online. It was quite easy. I didn't realized that they had it until I had a terrible cold in last December. I bought some medicines at that time, but I didn't have a card, so I think I wasted some points.
My favorite hairdressing salon has also a card. But I don't think I can say this is a point card. Rather it would be better to be called a membership card. There is some information written on it, such as who was the stylist, when I came. When I go to the salon again within 4 weeks, they give me 20% discount. Now I can get a hair cut in quite comfortable atmosphere for a reasonable price, though I cannot practice speaking in English there.
Happy New Year! I could manage to submit two essays finally the day before yesterday. A new course has just started today, so I attended it, and now I'm updating this personal record.
I have had a lot to write in this blog during the Christmas holidays. But now I cannot tell you all of them at a time here. So first, I've made an index of them on this entry. I'm going to write in detail each topic day by day. Actually, I've already had an idea of the titles for them. They are...
1) Point Cards for Shopping (20/12/2008) I have now several point cards for shopping, and enjoy collecting the points.
2) 背広、背広、Savile Row!(22/12/2008) I took a recreational walk to Savile Row, whose name is purportedly known as the original for a Japanese word "sebiro", which means suit.
3) A Christmas Present for Myself(23/12/2008) I bought USB terrestrial digital tuner for my own Christmas present. Now I really enjoy watching UK TV programs.
4) New Year Walk to Hampstead Heath(3/1/2009) I went to Hampstead Heath to cerebrate a new year by taking a constitutional walk. The site is very famous for the two reasons, I suppose. First, there is a traditional mansion called Kenwood House, of which Johannes Vermeer's Guitar Player is in possession. Second, one of the scenes of Notting Hill, the movie, was shot there.
5) Rowan's Birthday Performance(6/1/2009) I went to Theatre Royal Drury Lane, to see a play Oliver!. I saw Rowan Atkinson in person for the first time in my life, who played a role of Fagin. I really enjoyed his performance, which was absolutely brilliant. The date of the day was also his birthday, so we the audience sang to him "Happy Birthday to You" after the show.
