We took the train to London to watch Avenue Q at the Gielgud Theatre. In a nutshell, I would describe it as dealing with the harsh reality of life the Sesame Street way! It was funny and crude at times, (note: puppets having sex is a very disturbing image..I will never look at Bert and Ernie the same way again!) but I think that the road to self-discovery is something that every single one of us can relate to. After all, who doesn't want to find his or her purpose in life?
Personally, the most enlightening parts were the moments wherein the characters were being politically incorrect. They were, after all, speaking the truth.
Kate Monster FTW:
Kate: "Is she your friend?"
Princeton: "Yes"
Kate: "Is her name Purpose?"
I guess you have to watch the play to understand, but it's the best "supalpal" moment ever! Oh, and one of the actors is Filipino...can't help feeling a bit proud :) I'm really a fan of plays, so I'm happy that I was able to watch Avenue Q before coming back home. Thanks for the tickets Pao!
The play finished earlier than expected, so we decided to walk around London. I saw some souvenir shops and decided to buy some keychains and shirts to take back home for family and friends. I love the shirt I bought for my dad.
While looking for a place to eat, we didn't notice that we were already at Piccadilly Circus! Since it's a Friday, there were a lot of people walking around. Hmm..actually, there are always a lot of people in London so it doesn't even matter what day it is.We stopped for a bit to take some pictures. Pardon the bad photo quality - we tried.
So, the best part of the night was, of course, dinner! It was a bit hard to find a place to eat at because every restaurant we checked was full, so we settled at a place called The Mermaid's Tail. We ordered calamari, deep fried mushrooms, and ribs. The food was okay, and that's already saying a lot because we are in England, after all.
It has become our habit to take pictures of food before eating, maybe because we love food so much (that explains the 10 pounds I gained this year)!
I don't like mushrooms that much, but I was able to have more than two of the deep fried mushrooms (I'm a fan of deep fried anything. hehe). I think it went really well with the blue cheese dip.
The calamari was the usual breaded and fried squid served with tartare sauce. The serving was too small and the slices were too thin. Didn't get the value for my money there (at 5 pounds/400 pesos a plate!!). Calamari is always better at pubs (like O'Neills), but the best ones I've tasted here were in Wales.
Finally, the ribs. Pao ordered the Sticky Ribs, while I got the Sweet and Spicy ones. The huge portions of the ribs made up for the appetizers. The ribs were too huge for me that I wasn't able to finish mine. Again, the ribs were not exceptional, but they weren't bad either (flavor was just right and I was easily able to take the meat off the bone).
We were too full to do anything else, so we proceeded to walk to the nearest tube station to go home. It's only the start of September, but it's already too cold and windy at night (that's English weather for you).
Did some last minute camwhoring on the train. I'm definitely going to miss the trains here. They're much more efficient than the LRTs and MRTs back home (and they have a lot more seats!).
Finally got home and proceeded to eat my mini birthday cake (care of Paola again). I was supposed to buy the cake for myself, but she told me it would already be too pathetic if I bought my own cake (point taken). Below is the cake bought at Chinatown. We had to be careful while carrying it because we didn't want to ruin the icing (which didn't make sense at all because we were going to eat it anyway).
All in all, I think it was a really fun day. It was a bit tiring, but definitely made up for my being cooped up inside the flat for almost 3 months (grr dissertation!). Hope to do London again one more time before leaving...
