GeordieBarker.com

Once again, this post is a little dated, but I am working on catching my blog up. This post occurs after my weekend trip to paris, and just before I head off to the music festivals… Enjoy!

A routine… Sort of…
It was back to ‘normal’ life, and my routine. I visited the Physio for the last session, dropped my camera in for repairs and settled back into the wonderful Palmers Lodge. It was strange, as we had lost a few people from the original crew, and it felt a little quiet at the hostel, despite a few nights of full capacity, but they were just strangers. It was quite funny to walk back into the lounge and look around and think to myself, ‘what are all these people doing in our lounge, I don’t know any of them’. Palmers has really become my home away from home, but it’s the people that make that definition possible.

My Physio... Up a flight of stairs... Go figure!

I met up with the two Brizillian girls, Sylvia and ?????, for dinner. I assumed we would be going out or something, but we ended up going to the apartment of a couple of their friends for a home cooked meal. They were a French couple, and the woman was half Chinese. The food was amazing. It was a very amusing dinner party, due to the mixed background of its guests. Out of the 8 people present, English was the first language for two of us. It made for some amusing moments of confusion.

Sylvia & I at dinner.

Tate Modern and Spring Awakening
A few days later, I was invited by an American girl, to go and explore the Tate Modern. I accepted quite willingly, as I had finished up Physio, and my life was on temporary hold until the end of May. Tate Modern was amazingly good, and I fell in love with an installation work by Jeff Coons, which took some inspiration from Dan Flavin. We also explored the Southbank precinct, and passed by the Tower bridge, for yet another cheesy tourist photo. We had really made a day of it, and unfortunately I had to cut it short to head back to the Hostel. I was off to see Spring Awakening, a highly reviewed musical with a five star rating from all major London papers.

The set of Spring Awakening

Anna (from Zimbabwe), Brett (from Perth), and I set out to find the Novello Theatre, and after following bad Google Map directions from my phone, we managed to arrive in time. Our seats were exceptional, in row D of the Stalls (ground floor), two seats off centre. They were last minute tickets that I had picked up the day before, and cost 25 pound each. The musical was amazingly good, and I would be safe in saying that it is the ‘Wicked’ of its genre, meaning that considering its target audience, it is exceptionally well written, directed and acted.

Charlotte, the lead of Spring Awakening

Anna wanted to get some signatures, and as such we found ourselves standing outside the stage door. She managed to get a few, and when the lead actress, 18 year old Charlotte Wakefield exited, she was the only one mobbing her. We all wondered over and I enquired as to why she wasn’t being mobbed by a sea of crazy fans. We got chatting, and she invited us out for drinks with the cast and crew at a local pub. We obviously accepted quite willingly, and were treated to an hour or so of drinking with some real west end actors and crew. For me, it was the perfect top of, to the perfect day in London. On the way home, we caught the tube a few stops with the lead actress and she asked us to add her on Facebook. I did so the next day and was a little disappointed that it was more of a fan page than her actual profile, nevertheless we did have a few beers and I was pretty content with that.

Me, and two of the staff from Palmers!

You trashbag…!
Every Friday night at Palmers, they hold a themed party, and this week it was the trashbag party, where you pretty much came dressed in a trashbag. I spent most of the day shopping in Oxford street with a girl called Lauren from Sydney. I had lost most of my socks, and as such required a visit to Primark. It was a crazy experience, and sort of like a cross between Jay Jays and Myer on some serious drugs. We explored some really cool boutiques off the main street, and tried some crazy lollies including one called beer bottles, which were like coke bottles but beer flavored… Yuk!

London street art

That evening was pretty messy, with a lot of people getting into the spirit. I can safely say that it was one of the better parties held in the Chapel Bar of the Lodge. I got halfway through the night and started changing the lighting in the room, making the Par Can pointing at the mirror ball, more of a pin spot with a flattened can and my leatherman. We ended up partying onto the usual place (Bartok), in Chalk Farm where we drank some more and had a good dance. I was very amused when Single Ladies by Beyonce came on, and called Govin in Australia, despite the time difference. I retired pretty early, escorting a few drunker ones home at the same time.

Coopers Pale Ale, and Shapes... Australia Store goodness!

Hamish, Australia Store, & Farewells…
My days in London were gradually drawing to a close, and I was a mixture of sad and happy feelings. It was all signaled by a family friend, Hamish, arriving in town. I met up with him for a beer in Leicester Square, and chatted about volunteering on a few music festivals over the summer. It was really exciting, as he is an artist himself, and tires to hire only Australian artists.
The work would not be easy, as it involved working on the toilets, compost toilet to be exact. But it was the artist endeavors that I would be privy to that interested me. I was not getting paid, because I don’t have a visa, but he would cover my accommodation, transport, meals and beers, which sounded like a grand plan to me. We were setting off sometime on Thursday or Friday, and as such that left me with about 3-4 days left in London.

Camden Markets

I met up with one of the Brazilian girls the day she left, and showed her the Camden Markets. I actually ended up seeing her off at Heathrow for a bit of fun, and it was nice to revisit the airport without my crutches. On my second last day in London, I trekked out with Hermione (girl from Blue Mountains) to explore a bit more of London, and do some travel shopping. We had an awesome lunch from a market near Covent Garden. I brought a new pair of shoes (Merrell Cross Trainers), recommended by my Physio, that would provide me with extra support of my knee. We also stumbled across the Australia Store, drooling over the cases of Coopers Pale Ale, Arnotts Shapes, Killer Pythons and Vegemite.

Camera stores are dangerous...

On the way back to the hostel, I got a call to say that my camera was ready, so I headed out to Vauxhaul via bus as there were strikes on the tube. It was quite nice to go by bus, because it gave me some orientation of London, and I found out that Vauxhaul wasn’t as far away from the main city as I thought. My camera cost a whopping 200 pounds to fix, and I was glad Travel Insurance was covering it. I caught the bus back to Camden Markets, then to Palmers Lodge for my second last night in London.

Space Invader, London Street Art

The Delay
We were supposed to leave Wednesday night, then Thursday, and it ended up being Friday. I had a bit of a freak out on the Thursday morning about my cash flow, considering the insurance company owes me over $3000 Australian dollars, and as such I spent some time upset on the phone to my dad. He calmed me down and told me that I was fine to loan off him, considering I have had a job since I was 13. I got some Nandos with Hermione, Parise and Nathaniel, and the Hermione and I chilled out for most of the afternoon in Starbucks having long chats about life.

The Tate Modern!

I ended up leaving on Friday night, but had to take the train, as I couldn’t make the bus with the notice Hamish gave me. I was off to the Somerset region, at a farm near Yeovil (Country England), to volunteer on a music festival called Sunrise Celebration. It was a hippy festival and I was working on composting toilets, I do love a good story to tell…

Palmers Lodge... I told you it was nice!

Tags: Australia Store, Camden Markets, london, Palmers Lodge, Physio, Spring Awakening, tate Modern, Travel, Trip '09

This entry was posted on Sunday, June 7th, 2009 at 4:40 pm and is filed under Travel, Trip '09. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.