London II

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Staying on the boat has made it really easy for me to get around and explore the city easily. It only takes me about 25 minutes till I am under the London Eye and across the Thames to Big Ben. Walking back to the boat at night has become something I really enjoy. The sun sets around 10:30pm whilst I am walking which covers me in a beautiful pink and orange light. It's so beautiful but no matter how many times I try to capture it, my camera does not do the scene justice.

Tuesday
Tower of London. I first came here in 2000 with my mother when I was ten. It was here that my interest for the Tudors started. Then I had learned how two of Henry VIII's wives Anne Boleyn and Katherine Howard had been beheaded on Tower Green, and from then on I was hooked! Visiting it again was so much more exciting now that I knew so much more about the history. I went on a tour with one of the famous Tower Beefeaters, who guard the tower and crown jewels, and used to guard the towers prisoners. To become a Beefeater they must have been senior officers or petty officers with at least 22yrs service, with a long service and good conduct medal and retired from the Armed Forces of the Commonwealth. I toured with Bernie who was loud, dramatic, informative and full of dark wicked stories. He taught me that once a prisoner was beheaded, the head was soaked in salted water to make it taste unappealing to the ravens and other birds so that when they spiked the head on the tower spikes that the common folk could see the faces of the wrongdoers for a longer period of time, in order to deter them from treason.

I visited the crown jewels but was not that impressed with all the jazz or it all. I guess I have simpler taste hehe. The crowns were so cover in diamonds, pearls and other jewels that I couldn't see any metal, which is what I am more drawn too. I told Robyn my cousin who is a top diamond setter and jewellery maker and she was thrilled that I shared her view of jewellery. At the tower I was far more interested in the dungeon and all the torture devices. The rack was cruel and scary but next to it was a device that didn't stretch the body but bend it into 3 folds, breaking the person into a small box shape. It was hard to work out which one I would rather.

Wednesday
Lost Dog Theatre 6hr dance theatre workshop. It took place at DanceWorks studio and was taken by Ben Duke. We spend the entire time improvising to different set tasks. There were only 10 of us participating, and everyone was really different, enthusiastic and were all strong dancers. I had so much fun playing and letting go of my inhibitions. Learning to use more of my voice in my improvisations and playing with sounds coming from my mouth, throat or down deep in my tummy. Seeing how my movement could then alter the sound. Clearly the workshop was noisy and filled with a bunch of crazy dancers acting like idiots. Which makes me think of Japanese proverb I once heard:

'We're fools whether we dance or not, so we might as well dance.'

Thursday
Hampton Court Palace. Another place I was dying to see since it was once home to the great Henry VIII. In his reign he built and decorated the castle to be one of the most modern and lavish castles in England. On my own with my audio tour I set off around the castle learning lots of new facts and stories. In the kitchens I learnt that pies were created in the Tudor kitchens by the cooks because they had 200 or so court members mouths to feed twice a day. That meant a lot of pots and pans and the pain of then fitting them all into an oven. The pie was created to encase the meat and gravy, cooking it without a pot. Once it was served to the court they would slice off the top of the pie and spoon out the piping hot stew. Afterwards discarding the pastry lid and bowl! Yes discarding the best part of a pie, the pastry! Absolute madness. It was the poor folk who then learnt to eat the pastry.

Stupidly I forgot my camera on this trip so I could only take photos on my phone. Which used up my phone memory so I was left with no camera, no phone and no time. I was so angry with myself because the building was so beautiful, especially the ornate Georgian era rooms and the garden.

Friday
Tate Modern. I had been told how amazing the Tate was but I was not expecting it to be so huge! The Tate is home to International modern and contemporary art. There was an exhibition on, Matisse cut-outs but I didn't want to pay the pricy entry fee so I roamed the rest of the building instead. I came across Picasso, Monet, Dali, Kandinsky, Braque, Rothko, Duchamp and so much more! So art amazed me, some infuriated me, some made me wish I was the one who came up with the idea of throwing paint at a wall calling it art and making millions, some made me sad and lonely and some made me feel absolutely nothing, like the grey canvas painted the colour to evoke nothingness.

At night I was taken to our local pub The Magic Garden by my cousin William. There was a band playing and unlike pubs back at home everyone was up dancing. Hippies on MDMA were dancing wildly with sheer scarves and the rest of us were just jumping along and grooving to the tunes. Roaming the pub was a magician who entertained people as they became more and more intoxicated. Sober I watched him as he removed a ladies ring from her finger and floated it mid air as everyone felt the air around it trying to find a string or any explanation for how he was able to do it. We couldn't, he was magic!

Saturday & Sunday
A very chilled out weekend with friends. Saturday morning I went for a huge run around Battersea Park near where I am staying. The park is enormous. Running I came across a children's zoo, tennis courts, children's football (soccer) courts, adults football courts, lake for fishing and kayaking, fun fair ground, gym, cafes, restaurants and even a temple! It was great to have so many things to look at to take the mind off running. But it wasn't very kind that every corner I turned were beautiful ice-cream vans taunting me to come and try. I resisted the temptation.

For the remainder of the day and evening I caught up with some friends from Uni; Ash, Emma, Tarryn and Serena. It was nice to be around friendly faces and to talk freely about dance again to people it interested. Drinking wine and eating cheese on Ash's apartment roof in the sun was definitely a good way to spend a beautiful day.

Sunday Ash who lives here took us WAAPA girls out to Brick Lane and Spitalfields market. The Brick Lane Sunday market was crazy busy and filled with shop after shop of vintage clothing, antiques, cafes and so many street food venders. The girls moved us through it all really fast not wanting to stay long. I definitely want to return and take my time meandering around and trying some delicious food. After the markets we went for a picnic at Battersea Park. Alice Lee Holland my 2nd year teacher from WAAPA joined us which was really nice. I had not seen her since graduating in 2010. I'm really enjoying getting to see so many people from Australia that I don't normally get a chance to see. Seeing them all the way over here in the UK. Strange but Australia is so big that it makes sense why we don't see each other frequently.

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