Greetings, Gentle Readers (all
n-1 of you)!
Yes, "travelling". The
British spelling. Because Wifey and I have just returned from
THREE WEEKS IN THE UK!!!!111oneoneeleven
A wild and wooly trip all over the bloody place. A bit of holiday, a bit of business for Wifey, and a bit of research for Yours truly.
First stop: Stratford-upon-Avon. Actually, we landed in London Gatwick, then immediately hopped on the train for Shakespeare's Home Town™. We stayed at Hamlet House (I kid you not!), a nice little bed & breakfast. Our hostess Yvonne had a pet parrot, an African Grey named Molly, who decided to waddle into the breakfast room one morning for a visit (Yvonne calls her a "cheeky little tart".). The bird strolled in, big as life, gave Wifey a once-over, then decided the rung under my chair was more interesting. After trying to get my attention for a bit, this silly parrot clamps onto my trouser leg and proceeds to
climb me like a tree!
Just call me Ace Ventura.
We also took in a production of
Romeo and Juliet and later had the pleasure of meeting both the young leads in the neighboring Dirty Duck pub. The play had a Mario Puzo
Godfather thing going on (pinstripes, fedoras, the whole gangster bit), and the leads had some wonderful chemistry. But if I saw
one more young buck wave a switchblade (or a wine bottle!) in front of his crotch I was going to throw something. We got the "weapon=phallus" joke the first dozen times you told it! Give it a rest already!
Second stop: Cardiff. It was cold. It was windy. We wandered around looking at
Doctor Who and
Torchwood filming sites, and Christmas morning was positively
surreal: nothing moving but the seagulls and the pigeons. Bear in mind that this sort of Yuletide quietude is something of a novelty for me, as I used to live in the Washington DC Metro area, which never stops moving
ever!
Third stop: Birmingham. John Barrowman is playing the lead in a
Robin Hood panto. Great buffoonish fun! John botched his lines, the Merry Men missed their cues, and Friar Tuck ran around in a dress (multiple dresses, actually...). There was also a noisy annoying robot...hey, this is
panto we're talking about!
We got to meet John at the stage door, where I took the opportunity to gloat that my action-figure collection was bigger than his (Barrowman is an incorrigible Barbie collector). Wifey told me it was funny watching John and I square off, and he did allow that I
might have more, given that I'm older than he is.
Fourth stop: Stirling and Edinburgh, with a quick side-trip to Nottingham, where Wifey met with a client. Our purpose there was to research Hogmanay, the Scottish New Year celebration. This is going to figure into the novel I'm writing (in the story there are Scottish settlers on Mars).
The party at Stirling Castle was great fun, with the band Deacon Blue headlining.
We also took in the musical
Sunshine on Leith, which features the music of the Proclaimers. A great show written by Stephen Greenhorn, who also has a couple of
DW episodes to his credit.
Last stop, London. We've been here a number of times, but the real high point of the the trip was here. We went to the Novello Theatre for
Hamlet returns, and managed to get
front row seats! Add to that the fact that The Boy Wonder™ was back! David Tennant was back in the saddle, having recovered from his much-lamented back injury.
We got to chat with him briefly at the stage door, where we presented him with a Hamlet action figure (complete with Yorick!) we'd had made.
Then it was back home. Gah. I'm still tired.
Tags: running all over the place
Current Location: My attic office (all eccentric writers have one!)
Current Mood: 
exhausted
Current Music: electric space heaters
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