Good Friday: First day in London

Friday

Early in the morning, arrived at Daniel's place, an old mate that I had not seen for years. We stay in LSE student housing in Angel, a gentrified borough that has, instead of being up-and-coming, Daniel insists, already come. Despite UK anti-terrorism measures and the British police state on which I will elaborate on later, I was able to gain access all the way to his apartment door, through several card-locked doors.

We went to Borough Markets, near London Bridge, for some good ol' earthloving healthy organic food. On account of it being Good Friday, I decided to keep solidarity with Daniel's custom of being pesce-vegetarian for the day. I did screw up when I accidently tried a bit of fowl pie at the markets. Otherwise, it was falafel rolls, cheese-tasting, EAT tuna sandwiches and Misato salmon rice for the day. Past midnight, we had a special fast breaking with fried chicken at one of the numerous late night fried chicken joints around town.

Me pulling a Jamie Oliver, sniffing organic mushrooms at the market.

From here, we, according to my guide Daniel, "walked along river to Tate Modern, passing the Globe. ...South Bank, crossed Millenium Bridge to get to St Paul's Cathedral, walked along the street, Fleet St., the Strand, Royal Courts of Justice, then Charing Cross Station, Trafalgar Square, Picadilly Circus, Regent St. intersection with Oxford St."

The shaky, blurry but artistic effect on my broken camera.

At Tate Modern, my camera, like the adjacent Millenium Bridge, vibrated and stopped working when people tried to use it. So for the whole stretch of photogenic locations and beautiful British architecture all the way to Oxford Circus to pick up the new camera that I had spontaneously bought and paid for at Charing Cross, I was camera-less and felt so vulnerable.

One particularly regrettable missed photo opportunity was the red London double-decker bus passing by a a colourful cherry blossom in front of St Paul's Cathedral - here faithfully captured courtesy of Daniel.

Cultural insights:
British queuing: The British will queue for everything, even if there are only 2 people. Queuing anecdote: at the London School of Economics, people will queue up for hare krishna free food before the food even arrives, hence waiting for a non-existent goal, just like in the Beckett play that I see in the West End.
British apologising: Sorry is a useful word to preface many human interactions.
That night, I fulfilled one of my long-time dreams, being an English literature major, to see a West End theatre production in full (I stress 'in full' as, 10 years ago, our family had attended CATS! but left during the intermission). This time, it was Beckett's Waiting for Godot no less, a text I had studied in high school and which has since had a profound impact on me. A post-war absurdist, existentialist play, with only 2 main characters in 2 acts and very repetitive, non-sequitur and absurdist dialogue; the play is best appreciated under tutelage.
Although at the time, the play may have been a tad tedious, I did gain a greater appreciation of the play seeing it performed live, with one of the main roles played by Ian McKlellan (Gandalf from Lord of the Rings). For example, the protagonists Vladimir and Estragon, in plain black clothes and bowler hats, often faced away from the audience, representing the Everyman, seeing what we see.

Handy tip: If you have a cheap gallery seat at Her Majesty's Theatre, with no seat padding and armrests, the seatcover tucked in a Swedish Fjallraven Kanken backpack can be very useful.

Stepping out of the theatre I overheard a teenybopper whine: "Worrst evverrr!" I wish to formally thank Daniel and Regina, who not only hospitably showed me around London, but also endured the torture of the play.
At night, there was a reunion with some ISHCMC (International School Ho Chi Minh City) people and it was good to see some familiar faces.