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December 23, 2006
Wicked!
It was totally Wicked! We went to see the new smash-hit, record-breaking musical Wicked last night at the Apollo Victoria Theatre. We were lucky to be the last few people in London to watch Idina Menzel, the original Wicked Witch of the West from the original Broadway production who delivered a stunning performance last night. She has such an amazing voice. Kerry Ellis will be the new Elphaba starting January 2007.
Aussie Helen Dallimore plays Glinda, The Good Witch of the North. Her performance was stunning. The acting and singing were just as good as Idina. My friend told me that the story is very different from the book but it delivers the message better. It will totally change your perspective of the original Wizard of Oz.
I've heard rumour that it's going to Australia, so everyone back home, make sure you keep an eye of this production and go watch it.
Posted by vhadiant at 09:41 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
December 22, 2006
The dangerous central line
Another person under a train today at Central Line (this time Marble Arch). This is one dangerous line I'm telling you. Avoid when you can :)
Posted by vhadiant at 01:13 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
December 21, 2006
The Nutcracker
Keeping up with the Christmas tradition, we went to see the English National Ballet's Nutcraker lastnight. I've never seen a ballet before and I really enjoyed the performance. It helped that it was a good one as well, my friend told me. I enjoyed the second act better, that was where most of the dancing happened with none of the boring plot.
Posted by vhadiant at 07:26 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Nandos in the UK
Nandos here is aimed toward a bit more 'upmarkety'. I was a bit surprised yesterday when we had our team lunch at Nandos and we were greeted by the maitre d' in a rather expensive looking restaurant. I was told that in South Africa, where Nandos originated from, they're aiming toward the fast food market just like in Australia. It was really funny to see Nandos in that swanky looking place!
Posted by vhadiant at 07:22 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
December 20, 2006
Living with the Tube
The Tube is an interesting beast. When it works it works beautifully but when it doesn't work it's really infuriating. I'm not trying to be yet another Londoner who complains and moans about the Tube all the time, but sometime it's really hard not to have the Tube Rage. I have the same view with millions other Londoners, as the life blood of London, the Tube must work at all time. Having seen the complexity of the network, the amount of people it moves everyday, and the amount of people it doesn't move everyday, I have grown to respect and at the same time detest the people who are running it.
Yesterday morning everything worked perfectly. At Limehouse DLR and in less than 1 minute the DLR to Bank arrived. In Bank, the change over took less than 1 minute. From home to work, door to door was less than 25 minute. Fantastic.
In the evening it was totally different. The plan was to go home before ice skating to change into a more comfortable clothes and thicker socks. At London Bridge station I jumped into the train that after a few minutes the driver announced on the tannoy that the train had a "defect" and he was going to "reboot" the train (his word not mine). Shouldn't be more than 2 minutes he hoped. Well 5 minutes later another announcement came, sorry ladies and gents train is not moving please take alternative mode of transport. Of course after wasting 20 minutes I didn't have any chance of going into the Jubilee line and change at Canary Wharf. In the end I went back to work and went straight there rather than home first. On the District line, there was a severe delay and the tube was moving really slow. If I didn't have my newspaper with me I would have gone mad. The irony is, after all that, everyone was late.
On the way home we jumped back into the dreaded District line. We waited for quite a long time (10 minutes+) at South Kensington and after jumping into yet another overcrowded train, believe it or not, the train stopped at Sloan Square and simply ... died. Fortunately there were plenty of buses at Sloan Square, we took one that goes straight to Bank.
This morning at Limehouse DLR, the first train that called was to Tower Gateway. It's alright, I don't understand why we need the Tower Gateway station that is not on the Bank line, but that's cool I don't mind. However, when I looked at the board the next train to Bank is 4 minute away. Four minute! You may think I'm impatient but four minute wait during peak hour on the DLR line to Bank is more or less an eternity. You're wouldn't believe the rate of people piling into the station. Just 1 minute delay means the next train will be overloaded. As expected when the DLR arrived it was jam packed with people on top of each other like sardines. Fine I'll wait for the next one, it's only 1 minute away. Of course the next train arrived was for Tower Gateway. Arghhh ....... by this time, I've reached the point of no line change. Although I could have taken that Tower Gateway train, it would not made any difference, I would have been late anyway. Fortunately the next train was for Bank. I had a slim hope that the changeover at Bank will take less than 1 minute, but I was once again crushed by reality, although this one was only for 3 minute. The only consolation was that by this time it was past 9AM and the usually overcrowded Northern Line was half empty. I arrived at work 15 minutes late, had I taken that first Tower Gateway DLR and walked to work I would have been on time.
Update: I found out that the timetable for Limehouse - Bank does include several 4 minutes gap between trains. Doh' well my bad for slagging off the DLR for having 4 minutes gap between trains. It's actually in the schedule. I still think that 3 minutes gap between two train on this line during peak hour is too long.
Posted by vhadiant at 07:41 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Outdoor ice skating
This is something that you could never have in Sydney, an outdoor ice rink. Last night we went to the National History Museum's Christmas Fair & Ice Rink. Well not so much for the Christmas Fair but more for the outdoor ice rink. I have to admit that I was a bit skeptical about it, I've done ice skating before at Maquarie Centre and wasn't very impressed, but then again like a lot of other thing about London, it was different.
The setup was really pretty, against the backdrop of the museum. The Christmas Fair just behind the ice rink and they have a live carol choir next to the ice rink, plus it was freezing cold last night. I know it's cliche but it finally feels like Christmas how it was meant to be (ie: freezing cold).
We were lucky that Bule Dave (who speaks fluent Indonesian that put my English to shame) knows one of the ice marshall and she took us all in for 2 free skate sessions. In between session I had my first taste of mulled wine. It was awesome! Yet another way to make bad red wine taste astronomically better.
Posted by vhadiant at 07:30 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
December 02, 2006
You me us
Yesterday is the World AIDS Day. For over two decades the silent killer is deadly than ever, and millions are living with HIV. A combination misunderstanding, social taboo surrounding AIDS, third world countries government in denials, and plain ignorance have propelled AIDS to be in track of another epidemic of black plague proportion.
I was first alerted by the scale of AIDS epidemic a few years ago while sitting at my dentist surgery waiting for my turn. Thinking that the epidemic has been contained with a massive campaign of safe sex, a National Geographic series covering the devastation of AIDS in sub-Saharan Africa showed me the harsh reality of AIDS in third world countries. South East Asia is also featured in the article. Since then I have kept an eye of this deadly virus, and I has been a heart-wrenching experience to keep reading articles after articles about the spread of AIDS and how little most people know about it. The most harrowing of all is that the spread of AIDS can be stopped by very simple means.
AIDS is real, is here and is killing millions of people every year. Increasing the awareness of AIDS is one of the most crucial steps of stopping the AIDS juggernaut.
Posted by vhadiant at 11:16 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
