Some things I have been doing
The other week I met Sepha in Lincoln Fields park in the glorious sunshine. We drank canned G&Ts (honestly, whoever invented those needs a medal) and soaked up the sun before heading off to the Peacock theatre to see Traces. Our original plan was to play squash and go swimming but I saw Traces was on sale at a tenner a ticket and it sounded much more appealing than exercise!
It was really good and I would recommend it, Sepha, who has never seen it before, thought it was excellent. It's a predominantly gymnastics based show, so they were running and jumping and spinning and flipping all about the place. It was really good, but this year's had a bit more interpretive dance than usual and I didn't enjoy it quite as much as the other two I have seen.
On Saturday I took my car for it's first MOT with me - thank the Lord, it passed! I was quite surprised (as I have been with every car I have ever owned when it's passed) then headed off to Covent Garden for a long overdue catch up with Lewis. I only see him probably once a year if that, so it was good to get a nice few hours in with him! I was meeting Sepha in town later on so stayed in London and did a spot of shopping - Uniqlo is my favourite place at the moment. They do these excellent legging things that are really flattering and comfortable for £14.90 in a variety of colours and patterns, I already own a khaki pair that I live in so now have some funky floral print ones and plain black ones.
I met Sepha and we headed to the Hayward Gallery - we had tickets to see Carsten Holler's exhibition "Decision" which, disappointingly, was a massive anti climax. The principal of it looked good - it's an interactive art exhibition where you're immersed in the experience, but being central London on a Saturday, it was really busy and you had to queue for most things.
You entered the exhibition though a darkened metal corridor, which got darker and darker as you progressed - being a claustrophobe I didn't enjoy this much!! There was an alternative entrance which bypassed this however I wanted to experience it all.
You then wander round the galleries and there's some random stuff to look at - a big pile of pills on the floor created by a pill box above, dropping a pill every minute. Some people were eating the pills which I thought was weird (Sepha being one of the pill eaters, such an odd one). I could have pulled one of the pills apart and replaced the contents with something horrible like poo (is it weird that's the first thing I thought of) and put it back. Top tip - don't eat strange pills!
There was an oculus rift bit, which showed a film of walking through dark woods, and one eye was showed one thing and the other eye a different view - again, an anticlimax, and it just made my brain ache and feel like I was on drugs.
The main event which I had come for was the flight experience - they hook you up in a harness and spin you around, however this bit is outside, and it was raining, and the health and safety police said it wasn't safe in the rain because it was slippery, and they shut it down....we weren't very impressed - a) we live in the UK, of course we will get rain and b) just make it non slip material, or put a cover over it or something. We kicked up a bit of a fuss and were given tickets to return another time, but only because we lied and said we'd been waiting in the queue for 30 mins - people who hadn't been queueing for it didn't get to come back, which I didn't think was fair. Plus the staff were REALLY bad at keeping the crowd informed of what was happening, and were quite unapologetic.
The best bit of the exhibition was the upside down goggles. You usually get to do this outside, but because of the rain they brought it indoors and set it up in the main gallery. After queueing for 30 odd mins it was our turn - we were given the goggles and led into a roped off square in the middle of the gallery. The goggles turn everything upside down, which was hilarious, trippy and headache inducing all at once. I have never been so unaware of where my hands and legs are!! It's hard to describe the experience apart from it's almost like being absolutely wasted.
The gallery experience ends with a twirly wirly slide chute, which again, had a huge queue...but we diligently queued for yet another anticlimax - I went so slowly down the slide despite frantically wriggling about in my slide sack, and actually stopped mid slide. I also got a really wet bottom because the slide was leaking a bit in the rain.
All in all, the entire thing was a bit of a disappointment!! I think if they'd restricted the amount of tickets they'd sold per session, it would be a more enjoyable experience for everyone. We missed out on some parts because of the queueing. Also, the staff could do with a bit of jivvying up - they were all very stern and grumpy.
I rushed home and went to Peckham to meet Bex - we did a mini Peckham crawl, starting a The Nines where we ate some weird chickpea chips. There was a pop up jerk chicken bar in Copeland Park so I had a jerk wrap, which was absolutely delicious, except my tummy didn't agree an hour later :-(
We then went to Frank's, and on the way up discovered Ali Baba (juice shack fame) had set up a bar on the 4th level, as well as a mini night club made out of hay bales! God I love Peckham.
After Franks we headed to the Four Quarters where we played arcade games till our wrists hurt, drank locally brewed beer and got called skinny chickens by a really drunk 47 year old. All in all a good Saturday!
It was really good and I would recommend it, Sepha, who has never seen it before, thought it was excellent. It's a predominantly gymnastics based show, so they were running and jumping and spinning and flipping all about the place. It was really good, but this year's had a bit more interpretive dance than usual and I didn't enjoy it quite as much as the other two I have seen.
On Saturday I took my car for it's first MOT with me - thank the Lord, it passed! I was quite surprised (as I have been with every car I have ever owned when it's passed) then headed off to Covent Garden for a long overdue catch up with Lewis. I only see him probably once a year if that, so it was good to get a nice few hours in with him! I was meeting Sepha in town later on so stayed in London and did a spot of shopping - Uniqlo is my favourite place at the moment. They do these excellent legging things that are really flattering and comfortable for £14.90 in a variety of colours and patterns, I already own a khaki pair that I live in so now have some funky floral print ones and plain black ones.
 |
| isn't this how everyone hugs? |
I met Sepha and we headed to the Hayward Gallery - we had tickets to see Carsten Holler's exhibition "Decision" which, disappointingly, was a massive anti climax. The principal of it looked good - it's an interactive art exhibition where you're immersed in the experience, but being central London on a Saturday, it was really busy and you had to queue for most things.
You entered the exhibition though a darkened metal corridor, which got darker and darker as you progressed - being a claustrophobe I didn't enjoy this much!! There was an alternative entrance which bypassed this however I wanted to experience it all.
You then wander round the galleries and there's some random stuff to look at - a big pile of pills on the floor created by a pill box above, dropping a pill every minute. Some people were eating the pills which I thought was weird (Sepha being one of the pill eaters, such an odd one). I could have pulled one of the pills apart and replaced the contents with something horrible like poo (is it weird that's the first thing I thought of) and put it back. Top tip - don't eat strange pills!
There was an oculus rift bit, which showed a film of walking through dark woods, and one eye was showed one thing and the other eye a different view - again, an anticlimax, and it just made my brain ache and feel like I was on drugs.
The main event which I had come for was the flight experience - they hook you up in a harness and spin you around, however this bit is outside, and it was raining, and the health and safety police said it wasn't safe in the rain because it was slippery, and they shut it down....we weren't very impressed - a) we live in the UK, of course we will get rain and b) just make it non slip material, or put a cover over it or something. We kicked up a bit of a fuss and were given tickets to return another time, but only because we lied and said we'd been waiting in the queue for 30 mins - people who hadn't been queueing for it didn't get to come back, which I didn't think was fair. Plus the staff were REALLY bad at keeping the crowd informed of what was happening, and were quite unapologetic.
The best bit of the exhibition was the upside down goggles. You usually get to do this outside, but because of the rain they brought it indoors and set it up in the main gallery. After queueing for 30 odd mins it was our turn - we were given the goggles and led into a roped off square in the middle of the gallery. The goggles turn everything upside down, which was hilarious, trippy and headache inducing all at once. I have never been so unaware of where my hands and legs are!! It's hard to describe the experience apart from it's almost like being absolutely wasted.
The gallery experience ends with a twirly wirly slide chute, which again, had a huge queue...but we diligently queued for yet another anticlimax - I went so slowly down the slide despite frantically wriggling about in my slide sack, and actually stopped mid slide. I also got a really wet bottom because the slide was leaking a bit in the rain.
 |
| I look petrified but it's because my bum had just received a soaking |
All in all, the entire thing was a bit of a disappointment!! I think if they'd restricted the amount of tickets they'd sold per session, it would be a more enjoyable experience for everyone. We missed out on some parts because of the queueing. Also, the staff could do with a bit of jivvying up - they were all very stern and grumpy.
I rushed home and went to Peckham to meet Bex - we did a mini Peckham crawl, starting a The Nines where we ate some weird chickpea chips. There was a pop up jerk chicken bar in Copeland Park so I had a jerk wrap, which was absolutely delicious, except my tummy didn't agree an hour later :-(
We then went to Frank's, and on the way up discovered Ali Baba (juice shack fame) had set up a bar on the 4th level, as well as a mini night club made out of hay bales! God I love Peckham.
 |
| View from Frank's |
After Franks we headed to the Four Quarters where we played arcade games till our wrists hurt, drank locally brewed beer and got called skinny chickens by a really drunk 47 year old. All in all a good Saturday!
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