Master and Margarita

We were off to another play the other day, another one at the Barbican, which is where we saw Cate Blanchett in her really weird German play.  I gotta visit the Barbican more, seeing as how my work is just one block away.  For one they have this art installation there at the moment, which is a room with rain constantly falling (sounds like London really).  What is so cool though is that they have all these motion sensors and so while you walk around you are constantly surrounded by rain, but it never falls on you.  Sounds like my kind of rain.  They are also meant to have a pretty good library, full of travel guides, which means I don't have to buy one next city I visit, I only have to borrow one.  Now that's a good use of a public library.

But anyway this night we were there to see the Master and Margarita, it was an adaptation of the book by Bulgakov.  If you have read the book you might see that it is kind of a hard story to convert to the theatre, there is so much going on, and there's a lot of devilish action, a lot of flashbacks.  It was done by Complicite, which had actually already done a sell-out run of the same show earlier in the year.   When I saw they were doing another showing, I was straight on to the ticketing.  Which meant we ended up with seats 4 rows from the stages.  This actually turned against us, when halfway through it became a bit more like a really scary comedy show where it was almost like you were going to be forced on stage and sell your soul, either that or take off all your clothes and give them to one of the actors.

I was also interested to see how they treated the fact that in the book the Margarita of the title spends about a third of it completely naked.  I was sure they wouldn't really have her completely naked, surely they would have her in a skin suit, or underpants.  But no, completely nude, and I'm talking completely.  And there was quite a lot of action in the second half, so she was running around, jumping on chairs, flying through the air, all in just high heels.  It's very odd watching someone completely naked, whilst everyone else is fully clothed, and sitting in a theatre surrounded by a bunch of high brow types.  They did have some unnecessary naked old man action in the first half to balance out the female nudity in the second half.

Another thing I noticed about this theatre troupe is that they weren't uniformly pretty, in fact very few of them were even what you would call attractive, just everyday people, or really a little strange looking, everyday people.  Which I thought was kind of weird in the acting world, in that it seems that you have to be good looking to get ahead.  So points for that as well.

I think if you do get a chance to see one of Complicite's productions give it a go.  It really sticks with you.  I really liked the book too though, so perhaps that helped.  I don't think you needed to have read it to enjoy the show though, this wasn't a Harry Potter movie.  I would put it up there with Cate Blanchett's Big and Small play.  I think the acting was better with Cate Blanchett (no surprise there), but the ambition of this play was much greater.  And the things they did with video and sound was another notch up.

It's odd to compare the shows I have seen at the Barbican with those I've seen at the National Theatre.  So far at the Barbican we have seen a Japanese rendition of a Shakespeare play, Cate Blanchett, and now this.  Whereas at the National Theatre we have mainly seen Irish plays set in periods where the Irish were going through a bit of a rough time.  I'm not sure who decides the plays they show at the NT, but perhaps they should get out to the Barbican more?

Glasgow - the city

Sir Walter Scott in George Square

After spending an amazing day in the highlands of Scotland (I am starting to understand why Queen Victoria loved the place so much) we had a day in the city of Glasgow.  I had been worried that there would be gangs of drunken youths rampaging through the streets, and whilst we did see some young folk the worse for drink at about 5pm, it was really good.  No knife crime that we saw anyway.  I think Edinburgh has done a good job of down talking poor Glasgow if this is the view tourists take of it.  And whilst I'm sure there are bad parts (like any city) as a tourist I'm not going to see those parts.

We spent the night eating at the Ubiquitous Chip, and if you have a chance to visit Glasgow I would highly recommend eating there.  It's in this little laneway out of the city, in the middle of what feels like suburbia, but then all along this little lane are all these pubs with people all over the place.  Then you walk inside and there is a bar, a brasserie and the restaurant.  If you want a fancy night definitely go the restaurant.  It's set over two levels around this courtyard garden, so there are vines hanging down from the balconies.  Very nice.  And the food was great, I had my first haggis there (you got to) and it was soo good.  It was all good, with a flight of rioja it was a really good night, to cap of the great day in the highlands.

The Duke of Wellington

There aren't a lot of museums in the city centre of Glasgow, there are some art galleries a little out of the city, which we didn't visit, not having mastered the public bus network.  But perhaps that's something to keep in mind when we return, because we will definitely be back, having decided to do the West Highland Way at some point this year.

It's a 150km walk from Glasgow to Fort William along Loch Lomond, but what's great (if you are soft like me) is that there are all these companies that will transport your bags along the way.  So each day you just carry your camera, some water and a bit of food, and you stay in guest houses, and can sleep in a bed each night.  Sure it's no wilds of Australia, but then we can experience the wilds of Scotland and sleep in our pyjamas every night.  And have a beer at the end of every day.  So I am definitely looking forward to that.  And long story short it will mean another trip to Glasgow sometime in the next summer.

A real tardis in Glasgow

One highlight of the day was a trip to the contemporary art museum. What made that such a highlight was not necessarily the art, but the tour we took whilst we were there.  It was given by a young art student who volunteers at the museum.  She was studying in one of the universities and in the museum they had a lot of works by ex-students who had gone on to win the Turner Prize.  Apparently almost 30% of Turner Prize nominees come from the Glasgow School of Art, which is not bad for what I thought was a nothing town.  Though the Glasgow University was founded in 1451 and was the fourth in the English speaking world, so it's not as if there hasn't been learning here for an awfully long time.

She ended up taking us round to what were really her favourite pieces, and knowing not much about art, particularly modern art, it was great to have someone put it all in context for us.  It really made the visit.  If you get a chance it's another thing high on the list of must-sees for Glasgow.  And of course out the front there is the Duke of Wellington with his traffic cone hat.

Glasgow Cathedral from the Necropolis

Dave with the monument to John Knox

Before Glasgow ended up with the reputation of a mysteriously high mortality rate it used to be quite rich.  The industrial revolution was kind to some people in the town.  It was a massive centre for ship building, which is where I think the bad reputation started to appear.  It grew so fast over this period that the infrastructure didn't really have time to catch up, so you ended up with all these poor people jammed into tenements.  Then with the end of the World Wars there was a period of fast de-industrialisation and so all these people then had no jobs and were jammed into slums.

But whilst the good times were on, they were certainly some good times, the population was larger than Edinburgh and there were a lot of very rich merchants.  So to commemorate their wealth they started to build massive monuments to themselves when they died, and these were all placed in the Necropolis which is this big hill near the Glasgow Cathedral.  This cathedral is famous because it's the only one in the Scottish mainland to have survived the Reformation undamaged.  Technically not a cathedral anymore since there's no bishop here.  But still a fine looking building.  Too bad it was a Sunday and so in heavy use.

Just some of the tombs in the Necropolis

Glasgow - better than expected

Dave on the shores of Loch Lomond with the fog lifting

 I was slightly apprehensive visiting Glasgow, only because it doesn't compare favourably to Edinburgh.  I was reading an article the other week about how Glasgow has an unexplained higher mortality rate than other cities of the same socio-economic makeup and position.  It's almost as if there are dangerous mists rising up out of the River Clyde or something.  The epidemiologists have no idea what else it could be.  To my mind Edinburgh always seemed the much more high-brow town, it had the castle, the comedy festival, the Royal Mile, Arthur's Seat, whereas Glasgow just seemed to have high mortality and deep-fried mars bars.

Loch Lomond in the still morning

Houses on the shore of the Loch with the autumn colours on the mountain

Our original plan on visiting Glasgow was to hire a car and head up to the Trossachs National Park, just north of Glasgow, and try and fit in a hike or two.  But we hadn't factored into our plans the weird bureaucracy of the British.  We had been in London for just over a year when we were planning the trip, and it turns out once you have been here for more than a year, you have to switch your drivers license over to a British one.  It probably wouldn't have mattered, but if you are in a hire care, and something goes wrong, I'm imagining if there's anything not completely legit with your drivers license then you are kind of screwed.  I guess at least we didn't have to sit another test.

Looking towards the village of Luss with the heather beyond

So I took a lot of photos of Loch Lomond

When you get your license switched over you have to give up your Australian license and they destroy it or send it back of something.  What I found most strange about the whole process though is just how hard it was.  You have to provide identification to get your license, and about the only thing they accept is your passport.

The amazing colours of autumn

Brilliant tree in the castle grounds

So you have two options post your passport off to the motor department along with your application form, or pay 9 pounds more and go into one of the only two offices in the UK that can verify your passport in person.  Luckily one of those two offices happened to be in London.  Though by paying the extra money and going in, that only saves you having to give up your passport, they still post off the forms to Swansea and then you have to wait 3 weeks to get your license.  There are so many things wrong with that system I don't even know where to start. Can you even imagine posting your PASSPORT off to the Australian motor vehicle department?  And then 3 WEEKS to be issued a license.

What is even better is that along with the (incredibly ugly) license you also have to carry around this piece of paper.  On the paper the cops will write down any traffic infringements and the such that you might accrue, because apparently it is completely inconceivable that those infringements might be stored on some central database.  I'm not sure what happens when that scrap of paper is eventually worn to shreds from living in your wallet, can you apply for a new piece, or is a whole new license required?

At the "Rest and Be Thankful" Pass

A boat in Loch Lomond

So needless to say there was going to be no driving in Glasgow.  So that put paid to the idea of getting some hiking in.  Instead we decided to just have a look around and joined a Rabbie's tour, it was of the highlands, lochs, glens and castles.  It was pretty good, just 12 people in a small van (which if I'm going to do a tour is the size that I like).  Our first stop was the small village of Luss on the western shores of Loch Lomond.  It was about this point in the tour that I started thinking we have to come back here and explore further.  Loch Lomond is the largest Loch in Scotland, and gets it's name from Ben Lomond.  There are a lot of islands in the Loch, which adds to its charm, apparently on one of the islands there is a colony of wallabies, which seems slightly odd.  Not sure how they survive the Scottish winters.

Inveraray Castle

The ruin of Kilchurn Castle

After admiring the beauty of the Loch (not lake in these parts) it was further north up to the "Rest and Be Thankful" pass in the mountains.  The name was given by English soldiers forced to build a road into the highlands in 1753.  You can see the road in the photo above, it is lying parallel to the main highway and you can sure see the incline all the way up.  This was back when there weren't any bulldozers or the like.  They knew though that once they got to the pass it would be a bit easier for awhile.

Very strange church

Rabbits with very big teeth

There was then a bit of a stop in the village of Inveraray, which was built in the 18th century because the Duke of Argyll wanted to build a castle on the spot where the old village of Inveraray used to stand.  The Duke of Argyll is also the head of the Campbell Clan, and he still spends some time in the castle with his family.  It was another of those Arundel Castle jobs, but much newer, and less imposing.  I think I actually saw the Duke in the gardens whilst we were wandering around.

Since this was a tour of the highlands, lochs and castles we had a few more castles to visit that afternoon.  We had a brief look at Kilchurn Castle, which was built on an almost island in Loch Awe (great name).  It was an almost island because there is actually a narrow strip of land out to the castle, but when it was build the loch was higher than what it was now, so at that time it was technically on an island.  Though if you knew where to walk you could still walk out there, you would just get wet legs.  It was built in 1450 by another Campbell, and was then destroyed by lightning in 1760 and completely abandoned.  It does certainly make for an atmospheric addition to the loch.

The mountains around Glencoe

Waterfall near Glasgow

We then had one of the stranger interludes of the day, visiting a church.  It was built by one of the rich folk around these parts who didn't want his elderly mother to travel so far to church.  Since he was financing the project I guess he decided that he would design it as well, and he couldn't really decide on which style he likes best.  So there are pointless buttresses, square towers, stone and brick all jumbled together.  It does have a great view though, standing on the shores of one of the lochs.  I especially liked the gargoyles, the scariest rabbits I've ever seen.

One of the final stops was Glencoe, famous for a massacre by the Campbells against the MacDonalds, but also stunningly beautiful.  It was about this point in the day that I knew I had to come back here.  For those who have watched Skyfall, the scene where they go up to Bond's house in Scotland was filmed around here.  We actually stopped at the same spot Bond does on his trip.

Skyfall scene

So all in all a surprising day in the highlands, and I felt very sorry for poor old Glasgow.  The tour guide had done a good job of rehabilitating Glasgow in everyone's eyes, so I was looking forward to spending the next day exploring a bit of the town.

It's not the highlands without a cow

The Nutcracker

The boxes in the Coliseum

We've sort of made an annual tradition to go see the Nutcracker every year, luckily it seems that the British also have that tradition, so I don't think we are going to run out of different productions to see for awhile.  This year it was the English National Ballet version at the Coliseum.  This was a much more traditional version than last year's at Sadlers Wells.  I think I preferred the first act of this year's production.  The sets were amazing, and there were a lot of dancers on stage.  They had enlisted young students from ballet schools and performing arts schools.  They even had the kids sing the section in the first Act.  I think the orchestra was much better this year and since we were only 4 rows from the stage we could see right down into the pit.  I think the dancers were technically a lot better too, they are really amazing the things they can do with their bodies and yet still be so tiny.

But I think Matthew Bourne (from last year) is a much better choreographer than whoever the ENB had for this production.  I think whoever did the choreographer actually left in 2010 so I'm not sure why they are still using his old moves.  The second act seemed to degenerate into some weird So You Think You Can Dance (Ballet Edition).  The story completely disappeared, the mouse king was killed off in the first piece of the second act and then it felt like they had nowhere to go from there.  It felt like we were now watching some ballet school end of term recital, and whilst the dancers were obviously incredibly talented, I need a story, plus it felt like often the dancing didn't really go with the music.  Then to make matters worse at the end of each piece the orchestra stopped, and the dancers started bowing and the audience started clapping!! That's when it started to get really weird to me, you don't clap in the middle of a piece, the music is meant to still be going, you are meant to be in this world, built by the music and the dancing.  Not suddenly some live television audience applauding whenever the dancers did some especially high leap.

But the first act was great, having the children on the stage and then singing was really good, and you were really inside the world of the Nutcracker.  I just wish the choreographer had put as much effort into the second act.

Comedy Shows

We've been going a bit crazy with the comedy shows lately, it's such a treat to be able to see these big British comedy acts (they've all been British so far).  In Oz I was always out of the loop, so by the time I found out there was something good on, all the tickets were already sold.  But I've found myself on some good mailing lists so now I can get the inside word.

So far we've been to see Ross Noble and Bill Bailey.  I've always wanted to see Ross Noble, I've liked seeing him on every panel show he manages to find himself on.  And yet his stand up was strangely disappointing.  It felt like we never really got past the introduction, it seemed like he'd only just stopped heckling the latecomers and then suddenly it was all over.  I guess that's just his style, and so when he's on a TV show the structure keeps him in line.  

Now Bill Bailey was really good, I wasn't so keen on him, I thought it would be all very high-brow and kind of boring, maybe some insightful commentary, but not what I would call funny.  OK so it probably was still kind of high brow, he did start off with a 10 minute section on the three leaders of the main political parties after all.  But it was definitely funny.  I also didn't appreciate how musical he was, apparently he has perfect pitch, which must be such an awesome innate ability to have.  So there was a lot of instrumentation and singing and dancing around the stage.  Then he finished with a really cool bike horn musical medley, which I imagine must be a standard thing for him, but having never seen him before, I really liked it.  I got to say his film clip for the West Country death metal song "Ripped Apart By Badgers" was also up there.  

Next up is Alan Davies, I'm curious to see how he goes.  I like him on QI, but then I'm not sure how funny he'll be by himself.  Perhaps he'll have the most structured story-line out of them all.

Wildlife Photography Exhibit

Ironwork at the V&A museum

One very grey day recently we headed out to the Natural History Museum to see the Wildlife Photographer of the Year Award.  I went last year, and I really recommend this yearly exhibit if you happen to be in town when it's on (if you like animals and landscapes that is).  All the shots are really good, though having been twice now there are obviously certain shots which are classics.

There always seems to be a really long exposure of the night sky, so that the landscape has some colour but there are stars in the sky, really gives quite a creepy feeling.  You don't expect to see colours and stars at the same time.  There is also always a shot of the northern lights, that's just a given.  They are pretty cool.  I would love to see the northern lights, apparently this year is meant to be a real good one too.  Maybe next winter.

I always like the children's categories as well, they are pretty young kids, under 11, 11-14 and 14-17 are the categories I think.  They are all pretty talented, but what is funny about them is that they are pretty much all taken in the child's backyard.  I guess kids are quite restricted in their ability to get around, which means the city kids really have no chance in this award.  Unless the judges like shots of pigeons.

The glass sculpture in the entrance hall

Unfortunately no photos allowed, probably for the best though, it was absolutely seething inside.  Normally on a miserable day in Australia you would take the kids to a shopping centre, here in London they are much more cultured, they take them to a museum.  Turning up, the line for entry to the museum stretched all the way across the forecourt.  Luckily we had pre-booked tickets, no queue for us!

Since we were in the neighbourhood and had some time to kill before our planned outing to Skyfall, we thought we'd pop in to the Victoria and Albert Museum afterwards.  Another great building, across the road from the Natural History Museum.    I think officially it is a museum of art and design, basically it's a museum of stuff.  Or rather it is a bunch of separate museums all stuck under one roof.  You have, say, ironwork, and jewellery, tapestries, statues, architecture, glass work, and a lot more.  You could imagine that each section could really be it's own museum.  It makes it slightly strange to visit, because there's no real theme joining everything together, apart from the fact it's all stuff.  But if you were really into jewellery or iron gates or something, it would probably be really good to visit.

Scale model of a Japanese building

Tiny glass jar - made in 1400BC in Egypt

My favourite was the architecture section, they had all these little scale models of different buildings (built by the architects when planning the design) and went over the different aspects of the buildings, from all over the world.

Another section I quite liked was the cast section, there are these massive halls, and I am talking airport hanger high halls, full of replica statues.  So if you don't want to bother visiting Florence you can come here and see Michelangelo's David.  It was full of various statues and building parts.  It looked a bit like it was in the middle of renovations though, so we couldn't get down there amongst the statuary.

Arundel Castle

The Castle and the river Arun

Dave and I headed off to Arundel in the south east of England, it's actually really close to Brighton, but even better was that the last stop on the train line was Bognor Regis.  Now that's what I call a name! And for once it's even spelt exactly like it's written, as opposed to Leicester for example.  Apparently it's an Anglo-Saxon name, the town has been around since 680 AD, perhaps that explains the phonetic nature of it.

Dave with the castle

Anyway we got off the train before that stop, at Arundel, which is said so that you could almost imagine elves living here.  Kind of rhymes with Rivendell.  We were here to do a walk out over the South Downs, but then when we arrived we saw the castle and couldn't say no to a visit.

It was founded by one of William the Conqueror's counsellors, when he became the first Earl of Shrewsbury all the way back in 1067.  There is still the Motte and Bailey in the grounds, much more impressive than the one we saw in the forest in the peaks district.  Though perhaps that one was more atmospheric, being hidden away in a forest.

What I find strange though is that Shrewsbury is miles away from here.  Not only was the first Earl of Shrewsbury stationed here, but the current owners are always the Earl of Norfolk, which is on the other side of London from Arundel.  I don't really get how this whole English feudal system worked, if the landowners were miles away from their land how did they keep the peasants in line?

The view out to the South Downs from the castle

Apparently the Duke of Norfolk is one of the important lords of the land, he actually gets a role in royal ceremonies.  He is in charge of things like coronations and funerals and any other state occasions, as designated by the queen/king.

The garden outside the Fitzalan Chapel

The first owner died without any heirs, so it reverted to Henry I, who then gave it to his second wife, and it has been in their family ever since, which is kind of impressive.  Eventually ending up with the Howards, who perhaps are some of the more famous owners.  One of the Howards who owned this castle was the uncle to both Anne Boleyn and Catherine Howard, both wives of Henry VIII.

It's a very well preserved castle, it's slightly strange visiting inside though, since the family must still spend some time there, so there are family photos around the place.  Also some of the apartments have been renovated, so it's kind of odd to see modern furniture amongst this ancient castle.  You also weren't allowed to take any photos, which I always dislike.  I think it's so you are more likely to buy their book.

Looking up to the Motte at Arundel

Some interesting points, Queen Victoria stayed here for 3 days, and a whole set of furniture was made for her stay.  Apparently Empress Matilda also stayed here (that's going back a bit), so not sure how much of the actual castle was around when she visited.  There are also Mary Queen of Scot's rosary beads on display here.  She gave these to a wife of one of the Dukes before she was beheaded.  A little gory.  Well that was the story they told you when you visited the castle, but all the other sources seem to say Mary actually carried the beads to the scaffold, so I'm not sure how the wife ended up with them, whether she prised them from Mary's death grip, or whether the executioner did it for her.

A couple of the rooms to look out for whilst you are here are the library, that is such a fantastic room, massively long, all carved mahogany and big armchairs, it really looks like a stereotypical library.  The other one I liked was the chapel inside the castle, it had great stained glass.  There is another chapel on the grounds, because you can never have too many churches I suppose. 

Ancient cork tree in Arundel gardens

I really like the old Motte and Bailey on the grounds, it's linked up with the main castle, you climb some steps to the top of the motte.  It's nice that they didn't destroy it to build more castle, since you would think that would have been quite easy to do.  At the time these were the pinnacle of defensive systems.  The motte is a big mound, upon which the castle was built, whilst the bailey was an enclosed courtyard below the mound.  These mounds have some serious height to them, so with a castle built on top, and a ditch around, they really must have looked intimidating.  These types of castles were still being built in the 13th century.   From the top of the castle on the motte you could see all the way out to the sea.

The castle gardens and the disappointing cathedral

The motte and castle, with goats grazing

As well as the motte (I think the bailey has had the new castle built on it, so that didn't really exist anymore) the gardens were great.  On the grounds there is another chapel, the Fitzalen chapel, which is actually two churches, one for the Dukes, and the other for the townspeople.  What is even stranger is that the chapel in the castle grounds is Catholic, but the one for the townspeople is Anglican.  I'm not sure how frequent that is.  The castle side was vastly more impressive than the half that the plebs in town used.  That seemed kind of falling down, and quite derelict.  Had a good graveyard though, where some of the gravestones looked like they were slowly being swallowed by the earth.

The grounds of the castle had a couple of impressive gardens, one just outside the chapel, still had some roses, though it was quite late in the season, regardless

The picture perfect Arundel castle

of Dave's shorts and t-shirt.  The other one was the Collector Earl's garden.  This is partially a formal garden and partially a kitchen garden, with some serious sunflowers!  There were a couple of weird little buildings dotted here and there, one with the strange crown water fountain.  It's a jet of water shooting straight up, and held aloft by the pressure of the water is a crown.  A bit strange, it seems a popular fountain of the time though.  I think one of Ludwig II's castles in Bavaria had the exact same fountain.  There was also a "living" room, in that it was covered in plants inside, or bits of plants, so not really living, in the sense that the plants had all died.  So it had a rather depressing dessicated, brown colour.

Strange "living" room - covered in dead moss

Also in the garden were ancient cork and ginkgo trees, I've never seen such an old cork tree.  There is a small cork plantation in Canberra (I'm not sure why or how), and it was about the only thing that survived the bush fires, all the pines were completely incinerated.  It is actually thought that the cork trees evolved their bark to help withstand forest fires, and I guess they showed that to be true.  Apparently these trees can grow to 500 years old, but not normally very high, about 20 metres maximum.  I'm sure this one was taller than 20m though.  I don't know if it has ever been stripped either, so had some serious bark on it.

Across the road from the main garden was a massively impressive looking church, it rivalled Notre Dame in Paris.  It looked about 3 storeys high, I thought we definitely have to go there before we leave.  There's no

Sunken tombstones in the Fitzalan cemetery

way that a church with such an impressive exterior couldn't have something pretty good inside, maybe some stained glass windows, at least a tomb of some famous person, perhaps even a minor princeling.  But you get inside and there's nothing there, it was built in the late 1800's, so doesn't even have history on it's side.  It's just a big empty building, only one stained glass window, and that's it, no tombs, hardly any statues, no mosaic floor, no quire, I've never been so disappointed in a church.  It was all facade and nothing meaty. 

We were thinking we have to plan another visit at some point, if only to do the South Downs walk which we were meant to do, but never got around to.  One other weird thing about Arundel was the number of tea houses, I've never seen so many tea rooms in one village.  It did make it easy to get refreshments after a hard day of castle viewing though.

The enormous sunflowers - I've never seen such big heads - no petals though