Wordless Wednesday ~ 29: Extinct

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Gone sailing

Ghost Stories at the Duke of York’s Theatre

 

Billed as “a truly terrifying theatrical experience”, Ghost Stories comes to the West End following a sell-out season at the Lyric Hammersmith.  Ghost Stories is written by two men who need no introduction in the arena of the dark and macabre: The League of Gentlemen's Jeremy Dyson and Andy Nyman who is best known as co-creator and director of Derren Brown’s television and stage shows. 

The play is narrated by Andy Nyman in his role as Professor Philip Goodman, an expert in parapsychology and a sceptic at heart.  He begins by essentially debunking the idea of paranormal phenomena but then intriguingly introduces the idea that not everything is as it may seem.  As he gives a mock lecture to the audience he explains that in twenty years of professional experience, he has come across only three cases that have been different enough to warrant his attention.  These are the cases that disturb, that keep him up at night.  I won’t spoil the play for you by telling you about the three cases but I can tell you there was a lot of screaming, squealing and hiding behind partners on the part of the audience.  It is certainly not advisable to hold a drink in your hands whilst watching the show.

One of the best aspects of the show was the design.  I had already noticed the dismembered leg in the foyer of the theatre and the main arena was transformed from a stately old theatre into a horror house of sorts.  There was police tape and cob-webbed gas lamps to give a truly eerie experience and the overall effect was completed by the seemingly random numbers chalked onto the walls.  The stage had a creepy veil as a curtain which had “safety curtain” painted on in red paint and green, slimy paint on the stage itself.  The set design was really good too with distorted, angular rooms, creepy forests and corridors of old asylum cells to set the general tone of fear. 

Ghost Stories is a lot of fun (if being scared and screaming out loud is your cup of tea) and I did enjoy the show.  At times however, the plot did get a little ridiculous or thin and there were certainly times when the audience was laughing or scoffing when they should have been screaming.  In a classic coup de théâtre, there is quite a twist at the end of the play and at first I felt a little bit underwhelmed by the ending.  As I sat on the train on the way home though, I came to appreciate how cleverly all the pieces fit together as I sifted through the various clues that had been left throughout the play.  Having said that, I didn’t feel that it was like watching a live horror film, as one audience member had previously stated and it certainly did not reach the levels of scariness and tension that films do.  I can imagine that it is quite difficult to portray that nail-biting, terrifying suspense in front of a live audience and I had always been sceptical about the ability to bring such a story to the stage. 

During the play, the one impression that I did have was surprise that they managed to secure a major West End theatre for the glorious summer and early autumn season as in spite of the impressive set design, this is really more of a community theatre production.  Nevertheless, if you are looking for a fun and somewhat exhilarating 80 minutes, then I would recommend Ghost Stories.  It is not the standard quality we’ve come to expect of West End shows though, so do make sure you’ve seen all of the big ones first.

Ghost Stories also stars Ryan Gage, David Cardy and Nicholas Burns and will run at the Duke of York’s Theatre until 7th November 2010.  Tickets range from £22.50 to £47.50.

Article first published as Theatre Review (London): Ghost Stories at the Duke of York’s Theatre on Blogcritics.

Shared joy is a double joy*

It's been some good days that passed the last two weeks and very much easier than we expected. Everyone adapted impressively fast to the spartan and tight boat life and it's a bit sad it all went so fast. Two more people in tonight for one more Swedish influenced week on the sea and soon thereafter we'll set off for our four weeks vacation towards Corsica and Italy in mid July. Intense boat life but wonderful to be able to share it with people we love.

Pic: Fish soup made of Bonito and Mackerel, potatoes and vegetables.

*Swedish proverb.

A Sunset Flight on the London Eye

Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament

Remember when I took part in the Gumtree MyCommunity contest a month ago?  (I posted my entry here: part 1 ¦ part 2).  On the evening of the prize giving, we were told to meet outside the London Aquarium.  I snapped some photos of the Houses of Parliament but could hardly bear to look behind me at the London Eye.  I had a secret hope that we were going to “fly” on the London Eye that night and I didn’t want to tempt fate.

The London Eye

Imagine my absolute glee then when the nice PR people from @1000heads told us that we were indeed going on a surprise sunset “flight” on London’s most stunning attraction, The London Eye.  (No, now is not the time to be snarky about my favourite London attraction – you know how fond I am of the London Eye).

A London Eye-pod (iPod, get it??)

There were ten blogger finalists in our pod and their guests plus staff from both the PR company and Gumtree as well as waiters from Merlin Entertainment, the people who run the London Eye.  Why waiters?

Champagne on the London Eye

Oh, didn’t I mention that it was a champagne sunset flight?  I felt really charmed that night, I really did.

Hungerford Bridge and Millennium Walkways

The views from the London Eye are amazing.  This is the bridge that leads into Charing Cross rail station.

Another London Eye-pod

The people in the other pods were really interested in us! I guess they wondered why we were so special and why we got champagne and hors d’oeuvres.  Of course, they might have just been trying to get a decent pod shot like me.

Charing Cross Station and BT Tower

Looking towards the north, that is the Charing Cross rail station you can see in the foreground and the famous BT Tower in the background.  What an amazing view! I haven’t seen London like this before.

Waterloo Station and Strata

Looking towards the east, you can Waterloo rail station (that is the wavy building on the front left).  And you can see one of my favourite buildings in the background.  Let me help you out:

Strata

Strata is the beautiful black and white building in the distance there.  It is situated in Elephant and Castle which is just down the road from my work.  It is the tallest residential building in London and has wind turbines in the top to offer sustainable living. 

Looking south on the Thames River

The view to the south gives a gorgeous view along the Thames River.  I am often impressed by how pretty this concrete snake of a river can be.

County Hall

You get a dizzying view of County Hall as you begin to descend.

Steeple and weather vane on County Hall

I think that is called a steeple.  Any suggestions?

The main attraction for me lay on the other side of the river though…

The Houses of Parliament

What a sight! If you look carefully, you can just see Battersea Power Station peaking out behind the back tower there.

Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament

Even with the scaffolding it was still great to see Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament from this perspective.

Buckingham Palace and London Parks

The sun was setting in the west and it was burning fiercely!  I struggled to look in that direction never mind take photos!  In the photo above, you can make out Buckingham Palace in the centre surrounded by St James Park, Green Park and Hyde Park in the background.

Ministry of Defence

I felt a bit like a spy taking a photo of the Ministry of Defence!!

Whitehall Court

Whitehall Court is actually quite exquisite.  I would love to take some decent photographs of it one day.

London Eye

We all met up at the Slug and Lettuce for the prize giving afterwards.  I didn’t win but the excellent Jon Choo received a £500 Gumtree gift voucher for his entry on St Albans.  That was picked by the client, Gumtree and there were prizes for most comments too. 

At the end of the evening, my colleague Amana and I made our way back to Waterloo station and paused to take one last photo of the London Eye.  What a fabulous experience!

Fashion week on the boat

Caos is the most fashionable boat this week. Two of my best friends have arrived and filled the boat inside out with their weekend gears. Let's not ask Alex what is his opinion about this :0 /T

Radar Hill - Highest Road in Phuket

Until last year, I thought Radar Hill was the highest point in Phuket - the highest hill. Everyone who comes to Phuket will see Radar Hill (real name Khao Mai Tao Sip Song) - it's the big hill behind Patong Beach with the radar dome on top. BUT it's not actually the highest hill. Another hill a little to the North above Kathu Waterfall tops out around 30m higher - I hiked up here in September - see Hiking to the Roof of Phuket.

Well, even if Radar Hill is the second highest hill, it certainly boasts the highest road. You can drive all the way to the top.. almost.. you cannot quite hit the summit since the radar is a military installation, so when you are 95% of the way up you reach a gate and armed soldiers. The road by the gate is almost half a kilometer above sea level. We've been up here before and I blogged about it some 4 years ago here, but we'd not driven up this hill for a while, and last Sunday we had an hour to waste while our son was at football practice.. weather was a bit wet, but I figured we'd still get some great views on the way up before entering the cloud line. Actually, it turned out to be great, our daughter loved being "in the clouds" and our son was quite upset to hear that we'd done such an exciting thing without him... which means I think we have to drive up again this weekend!

The road up is in good condition, but steep in places. The start of the road is off Chao Fa West Road about 1km north of Chalong Temple. Follow the sign that says "Villa Zolitude". You go past a small golf course and hit Villa Zolitude as the road starts to climb. Keep going... you wind up into the hills, it's very green, and views start to appear through the trees.





(above) this is Bang Wad Reservoir and beyond is part of Kathu.. in fact you can see our house from here.. if you had a very good telescope!

As we climbed higher, we entered the clouds. Unsurprisingly, we were the only people up here looking at views. Indeed any time we come up here we are the only people... everyone else goes up to the Big Buddha or Rang Hill (in Phuket Town).



We stopped right by the gate where there is space to turn around easily. From just below the gate you get a view over Patong. There are signs to remind you that this is a restricted area and just past that sign you see the southern part of Patong through the trees, and in this case, through the clouds...





A little black cat came to say hello to us. What the hell are you doing up a 500m high hill, cat? We thought about taking him home.. but he wandered off into the trees... and about 1 minute later we heard the sounds of a cat fighting. And then silence. We reckon he might have got ambushed by a big snake. We saw a snake one time as we drove up this hill, a rather nasty pit viper. Oh well, RIP cat, I think.

From the road near the gate, the top of the Buddha hill is visible. Well, it should be.. On this morning it was in the clouds, but there were fleeting glimpses of the 45m high white marble Buddha through gaps in the clouds...



A little below the top, around 370m above sea level, there is a small parking spot on the left side as you come up and just as the road does a series of sharp curves. It's pretty steep here, but you can park by the side of the road where you can get some views over Patong; and in the other direction you see hills and can see over to Chalong Bay too. We stopped on the way down.



First thing I saw was not the view but this monster:



A most impressive beast! Oh yes, and a view over Patong, better from here, less trees and no clouds in the way...



Road here is very steep - I think the photo below shows that. A Honda Wave would be straining up this one! And if you come up in a car make sure the brakes work!



And this view from the same stop, looking away from Patong towards Phuket Town with heavy clouds threatening. A bit of rain and cloud does not stop us! Don't be stuck in your hotel room if the sky looks dark. Get out and about. Hiring a car is a good idea in Phuket, it's a big island, go and explore. Even on a rainy day, it's not going to be wet all day, and it's not going to be wet everywhere on the island.



Over the years I have enjoyed days when we just drive around and follow back roads. Phuket is full of surprises, and it's on these back roads that you find the real Phuket rather than the Phuket-by-the-sea. There's more to Phuket.

Wordless Wednesday ~ 28: Wembley

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Concert Review: Green Day – Wembley Stadium, London, June 19, 2010

California punk trio Green Day are currently on the second European leg of their 21st Century Breakdown World Tour and I was lucky enough to see them live at London’s Wembley Stadium on Saturday night.  There is something undeniably exciting about Wembley Stadium but as we took our seats at the beginning of the evening and I looked around the vast stadium, I had to wonder whether Green Day would be able to carry such a large arena.

We arrived just in time to see support act Joan Jett and the Blackhearts take the stage.  It feels strange to think that Joan Jett and the Blackhearts could be supporting another band considering how huge they have been over the years and I can remember standing on a wall with other nine-year-olds belting out “I Love Rock ‘n’ Roll” when it came out in 1982.  I had expected a washed out version of an aging rocker and I was absolutely proven wrong.  Joan Jett’s voice is as powerful and unique as the day she first hit the stage in 1975 and I was really impressed by her vocal range.  The highlight of the set was “I Love Rock ‘n’ Roll” which was followed by “Crimson and Clover”.  One of my mates asked whether the former song was a cover of the Britney Spears version and I incredulously insisted that it was not.  Confused, he asked when the Joan Jett version had come out and simply could not believe it when I told him.  Such was the power and energy of Joan Jett’s performance, assisted no doubt by how good she looks at 51, that he had not realised that these were veteran rockers. 

The interval leading up to the Green Day set was quite eventful.  There was, of course, the hilarious Drunken Bunny.  Nobody knows who the Drunken Bunny is but his drunken, slapstick routine certainly helps to pass the time.  My suspicion is that all of the band members act as the Drunken Bunny, alternating between shows. 

We had taken seated tickets and were seated in the Club Wembley tier on the bend.  These are normally reasonable seats but the first thing we noticed was that there was a massive lighting tower blocking our view of the centre stage.  One tip about Wembley is that if you are unhappy with your seats or your view is obstructed, you have to complain about it on the night.  It is written on their terms and conditions and they simply do not entertain complaints written after the event.  We complained and were moved a further two section towards the front of the arena which was brilliant.

We settled down just in time to see Green Day enter the stage.  The band opened with “Song of the Century”, running into “21st Century Breakdown” and one of my personal favourites “Know Your Enemy”.  There was a rather bizarre moment when Billie Joe Armstrong pulled up a young lad on to the stage and he latched on to Billie Joe and gave him a prolonged kiss smack on the lips.  Thankfully Billie Joe managed to disentangle himself in time for the next refrain.

Green Day certainly know how to work a crowd and the concert was one of the best displays of showmanship I have seen in ages.  Of course, it could all just be flattery as Billie Joe said that England was the greatest rock and roll country on Earth and that “we just seem to ‘get’ each other”.  Unsurprisingly, this was met by massive cheers as he shouted that Green Day are “not from California, we’re from fucking England!” 

“East Jesus Nowhere” was on next and another fan was pulled on to the stage.  We speculated for a moment whether the band were getting fined each time they did that as London is notorious for stringent health and safety concerns.  This time it was a young boy of about eleven-years-old and I do believe Billie Joe acted out sacrificing him on stage.  Another favourite of mine, “Holiday” was on next and the stadium went absolutely crazy.

The hits came thick and fast then and my highlights were “Give Me Novacaine” and “Boulevard of Broken Dreams” from the American Idiot album.  Tré Cool performed “Dominated Love Slave” much to the delight of the fans and a short while later they performed one of their first hits, “When I Come Around”.  This was followed by a fabulous medley of “Sweet Child O’ Mine” and “Highway to Hell”.

During “Brain Stew”, Billie Joe showered the fans with a power washer before moving on to toilet roll missiles and finally firing t-shirts into the crowd.  He brought a fifteen-year-old on stage to sing the whole of “Long View” and this amusing, rather offkey performance was followed by another of their early hits “Basket Case”.

They then did their “King For A Day” and “Shout” medley which is becoming a permanent feature of their concerts with Tré Cool in drag doing something vaguely resembling the can-can.  They called him to the front for what was apparently a record of four sets before leading into another medley featuring “Always Look on the Bright Side of Life” and “(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction”.  After another two explosive songs, they were suddenly gone from stage. 

A first encore is always a given in stadium shows and Green Day returned with “American Idiot” and “Jesus of Suburbia” with the crowd doing their part and going mad.  The band left the stage again only to be wooed back by a crowd that refused to believe they were gone.  It was all planned of course.  They took the mayhem down several notches and played three of their more sedate songs before sending a jubilant crowd home: “When It's Time”, “Wake Me Up When September Ends” and “Good Riddance (Time of Your Life)”.

There is no doubt that Green Day managed a headline stadium gig with utter mastery and perfection and I would absolutely recommend seeing them.  My concerns at the beginning of the evening seem quite bizarre to me now and I wonder how I could have ever doubted them.  Excellent gig!

Article first published as Concert Review: Green Day – Wembley Arena, London, June 19, 2010 on Blogcritics.

Spicy Noodles for Breakfast

Sunday morning 9am. Dropped our son off at school for football practice - yes, he's only 5, but so long as he's enjoying it, I am also happy. We made sure he ate some sensible cereal before starting, but the rest of the family planned to eat breakfast while he was busy. Just down the road about 2km from the school is a noodle restaurant. Nothing amazing about that - Phuket, just like anywhere else in Thailand, has noodle shops everywhere. A bowl of noodles is one of the most common meals or snacks for Thai people. I have blogged a couple of other noodle places before - here and here. If you are in Phuket, you MUST try a simple bowl of noodles at least once - it's cheap and tasty and filling. I normally trust my wife with regards to choosing noodle restaurants, she'll find one that is clean, friendly and serving noodles with the best flavour - it's all in the soup - can be a bit bland sometimes, I admit. This one is not - where we ate on Sunday does the noodles in a Tom Yum soup full of veggies, crunchy bits of pork and garlic and not a small amount of chili!





It's a small place, only 4 tables, up a side street off Chao Fa West road about 3km from Chalong Temple (see location on Google Earth). Simple inside, Muay Thai on the TV (well, it is Sunday).





We ordered our noodles - including a less spicy one for our daughter. The 2 ladies who run the place are very friendly. My wife has been several times with friends after dropping the kids at school. If my wife is a regular customer, that's a big plus - must be good food! I took photos of the ladies preparing our breakfast. Yes, after some time in Thailand you start to eat spicy noodles for breakfast. Sometimes I have cornflakes, sometimes eggs, but breakfast in Thailand is... flexible! I admit it took me a long time to get my head around this. In England, breakfast is breakfast, you CANNOT have soup or curry or noodles, are you mad?! Tom Yum spicy noodles for breakfast. Great. Try it!







They do drinks too - I had ice tea (black), my wife had a Thai style ice coffee called Oliang. The drinks come in interesting cups - not your normal plastic beakers here.



And the noodles (noodle soup, Kuaytiow) - very very tasty, if a little too spicy for breakfast! A simple bowl of noodles, when loaded up with pork and veg and beansprouts and other bits, makes a meal fit for a king. The breakfast of champions!