Kenneth Branagh and Cans of Coca-Cola For GBP 1.95

Last night I saw Ivanov with Kenneth Branagh! It's a Chekhov play, but tinkered with by Tom Stoppard, so naturally Chekhov's rule about guns and making sure you use them if you show them actually came true. Not that I'm going to say how or why. But anyhoo.

Branagh was very intense and it was a great performance. A little slow in the first act because the full cast was not yet introduced. My favorite character from the show didn't arrive until the second act. He was played by Kevin McNally, the actor who plays Gibbs in the Pirates of the Caribbean movies. He was hilarious and hammed it up and stole many scenes. It was striking how funny it was despite being a tragedy and very dramatic given its themes.

The play was also an important event in that my UK crush brought a guy friend to the play, but it became somewhat apparent after a while that he brought the friend because they are gay, in fact. After the show I saw them walk away and they were very close together, and I suspected they were probably holding hands. And that is cute of course because Ceri is adorable, so you just want to go "Awww." But unfortunately that's a chapter already closed. I very much doubt there will be any cinematic-like London romances occurring while I'm here. I'm just irritated that I've taken up a fancy for the Moulin Rouge soundtrack. Not a good soundtrack to be obsessed with this week.

So moving on. After Ivanov I ended up really hungry and a few of us went to a pub, but they end their food service at 9:30, so I grabbed some chips and a can of Coca-Cola from a place called Hamburger Union in Leicester Square. Here's the kicker: the can of pop was GBP 1.95 . That is an outrageous price for a can of pop, but it was better than paying 3 pounds for a glass of wine, or buying anything else in Leicester Square for what would be just as much probably, so whatever, I dealt with it. I was thirsty. But the chips were good. I'd been wanting some since Tintern Abbey's pub/cafe place where I could smell them.

So then four of us went off walking for the others to find food because they wanted something else, but we spent a half hour wandering in a circle pretty much, and ended up at the Haagen Dazs we were actually going to go to originally. Also, beware the prices in there, too. GBP 7.10 for their main specialty ice creams in the long stem glassware. I got a scoop of banoffee ice cream on a cookie and that was GBP 4.50, so I had a bit of a food night while out. It was all very worth the prices, of course, but still, I'll be cooking for myself for a while now. I plan to tread carefully with what I buy until 7th week, then I'll see where the finances are, and maybe I'll treat myself a little more often. We'll see.

So yeah. Got back around 12:30am last night. Had some reading to do. Totally shirking the reading as usual. Bad policy. But I blame the texts ... I don't want to read them and nobody else does too.

Ooh, final note: Piccadilly Line was shut down last night for two hours on account of "a person caught under a train." Yeah, they had a little eraser board posted at the Leicester Square station saying that the reason that Tube line had been shut down for a few hours was on account of somebody ending up on the tracks. I have no clue if they fell by accident, were pushed, or jumped with intent, but either way, they did not mind the gap.