So here I am back in London, with the strong sense of deja vu I get everytime I come here...deja vu coupled with a slight sense of unease since I know I shouldn't get too comfortable, I'm not back for good. Arrived here at 2 pm on Saturday, June 30, after a squishy flight on Air Transat. I was sitting with two women about my age who were on their way to do a 30 day walking pilgrimage from Camino to Santiago...they were pretty cool and one of them was celebrating their birthday on the 30th...so when we took off in Vancouver on the 29th, it was MY birthday, and when we landed in London on the 30th, it was hers. We thought this should entitle us to some sort of upgrade, but it didn't, so we satisfied ourselves with flipping through celebrity magazines to comment on the relative fatness (or non-fatness) of various celebs while eating Twizzlers.
It's raining and unseasonably chilly in London at the moment, just like Vancouver. Edy and I came home and I had a wee nap, and then we headed out to my favorite pub, Churchill Arms, on Kensington Church Street, for some thai food (yes, there is a thai restaurant in an English pub). It's cheap even by Vancouver standards, at about £6 a plate. Because of the rain the pub was even more crowded than it usually is (on a good day, you have to be aware of your elbows as there are people in the line of fire no matter which way you turn), and to top it all off, June 30th was the last day anyone can smoke in a public place in the UK, and so I honestly think everyone in the pub was chain smoking, just for the hell of it...even the non-smokers. It was a crazy, loud, people-and-smoke-packed re-introduction to London.
Yesterday we went to Wembley Stadium for the concert for Diana. We zipped through traffic on the bike and made it there in time to hear Elton John open the show with "Your Song," and the hotness that is Prince Harry (and the semi-hotness that is Prince William) say hello to the crowd. Our seats were quite good and we were sat next to an attractive Britney Spears lookalike and her equally starlet-ish friend, who kept simpering and smiling our way like we were supposed to know who they were. Pretty soon little girls came up to snap their pic and we asked around and found out that one of them had been a contestant on Big Brother. Oh. That explained it.
We were seated stage left and had a hard time seeing anyone who was upstage, but there were many screens and I still thought we had a good view. The acts that played are too numerous to name as the show went on for about 6 hours, but I will risk being seen as uncool by saying Rod Stewart has a new fan in me. The man was amazing! He rocked that stage. He kept kicking footballs into the audience and was just having a great time. Duran Duran was also great, as was the lead singer from Supertramp and Tom Jones...it seemed to be the night of the old wrinklies, as Elton John was of course fabulous and we were all up dancing for "Saturday Night." The older acts knew how to work the crowd more than some of the newer artists. Fergie was pointless. She lipsynced her way through "Glamorous." Kanye tried to fit like, 4 songs into seven minutes, so he would sing part of one, abruptly stop, and launch into another. I loved Lily Allen, who sang "LDN" and "Smile," and was adorable in a bright blue sundress, backed by a brass band. Natasha Bedingfield sang "Unwritten" and Nelly Furtado did "Say it Right," "I'm Like a Bird," and "Maneater," decked out in gold earrings, gold heels, gold cross necklace, and gold microphone. There were lots of celebs introducing acts throughout the day...Jamie Oliver walked past our section to go introduce P. Diddy and he was very cute. Cheers went up from the section next to ours when the princes made an appearance. I think they wandered in and out of various parts of the stadium all night to say hello to the crowds. It was obvious that the audience loved both the princes and were very proud of them.
Ricky Gervais did a set right before Elton John came out to close the show and he was hilarious. He asked if we wanted to hear a song from David Brent, which of course we all did, so then he yelled, "Right, Gareth, my guitar," and Gareth walked on to a huge cheer from the crowd, and the two sang a duet of David Brent's "Love Highway."
Wembley is beautiful, and so well designed you never stand in a queue for long, either for the toilets, the concession stands, or getting in and out off the building. The only thing Edy and I noticed is that, despite hundreds of police and security guards milling about, security appeared to be pretty lax. We just walked right up and into the stadium, presented our tickets, and we were in. No metal detectors. No bag check. That was a little alarming, given the recent bomb scares here in London, but there must have been some plan in place because the entire event went off without a hitch...Edy and I had a great time. Next up: my beloved JT at the O2 stadium on July 3rd...