Celebrity Sighhhtings

All is well in the world.

Getting to the theater at 6:30AM to stand in the numbing cold for 4 hours was worth it-- Jess and I got tickets to see Othello at Donmar Warehouse, featuring none other than Obe One-- Ewan McGregor. He was fabulous, Kelly Reilly was gorgeous, and Chiwetel Ejiofor scared the shit out of me as Othello. The guy playing Casio was a cutie, and he was nice enough to sign my program and give it back with a smile on his way out.

We had decided beforehand to stake out the stage door, because Jess has always wanted to make little ginger Scottish babies with Ewan, but it turned out that that "stage door" was the only door, and the actors started coming out just as we were. We waited a few more minutes for Ewan, and he didn't disappoint! The man's a saint-- he signed stuff, took pictures, and let some creepy girl profess her love for him and then kiss his cheek ("YOU INSPIRE ME!")... We cornered him as he was trying to get out and he took a picture with us. Then he blew past all the Spanish girls who had sneaked in the door without having seen the play. He had his helmet and leathers, and no one bothered him (much) as he went down the street and got on his motorcycle. Pure gold!

There was an actor from the show Primeval in the second row... I recognized him immediately when the lights went up, because he was dressed in the same clothes his character would wear. Jess thought I should have asked for a picture, and made his night. I left that to the older woman who shoved her autograph book in his face as he was leaving.

Othello was really well done-- I studied the play, in several versions, and I really appreciated seeing it as a more traditional production. The staging was really impressive, with a drain that fed water into it so the actors could go splashing through as if it was the streets.

Kelly Reilly kept playing with her corset, like it was a cage and she wanted to be out of it... So cool.

And in other news, this last weekend had been extremely busy.

I saw the premiere of Astérix at the Institut Français-- I was in Heaven, surrounded by honest-to-goodness French people, bickering and heckling each other and then settling in to watch the movie. Unfortunately, there were very big subtitles that I couldn't stop reading, even though I can understand the French. The movie itself was pretty good-- the ending was a bit bizarre, though. They just kept inserting stars like Zidane, Tony Parker, and (I forget his name) the assistant grocer from Amélie. Jamal D.

Sunday was market day. First, I went to Borough with Jess, and we wandered around and boggled. There is soo much tasty-looking food there, and it's going to become a favorite of mine for fresh fruit and veg. There are also an astonishing number of meat stands (with everything from emu to venison to fowl and all types of seafood) and prepared food, like Spanish and meat pies. The setting is absolutely gorgeous, and I decided that my future home might have to be in Bankside.

We found a teeny little teashop across the street and had a wonderful (and cheap!) cream tea. Then we investigated Vinopolis (the "city of wine", which is like a museum dedicated to wine, beer, absinthe, whiskey, and Bombay Sapphire) and decided to come back before dinner.

I took off on my own to explore Camden Market. That place had a totally different vibe-- Camden's the heart of the city's punk culture, so I put on my Wayfarers and sulked, and didn't stick out too much. I made a trek over to the Stables Market (muuuch cooler and browser-friendly) and then out to Primrose Hill. I didn't see Johnny Depp, but I made it up the hill and got an incredible view of the entire city.

Back at Bankside, Jess and I did the incredible tasting menu that let us try wines from all over the world (my favorite was a white from New Zealand, but I also liked the Brazilian white and some reds from India). While we were partaking in some Bombay Sapphire cocktails, I noticed two actors from Hollyoaks, a really trashy and delicious British soap I watch while making dinner. They saw me looking and played it off, but I think they decided to go elsewhere when I made Jess take a sneaky picture of the man who plays the cop. He was not bad-looking, shall we say.

A few more sips later, Jess and I voted for something hot and spicy, and ended up ordering enough Indian food for four people. It was delicious.

So I got my Ewan sighting (and a little arm-around-the-shoulder action for the picture we took), clotted cream on scones, and enough sausage rolls to keep me smiling.