British summer = British Strawberries......Yum!
Right...onward...had a couple of days off so myself and a few choice friends mosied on over to Londontown for some exploring, culture and the most rocking two hours of the year so far.
Upon alighting the train in the Capital this is possibly not the most reassuring sign to read in the current climate:
A WWII bomb, dug up after 60 years which apparently had started ticking and was causing a bit of an inconvenience on the underground system....on the only weekend in which I needed to be in London and travel on said underground system, naturally.
The 'gang' (from left to right in above photo Chloe, James & Tom) was coming for far and wide...and Cornwall...and so the first stop of the day was lunch with some social type natter at which Tom regaled us with the oh-so humorous tale of when he became trapped in a glass telephone box and made a richeous Red Dwarf reference when Chloe tried to diss him with a 'L' sign by asking if she was a dyslexic hologram.....So, we ate, drank and chortled to Tom's anecdotes and then tootled along the South Bank to the Tate Modern...to attempt to assert some culture into our lives.
Now I've never been to the Tate before and although I'm open minded and pretty liberal I'm fairly certain that the majority of 'artists', a term which I used very loosely, are in fact taking the mickey...because if not then every piece of artwork which I produced circa 1983/84...which I like to refer to as my 'crayola' period...should be worth a mint by now. The 'gang' split into those trying to appreciate the deeper meaning behind the illustrious works of 'art' and myself and Tommo...who blundered round the galleries disbelieving the gumpf filled descriptives attached to splotches of colour and squiggly lines on canvas and in turn discussed our own conclusions as to the intended metaphor and mind set of the 'artists'....one of my favourites from dear Tommo was 'Lemmings in coloured suits through a combine harvester' as a descriptive of Pollock's 'Summertime' (an image of which I insert for you own conclusions...feel free to comment)
After a few frowns and a couple of 'tut's' from a middle aged women in horn rimmed glasses and plaid the 'gang' vacated the vicinity of the Tate and headed off for the finale of the day.
I say headed off, but there was actually a fair amount of incessant faffing from a couple of member of the group (one not pictured) who insisted in stopping in practically every pub on the way to Wembley and even though we had arrived many, many hours before the gig started we still managed to get into the stadium and find a suitable ( if not completely ideal) spot a mere matter of minutes before Grohl and Co appeared on stage.....gig? Wembley? Grohl and Co?....Oh yes did I not mention the reason for the 'gang' to be London bound...only the biggest gig of the season for which we had 'shiny' tickets. Now our lateness, as mentioned, meant a further away experience that first anticipated...though is was still a pretty good view of grunged up Dave Grohl (aka Uncle Dave....aka The Foo Fighters)....and without the usual Mosh Pit squashiness (those born pre 60s/70's may wish to google 'mosh pit' for explanation).
Now the following 2 or so hours are already becoming a bit of a blur, but the Cliff-notes go something like: Much whooping, singing, rocking out, saluting of Dave Grohl, drink flinging, acoustic lighter moments, head banging, guitar solo, richeous Tyler drum solo, Triangle solo (yes I said Triangle solo!), swearing, Uncle Dave's appreciation of the masses (86,000 to be exact), flashing (of the photography kind to clarify), crowd solo, finale, encore and fireworks....And so we come to the end and my photos from Foo Fighters @ Wembley Stadium (and other Londontown randomness including the after gig Chinese, Kensington Gardens, Chloe 'lending a hand' and the Albert Hall) 2008.
6 comments:
I wish I was there for your weekend instead of mine! Sounds like an incredible concert. Bizarre to hear about the WWII bomb! Hope that they got the ticking to stop! That's just to creepy to think about!
Jacob is doing his best at the campout, and that's all we ask of him. Florida has some of the biggest, freakiest bugs that you will find anywhere. We have roaches that grow 3-4 inches long and FLY! I am bringing all of the kids home on Saturday, so he has a long week ahead of him. I think he will be OK, once he gets a regular tent set up.
The camp you were talking about is the original location that Lord Baden Powell took a handful of boys to, and taught them the basics of living outdoors and survival. My Jacob is a computer nerd who really wants to be like the other boys, but it is just much harder for him. I gave him two disposable cameras to use this week. So I will post more stories and pictures when I can.
It doesn't help that he is in gator country either!
Those srawberries look wonderful! We had our first nearly ripe berry in our garden, which my hubby was doting over it like an expectant father. Until, that is, our *dog* ate it!
My son, the WWII buff, is very empressed that you still have WWII stuff lying about - even if it *is* a ticking bomb ;D
Love the pix from the concert (though I would have loved to have the soundtrack to go with it ;)
And to answer your question about where we're heading in the U.K. - every place we can fit into a 2 - 3week holiday! Tower of London, Whitechapel (was a huge JtheR buff as a teen), the Imperial War Museum, Sherwood Forest, Hadrian's Wall, Stonehenge (the biggest henge in the world, as Eddie Izzard says ;), Houses of Parliment, Chislehurst Caves, Roman Baths, York Dungeon - OK, this is obviously a dream list, as it's not complete and there's no way we'd have enough time to go everywhere we want. Heck, this list didn't even get me to Ireland! So maybe I should be asking: "What would you recommend?"
And we actually had some round-a-bouts where we lived in California, so we're good there (though our fist few attempts were a bit dodgy!)
Kimberly - The Concert completely rocked and fortunately the bomb was defused though the poor guy doing the defusing had to return to it several times before it was made safe....he's now up for some kind of medal i believe....and lookign forward to seeing the camp pics
Fireflymom - Crikey you sure are planning to cram in alot....by the way Stonehenge, way down south...Hadrian's Wall, way up north...petrol/gas $10 (and still climbing) a gallon....good luck with that hehe.
The Cabinet War Rooms are worth a visit for those who wish to see what Churchill was up to during WWII. I love the British museum and the National History Museum...great for killing a few hours and free and the South Bank is a nice walk from The London Eye towards London Bridge...and there's a fab pub which does great pies (at a decent...don't need to take out a mortgage to eat...price too)called Doggett's (they do proper beer too...unlike the fizzy stuff disguised as beer you guys have)
Course if you're doing a dream list I'd add Cardiff to that...a fabulous place to visit and it just happens to be the location in which they film Doctor Who and Torchwood. ;-)
Emma,
I know we'll probably have to sell a kidney (we have a spare, so it's OK ;) to afford all the petrol, but there's no telling when we'll be back, so I want to go everywhere!
I'd forgotten completely about the war rooms - will definitely put it on the list! And of course, I'll *have* to add Cardiff! Wonder if I could squeeze in a fangirl sighting of David Tennant...
Emma- You could't be sweeter. I would love to meet you one day. We have our health and a great job. Theconomy just isn't great!
Thank you, Jenn
Thanks for the well wishes!
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