My weekend would be spent with Jennie and Taylor, who ended up taking shopping in Camden on Saturday and Portobello Road Market on Sunday. I forget now, but I think it was Saturday morning that I majorly slept in, then got some takeaway Singapore noodles with shrimp at Nick's Noodle Box across from my hotel. I walked a bit around the hotel in the morning, as both of them slept in more than I did (since they were at work all week) and it wasn't until much later Saturday that we went for tapas at a place in Camden that Taylor knew. That's not saying a lot, because Taylor is a total city girl and knows everyone in Camden, probably :) I learned what Taylor meant that she only ate meat - she got some chorizo, I ordered sardines and garlicky mushrooms, and I think Jennie ordered some fried fish and a prawn salad that made her ill later that night. Taylor's boyriend Eddie showed up and had a cappucino while we were eating. We also went for drinkees at Brasil Bar (I think that's right, I'd have to ask Taylor) and me the nondrinker had a Coke. Then we did some walking around the Camden shops before they closed. Jennie got her husband Geoff a leather jacket for 20 quid (what a steal!), and from one vendor, I was able to get 2 Smiths t-shirts for 10 quid and a England red jersey jacket for 12 quid (remember, I was getting ready for World Cup). Pretty good haul.

Jennie wasn't feeling so good so she wanted to go home and rest, so the two gals dropped me off at my hotel. After I devoured the rest of my noodles, I later went out for a stroll myself later, totally walking right into orange construction netting as I couldn't see anything in the dark, but noticed that fireworks were going off near the Jubilee bridge. I walked over there and looked up in the sky. It was a spectacular sight. Too bad I didn't have anyone to share it with.

I've never been to Paris before, but at that moment, London to me was the most romantic city in the world.

*** The next morning, I slept in but I knew Jennie wouldn't be up for a while, so I went on a walk myself. I decided that I needed to see the Vauxhall Bridge, if only to say I'd been there. I wanted to get a picture of me in Vauxhall as my own "Vauxhall and I" photo, but that wouldn't work with me myself, so instead I decided to take the tube and get off at Vauxhall, then walk over to Pimlico and stop by the Tate Britain. I managed to take a photo of the huge ROTT poster plastered on a wall inside the Vauxhall station. Now, I feel stupid because I think I walked up the same stairs that Carl and Didz of DPT run down in the "Wondering" video, but of course didn't realize it at the time. The second photo is the Battersea Power Station, on the back of the Bona Drag compilation album. The third photo is the Vauxhall Bridge. And the fourth one? It's a spot of beauty in an otherwise pretty industrial, sad part of London. I didn't really see any people about at that early time of day on a Sunday morning, but it was pretty grey and depressing except for this patch of light.

The Tate Britain was really great. I think their collection of J.M. Walker's paintings rivals any collection of any single artist I've ever seen in a D.C. art gallery. I also was chuffed to find a badge that read "Work of Art" for 1 bob that I put on my backpack - it would be a great souvenir of a trip, I decided, and even had a Morrissey story behind it. After that, I went back to my hotel and waited for Jennie to give me a call to tell me where to meet up with her.

Jennie practically scared me half to death when she and her hubby showed up at my hotel door. We took the tube to Notting Hill to meet with Taylor and do some shopping at Portobello Road. While the four of us (Eddie met up with us a little later) were walking towards the shops, I snapped a photo of what was once George Orwell's humble digs. I was looking mostly at 45s, and didn't get why there were so many Bob Dylan records. The prices weren't that good, so I didn't buy anything. I gazed longingly at a Moz singles set in a shop window for 30 quid - too rich for my blood! Befor leaving the market, Taylor insisted we take a snap of one of those self-cleaning loos. We joked that it looked kinda like a earthly Tardis. Eddie had bought some rock climbing equipment and was going to go climbing.

It was getting kind of late and Jennie and I would be going to see Morrissey that night at the Palladium, so we took the tube to Oxford Circus and planned to find a place to eat. Taylor said something about a pub that had scary toilets, I had no idea what she meant until we got there - it was a place called Ben Crouch's Tavern. They had something called "the Seven Deadly Sins" which were actually shots of various liquors. And yes, when you went to the bathroom, there was screaming noises playing. Not for the faint hearted I'm afraid ;) The decor was rather interesting too...

Taylor and Geoff hung around somewhere near the Palladium to wait for us after the show. I was a bit disappointed about the show; Morrissey left the stage without an encore and the audience wasn't too happy about it. (He did apologize for it several months later.) But you can't have everything. It left my Morrissey concert gig experience on a slightly sour note, as I thought all three Manchester gigs were fantastic. I was really glad I had arranged it so I could see Morrissey in his hometown; I would have been really disappointed had I only been to the London show and felt like he wasn't giving his all.

(5b)

posted 12/07/06
London photojournal index

Hosted by www.Geocities.ws