Snapshots from London 2010

 Fish and Chips at the North Sea Fish Restaurant... top-rated for the classic dish in London.   It was enormous!!!  And sinfully delicious

David and I returned from London Monday late afternoon.  Our office had made a mistake on our reservation, which meant we had an extra day in London -- which was in fact fine by us, since we could spend a leisurely day packing and hanging out.

Casting went well -- crossing fingers now as all the offers have gone out and it's all about getting the contracts signed.  Our last couple of weeks in London seemed to fly by... although plenty of good eating and fun was had in between the busy busy casting days.  One of our activity highlights was going clay-pigeon shooting.  Our friend John is an avid clay-pigeon shooter, and had invited us to go along with him one weekend when we are in London.  On this trip, he and his wife Laurie kindly organized for us to go clay-pigeon shooting the Saturday after auditions were over.  What a treat for finishing the casting process!!!  We had such a great time.

LEFT: Super excited to learn to shoot.  RIGHT: Our guide teaches us how to use a shotgun.

Kitted out with shotguns, ready to shoot!

The guide said that he liked my "style."  I think he was impressed with my fearless firing skills, even if I missed a lot.

David is a much calmer shooter.  He looked very handsome shooting those clays.

Perhaps it was the surprisingly cold weather in May, but we ate a lot of British comfort food done right -- gastro-pubs were preferred, and so we found our way to our favorite, Great Queen Street, numerous times.  We even indulged in fish and chips twice, which is not a norm for us.  On our last trip to Great Queen Street before we left, we share the most enormous chicken pot pie we've ever seen.

It's safe to say that, while we were good about going to the gym in London, we have returned to New York a little chubbier and must now stay off British cuisine.

Because of the ash clouds, our flight home was delayed quite a bit and, when it finally took off, rerouted over Greenland.  We saw the most spectacular sight of Greenland, which felt incredibly close.

Stunning.  Although the flight was much longer than usual, it felt worth it to be able to see Greenland from the sky.

Now we're happily back home, settling back into the New York swing of things.  David came home to his US Citizenship test yesterday, which went well, we think.  He answered all his questions correctly! We await to hear further about the process.  It will be wonderful when all the immigration process is complete.

Next up... getting organized at home!

Setting-up home, London-2010-style

David and I kicked off our "making home" in London 2010 with a big grocery shop, which included this very lush basil plant.  There's something about having a real live plant (as opposed to fake ones), especially a plant like basil, which we might EAT, use for our cooking, that makes us feel more at home.  Although, strangely enough, we haven't had a basil plant in our NY apartment before -- we have, however, consistently bought a basil plant in our temporary, foreign "homes," such as when we've been in London or Berlin for an extended period.

Last night I roasted a chicken, sauteed mushrooms with scallions and and made a wonderful chickpea/leek antipasti from the new Mario Batali cookbook.  While I made way too much, it was very easy and delicious.  His new cookbook is WONDERFUL, I highly recommend it.

David being fed very well by his hard-working, casting supervising wife (he's hard working, too, of course!)... roast chicken, chickpea/leek antipasti, grilled mushroom with scallions, and, obviously, some quality organic cider so beautifully available here in London.

Take-Away Dinner Disaster

Eating properly in London has been difficult -- audition days are packed, and it has very much been a "go-go-go" situation.  On top of packed days, my Invisalign prevents me from casual snacking.  In fact, I really can't afford to eat without getting food nastily stuck in my teeth, unless I have enough post-meal time for brushing and flossing my teeth... which, on days with very short lunch breaks, is not afforded.  This means I have not been good about eating substantial meals, and my jet-lag has been really bad this time around.  All in all, it's been super long and intense focus-required days, spotty meals, and not enough sleep.  Tonight, I decided I will stay in, get loads of take away food and just PIG OUT.  I went to one of our reliable Thai chains, Busaba Eathai, and got two people worth of food.  Sadly, the chicken curry container opened in transit and spilled all over the environmentally-friendly paper containers and bag.  Thank goodness for the USA Today newspaper I had lying around, so I can lay out my curry soaked dinner.

Not a pretty sight, or easy to eat, but it was good to eat my fill (I didn't eat everything, but a lot!) for a change.

Audition days have been very packed indeed.  I've done this all before, but I'm surprise just how tasking it is this time -- I suppose it's because this year, it's really just me and the casting director.  The resident director is not part of the process, as she is leaving at the end of contract.  This time around in London, it really is between me and the actor auditioning.  No buffers.  This process takes a lot out of me -- on one hand, I have met some incredible, super-duper experienced actors who have worked with directors I'd consider The Greats.  It's an honor to read them for parts and direct them, give adjustments in my own way.  But on the other hand, this great honor is a great stress -- I feel too young and inexperienced to be noting these incredible actors who have worked with directors and on shows I have studied about on paper.

I did make it to the gym once, so I'm not doing too shabby on the fitness front and not just drinking rose wine.  Although the wine does help me "ease" into sleep a bit better.

2 more days of auditions for this round!

Back in London - and back to a life in a hotel for the week

I arrived into London tonight -- fairly smooth trip.  Now back in the familiar Radisson Bloomsbury for the week.  I'm not happy with the room I'm in, but there's nothing the hotel can do for tonight (my having checked-in at 10:30pm or so).  Hopefully I will move rooms tomorrow.  The room I have looks onto the courtyard of an awful-looking apartment building deeply reminiscent of a prison.  I can't keep my blinds open because it's so ugly and confining.  Okay for a night, not good for a week's stay.

Anyway, it's too late to get any food, really, so I've gotten myself some take-away wine from the bar downstairs.  It's a Californian Syrah rose I've come to drink whenever I am staying at the Radisson Bloomsbury -- I find I drink more rose than white in London -- which I hope will help me get over the jetlag and go to sleep, ready for a big big day tomorrow, working with actors on my own.

London-bound

I leave for London early Thursday, will be there for a week.  Still no better at packing... And the dreaded question is, How do I pack for a week of London rain?

It's that time of the year...

... when we start talking about the London re-cast and we start planning to live in London for about a month.

It always gets busy all of a sudden when this re-cast season comes upon us.  Suddenly I'm incredibly aware of London time -- the work days are necessarily earlier, mornings are packed with phone calls and emails, which peter out in the NY afternoon once London has closed for the day.  As always, I don't think this re-cast will be easy.  And with the show going into its 5th year and the budget seeking to be smaller, there will be a lot to do in the 4 weeks David and I currently plan to stay in London.

Because of the demands and specific difficulty of this re-cast, I requested to have a week on my own in London to do further preparation work before the 4 week re-cast period that was originally allotted.  This request was approved this morning, which means I head out to London for a week around March 25.  While I feel fantastic and relieved about having my request approved (the letter to the producers took painfully long to compose), I feel sad about having to leave David and NYC for a week.  I know it's only a week; and I've done casting sessions on my own in London and elsewhere before, on some occasions for 2 weeks instead of 1.  But we'd fallen into such a great groove of healthy eating and living at home, I'm loathe to leave it all of a sudden.  I have great aspirations to continue the gym sessions while I am holed up in a hotel in London, however... crossing fingers!

So as of now, I go to London for a week the end of March, come back to NYC; then David and I go to London around April 11 for 4 weeks.

In other news, I've had some stomach issues this week, which explains why my cooking blog entries had stalled.  I've had recurring stomach virus issues this year, and it's been a painful and nauseous few days.  Hopefully I am on the mend, finally, and will be able to enjoy the weekend -- NYC is supposed to see some hints of spring this weekend, so we are looking forward to it!

David in London, Tomoko in NYC

David departed early this morning for London -- he has arrived safe and sound, and is now across "the pond" from me, still in New York. It's that time of the year again, the London new cast rehearsals, and so David will begin rehearsing the new members tomorrow. I will join him this Saturday -- not for business this time, thank goodness for our frequent flier miles! We will remain in London until Friday, June 26th, when we fly up to Edinburgh for our friends' wedding.

We've decided to explore the UK countryside on our way back to Heathrow Airport, from where we return to New York on Tuesday, June 30. We shall hire a car and drive back down from Edinburgh, stopping along the way to stay in Yorkshire Dales. We found a quirky inn called the Wensleydale Heifer -- should be interesting! We are really looking forward to the wedding - it is the wedding of our dear friends Katie and Magnus. Katie and I met 10 years ago at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. David and I met Magnus when we lived in London leading up to the premiere of the West End DD -- they were dating then. They are a lovely couple, and we stayed with Katie's parents with Katie, our friend Val (whom I also met 10 years ago at the EdFest), and Magnus during the festival that summer and had a fantastic time. David and I have seen Val, Katie and Magnus whenever we could when we pass through London, and Val has come to visit us in Chicago recently (and Utrecht before that). So the wedding promises to be GOOD TIMES with our favorite UK folks -- it will be a wonderful occasion and our very first Scottish wedding!

Now I will just have to get through this week solo in New York as I prepare to leave very early Saturday! x

June and Onwards

Time at home has passed very quickly. We're now into JUNE, and rainy season is in full effect.

A couple of updates since the last blog --

Last weekend, David and I impulsively decided to go down to Princeton for Reunions weekend. Or rather, I impulsively decided I wanted to go, and David, like the loving, generous husband that he is, graciously obliged. It was the 10th Reunion for the Class of 1999, a class in which I have many friends. It was great to be there. Princeton Reunions are often overwhelming as a concept, but once there, it is a whole lot of GOOD TIMES. David and I are now experienced Reunion attendees, and have matured since my 5th Reunion 3 years ago... which meant we were very sensible in our partying and survived without hangovers.

One of my friends from the Princeton Class of '99 is Jessica Del Vecchio. She and I performed together in the play Uncommon Women and Others . Since graduating, she has worked in the music industry while fronting a band. Nowadays, she performs in a awesome band called Menage A Twang, and attends grad school. We spent a lot of time with her and her partner, Eamonn. Like David, he is a spouse/partner of a Princeton graduate -- he did not attend Princeton himself, so the two boys bonded over their initiation into Princeton alumni world. Eamonn is also a theater director in New York and is the founder of the Anonymous Ensemble. He has a new upcoming project for which he needs a choreographer... What a coincidence! David and Eamonn hit off very well indeed and they shall now work together on the pieace. It's very exciting. It's a new work, very experimental -- a rock performance piece loosely based on Alice in Wonderland. The piece is called Wonderland, and in it there will be a live band, video projections, an aerialist as well as dancers, and a drag queen Bunny. It will be showcased at the Ohio Theater in SoHo for 3 nights in July. I love the Ohio Theater (my favorite theater company, The Wooster Group, has done a lot of productions there), and I am excited for David's foray into experimental theater in New York. While it is not a big or paying job, it is great chance to meet interesting artists and put on a show. There is a great collaborative spirit about the piece, and David seems pleased about the opportunity to experiment quite freely.

Before he sinks his teeth into Wonderland, David is off to London for two weeks mid-June, to rehearse the new cast for DD London. I will join him for the second week. We also happen to have a wedding to attend in Edinburgh, Scotland, at the end of June, so we will take a long weekend Scottish-style before heading back to New York..... busy again!

And then I turn 30. The big 3-0 happens come July. Not sure how we shall celebrate just yet...

In London

David and I arrived in London Thursday, just in time for the Easter weekend. We don't begin auditions until Tuesday - so we have our first long weekend together in a long long time, which is much needed. Because we are in London for nearly a month, we are in an apartment -- different from the one last year, but in the same neighborhood, which is fantastic as we love Bloomsbury. We're in a modern flat on one of our favorite streets in the area. The flat itself took a little getting used to, as it is more like a hotel/flat and we felt for a couple of days as if we lived in doll's house... but now we have grown to like it just fine. So far it has been gray and rainy (no surprise, it is London after all), but we have hopes for a sunny and springlike London whilst we're here. Fingers crossed!

Over the last few days we achieved various setting-up-To-Do's. We went to Whole Foods and the local supermarket to set up the kitchen; we joined a gym (David's been dying to go to the gym as we didn't have gym access in Berlin - I scraped by doing yoga by DVD, which actually worked quite well); we re-arranged some furniture in the flat to make it more suited to our needs. And we've had a rather full social life -- We saw DD with Al Sapienza (he played "Jake" in Toronto) and his wife on Friday, which was a fun night; went to see "Saturday Night" with Val on Saturday, which was a disastrously AWFUL show (totally amateurish production, not at all a West End calibre show), but we had a good dinner at a new Mexican restaurant and had a few drinks, which is always a good time. Yesterday David and I went to see not one but TWO movies, which was a great treat. We saw "The Young Victoria," which we loved and highly recommend. We then saw "Dragonball Revolution," on a totally other spectrum -- it was good fun, though.

The best part is that we have just spent time together and not worrying about work. We've slept in everyday, which is amazing. We have today to hang about before we kick off auditions tomorrow...

How March flies

2009 seems to be moving along quickly!

I have been in London for a week now, beginning the re-cast process, while David remains in Berlin and continues the tech-ing process. I have 4 more days of casting in London, and then will fly back to Berlin on Saturday in time for the first preview. Then we will have a week of previews until DD Berlin opens on April 7th! It's all happening, and quickly.

After Berlin, David and I will make our way back to London, where we will stay for 3 weeks. We can ALMOST feel our home in New York... but we're not quite there yet!

London casting is going apace. It's a big cast change this year, bigger than we expected. But I have seen some interesting actors and dancers, so crossing fingers... being in London solo is a strange feeling, especially since everyone else in the creative team is in Berlin putting the finishing touches to our newest production. Fortunately, there are a lot of brilliant plays on in London at the moment, so I have kept myself busy with outings to the theater. I have seen 1 comedy show and 3 plays already, have seen DD twice; I have a ticket to see Madame de Sade with Judi Dench on Thursday (didn't get great reviews, but still good to see it). Not bad. I have been a social butterfly, went to an engagement party, went to dinner at Val's in Fulham, and have been keeping myself occupied. It's a good change to be in an English speaking country.

But I miss David of course and I miss watching the Berlin cast go into its last stages of preparation before opening, so it will be good to go back to Berlin on Saturday.

More soon.

London today. New York tomorrow.

David and I flew from Berlin to London on Sunday -- a sort of last-minute tack on to our European work travels. David has not had the chance to work with the new cast members of the London company (as he was in Chicago), so our few days in London proved productive albeit packed.

Tomorrow we finally FLY HOME!!! Cannot wait. It's been so long since we've been home properly. Berlin casting went well, we are mostly cast for the principals (very good actors), but we shall continue to cast the ensemble... which means we fly back to Germany in December. But for the time being, all I can think of is being back in New York for at least a week and a little bit.

More soon.

Me, London; David, Chicago

I "moved" with my things to Chicago Friday night and joined David in the Windy City. As I unpacked in our Chicago apartment (very nice and spacious), I had to simultaneously re-pack as I flew out to London Sunday for nearly a week. I arrived in London this morning.

My time in Chicago was brief, but it was good to see David before my week in London and Hamburg. I got to see the Baby's, Johnny's and Penny's (the leads and their respective understudies). Everyone seemed to be in good, positive spirits. It was surreal to be in a room full of Baby dopplegangers, Johnny dopplegangers, and Penny dopplegangers. It's like being in a room full of genetically enhanced attractive people.

Their dancing already looks great. As usual, David is doing a terrific job! :)

Chicago seems like a fun city to live for a few months. I suppose it's a nice city in the summer. It was hot -- and I hear the Chicago summers are hot -- but it was less oppressive hot than New York has been, so it felt fresh to me.

But now I am back in London! Just hanging out in the hotel today, laying low. Walked around Covent Garden and tried to get a massage, but everywhere was booked. I walked over to the Sanctuary, which is a "ladies only day spa"... the idea being that women spent half the day there relaxing and being pampered. I didn't want to spend half the day there, only get a massage, but was willing to pay for the entrance fee if that was what I needed to do as I was desperate for a massage. But I encountered a fat, repulsive and rude lady at the desk, who insisted on calling me "Darling" as she emphatically and dramatically told me it was impossible for me to get a massage. She repeatedly emphasized the impossibility in a near panic-stricken and overly loud tone, as if my inquiring about a massage availability was an outrageously inappropriate question. A simple, "I'm sorry, we're fully booked" would have sufficed, it seemed to me, but she was nastily melodramatic and offensively unattractive. It was too much for me to handle having just flown in from Chicago without much sleep, with an aching back. I grumbled, "I understand that you don't have any openings but you don't have to be rude about it" and walked out. There's nothing "Sanctuary"-like about a place that is overseen by a hideous, rude, stressed-out and grotesque lady.

Luckily, I found a nicer, more elegant and certainly more peaceful spa at the One Aldwych hotel, where I booked a massage for Wednesday night.

Casting continues tomorrow, and on Friday I will fly to Hamburg. I hope the week will go by quickly... although I suppose I will also need to hope there will be enough time to complete what we need to complete.

And so it goes... I will miss David this week, but he will have a busy week in Chicago -- ensemble dance week -- so I shall take the positive outlook that we are both working very hard and making contributions to make our show better.

Farewell to London (for now)... and back to New York City

David and I managed to squeeze in some good social outings (a.k.a. partying) with our London friends before we left the city... one of the more solid night outs of which was Friday, the night before we returned to New York. We had drinks with Valerie, Katie, and Magnus at Bam Bou, joined briefly by David's old dance friend Ryan. I have known Valerie and Katie for 9 years now, and drinks with the two of them on a good night means seemingly endless rounds of cocktails. The rounds go round and round in a deceptively swift fashion, because we have engaging conversation and comic storytellings -- and Friday was no exception. I had a handicap of having had only about 4 hours of sleep that day and generally exhausted from the final week of casting... compounded by yet another handicap of my being stupid enough to think that a vodka martini straight up was the way to go. I felt fine through the cocktails, fine through the wine shared at dinner. Then there was a sly and possibly lethal shot of alcohol David made me and Valerie try after dinner at a near by lounge club, a concoction of tequila, rum and sambuca (Katie and Magnus had smartly gone home by then). And yet I felt well enough to suggest that we go to our apartment for more wine, seeing that London bars close early (which should have been a sign).

We had a good hanging out with Valerie at our place... and then I expired. Like a wind-up toy -- I was finished, and thus turned off and fell asleep on the couch amidst the hanging out. David put me to bed, and Val and David continue to chat, until they decided that they would like to commemorate the evening by taking photos:

The two as***les took this photo with me passed out! Even managed to put the camera on timer so that they could be fully in the shot. (I can't quite understand how perky the two of them can be, having drank all night. Obviously, I am just too delicate to keep up.)

And then the two got artsy, took out my velcro rollers and put it on and around me and on themselves and took this:

I never woke up and didn't know this had taken place until David showed me the photos. (They'd taken 6 of these "Tomoko passed out with velcro rollers and Val and David hovering" pics.)


Very funny, you two.

(These photos *are* really funny, actually. Lucky for them I have a very good sense of humor.)

We had a great night, and will miss Val and the rest of our London friends. Hopefully, we will be back again soon enough.

For those of you wondering, we ended up flying Delta, NOT Silverjet, and the flight was far better and provided plenty of edible food.

Now, we're back in New York, where it is muggy. The weather has been an odd mix, on and off between torrential rain and clear blue skies and sunshine. It's good to be home. We got up early today (jet-lag), went to Whole Foods to buy food, hit the gym, and had a late lunch at Casa Mono, walked around downtown and then came home to unpack. We'll have an early night tonight, as we go back to casting the US Tour tomorrow, bright and early.

And now for our last week in London

(View of London skyline -- including the London Eye -- from the exclusive roofdeck of our friends Laurie and John's apartment...)

David and I have had a wonderful time in London: a good mix of work, "normal" life (consisting of gym, local eats and chill time the two-some way), seeing friends, and enjoying the foggy city. Living in Bloomsbury has worked out fabulously well for us, as it's proved the first time in London that we've felt well-integrated. Much better than "living" in Covent Garden. On the life/gym-front, David has been trying to bulk-up muscle-wise and I have aspired to become more "fit" -- a regime/aspiration we began in New York and have been able to continue and maintain while in London. Of course, there are probably more wine consumed here -- a function of having better access to gorgeous wines and needing it after a long day of casting -- but on the whole we have spent the last 3 weeks in London without having to throw away entirely our more healthful routines we've established and stuck to in New York, which too often happens when we are displaced and live temporarily in a foreign city.

A few snapshots of our last week in London show us...

...at John and Laurie's apartment for a BBQ feast, as well as a treat to the London skyline...

(David and John discuss life and other manly things overlooking the London Eye...)

(Real men BBQ with a cosmopolitan in hand...)

(Happily intoxicated on John and Laurie's roofdeck...)

...at Mon Plaisir, digging into a delicious pear tart before going to watch Sex and the City Movie....

... at Busba Eathai, MANY times over... our favorite Thai restaurant in London, we are truly addicted...

... at Roka, where infused shochu and excellent food reign supreme...

... and the dessert at Roka was one of the best desserts we've ever eaten...


(David in dessert-time heaven at Roka...)

... and we've had a wild night out with Valerie, which started out civilized enough at a dinner at Yauacha...


... but which lead to an interesting outing to a random R&B club... and lots of silly dancing and Valerie, as always, being very popular with the boys...

... to back to Mon Plaisir, where we had a gorgeous rib-eye for two...
We have one more week in London left, and some more hefty bit of casting to do, but we are optimistic and look forward to having a good time... even if it means we have to fly back to New York on Silverjet.

Hopefully it won't jinx us... but we saw this sticker on a sandwich from Pret and thought it was quite appropriate...

And nearly done with Week 2 in London...

Very long day today, and we're very tired. It's weird how tired one can end up feeling when one doesn't really do anything other than sit and watch other people audition. David thinks it may have to do with the lack of air circulation in the audition venue. In typical London fashion, the week has been pretty gray and rain-prone. This morning started off promising, the sun was out and it seemed warmer... but then came the rain.

David and I cast all day, come home, go to the gym, eat something, then try to go to bed. It's hard to go to bed even when we're pretty tired, because there is that part of us that wants to hang out and do something "social" before retiring for the night..... Audition days can feel like an exercise in endurance sometimes.

But we're enjoying ourselves, and have fallen into a good routine. And at this rate, we will return to New York a bit fitter than when we left it, as gym-going is becoming our breather activity for the day.

Tomorrow is Friday! -- and we will, of course, be casting, but in the evening we are invited to dinner at our friends Laurie and John's new flat, so we are looking forward to that. Always nice to have a dose of civilized social interaction.

Bank Holiday and Search of a Good Mango

David and I had a very relaxing Bank Holiday weekend, the bulk of which consisted of our sleeping in until at least noon each day. We needed the sleep as we're still a bit weird time-wise -- we tend to stay up way past our bedtimes and hating ourselves when the morning comes too soon and we need to get ourselves to a long day of casting. Besides sleeping, our weekend featured such activities as going to the gym, trying out a new restaurant on Saturday (Tentazione -- an Italian restaurant, the food was inventive yet comfortingly yummy), going to Roka for dinner on Sunday (always great, who can fault a restaurant with beautiful, infused shochu), and grocery shopping. We also had a few of our London friends (Val, Katie and her FIANCE Magnus - yay!) over for wine and nibbles last night, which was good fun.

One of our weekend "getaway" destination was Whole Foods, a grocery trip that may seem excessive (because it's quite a bit away from where we are) but was much needed on the mango-supply front. I have a great many fruit allergies, which leaves tropical fruits some of the only fruits I can eat raw. I had come to depend on mangoes in New York for breakfast and post-gym snacks. The massive mangoes we acquired at our local Waitrose in London, however, were disgusting. They tasted, weirdly, like fish. And then we splashed out on buying one of the organic mangoes, also at Waitrose. I had to spit it out. David and I both agreed that this one tasted like soap. So yesterday, we set off to Whole Foods and returned tentatively with a few selections of organic mangoes. We ate one this morning and it was... delicious!


Success! And very thrilling, our adventures in search of tasty mango.

Now off we go for a day of dance auditions!

MANGOSTEENS!

Some of my friends will know that I went through a phase of being obsessed with mangosteens -- an exotic fruit one cannot acquire in the United States (although I believe there are people trying to change this). I became obsessed with the fruit after reading a New York Times article about it, which describes the mangosteen as an exquisite fruit unlike any other fruit, which one cannot hope to taste in the US due to importation regulations and the fruits' delicate and travel-challenged nature. I found this article fascinating, as it was a piece of literature trying to describe a fruit its average reader had no relative knowledge of. It's like trying to describe, say, an airplane to someone who has never seen an automated vehicle of any kind... or something along those lines, if you know what I mean. It seemed a fabulous writing challenge -- what adjectives do you use to describe a fruit that is unlike any other fruit, to readers who, on the whole, may never get a chance to taste it? How does one approximate with adjectives the fruits' qualities as closely as possible?

Fortunately for me, I was able to taste my first mangosteens in Sydney. I was astounded when I went to my local Cole's (a big grocery store chain in Australia) to discover a MOUNTAIN of mangosteens. In fact, this is how David and I became friends. I had randomly mentioned to him my obsession for mangosteens and my hopes to taste them while in Australia, since the fruits may be imported to Australia from Asia more readily. David had not himself tasted the mangosteen, but expressed interest in learning more about this mystical fruit. When I encountered the massive mountain of mangosteens, I called David to say, "Hey, look, when one is confronted with a MOUNTAIN of a fruit one has been obsessed with for some time, does one buy one, three, or twenty of such fruits?!" I bought 4 that day, and took one to work so David could taste one, too.

Since that time, mangosteen has become more popular, if not in actual fruit form, in juice form, as it is now considered a "super fruit" -- full of anti-oxidants, nutrients, and other good-for-you elements. Health food stores carry mangosteen juices and tablets; one sees mangosteens in various places these days, although we still haven't seen them in New York.

David and I picked up a few mangosteens at our local Waitrose here in London yesterday -- and they were DELICIOUS! And we felt super-fooded. David calls them a "garlic fruit" -- I like to think of them as more like a cross between a lychee, a persimmon and an orange... although sometimes, when I crack one open, it's hard not think that the fleshy white sectors have an uncanny resemblance in appearance and texture to... well, a larvae...

They do make excellent snacks and breakfast fruits, though, and I feel we will be eating quite a few of these super fruits during our stay in London...

Enjoying London for its Spring-ness

David and I visited the Royal Opera House last night to see the Royal Ballet performance of "Dances at the Gathering" (Jerome Robbins) and "The Dream" (Frederick Ashton). We had a wonderful evening and enjoyed seeing the two pieces tremendously. It was an enchanted evening at the Royal Opera House, which is absolutely beautiful and grand. We got a bit dressed up, and felt very smart and "the part" of patrons of the ballet, as it were.

We are settling into London nicely -- although our bodies, I think, more than our conscious selves, feel the jet-lag. Our sleep patterns haven't quite adjusted as yet, which leaves us feeling very tired in the middle of the day -- not good when casting, really. We get by with serious doses of dark chocolate and green tea (since neither of us drink coffee). This weekend we have a long weekend, as it is a Bank Holiday Monday. Accordingly, we do not have casting sessions Monday. We looked into taking a little mini-break to Spain or Italy or something, but it's very expensive at this point -- we knew of the Bank Holiday and thought of traveling a few weeks ago, but as we never know with our schedules we couldn't commit to a trip out of London. We have now decided that we will stay in London, catch up on sleep, and finish settling in. I am looking forward to this, really. We're in a lovely flat in Bloomsbury, we might as well enjoy London before we dash off elsewhere. Weather forecasts for London has been very positive thus far, so it would be a good weekend to be here. Funnily enough, a long weekend of sleeping in, walking around, going to the gym (I know, I know) and doing domestic-minded things like buying hangers (there aren't any in the flat)... sounds WONDERFUL to us at this point. It's been a good week here in London, but we are a bit tired and it would be good to just rest up and gear up for the next 3 weeks, which will only get more intense.

We may also trek out to Whole Foods, which will be a "holiday destination" of a sort for David, who is obsessed with it. Although the Waitrose near us is FABULOUS, the organic mangoes and apples -- fruits on which we respectively depend for breakfast -- are not terrific ... or simply put, gross. Sad, because we had so much fun taking silly photos with the massive mangoes the other night and were so hopeful.

In any case -- so we have a little bit of down time after tomorrow.

Maybe we will FINALLY ride the London Eye!!! We lived down the path from it and never rode it when we lived here for 3 months... I think it may well be time we did.....

... or maybe we will just go see the latest Indiana Jones movie...

In London again, this time living in Bloomsbury

(David in the "egg" chair in the Silverjet lounge at Newark Airport)

David and I arrived in London this morning, safe and sound.

DD London used to have a special corporate deal with EOS, an airline that catered to business travelers with dedicated aircrafts with only business class seats. It was a good airline, although not as good as Virgin Atlantic Upperclass, the best of the best seats in the sky. We were prepared to fly on EOS again this time around, but, sadly, just as DD London went to book our flights, it went bankrupt. This resulted in our trying a new airline catered to business travelers between New York and London, called Silverjet.

It was awful.

The airline has good intentions, with people from check-in to flight attendants who very much wish their patrons to be happy. But as an airline supposedly targeting business travelers (i.e. people who have their companies pay for their expensive flights as a part of their contract/deal), it just doesn't cut it, and frankly, isn't worth it. The seat, while there was good leg room, was little better than Premium Economy on, say, Virgin Atlantic. We never thought we'd say this, but we think flying business class on American Airlines is better than flying Silverjet. And the food was inedible. Luckily, David and I had smuggled a chicken salad we'd bought AT THE AIRPORT. You know a business class meal really doesn't stand up for what it should when eating a chicken salad bought at Newark Airport is better than the stuff provided on the airplane. David and I still had a good time traveling together, drank a lot of wine but didn't even watch any movies, the TV with the seats being very dirty-looking and unappealing... but we hope to never have to fly Silverjet again. Even our driver once in London said that many business travelers he picks up from the airport, having flown Silverjet, are unhappy. Plus the airline doesn't own many aircrafts and only has one flight a day between New York and London, which kind of defeats the purpose of business travel -- when you travel for business, you usually don't have a day to waste. You need to get to your business destination as planned. On Silverjet, if an aircraft breaks down, there is not subsequent flight that day to get you where you need to go -- you need to wait 24 hours to try again, at which point you're late to your business occasion.

At least David and I made the most of it, I suppose.

(In the airport lounge for Silverjet, before we discovered just how crappy the airline was.......)

(Thank goodness for not having enough food-faith in a new airline...! We bought pre-packaged salad at Newark Airport, which was gourmet compared to the pathetic excuse for food served on the flight. At least wine is most always good, if only due to its alcohol content.)

Now we are in our flat in Bloomsbury, which is nice. It's very spacious and bright, and it is in a more residential area of central London than we have stayed before -- which means we can grocery shop easier and better. There is a big Waitrose just around the corner, which carries everything we would need in terms of cooking at home. There are places to eat, and there is also a gym down the street we can join. There are certain aspects of the apartment that are weird, but we have or are dealing with it. Some of which are:

- Plastic flowers. Like, elaborate ones. Totally unnecessary, totally creepy, absolutely ugly, and only existent to collect dust. This is a fancy apartment block. Why does it need any fake, NASTY looking, depressing, plastic "plants"? Who in their right mind enters an apartment and thinks, "Wow, I am SO glad someone bothered to give the flat some life by filling it with cheap, plastic flowers"?! I spent the first 30 minutes in the flat cleverly finding closet spaces in which to hide these offensive plastic junk, so that I may never have to see them again.

(They look better in the light... click on the image to view it larger and more detailed, for the full fake floral effect. These are all plastic plant concoctions full of dust and totally depressing with which to exist. I am about to shove some of them into the cabinet open behind them.)

- Barney's Womb. That's what I am calling the master bedroom. It is entirely decorated in various shades of purple/lavender. There is even a purple headboard. It's not exactly pretty or exemplary of fine taste in interior design. And with the curtains drawn, it's hard not imagine oneself having been swallowed by Barney the Purple Dinosaur.

- Cleanliness. We've stayed in 3 London flats at this point, and there is one thing they have had in common -- they are never thoroughly cleaned for the next resident. In the last flat, on lovely Floral Street, we found a roasted chicken leg still left in the oven. Thankfully, we have not found any old, roasted and decomposing poultry parts in the oven, but I have had to do a clean over and throw away things. Who wants steak sauce that's been there, halfway used by a stranger, having sitting in the cupboard for who knows how long? This is not a cheap flat. Anyone staying here has certain standards, they are not going to be your typical backpackers scavenging on whatever they can get to save money. NO ONE should enter this apartment and think, "Score! -- There is old steak sauce in the cupboard I can use."

(David in the lounge room, peering into the building across the street...)

(Over looking Coram's Fields, the park in front of our building, from the lounge room...)

Besides these above issues, though, the flat is great. It's a proper apartment unit, and it is comfortable. The natural light is wonderful, and having a park to look over is very calming. It's nice to know that we can carry on having a domestic life of going to the gym and cooking our own food, here in London, despite being displaced once again from New York.

(Our trolley at our local Waitrose... eating healthfully well and organic is so much easier in London these days...)

On our London days before being apart again...for a little bit.

(David making salad at the London flat... he has mastered the art of salad making and dressing...)

My stay in London flew by, it seemed, and there never seemed to be enough time to do everything, work or play, get enough sleep, see friends, etc. David and I had a lovely time together despite the initial bumps with the computer. It was rather mellow, perhaps due to the perpetually gray and rain-prone weather and our domestic cookery. It was nice, and I am glad and grateful that I was able to spend the past week and half with David in London.

I really hadn't blogged anything, busy as I was attempting to be useful around the house. But here are a few updates and snapshots:

On David's computer:
It's working for the time being, albeit with some damage to the screen, which is a bit blotchy. David has decided to keep using it for now, and we shall cross our fingers that it continues to work until he's back in New York and can take it to Tekserve to get it fixed. Fixing the computer in London costs an absurd amount of money (when we take into consideration the current exchange rate)... so, we shall believe and wish for the best.

(David toasts one of my other favorite comfort food concoction -- French onion soup.)

On the flat and cooking meals at home:
The flat is lovely and cozy and we had a terrific time eating at home. It may very well have been one of our more healthful eating weeks we have ever had. I made a couple things that turned out very well: a whole roast chicken; organic miso-glazed wild black cod with shitake mushrooms; melanzane alla parmigiana (of course - I made it not once but twice!); French onion soup; broccoli soup (of which I made a massive batch of, so that I could freeze it for David to eat after I'd left). We found it very easy to find organic produce in London, especially with a few trips to Whole Foods, so I tried to cook everything as organically as possible.

(My whole roast chicken...very much comfort food style!)

(A bit of an experiment... whole roast sea bass in parchment paper... turned out quite well, although I was slightly taken aback handle the whole fish-ness of it all. But it is hard to go wrong when cooking fish en papillote!)

On dining out for a romantic dinner:
We did manage to go to a couple of notable restaurants as "de-stressing" outings. On Saturday, which we had a leisurely lunch at Gordon Ramsey's Claridge's restaurant. It was a very gilded and proper sort of weekend lunch affair. We had a delicious time, each one of the 3 courses were executed with great precision and flair. David had wanted to go to a Gordon Ramsey restaurant for some time, and each time he'd suggested it as a "special event" type occasion (couples lunch or, last year, our anniversary), I'd sort of balked at it, as Gordon Ramsey just didn't seem like my kind of a chef. Having gone to lunch at Claridge's, I must say I was impressed with the food -- each dish was elegant and "masterful." Yet I still do not think he is exactly my kind of chef. Having thought about it, I think his dishes are more about his flourishes than about the people eating them; while beautiful and impressive, I am not exactly sold on his having a soul about cooking for people who enjoy good food. It seems more like cooking to showcase his talents, and while I find this aspect interesting and am impressed with his restaurant, I don't particularly warm to it.

On my final night in London, we splurged on a very romantic and elegant dinner at Rousillon. Absolutely splendid. I think Rousillon is one of the better fine restaurant experiences David and I have had. The restaurant is classical French cooking with an emphasis on using fresh and seasonal British produce, and their menu ranges from a 3-course a la carte, a vegetarian tasting menu or a non-vegetarian tasting menu. (Note to my vegetarian girl friends: THIS is the place to be taken to on a date!) Dinner there was a magical time, and we had a fabulously memorable tasting menu. One of my favorite dishes of the evening was a risotto dish covered in black truffles. It was simple yet delicate, and it made me want to swim in a whole tub of it:

(The fabulous dish of risotto with shaved black truffles... delicious!)

And so went our week and a half together in London. It was packed, I suppose, looking back at it. I also had a few sessions with my osteopath while David was at rehearsals, which were useful and helpful, especially before I begin rehearsals in Toronto. I hope to get back to London at the end of September, as the new cast gets ready to go on stage -- I have booked flights on miles (thank you work trips that gives me airline miles!). It's good to have this return trip to London, to which we can look forward when we start to mope about being apart. Thankfully for web camera and so long as David's computer holds up, we can see each other over the internet, which is nice. We can work while we hang out with each other web-camera-ically, as it were. This makes a great deal of difference.

Of course, we'll both be very busy in the coming weeks that we are apart. David is in Amsterdam as I type for the weekend, working on a big gala that showcases bits from our show on television. I am packing frantically (yet again) to leave for Toronto tomorrow afternoon. I start rehearsals on Monday! Yet another production of DD kicks off... it will be my first production without David there, too, which will be strange, but I suppose as our show spreads around the world, we may have to get used to it... (but we hope it's not too necessary, crossing fingers).

TM