I'd booked a ticket (£25) for Eugene Onegin, the ballet, ages ago after I watched the Nutcracker during Christmas. I'd enjoyed the Nutcracker so much, that I thought I might try another ballet - one that also appealed to my literary side. The Eifman ballet from St Petersburg was coming for a few nights, so I thought I'd give it a try. In the four or so months in between, I read Eugene Onegin, and enjoyed in (hello Pushkin!). But of course right before dashing out the door, I read the wiki page again to refresh my memory, ahaha.
Also before going to the ballet, I dropped by Seewoo and bought veg and two packs of tofu. So there I was, feeling all posh and shit, carrying Chinese groceries in my tote bag. I laughed inwardly at the thought multiple times. Meanwhile, after taking my seat, I discovered I was surrounded on all sides by Russians. I had a really good seat. Totally worth the £25.
I loved the ballet. Well, I hated Eugene Onegin's costume, but I loved the ballet. I cannot quantify why exactly. It was turns graceful, and at the same time rough. The fight scenes between Eugene and Vladimir were wonderfully choreographed, and I loved the opening and ending scenes when all the dancers came out and performed the ball at St Petersburg. The score too was interesting, a mix of classical music and rock music to illustrate the rural scenes.
My favourite of all however, was the General. HE. WAS. SEXY. Ahaha. Also the 3rd male lead. I loved his character, and I loved his dancing.
Afterwards I through briefly about trying to see the other Eifman ballet, Anna Karenina, but it had been earlier in the week. Still, buoyed by the ballet, I ended up walking back from the London Coliseum back home. The weather was a nice temperature, and lots of people were out enjoying the night. When I came back, I was utterly exhausted.
Sat - 7 April
On Sat I watched a play with Cielo, Moonlight on a Rainbow Shawl. It was at the Cottesloe theatre, which turned out to be a black box theatre. Cielo was late, and before the play started I ended up talking to a random old lady about plays in general. She spoke about all the shakespeare productions she watched, and bits here and there. Said she had a collection of plays at home, and a first edition copy of Moonlight on a Rainbow Shawl for 50p that she bought in the '60s or '70s. Later in the theatre, I saw her sitting in the first row, oho. The play itself was enjoyable, and definitely worth the £12 (Entry Pass!) I paid. The acting was good, the play solidly written and the set well done. Of course then again, I only got interested in it when I heard about how highly rated it was from The Week.
Afterwards Cielo and I walked about Southbank for a bit, before taking a bus to Russell Square. We went to Waitrose to buy groceries (she bought a jar of jam which is still sitting on my desk). Back at home, as I was doing last minute cleaning up, Gen came and I sent Cielo to pick him up. Then she managed to lock herself out of the house (with my keys), and when she finally got in she got herself stuck on the glue from the mouse trap. HAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHA.
We hung out a bit at my flat first. I cut up a dodgy looking mango and the three of us (ZW, Gen and I) shared the slivers. Cielo refused to eat any bit of it. Then around 8:15-ish we met Mong and walked down to Convent Garden to eat at somewhere called Mishkin's (?), to meet Cheryl, which sells kosher food. I had a nice chicken, tarragon and leek knish there, and a good gimlet. After that we ended up at a Tapas bar near Cambridge Circus/Seven Dials. Then when the bar closed we ended up in Soho, looking for another place. Soho, was rocking. Also saw a topless guy with bunny ears and a bob tail brief dancing on tables inside a bar. Oho. We ended up at a real dive-y sort of place called Lupo, where we were the youngest people. It was entertaining. I kept stacking stools at the side cause I kept crashing into them.
After the music started to get all techno-ey, we left. Gen, Cielo and I walked back to Russell Square, and Cielo missed her bus by a bit, and after flipping a coin and getting a text from Cielo, Gen and I headed back to stay with her. Ended up having interesting encounters with the people at the bus stop, a group of Italians with two singing guys (who sang pretty damn well) and another groups of boys who came from the O2. I'm not sure if the latter group were performing there? But they were nicely underdressed and shivering in the cold. They complained that they stuff we were talking about was too morbid. Cielo's bus came, and we sent her off. Gen and I ended up sleeping around 5am cause of everything. Nyeh.
Sun - 8 April
Needless to say, I missed going to church. I woke up exactly at 11am, and then went back to sleep shortly after. When I finally did wake up around 1pm I think, Gen was already up. I got ready and wanted to take a walk about the area with him, but then it started to rain and we ended up ducking into Cafe 49, just metres away from my house. Then, I saw Skoob books was open and we went in. I walked out with John O'Farrell's Things Can Only Get Better and Gen walked out with Dominic Lieven's Russia Against Napoleon (which I recommended!), and joking that he ought to summarise the book for me. I ended up doing a bit of work, then marinating the chicken with Gen/preparing the food for dinner.
Around 7:30pm, ZW, Gen and I walked over to Flat 8 with all the food ready. We had the grand sounding Emperor Spices Chicken, sambal prawn and veg, plus tofu with minced pork. And a fruit tart Cielo bought earlier in the week that was clogging up freezer space. Dinner was a success. The chicken was nicely done (thank you A1 spices, aha) and everything was good. Except the fruit tart which was really bad. We picked out the fruits.
After getting back, I did a bit more work, and watched the old X-Men cartoons with Gen until we felt tired. I was still not quite able to sleep though, and ended up finishing Pigeon English by Stephen Kelman. It was enjoyable enough a read.
Mon - 9 April
Had a lazy morning with Gen. I cooked up the remaining prata and heated up the curry, made some oatmeal for myself. Then we ended up rushing out of the house cause I needed to meet Eugene at Chinatown. I bade goodbye to Gen at Holborn Station, and ended up reaching the dim sum place (next to Seewoo is all I remember) something like a minute before Eugene. We had a rushed lunch, cause I booked a ticket for the 2:30pm screening of Le Havre at the Barbican. Le Havre was enjoyable enough, but not quite something I'd watch again. After I got back, I ended up napping. I think ZW and I ate dinner around 9:30pm or something, oho.
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Today is Jean's birthday. We're going to go to TGI Friday's in the evening to celebrate. Never been to TGI Friday's before, so hmm.
1 comment:
I like ballet.
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