Greenwich: August 8
Aug. 9th, 2008 02:01 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
skylark913August 8
I had every intention of going to the National Gallery today, but I got to Trafalgar Square to find a festival going on in honor of the 2008 Olympics. The opening ceremony is today. This festival seems more interesting.
There was a traditional and modern Chinese dance show telling the story of the creation of the universe. It was really cool. They had the elderly members of a Tai Chi school do the traditional Tai Chi at the end of the performance with scrolls, while the younger members took liberties with the art and wore white and colorful costumes instead of the black tai chi uniform.
The show was followed by the Opening Ceremony for the Olympics in Trafalgar Square on a huge big-screen TV. The show was really cool and amazing to watch that many people all working together. Harmony. Watching the teams march in is rather interesting. It makes me realize again how multi-cultural London is. Little pockets of people cheer for whatever individual country is walking in. And everyone boos everytime George W. Bush is shown on screen. I'm not surprised at all, as I join in heartily.
After growing tired of the Parade of nations I went over to the National Gallery. I followed the short tour that Peter had planned for us. It was remarkable. My favorite spice was probably "The Ambassadors" by Hans Holbein the Younger. It had a distorted skull in it that you could only see at the right proportions from the far right side of the painting. Kinda trippy.
I stopped in Halyceon Books on the way back to Greenwich. They had what looked like original copies of _Pilgrim's Progress_ and very old copies of _When You Were Very Young_ (some of the Winnie the Pooh stories), dedicated to Christopher Robin.
We went out to Weatherspoon's for pitchers of Pimm's. So tasty. I'm going to have to see about getting Pimm's at home. Gin and Lemonade, but their lemonade is carbonated, so maybe more like Gin and Sprite? Anyways, then we went to Club W and danced 'til 2 in the morning.
I had every intention of going to the National Gallery today, but I got to Trafalgar Square to find a festival going on in honor of the 2008 Olympics. The opening ceremony is today. This festival seems more interesting.
There was a traditional and modern Chinese dance show telling the story of the creation of the universe. It was really cool. They had the elderly members of a Tai Chi school do the traditional Tai Chi at the end of the performance with scrolls, while the younger members took liberties with the art and wore white and colorful costumes instead of the black tai chi uniform.
The show was followed by the Opening Ceremony for the Olympics in Trafalgar Square on a huge big-screen TV. The show was really cool and amazing to watch that many people all working together. Harmony. Watching the teams march in is rather interesting. It makes me realize again how multi-cultural London is. Little pockets of people cheer for whatever individual country is walking in. And everyone boos everytime George W. Bush is shown on screen. I'm not surprised at all, as I join in heartily.
After growing tired of the Parade of nations I went over to the National Gallery. I followed the short tour that Peter had planned for us. It was remarkable. My favorite spice was probably "The Ambassadors" by Hans Holbein the Younger. It had a distorted skull in it that you could only see at the right proportions from the far right side of the painting. Kinda trippy.
I stopped in Halyceon Books on the way back to Greenwich. They had what looked like original copies of _Pilgrim's Progress_ and very old copies of _When You Were Very Young_ (some of the Winnie the Pooh stories), dedicated to Christopher Robin.
We went out to Weatherspoon's for pitchers of Pimm's. So tasty. I'm going to have to see about getting Pimm's at home. Gin and Lemonade, but their lemonade is carbonated, so maybe more like Gin and Sprite? Anyways, then we went to Club W and danced 'til 2 in the morning.
