Hmm. No creative title.

This will be my first short entry here, as I only have 26 minutes at an internet cafe. This not having internet at home is really causing trouble.. Tomorrow I'll be calling up SKY again to see what the deal is. See if they give me the ol' runaround again.

So this weekend is "Open Rehearsal," which is very similar to "Open House" I described two weeks ago. Several of the dance, music and theatre companies are doing open house tours, workshops, etc. As usual, I plan to attend these things and figure out my times and routes, but don't book ahead. Serves me right. The Old Vic tour is overbooked, so I'm missing it, but I'm hoping to catch Sadler's Wells dance theatre and the Lyric Hammersmith this afternoon. I also want to go to Camden market to buy a winter coat and possibly a small carrying bag. Charlie says they're soon bulldozing a bit of Camden market to put in housing... ? Eeps.

The big news, though, is that tomorrow, as a part of the Open Rehearsal weekend, I'm taking a ballet class at the English National Ballet. Actually, I'm taking TWO classes. First the beginner (for those with no ballet experience) and then the intermediate (for those with 3+ years experience). I'm pretty excited. To think that I never had the guts to go take a class at the Boston Ballet school, and now here I am signing up for a day with ENB. Yikes. It did occur to me that I might actually need to follow a dress code for this thing, so I might go scope things out around town.

We went to The Stage Door, a pub near the Old Vic last night to watch the England/Tonga rugby match. Those Tongans are fierce! England won, though, and it was great match. I think my flatmates were impressed I was out at a pub watching supports without them. Ole!

Work at BLEND is going well. It was a busy week, and we're on a tight print deadline, which means I'll need to be showin' up early Monday.

One of the things I've meant to comment on is how great the busses are here. Instead of paying a fortune for the tube, I'm paying a slightly less fortune to take the bus for £14 per week. It's fantastic. I've connected all these neighborhoods and places in my mind, and it's the best view of London you'll get. For instance, today I took the 4 bus from Goswell Road, right outside my flat, to Waterloo. On the way, we went past Barbican and St. Paul's - which gives you the best view you can get - and past the Museum of London through the City (including Fleet Street) and onwards to The Strand, where you catch glimpses of loads of theatres. (Longest sentence ever.) THEN. You go over my favorite bridge in London - the Waterloo bridge. The view: on your left, is of the Gherkin (30 St Marys Axe), St. Pauls, the Thames, the National Theatre, the Tate Modern, OXO tower, et al., and to the right the London Eye, Parliament and Big Ben, the embankment bridge and the South Bank. It's a great sight. I try to take pictures of it every time, but it never quite does it justice.

Speaking of pictures, I am hoping that I'll be able to integrate them into the blog. I've got some decent ones, and video too. Once I'm posting from my own computer, I'll be adding lots.

Well, I said this would be short and, as usual, it's not. I guess I'll make my way back north to Sadler's Wells. I'm going to book ahead this time.

Ciao ciao!

-JEN