May the Force be with you

I had an amazing afternoon yesterday. I went to the London Film Museum at County Hall on the South Bank. The reason I went was to see the Ray Harryhausen exhibition. As you may or may not know, he was a special effects master, a pioneer of stop motion animation. I'll come back to his exhibition in a moment.

Basically, as a huge film fan, I spent the afternoon in seventh heaven. Amongst other things, I saw....

1, Armour from Excalibur
2, A monkey head from 28 Days Later
3, Christian Bale's Batman suit
4, Two Daleks from the 1960's films
5, Shields from Zulu
6, A full size Alien, (shudder! I kept expecting it to move!)
7, Little Nellie from You only Live Twice
8, Mars money from Total Recall
9, Nick Frost's T Shirt from Shaun of the Dead
10, The sculpture of Han Solo frozen in carbonite.

WOW!!! There was also a set of the corridor on Princess Leia's ship from the opening moments of Star Wars where you could get a photo of yourself and friends posing with light sabres. I did the classic "inserting disc in R2D2 " pose. (He was there with C3PO.) I also took up a fencing stance with a light sabre. Oh yes. I used the Force:) For 5 seconds, I was a Jedi warrior. Needless to say, that's the picture I kept.

There was also a fascinating Charlie Chaplin exhibition with a map of the places he lived as a child. Most of them were within 2 miles of the South Bank.

Finally, the highlight of my visit. The Harryhausen exhibition was awesome. He was making films in the 1960's, painstakinly moving tiny plasticine models of skeletons to create a thrilling fight sequence in Jason and the Argonauts. I saw the bronze giant, Talos, in his resting position and a life size model of the Medusa from Clash of the Titans. (Eeek. Technically, I should be stone. She was looking right at me!) Then there was Kali, and the Minaton, and the Roc, and the Cyclops..... amazing.

I am so going back to this museum. I'm going to take my american friend, TJ, when he visits London in a few weeks time and we're going to fight a light sabre duel.....

Oh yes I can!

Well, I had an audition to play Buttons in a profit share adult version of Cinderella in Worthing this morning. I GOT THE PART!!! YAY!

Am happy about this, though I'm going to have to travel back and forth to and from Worthing for rehearsals for the next few months. Never mind. Apparently, Buttons is going to be a semi-baddie in this with anger management issues and a total fixation on Cinders. "If I can't have her, NO-ONE CAN"!!! Raar! Its going to be great to be acting again:)

Its my sister's second hen night tonight. I won't be there, but I hope a good time is had by all. I hope that Bristol city center survives.

Take care, all.

A happy Bunyip

The age of Aquarius

I love Hair. I saw a couple of friends in an amateur production a couple of months ago, then as already mentioned in this blog, I saw it with Mum last month. Great, energetic, groovy, full of peace and love show. So I jumped at the chance, when a friend posted on Facebook yesterday that she was going to see it again and would anyone like to join her. Gets to 5pm and I get an apologetic message. She was "feeling a bit nauseous" and couldn't make it after all. Make of that what you will.

So I was not a happy Bunyip yesterday evening. I gave in to an overwhelming urge to spend some money and hit the Piccadilly branch of HMV. Bought Bladerunner, Lady Gaga's album and the Saw box set. (Rubs hands together gleefully.)

Its interesting. When ever I get let down at the last minute, I end up watching horror films. Am a major horror fan. Very cathartic. "I may have been left standing outside the tube station waiting for X who didn't turn up or bother phoning, but hey, at least I'm not being torn to pieces by a werewolf!" I remember when something similar happened on my birthday a few years ago. I went and saw American Psycho at the Ritzy in Brixton.

For some girls its shoes, others manicures, for me, give me a fictional maniac with a chainsaw and I feel better:)

Have a good weekend, whoever is reading this.

Bunyip x

Revisiting Clapham

Navy Street in Clapham was the first place I lived when I moved to London in December 1996. I shared a flat with two lovely girls, Caroline and Amy. I loved being near the wide green space of the common and going to see films at the Clapham Picture House. I even managed to catch the Pet Shop Boys performing at Pride when it took place on the common. Fantastic.

Saturday was my friend, Victoria's birthday celebrations at the Alexander pub. I left my home in West Hampstead one and a half hours before this momentous occasion, thinking that I'd have time to grab a bite to eat at one of Clapham's many restarants. That proved a bit optimistic for the Northern Line was out of service between Kennington and Mordon due to ... you guessed it... engineering works. After being unable to embark upon two buses outside Kennington tube station, I nearly gave up and return to north of the river. Glad I didn't. Had a great evening catching up with Victoria and looking out as dusk fell over the common. I should visit again sometime soon, as long as the Northern Line isn't out of action.

PS: Farewell Cafe Wanda. You were a really nice Polish cafe with lots of naughty cream cakes that seems to have been replaced by a BBQ restaurant. You will be missed.