Bits of London.

Don't smoke - dance! At Guanabara, a Brazilian bar in London.

We were there to see Casuarina, a "young and hip" samba band. See the below video for a taste - good stuff!

I went to Leicester Square to get a ticket for a show at the TKTS booth, and when I got there, the entire place was blockaded off and completely full of people. The actors from Sex and the City 2 were about to arrive for the premiere. I was completely annoyed that I could see the TKTS booth just a few steps away, but it was blocked off on that side so I could to go all the way around the square and come back from the other side. They had created a separate area just for those who wanted tickets from the booth, and you were supposed to just buy your ticket and then clear out again - but since it was a prime spot to see ohmygodfamouspeople, most of the people were just pretending to be in line for tickets. I was annoyed with all the people making my life more difficult than it should have been - but I'd still like to tell you that I saw "Carrie" and "Samantha's" backs and show this picture I took of one of the minor actors, because, you know, ohmygodfamouspeople. [But it certainly wasn't as cool as the time I just stumbled upon the queen's birthday parade by accident.]

The show I bought tickets for was Priscilla, Queen of the Desert, thanks to Leah showing me the movie when I visited her in Marburg. It was lots of fun, just as you would expect from a bunch of Australian drag queens on a road trip.

Another brush with celebrity - Rita, who I was staying with, lives a couple houses away from a house that Sylvia Plath once lived in.

One day I got some good food from Aladin, a curry house in Brick Lane whose big claim to fame, upon whose coattails they are still riding, is that Prince Charles dropped by a couple decades ago and gave it his royal stamp of approval. After lunch, I just started wandering, and ended up in this little artsy-fartsy neighborhood with a record store that I didn't feel cool enough to be in. I also checked out an exhibition space for artists and others that got creative about ways to deal with social issues. The space was sponsored by Honda to promote some new car [mmmmmm, commercial backing of art and community initiatives]. If you want to contribute to social justice with your underwear, take a look at Pants to Poverty [15% discount if you use the promotional code HONDA, by the way - go ahead and let them pay for part of your socially just knickers!].

For some reason, the sky in the UK is one of my favorites. This is just an average day - I've seen some pretty incredible skies there. The clouds just look better than in most other countries.

After some more wandering, I happened upon this covered courtyard with a mini-golf course and pool tables. It almost felt as though people were playing pool outside.

If a bar actually feels the need to declare on its sign that it's a dive bar, it can't really be that much of a dive, can it?

The graffiti reads, "BLACK GIRLS wear wigs." I'm sure the statement is backed up by scientific research.