A Day In London

21 September - Took a little while to get going after a run into and around Hyde Park I made my way into Leicester Square where I met up with young Mr Templeman again and was given a tour of the salubrious establishment that is the Penthouse. Had to wait around for a little bit while James attended to bar related duties but was entertained by a giant scarred Persian bouncer who told me how much he loved Australia and america despite never having been there and bemoaned the fact that he was stuck here in England. James also gave me a bit of a debriefing of the shenanigans pulled off by the various owners of the Penthouse, it seems like there are lots more stories where they came from.
Looked around the west end a little longer and saw a few small exhibits at the Photography Gallery before heading to the National Portrait Gallery for a far too brief scan. As we were running a little late (late for what though?) we only had an hour to look through which was far too brief. I will have to come back there and devote a day or at least a substantial portion of one to seeing it. The House of Commons by someone startingwith an 'H' was one of the most impressive paintings i've ever seen, 385 members of the House of Commons painted in enough detail to recognise all of their faces. It would be impossible to get a photo of everyone like that with their faces visible. To accompany the painting was an online program that identified most of the ministers by name, title and achievements (or lack thereof). Rather incredible.
Planned to go to the movies that night but some tickets to 'Fame' where made available and headed down to that instead - had to negotiate peak hour traffic but were not too late although did earn the enmity of half the dozen tourists who were in Row D at the Aldwych. It was not as enegetic as Saturday Night Fever and the songs weren't as catchy but it was still a very good way to spend an evening. Have noticed a pattern in the way musicals show the encore at the end - I was always under the impression that an encore was only appropriate when the audience won't stop clapping and was so enthused by the show that they demand the cast return for an encore. Now, the encore is as staged as any other part of the show p they just rehash the main number at the end and force everyone to stand up and clap and bounce around awkwardly in time to the music. Still, it's a lot of fun.
Afterwards tried to track down the Wendys that I was sure used to be in Piccadilly CIrcus but had no luck ... Very disappointing.