Sunday Afternoon of Culture - #42, #43

I've been meaning to write this post for ages now - well since the 10th of August which was the Sunday we headed off for a very cultural day in London.

I'd finally managed to organise a group of friends to go to The Shakespeare Globe Theater to see a modern play called The Frontline on its second last weekend showing.....

"Saturday night outside the tube; god, strip bars, weed, crack, lost old men, unemployed actors and vegans all collide in a riptide of chaos on the streets of London. There’s Beth the reformed hristian
and Erkenwald the hot-dog seller, old Ragdale on a quest to find his daughter, Mordechai Thurrock the actor-playwright and egomaniac, and Cockburn, Elliot and Carlton the dealers and junkies, whose trade both sustains and destroys the lives of those around them.
In this vibrant and blackly comic new play, a dozen private stories emerge, and their voices give utterance to a storm of subjects and feelings: pop culture and sexual fantasy, the ruins of empire and the delusions of religion, foreign oil and prehistoric London. Ché Walker, winner of the George Devine Award and playwright for the Royal Court, brings to the Globe stage a panorama of contemporary London, encompassing the cruel and the tender, the gutter and the stars."

I also discovered in the week that the exhibition on at Somerset house called Skin + Bones was ending on the weekend and so C and I headed off for the exhibition earlier on in the day. I also discovered the Oyster Travel card offers and therefore got the tickets at half the price !!! Bargain!

The exhibition was all about the parallels in the fashion and Architecture design fields. It showed how certain concepts were explored in both industries with very stunning outcomes. I really enjoyed this exhibition. But of course it did help that I already knew quite a bit about the architecture side of it and the models and images of the buildings on display were really great to see.

After the exhibition we had quite a bit of time to kill before meeting everyone for the play at 5pm. So we strolled along the Thames and over Westminster bridge onto the Southbank. We then decided to actually go and walk along the shore of the Thames on the actual sand !




After our lovely stroll along the Southbank we landed up at the beautiful Nando's under London bridge. It is seriously the most amazingly located Nando's. The space is the archways under the bridge all in brickwork with copper cladding the archways in places. I just love it. And the food goes down well too !


We were still too early for the friends so C and I went and defended a table for 6 in the adjoining bar to The Globe facing the river and watched the weather get worse and worse until it was POURING down. And seriously the only place I've seen a worse downpour is in Singapore during monsoon season!!! It was crazy.

Now let me explain why this is a problem... We have bought groundling tickets for the play ....this means that we get to stand in the open air part of the theatre for 2 hours !! Damn we were praying that the downpour didn't continue the entire time! And luckily it didnt. We found a little bit of shelter and as soon as the play started the rain was out of my mind. At one stage as the sun was setting it was able to break through the clouds. I was def thankful for the hat i bought at download (see pic above) It def kept the rain at bay :)

The play was AWESOME. I love it. So different and unique. I also loved it cause it was about our manor of north London. Well the Camden streets. So I was able to identify the characters and enjoy the colloquial jokes.

So that was our little cultural day out :) Def need to do this more often - it was great!