Fanart, Fanfiction and Fangirling

I've been back for almost a week, but I couldn't find the time and energy to write about my London trip until now. I've been very tired for some reason, it's like the 1-hour time difference made me really jet-lagged. Anyway. The highlight of my mini holiday was, of course, seeing David Tennant live! I'm so, so happy! I really enjoyed the play, it was about a very serious topic (well, a tragic topic, since it was set in Nazi Germany), but with a touch of British humour. And the actors were amazing. And I was so close to the stage! My seat was in the 4th row, but the theatre wasn't too big, so it was really just a few meters away from the stage. And I got an autograph! He was so nice, even if he didn't stay long, he took the time to sign something for all the people who had waited for him after the show. I still remember the way he practically jumped out of the stage door. And he always looked up and looked at the person in front of him after signing each authograph. He's so lovely. >_<

I actually saw him twice: on Friday night I saw the play and got an authograph, but I was too star-truck to say anything other than "Thank you", so I went back the next day, to see if I could sneak another look. It turned out he had guests that night, so we had to wait for over an hour, but he did come out to sign programmes and tickets. I didn't have anything to sign (he had already signed my programme the previous night), but I really just wanted to see him again and try to say something. In the end, I thanked him and told him it had been worth coming from Milan, and he replied "Thank you for coming all this way."

I'm such a ridiculous fangirl, but I don't care.

Other than that, I was really lucky, it didn't rain a single drop, which for London in November is a miracle. I saw two exhibitions on Japan, one at the Japan House and one at the Japan Embassy, I survived a Tube strike, went to Camden Town and Covent Garden, had mulled wine at a Christmas market in Leicester Square, saw the famous angel Christmas lights on Regent Street and the less traditional ones on Carnaby Street, saw Leadenhall Market and Old Spitalfields Market, visited House of MinaLima, and walked so much my feet were screaming at me every night. And I treated myself to fancy cream tea, because why not?

I also did a bit of Christmas shopping for my friends and finally bought myself Cards Against Humanity. And I got Christmas pudding, mince pies and Christmas crackers, just to have something a little different for Christmas this year.

A very successful trip, I'd say!

I wanted to write something earlier, but, as usual, I got lazy.

I was in London with my parents from 27th April to 4th May, it was my wedding anniversary present for them, as they'd never been there and mentioned they would like to visit it. We had a brilliant time, walked A LOT and even found decent weather. The focus of the trip was showing the city to my parents, of course, but I still managed to get my hands on "In between days", a photographic book on The Cure that recently came out.

( A few pictures under the cut )

My mum's favourite parts was the Changing of the Guard and the afternoon tea, while my dad loved the Churchill War Rooms (as I was sure he would). I always have a great time in London and I'm happy my parents liked it too.

My next trip is going to be Brussels at the end of May. Yes, I'm going to see the last DÄ concert of the tour on top of seeing them in Milan, because hell, why not! And after that it's going to be Florence to see The Cure in June. Which I've just realised I still need to buy train tickets and book a hotel for. Oops.

Back from London. Where do I even begin? I'll just start from the end, aka the main reason I went: "Three days in the country" at the national Theatre. The play was unbelievably funny, while also being very touching. I didn't think I'd laugh so much, but there were moments when the whole theatre would just roar with laughter. And Mark Gatiss was hilarious. His character and John Simm's were brilliant.

The only negative side was that on Saturday night Mark didn't show up at the stage door after the play. :( Which is very unusual, he always stops to take pictures and sign autographs. But there was a reason, and the reason was... Martin Freeman! Yes, he was there with Amanda Abbington, Steven Moffat and Sue Vertue. I did a double take when I saw them before the start of the play, I mean, what are the chances? But because Martin is a grumpy old man, he stole Mark from us and they apparently sneaked out through a side door. The rest of the cast and even Steven stopped at the stage door (there were only a dozen of people there anyway) but not Mark. I was quite disappointed, also because I was this close to buying a last-minute, discounted ticket for Friday night as well, but in the end I didn't. Of course on Friday he stopped at the stage door and everything. Oh, well, at least I got a picture with John Simm. :3

( More babbling and pics under the cut )

I hope my boss will approve my holiday schedule tomorrow, so I can book my trip to London to see "Three days in the country" with Mark Gatiss and John Simm.


Picture source

Please, flist (that is, the handful of people who are still reading this), keep your fingers crossed for me!

So, there's a date for the recording of the final episode of "Cabin Pressure". I'm so tempted to enter the draw to win a ticket. So, so tempted.

As I predicted, "The boat that rocked" was fucking brilliant. It's probably the best film I've seen this year (all right, I don't go to the cinema sooo often), but really, it made me want to raid my CD collection and just listen to '60s music for hours. (And there's a character called "The Count", come on!)

Today I've been listening to Suede, Pulp and Menswear instead and getting all nostalgic. Ah, my youth. I'm so tempted to accept a friend's invite to London, I haven't been back to England for far too long. But no, I'd better save up for September and next autumn.

I've been translating random technical stuff into German all day, I'll consider this a "warming up" for the Business German course...

Yes! I'm going to Curedrink UK 2005! YESYESYES! And my parents paid for the flight as a birthday present! >_< I booked the flight this afternoon and on Tuesday I'll book the hostel (because I couldn't do it today). I'm so excited, I'm going back to London! ♥ ♥ ♥

This has been the best birthday I've had so far. Short report:

- Friday night: I went out thinking I was meeting just Demi and Vica. I found out my friends had organised a surprise birthday party for me. No one had done anything like that for me before. *_* I had a lot of fun and Demi made a DOUBLE CHOCOLATE AND COCONUT CAKE! YAY! And I got this very cool Nightmare Before Christmas wallet. ♥

- Saturday night: I went out with some other friends, we went to a pub I'm quite fond of. Good drinks, some vegetarian food and lovely gay boys. There was this couple sitting at the table next to us, they were really cute. Especially when they started snogging. =D Then we went to the cinema and watched "A series of unfortunate events". Again, I had a lot of fun.

- Today: my father got me the LoTR Return of the King DVD, I ate my mum's lasagne and apple pie at lunch and booked the flight to London in the afternoon.

Well, happy birthday to me and Happy Easter to you. =)

Current mood: happy