Day 97: Queens, giant spiders, and socks.

(This is for Wednesday 3 December)

Behind again... sorry! I'll catch up though because I should be studying for finals, so we all know I'll be needing some study breaks.

Wednesday after class I heard from someone it was the opening of Parliament, so I headed over towards Parliament to see if I could see the Queen. Thankfully I had my camera with me that day, so I was able to get some shots. It was pretty cool to see all of the guards lined up and all of the horsemen coming through - something special you don't really get to see too often.

From Queens, giant spiders, and socks

I stayed long enough to see the Queen go into Parliament and come back out, then headed over to the Tate Modern , my original plan for the day. I walked through the Southbank Christmas market on the way, which was cute.





Though I wouldn't say I'm necessarily a modern art-lover, I really do enjoy a good amount of it. Even if you don't like Jackson Pollock (though I do), there's something different about standing two feet away from those paint streaks and splatters than looking at a slide of it.

One of the main exhibitions a lot of the ND kids have been talking about is Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster's "TH.2058". There's a large, warehouse-type room with empty metal bunk beds, a giant spider,  a giant apple core, a dinosaur skeleton, and other random things.



Can't really say whether I really liked or didn't like the exhibition, but it was pretty neat to walk through it since it was just a giant room. After going through pretty much all of the free rooms, I went to this little quiz/game thing where there were about six adults playing a touch screen game. Apparently, I dominated the game, and at the end all of the arrows pointed towards my screen, and this sweet old Irish couple were just absolutely amazed and thought I must be a genius for winning the Tate Modern quiz game. I chatted with them for a bit, and the husband had been involved in the integration of education in Northern Ireland, meeting and working with Bill Clinton in the 1980s. Pretty cool to randomly meet someone involved with something like that.

Heading back to the flats, I took Millenium Bridge over the Thames and headed past St. Paul's Cathedral, which now has a Christmas tree up in front of it!




I'm not sure if it's because I'm a December baby, but Christmastime is one of the best times of year.

Later that night I headed out to the Borderline in Soho to see the band Department of Eagles. The show was just great, and we managed to get up to the front and centre, right in front of the stage. It was a small venue anyway, but it was great being right there. I only took a few pictures, but I'm glad with how they turned out. The concert made me appreciate the band's music a lot more, and it doesn't hurt that they were really down-to-earth guys. I got my ticket signed afterwards, and when I was talking with one of the guys, I said I'd seen his sock during the show and it looked like he had guitar socks that matched his sweater -- turns out they were actually squirrel socks. And that he was wearing two different socks. I'm not awkward when I talk to people in bands at all...