Note: We’re back in the U.S. However, it is a long holiday weekend here in the States, much like last weekend’s Bank Holiday weekend in England. Consequently, blogging will be mellow until Tuesday. Don’t worry, things will return to normal soon enough, but since traffic’s down due to over a week of mostly reruns and it’s even further down this weekend, probably due to the holidays, I thought a little photoblogging from our recent vacation might be in order. (Don’t worry; I haven’t forgotten about some pictures from my stop by the Royal London Homeopathic Hospital, but those will probably have to wait until sometime next week. I want to post them on a day when traffic returns to normal for the widest possible distribution.)
Friday night, August 24. Our first night in London. Utterly exhausted, we had crashed for a few hours in the afternoon after having arrived at our hotel. Hours later, we hit the town looking for a place to eat. We found one, a good one, on St. Martin’s Lane, at an Italian restaurant, of all things, a place called Bertorelli, which I recommend if you’re ever in the West End. By the time we finished our meal, it was around 10:15 PM.
“You’re just in time,” our waiter told us as he took the bill.
“For what?” we asked.
“Orlando Bloom’ll be coming out of the theatre.”
“Orlando Bloom’ll be coming out of the theatre.”
After paying our bill, we went to investigate, and, sure enough, just down the street, a crowd had gathered outside the Duke of York Theatre, where, it was advertised, Orlando Bloom was appearing in a play called In Celebration. There were easily 100 people milling about the stage door, with a couple of beefy-looking guys with earpieces keeping them out of the alley leading to the door, and a car waiting. Curious, and not having anything better to do, we waited around with the rest. I managed to insinuate myself fairly close to the front of the mob, and I waited with the rest of them.
Time passed, and nothing much happened. The beefy guys appeared to be pulling individuals out of the crowd to line them up to greet the star as he emerged. I have no idea on what basis they were chosen to receive autographs. More time passed, and I was getting bored to the point of seriously considering abandoning this endeavor, when what to my wondering eyes should appear.
Yep, Orlando Bloom:
Heck, I even got within about 15 feet of him. PZ would be so jealous.
Oddly enough, we happened to be in the vicinity of the theatre around 9:30 PM on our last night in London, and already the beginnings of a crowd were starting to gather. Even more oddly, several appeared to be the same people who were there that first night.
Some people need to get a life.
