Premier. Royal World Premier.

The Odeon Theatre!!

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/7697882.stm (click here for a clip of the celebs!)

ohhhhhhhhhhhhhh that's right.

Me and my friend Anna skipped off to London (my "hometown") for the day to catch a glimpse of the snazzy Royal World Premier of the new 007 move Quantum of Solace. We got to Leicester Square (pronounced "Lester", for those of you who do NOT want to be humiliated at trying to pronounce it to the Creperie waiter) at around 3:30, saw a line forming and then proceeding into the blocked off area where the cameras were, red carpet, the works!! To be honest, just for fun i faked a Brit accent to ask a couple in line what they were waiting for. The women said it was a line to get into the premier area to see the 'stars'; then i asked if you needed some kind of ticket and she said no, they were just letting anyone in!! Wow. Wow to the fact that she didnt recognize my impersonation of her own accent, and wow that we were able to get in!!

In the clip from youtube, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=crPmV5XQVRY it will give you a hint at what it was like while we were waiting and the music playing and what the whole scene looked like. From this person's camera angle, Anna and I were just across the carpet but over to the left, just before the stairs where the celebs walked down to get into the cinema!! so, we actually got REALLY great views of the people walking across the 'bridge' into the cinema! Too bad MY CAMERA REALLY BLOWS and my shots look terrible, and i only have one small shot of Daniel Craig's head; but if you zoom in you can see he's smiling, but he looks old.....

We actually didnt get to "see" the Russian Bond girl Olga, or Judi Dench cause they just took too long to pass us, and we had already been standing there for 5 hours in the cold!! But, essentially, we got what we came for, and that was exciting enough.

OH! Princes Will and Harry were supposed to arrive for it too, thus the "royal" premier, but as i said, we were frozen stiff just waiting for Daniel, so the Princes will have to wait for another time? And we saw MARK FOSTER apparently a professional (olympic?) British swimmer. Too bad we didnt know who he was before he stood on the bridge to pose for pictures!!!!! ahahh, Anna and i were like, "who is that guy? a british swimmer? never heard of him. oh well". cause we wanted to save our batteries for the 'real' stars. Anyhow, on our way back to the train, in the station Anna saw a poster with a guy in goggles and the name below said "mark foster" WHAAAAAAAT?! shoot. we saw a really good looking famous swimmer guy and didnt get the picture! needless to say, we had quite a few laughs about all the people we didnt get on camera after waiting for so long!!

Next time, I wont have to wait in the cold, except to be interviewed. And i hope the movie i make will be a good success too ;)

Mission: Mila's 22nd Surprise Party Complete!!

Yesterday I had some trouble focusing on my studies because i was so excited about the surprise party me and a couple of my other friends had planned for my flatmate Mila. There were some suspsicions she kinda knew what was up, but after the party, she just laughed because she had had no idea that anything like that was going to happen! (whew!)

So, earlier in the day i met up with my co-schemer Amelie, and we went into town to purchase some decorations and pick up the cake!! Everything went smoothly.

Then later, when we started getting ready to head out, the rest of my flatmates snuck out of the house before Mila could see them; however, one of them got caught and made up an excuse that she had to run out and print out a copy of a paper at the last minute (on a sat night at 8:30? ;)

so, Mila and i met our friend Anna and walked down into town, which seemed like hours cause i was just so freakin excited. We stopped by another pub real quickly so Mila could check it out in case she wanted to go there the next night for her 'real' bday celebration (since she thought last night was just gonna be us girls). So, we finally got to the restuarant and i told her to go in first, since she was the bday girl. She walked in and walked to the back and there were our friends and all the decorations waiting for her arrival! It was great!! We had about 15 friends show up, which i was really happy for since my guesstimation was correct for reservations!! yay!

so, we drank some Pimms (kinda like a mojito, but not really) and ate the cake, which she was also definitely not expecting, and then we moved onto another bar that had karaoke! it was only open until 1am, so we didnt get to stay for that long, but we did manage to sing a couple songs, in between the drunk, 80's dressed British girls who were there (woof).

so, it seemed like everyone had a good time, and i am so very grateful for all of those who came out to celebrate and for the girls who helped me pull it all off!! Fantastich!

I smell gas!!

so, last night around.....later in the evening, i was summoned to the kitchen where a couple girls thought they smelled gas. at first i couldnt really smell anything, but then when we shut the door to the outside, and then reopened it, i could smell something. and, thanks to the lifelong exposure to the intelligence of someone who has been in the fire service for 34 years, i asked what kind of gas we were using.....if it was propane, we need to keep things open cause its a heavy gas and fills up from the floor=KABOOM!!

my flatmate got on hands and knees and said it was even stronger of a scent near the floor. WAHLA! so we made a call and technicians came out and people started digging a whole to the pipes outside of our kitchen at night till about 12am. exciting stuff. we got a picture with the guys digging, but ill have to get the pic from my flatmate.

so, thats about all the excitment we've had around here. i am on a trail to find a dissertation topic, but its slow goin. otherwise, this coming week, im off to LONDON for the premier of the next Bond movie. no i dont have tickets to see it :'( but, i just wanna go and test my luck of maybe getting a pic or a glimpse of some real life celebs!?

more to come :)

LONDON LONDON LONDON

I love London and i dont care who knows!!!!!!!!

Yesterday i went and took a day trip to london with my 2 friends Amelie and Anna from Germany. it was SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO much fun!!!

We first got off the station and saw Big Ben and Parlaiment, then strolled down to Westminster Abby, and looked at a park, rode the 'tube' quite a few times, which we didnt really have to 'pay' for, cause our train ticket covered that so it was very convenient! saw the River Thames, the london eye which is a huuuuge ferris wheel that has enclosed capsule like things so you can see for miles of london. we didnt go on it, but we saw it. i guess that could be for next time.

we also went to a place called Madame Taussads (sp? not really sure) but there they have a big museum of wax figures of various celebrities, musicians, sport players, and politicians. you can take pictures with them, and i thought it was gonna be creepy like 'house of wax' or something, but it was really fun and the detail to the models was incredible!

we later went to a restuarant near the Waterloo Station called Ping Pong Dim Sum and it was sooooo wonderful! even the atmosphere was really nice, and the food was good, and it was just a lot of fun. then we went back into another part of town for Haagen-dazs, and theeeen, went to Cinnabon where i shared one bun with my friends who have never tried it! they were in Heaven after the first bite. I told them their American friend was a bad influence and they will turn into "American size"!!

so, it was sad to have to leave and come back to Eastbourne....or Eastbouring, now. I loved living in Tokyo and the nightlife and always having things to do. and while Eastbourne has the water and peacefulness, i really do miss the hustle and bustle of the big city. but, no worries! we will plan another trip to stay there for a few days and fit in lots more stuff.

so, my first trip to London! It was amazing and i loved it.

Internet!! WOOT!

today we got our wireless internet!! which means now i can wake up or just loaf around and watch videos, or chat, or email, or do whatever in my own room!! yay.

(i just realized our place smells like onions right now.......strange).

yeah, really not much to say at all. same old same old. i feel kinda bad, cause when i was in Japan, i always had so many things to write about since it was my first time abroad and in a compeletely different culture. here, its pretty much the same. sorry.

im trying to figure out when would be an opportune time to travel around Britain and the rest of europe, without skipping classes and missing readings. (although i only have class mon/tues). :)

also, i need to find a job. a) to occupy my time, and b) to make some moola for traveling wishes!

ok, thats all for now. be sure to check out my dropshots account for further pictures.