London had a tough day today

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23

Just got back from town safely thankfully but it has been a difficult day around town 😦

West end today 😦

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-32150554

Fires underground threatened the West End, with several theatres having to cancel their shows tonight. I actually walked straight into it as i head to Southbank past the Strand around 1pm.

While i was obliviously enjoying Man and Superman at the National with Ralph Fiennes and pondering all manner of philosophical questions the whole area was evacuated and closed off by police and we were safely directed out after the the play had finished.

The Royal Opera House, close to Holborn, bravely soldiered on, but even they were impacted by power outages (http://www.roh.org.uk/news/holborn-fire-update-rise-and-fall-of-the-city-of-mahagonny-to-go-ahead-on-1-april-2015).

Firefighers from the London fire brigade have been hard at work all day and by the evening things were under control.

Thank you to all of them and the police for keeping us safe today. It was a stark reminder of how fragile this historic and so vivid part of London can be.

Hopefully things will be almost back to normal tomorrow and the shows will be back in the theatres.

Strong reminder today of how much i love this city and its artistic heart especially, thankfully saved to enjoy another day.

Sorry for keeping updating this but i just feel like saying these things tonight. Just met a few dear friends and will meet them again in the next few very precious and few days off work and i’m just glad they are around. It’s been a weird few days, yesterday terrible storm, stress at work but at the same time we went and enjoyed amazing theatre. I’m still stunned in just two days i’ve seen Sweeney Todd and Man and Superman, Emma Thompson and RF live on stage. Got unceremoniously dumped by work colleagues but got my hair cut instead of work lunch. Puzzled about life and love and religion and morals and such, laughed at it all… and then the city nearly goes up in flames around me… I have wonderfully fresh fish cooked by a lovely Italian cook with friends and i get an amazing chocolate bunny with a fluffy marshmallow tale for Easter .. and i find out a really nice person i used to chat about opera with on twitter has had a brain haemorrhage and i don’t know if i’ll ever talk to her again… And we remembered friends we knew and lost…

We talked a lot about theatre tonight and Oliviers ans stuff as well, my two friends will go see the red carpet, there may be a live coverage in Covent Garden.. which is almost a second home and which almost went up in flames today…

We talked music and we talked a lot about Hamlet and about horrific pies which were funny last night in Sweeney Todd… and i realised i won’t be able to tell my twitter friend how great Bryn Terfel was as the barber…

Got on the bus in rain and got back home with London seeming normal, but somehow tonight feels anything but… i feel grateful for many many things and sad about many too.

23 thoughts on “London had a tough day today”

    • no news of people hurt so far thank God, police and fire brigade were amazing… all i kept thinking of was the Great fire of London… this is how things in the past used to go horribly wrong, but thankfully today policy and fire fighters prevented anything like that from happening. But it did paralize the city. I’ve also had all kinds of news today, sorry kept updating the post as i just felt like saying things. It’s been a day when normality seems a strange thing and you just think must enjoy what is there, must grab life by the throat…

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    • don’t worry it looks worse than it was as it was all underground, some electrics and then a gas mains burst so there was smoke and flames coming up through manholes. So all the smoke is coming from underneath, which is why they went in and cut power and evacuated area to prevent it from spreading, but it was a tough few hours on the ground as it is such a densely populated area. They acted in time because the risk was obviously great and i think they prevented the worst. But i was disconcerting to smell the smoke and we ushered by police out of the area… i was lucky i made it in lunchtime. i too hope the damage is not too bad 😦 I am just glad nobody was hurt as far as i can read/see anywhere, phew

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        • yes, makes you wonder what is underneath all these buildings in London.. everything must be really really old… people were really scared when they saw fire coming out from the gutters :-S I was lucky as i was on the bridge and wasn’t allowed to walk that way at all.

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  5. It really sounds quite dramatic, the fire I mean. It is pretty amazing to think that they were able to stop it, with no loss of life. Such events are always a stark reminder how fragile life is, and in a way it is good to be reminded, of course. It’s so easy to take everything for granted. I am glad you got through it all unharmed.

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    • yes, all i could think of is how wrong such things went in history and i think it is really lucky that all was ok in the end. There is still a bit of disruption today but that’s it, people are safe… But it was a reminder of how rapidly things can change. i did go on a bit of life affirming rampage today more theatre tickets and going out plans. But there have been a few instances lately of stuff happening out of the blue which just make you think, don’t postpone things, do it now!

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      • I think that is the best way forward, being aware of how quickly desaster can strike. And more theatre? Bring it on? What are you going to see? I just booked tickets for Romeo and Juliet.

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        • ah i really want to see that too, never seen one live! Globe does one this summer but i swore no more ticks until next month. Today they sold £15 ticks for Ruling Class at Trafalgar and i mistakenly bought a ticket for myself too, just a finger slip 😉 I blame it on the wickedness of McAvoy this time (i just hope the rest who will go along won’t hate the play.. it’s a bit out there for Easter Monday.. well a lot out there actually)

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          • I watched R&J in Dublin’s prestigious Abbey Theatre about six years ago. It’s always a tragically beautiful experience. You feel like standing up when Romeo kills himself and shouting out to him…
            Oh, McAvoy. Must look into that play – I’d love to see him live on stage, if only for that beautiful Glaswegian accent of his.

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            • i have to write it up, i hope to do so today as i’ve already been 1x Like Jude Law, Jamie Parker, David Tennant, Richard, Ralph Fiennes he too exceeded my expectations and i’m always doubtful going in. Although with him i had probably seen more of him on screen which already gave me in inkling. It’s an utter shame the Trafalgar Studios stuff doesn’t get filmed or broadcast. I think there are about 300 seats in it, it is really very small and it was a real battle to get the tickets. I tried last year for his Macbeth and never made it 😦 I now regret it even more. Just read R’s wonderful twitter thoughts, he is so good with words sometimes saying things very well, you know the ‘play hard or go’. Fits this role McA did very well. I also felt it fit Jude Laws Henry and Fiennes yesterday, but those too are that kind of mammoth performances. But, if you fancy seeing McA at his most committed and that accent his rarely does on stage in all its glory, Filth is the one 🙂 Not seen it yet but i will. Have seen other of his darker stuff. i really wish R would have been able to see it, but maybe he will, it’s on until April 11th, i think if he comes for the Oliviers he’ll try and see it 🙂
              And yes i must see R&J… it will be strange to see that one at the Globe, feels so intimate, i wonder how it will feel with all those people in the round, but then again i found Shakespeare works, he knew how to pull crowds in.

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  6. Wahrscheinlich müssen wir uns daran gewöhnen, dass die Stürme immer heftiger werden, auch wenn es bisher in diesem Jahr nicht so schlimm war wie letztes Jahr Pfingsten, wer weiß was noch kommt, es fängt gerade erst an. In NRW sind auch wieder mal alle Züge und der Nahverkehr zum Stillstand gekommen…. Hoffe, Ihr habt das Schlimmste überstanden, heute stürmt es wieder ganz kräftig bei uns – in dem Sinne: Schöne und erholsame Feiertage und hoffentlich keinen Sturm mehr! 🙂

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    • Danke sehr, das hier war ja noch unerwartet weil wir tatsachlich am Tag davor den Sturm hatten und dann am nachsten Tag aus dem nichts diese Untergrundfeuer in Stadtmitte. Zum Gluck sind alle ok und es wurden schnell Massnahmen ergriffen.
      Hoffe bei euch gab es auch keine grossen Probleme mitder Reise wegen Verkehr.. seufz, hoffentlich wird uberall Ostern etwas friedlicher!

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  7. Thanks for writing about this. I didn’t know! It is deeply unsettling to think that things we rely on never to change can suddenly be threatened, whether it’s a person or a place. I’m glad that nobody was hurt in Covent Garden. With so many theatres there, and people crowded into small spaces, it could have been very dangerous.
    I would love to see RF in a Shaw play! I’m sure it was amazing…

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    • i know, it was surreal, police everywhere and such, but at least they kept people safe very quickly which was very reassuring for such a big city and such a crowded place. It was even stranger to know afterwards we were there in the theatre thinking about philosophy and love and religion and things while all this was going on around.
      I will definitely write about the play, it was simply great and so was he in it, i totally get why people find him so fascinating, role suited him like a glove. And i was totally fascinated by the arguments the play itself was making.
      Yesterday had a bit of a predictable effect of doing things i had told myself not to, like getting more tickets and stuff. So going back to more theatre on Monday..

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