Saturday, June 30, 2007
Correction: The Dazzlers
Apparently, Jim's softball team is called the Dazzlers (AH HAH HAH HA H HAH HAH HAH!!) and the other team was called the GUZZLERS. Sorry for the confusion.
Antony Gormley with a Hungarian twist
Yesterday was Friday, so we decided to meet after work and go do something fun. We arranged a meeting place near Waterloo station and then headed to a nearby gallery to see the Antony Gormley exhibit, which our friend Vlad had highly recommended. Gormley is focused on the human form and makes casts of his body, which he then arranges in various forms and puts in various places. The most interested part of this exhibit were the sculptures that he placed on top of buildings that were within a mile or so of the gallery.
Some buildings with sculptures on them:
Inside of the building were more sculptures, but the highlight for us was a room called "Blind Light." It was a clear box filled with fog, in which we wandered around, groping blindly to find our way to other people or to the walls. Here is Jim inside blind light:
And then I got in trouble for taking pictures, but that didn't stop us. After all, no one could really see us while we were inside of blind light. So here we both are inside of blind light:
It was so humid inside that we both got small afros and I had to keep wiping off my glasses. A few minutes into our time in Blind Light, we groped some random guy (you really could only see about six inches in front of you) and then then three of us followed the wall to find our way back to the entrance/exit. Then we did it all again (minus the random guy groping part).
There were two car bombs found yesterday in Central London, but that didn't seem to be stopping anyone from having a good time and yesterday evening there were lots of people out celebrating the lack of rain, the Gay Pride Parade and....Canada Day? We stumbled upon a Canada Day concert in Trafalgar Square, where an African Reggae/Rap group was playing...that didn't seem to be super Canadian to us, but what do we know about Canada.
We continued our wanderings into Soho and eventually ended up at a Hungarian restaurant (it was a very multicultural day) where we sampled chilled cherry soup. I wasn't really sure what to think about chilled cherry soup, but my chicken paprika pancakes were DELICIOUS and HEARTY.
Here I am looking not so excited about chilled cherry soup:
After dinner, stuffed and tired, we took the 139 back home again and Jim didn't even leave anything on the bus! It was a good night.
Some buildings with sculptures on them:
Inside of the building were more sculptures, but the highlight for us was a room called "Blind Light." It was a clear box filled with fog, in which we wandered around, groping blindly to find our way to other people or to the walls. Here is Jim inside blind light:
And then I got in trouble for taking pictures, but that didn't stop us. After all, no one could really see us while we were inside of blind light. So here we both are inside of blind light:
It was so humid inside that we both got small afros and I had to keep wiping off my glasses. A few minutes into our time in Blind Light, we groped some random guy (you really could only see about six inches in front of you) and then then three of us followed the wall to find our way back to the entrance/exit. Then we did it all again (minus the random guy groping part).
There were two car bombs found yesterday in Central London, but that didn't seem to be stopping anyone from having a good time and yesterday evening there were lots of people out celebrating the lack of rain, the Gay Pride Parade and....Canada Day? We stumbled upon a Canada Day concert in Trafalgar Square, where an African Reggae/Rap group was playing...that didn't seem to be super Canadian to us, but what do we know about Canada.
We continued our wanderings into Soho and eventually ended up at a Hungarian restaurant (it was a very multicultural day) where we sampled chilled cherry soup. I wasn't really sure what to think about chilled cherry soup, but my chicken paprika pancakes were DELICIOUS and HEARTY.
Here I am looking not so excited about chilled cherry soup:
After dinner, stuffed and tired, we took the 139 back home again and Jim didn't even leave anything on the bus! It was a good night.
The Bad News Bears of Britain
On Thursday, I was witness to one of the most hilarious spectacles of all times: Jim's softball team.
In England, softball is called "Rounders" and the rules are slightly different than in America. I'm not exactly sure of all of the details of the differences, but I did noticed that if you even touch the ball, whether it goes out of the batter's box or not, you can run (instead of it being a foul). There are also some different rules about stealing bases. Whatever the difference, softball in the UK rocks in my opinion.
Anyway, I wandered over to Regent's Park to cheer Jim and his team on. I was the team's only fan and I was meant to be there to give them lots of support, but, unfortunately I found myself laughing really hard at their antics and I don't think I was that supportive at all. Once I accidentally cheered for the wrong team, which is an honest mistake.
Jim's team(not sure what their name is. We will call them the Bad News Bears of Briton- BNBB-for the purposes of this blog) was playing the "Dazzlers," who were a group of artists. The Dazzlers were getting ready for the game by drinking mass quantities of beer and smoking some cigarettes. When I arrived, fifteen minutes after the game was to have started, only three people from BNBB were there. They had been warming up for about 45 minutes and thirty minutes later the rest of the team finally straggled in citing tube troubles.
Unfortunately for the BNBB, things were not looking good. Grounders are not their strong point...and neither is hitting...or catching pop-ups. The Dazzlers, though, really dazzled with a series of cricket-style hits that went through several BNBB legs and a few more hits that caused some near collisions on the field amongst the BNBB. Then, a couple of the Dazzlers had a collision, as one of their runners didn't realize she could keep going after third and her teammate didn't realize she had stopped. They proceeded to both run to home at the same time, stumbled over a bat, and then fell crashing into the middle of all the BNBB backpacks. Meanwhile, one of the BNBB players was injured and lying on the ground. Her teammate, threw a midirected foul back towards the field and missed her head by about an inch.
When the Dazzlers took to the field, things started to look up for the BNBB. The third baseman, donning plaid pants, shaggy hair, and a green shiny jacket, smoked a cigarette and drank a beer as he waited for the runners to come through. The two coaches got into some heated arguments and, at one point, one of the Dazzlers hit a foul, which one of the BNBB (a rugby player in real life) moved to catch. The Dazzler subtly pushed the rugby player so that he missed the ball and the rugby player, in turn, TACKLED the Dazzler batter on his way to first. The fan was ROLLING on the sidelines. This was, by far, the best softball game I have ever watched. I think everyone should play softball like they do in England!
Sadly, the BNBB lost, but not as badly as I had predicted! And afterwards, both teams went out for some pints.
The Bad News Bears of Britain out in the field:
The Dazzlers at bat. This was the guy who was soon to be tackled by the BNBB rugby player (stationed behind him):
Jim runs in after the first inning.
At bat:
And getting annoyed by my taking pictures:
In England, softball is called "Rounders" and the rules are slightly different than in America. I'm not exactly sure of all of the details of the differences, but I did noticed that if you even touch the ball, whether it goes out of the batter's box or not, you can run (instead of it being a foul). There are also some different rules about stealing bases. Whatever the difference, softball in the UK rocks in my opinion.
Anyway, I wandered over to Regent's Park to cheer Jim and his team on. I was the team's only fan and I was meant to be there to give them lots of support, but, unfortunately I found myself laughing really hard at their antics and I don't think I was that supportive at all. Once I accidentally cheered for the wrong team, which is an honest mistake.
Jim's team(not sure what their name is. We will call them the Bad News Bears of Briton- BNBB-for the purposes of this blog) was playing the "Dazzlers," who were a group of artists. The Dazzlers were getting ready for the game by drinking mass quantities of beer and smoking some cigarettes. When I arrived, fifteen minutes after the game was to have started, only three people from BNBB were there. They had been warming up for about 45 minutes and thirty minutes later the rest of the team finally straggled in citing tube troubles.
Unfortunately for the BNBB, things were not looking good. Grounders are not their strong point...and neither is hitting...or catching pop-ups. The Dazzlers, though, really dazzled with a series of cricket-style hits that went through several BNBB legs and a few more hits that caused some near collisions on the field amongst the BNBB. Then, a couple of the Dazzlers had a collision, as one of their runners didn't realize she could keep going after third and her teammate didn't realize she had stopped. They proceeded to both run to home at the same time, stumbled over a bat, and then fell crashing into the middle of all the BNBB backpacks. Meanwhile, one of the BNBB players was injured and lying on the ground. Her teammate, threw a midirected foul back towards the field and missed her head by about an inch.
When the Dazzlers took to the field, things started to look up for the BNBB. The third baseman, donning plaid pants, shaggy hair, and a green shiny jacket, smoked a cigarette and drank a beer as he waited for the runners to come through. The two coaches got into some heated arguments and, at one point, one of the Dazzlers hit a foul, which one of the BNBB (a rugby player in real life) moved to catch. The Dazzler subtly pushed the rugby player so that he missed the ball and the rugby player, in turn, TACKLED the Dazzler batter on his way to first. The fan was ROLLING on the sidelines. This was, by far, the best softball game I have ever watched. I think everyone should play softball like they do in England!
Sadly, the BNBB lost, but not as badly as I had predicted! And afterwards, both teams went out for some pints.
The Bad News Bears of Britain out in the field:
The Dazzlers at bat. This was the guy who was soon to be tackled by the BNBB rugby player (stationed behind him):
Jim runs in after the first inning.
At bat:
And getting annoyed by my taking pictures:
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