 Highlight of the Day - Siro A! Slightly (that word is there for effect really, it was more than slightly) surreal, a tad crazy, but very entertaining, the Japanese version of the Blue Man Group is currently in London. Siro A (meaning white A, but I can speak Japanese and really you'll probably pronounce it better if you think of it as SHiro A) were on in Leicester Square Theatre. I had a lot of fun, laughed a lot, and learnt that I fancy Japanese guys to such an extent, that even their faces being painted white doesn't detract from the attraction.
Second highlight was veggie cafe, Vitao Organic on Wardour Street. I always look at it there, but have never been in, because it looks a bit too hippy and I like MEAT damnit. Risked it today, and it was really, really tasty. I had a lovely passion fruit and raspberry mocktail thing and a huge plate of salad and bean curries from a buffet. It was really reasonable and very tasty and the hippiness/vegetarianness, wasn't intimidating at all.
Lowlight of the Day - I don't want to go into this in too much detail, because if I let myself begin a rant, it could go on for pages and you might start to think I'm a raving loony, but let's just say that my phone's broken and that all the technical expertise, intelligence and customer service (or lack thereof) of Samsung, EE, T Mobile and Carphone Warehouse has left me with a phone that's still broken, a contract that's been cancelled (I cut off my nose to spite my face, by just cancelling with T Mobile because I was so angry with their incompetence and rudeness) and no new contract yet as the girl in Carphone Warehouse made a ridiculous mistake in my address when doing my credit check which has led me to be rejected and has caused an awful lot of confusion on their part and stress on my part. All phone companies are muddled, stupid arsehole-y type companies and I hate them all. End of. People met along the way (the way to being even worse off that when I started, because I am now without phone and contract and possibly with a damaged credit rating).
Nice-but-dim Carphone Warehouse girl who can't read the letter B correctly.
Impossible-to-communicate with Samsung man who told me, whilst in his Samsung uniform in the Samsung shop that I should "contact Samsung about it."
Miss I'm-not-actually-listening-to-what-you're-saying-I'm-just-going-to-say "Maybe if you upgraded to EE"-all-the-time
And then a couple of classic know-it-all phone shop wankers who don't ask you what you want, but tell you what you want. One particularly annoying one talked to me as if I was insane when I asked if they had a spare phone in the shop I could just put my simcard in for 2 minutes to check my texts with, in spite of the fact that the other EE shop down the road did it straight away. Another classic was the one who told me what I needed. I disagreed completely, and then he replied with "That's what I'm saying." That wasn't what you were saying. You were saying the opposite.
Rant over. Sorry.
 Highlight of the Day - Getting up early, without a hangover, and being super-productive. I felt like I could've seen Heather Small interrogating me with a warbling "What have you done today to make you feel proud?" and answered very successfully even at 11am. I went into Oxford Street, which is uncharacteristically bearable and sparse before 11 and got my refund in River Island (open open open this time) and then scurried around M+S, House of Fraser and John Lewis looking for the biggest plain white plate I could find. It was for work (I had to drop it off at work before 2). My work's a bit confidential, so I can't really divulge what it was for, but it had to be huge, flat, round and plain white. I also couldn't tell any of the very confused sales assistants what it was for and I imagine they were talking about crazy plate boy all day. John Lewis was the winner. Pizza plate - 35cm diameter, in case you ever need a ginormous plate. Embarrassing Moment of the Day - Apart from forcing people to measure plates, it was my unexpected item in the bagging area at Sainsbury's. I mean, pray tell self-checkout lady, how unexpected can a bag of carrots in Sainsbury's really be??
So, after my proud productivity, I did some work at home and then went out in the evening with friends. We first went to Yauatcha, that beautiful glass restaurant cum aquarium on Broadwick Street with all the macaroons in the window. It was very posh (lovely sinks in the loos). It was the sort of place where they place the napkins on your laps for you, which I hate. I prefer to keep my lap to myself, thank you very much, stranger. We had dim sum, which was delicious and it wasn't actually as expensive as I'd imagined. The service, however, was really slow. The waiter asked us if we had any allergies. My friend said prawns and he wrote down and read out "Seat one, prawn allergy" in a slightly awkward, proud way (Heather wouldn't have been impressed). He asked if we had any celebrations. We were sort of halfway between two of our birthdays, so we said it was both of our birthdays. At the end, they brought us one macaroon to share between two. I suppose I shouldn't look a gift horse in the mouth, but ONE macaroon? It was covered in hundreds and thousands and was bubblegum flavour and frankly quite disgusting. I'm 26, not 6. The rest of the desserts looked INCREDIBLE though and I will have to go back to try one (or some).
After that we went to what was my real highlight of the day, which was a play by the theatre group Cheek by Jowl at the Barbican. Me and my friends all speak French (not EVERY friend of course, but the ones on this evening), so when we saw that a French play, Ubu Roi, was playing, we thought we'd go and check it out. It was quite astounding. At time hilarious, at times terrifying and certainly quite surreal throughout. It's sort of theatre of the absurd style, in that a lot of it doesn't make a lot of sense with several nonsensical words (not just because I didn't understand the French!!) and fairly unconnected references. He was constantly talking about his Chandelle Verte (Green Candle). It reminded me a lot of Ionesco's, La Cantatrice Chauve (The Bald Primadonna), which I adore. The acting was incredibl (much of it was really physically challenging) and it really kept you on the edge of your seat for the whole 2 hours. It also had English subtitles, so you could go if you don't speak French. I recommend it highly.
The only negative would be that the Barbican can be a fairly stressful place. I love the stuff they do there, and it's really reasonably priced, but there are so many buildings with so many entrances and it said on the ticket (in pretty big letters) "Latecomers will not be admitted." We arrived with 10 minutes to spare, one friend went for a cigarette, the other two to the toilet, I strolled up to the ticket lady to check we were at the right door and she said "Oh no, that's a different theatre." Cue panic. Then there was announcement saying performances begin in 5 minutes and all of sudden there were lots of people running around. Two friends came back, they went to find the actual theatre and I was waiting for the other friend, who was on the wrong floor. We ran to the theatre where a ticket lady was calling my name. She'd been waiting for me (it must have been 7.31) as they were closing the doors and my friends had left my tickets with her. It was all quite stressful. Apart from that and the odd bubblegum macaroon
 Highlight of the day - Victoria Wood documentary about tea on BBC iPlayer - really, really, really funny...really. Loved her falling over, loved her highlights and I just love her general attitude to everything. She's also very good with words. She just chooses words so well. Minestrone is a funny word (from yesterday), tomato soup wouldn't have been funny. (My favourite funny word is woggle). The documentary was interesting. I loved that she went inside one of the green cabbies' tea huts, that only cab drivers can use (one at Embankment, one at Temple - there used to be almost a hundred around London, now there are less than 20). The Embankment one used to be on my tour, so it was great to finally see what one looked like inside!
Lowlight of the day - thinking on the way home what my highlight of the day was going to be and realising that it was being able to get out of work in time early enough to put some laundry on (was about to run out of black socks, my favourite sock colour). Luckily I found Victoria Wood when I got in.
We are actually on yesterday now. I got out of work at 8.35. That's the earliest I've been out all week. I've had a shirt from River Island in my locker at work waiting to be taken back for a refund and I thought I finally had my chance. I work on Charing Cross Road. I nipped up Old Compton Street, whipped down Dean Street, slipped through Soho Square and BARGED my way down Oxford Street, taking no tourist prisoners. I arrive triumphantly at River Island (at 8.50, website says it shuts at 9) for them to tell me it was already shut. This lady doth protest, but they doth protested more. "Close close close close" was what he said. I think that was the only word he knew. I am still with shirt. After that, I went to M+S who actually shut at the time they say they are going shut and rather depressingly bought a meal for one. I then popped into Boots to by a new toothpaste and toothpaste (quite a novelty for them to run out at the same time, such is the level of drama in my life). I then spur-of-the-momentedly (still in post-River-Island-stress-disorder) bought some Rowntrees Pick n Mix. It's a big bag of Tooty Fruities, Fruit Gums and Fruite Pastilles for £1!! Bargain and so yummy. I then made a joke with the assistant (for once they didn't force me to the automatic lady) about the irony of buying toothpaste, a toothbrush and a huge bag of sweets. I say "with", but I joked at him. He didn't laugh. In other news, they now have toothbrushes with vibrating bristles - they cost 6.50! I got one for 1.50. I make them vibrate when I move them! LAZY!
I had a weird freak purchase in Boot's a few weeks ago - I bought a home tooth-bleaching kit. I always worry that my teeth are a bit yellow-ish, that's why I buy things like Rowntree's Pick n Mix. You're supposed to use it twice a day for a week. I've been a bit sporadic. I reckon I've used it about 8 times in a week and a half. I haven't had time otherwise. You have put these gum shield things in (like from rugby at school) and leave them there for 5 minutes each time. I moulded them and they didn't mould very well (like from rugby at school) and so they hurt. I then thought I'd multi task by wearing them in the shower once, which led to:
a) me dribbling bleach down myself
b) the heat making the plastic go funny again, mishapring them even more
c) me running late and leaving my gum shields on the side in the toilet for my poor flatmate to discover.
Needless to say, that was £12 down the drain. I should've just bought a vibrating toothbrush!
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