"Somebody here has definitely murdered someone..."

Okay ladies, now let's get in formation

...is what I say to Stella in the park today because we are surrounded by so many people that this is 1000% true.

On Saturday Stella has to work, but its only for a few hours across Hyde Park so we take advantage of the gorgeous morning and I walk her partway. While Stella works I meander around the park, I visit Peter again, I try to get decent pictures of all the different kinds of ducks for my dad to see, and I fail. Stella wants me to get her some flowers from the farmers market a couple blocks from her flat, so I swing by. Last Saturday we went to the Portobello Market instead, so I’m wholly unprepared for what I find.

Farmer's Market haul. Not pictured: fresh pasta

It’s fresh everything! I know that’s the point of a farmers market, but somehow I’m acting like I’ve never been to a farmer’s market before and also like I haven’t eaten in a week. I’m drunk on REAL butter and REAL fish (There! Looking at you! Smelling like the sea!) and REAL apples. The lovely Italian man in front of a table of 10 different kinds of pesto encourages me to eat as much of his samples as I want and I almost deliver his first born child on the spot (he's very young). I buy the most beautiful food I’ve ever bought, and I almost forget Stella’s flowers because I'm So High.

THIS IS REAL BUTTER!
FROM A REAL COW!

I eat half a loaf of bread and butter and a tub of the richest yogurt in existence as soon as I get home, and my senses return. I am SO HAPPY that I’m not lactose intolerant. 

I meet Stella after work in the park. How is that possible when the park is enormous and I can’t use any data because my international charges are trying to bankrupt me? Old fashioned Spidey sense. 

The park is like a spring celebration. At least a quarter of London lays in the sun, white skin turning pink with exposure. The city vibrates with Spring. I’m wearing a T-shirt only for the first time since I arrived. Life is good.

Springing in the
streets

Life gets even better at dinner. We eat at St. John with some work friends/friends of friends of Stella’s, and it’s one of those rare dinners where I meet people for the first time and feel like we’ve been friends for years. Also, I eat a bread pudding with butterscotch for dessert that makes my skin melt. And having abandoned the No Dessert wagon for the night, I finish all the community desserts (poached pear & brioche, salted chocolate & caramel tart, blood orange cake) because somebody has to. 

Holy… As I write this I’m realizing last night was so good, no one took any pictures. Not of the food, not of the cocktails, not of ourselves, not even of the bread pudding. That’s the golden ring, y’all. 

Mini Mums

On Sunday, Stella and I go to a screening of Woody Harrelson’s “Lost in London”, a film he wrote and directed. The screening is at Picturehouse Central which, it turns out, IS MY FAVORITE MOVIE THEATER IN THE WORLD. The caps-lock might seem like a lot, but you weren’t there. It’s so nice and pretty! 

We walk upstairs to behold a wall of candy, and I try every sour gummy candy they offer in the name of science and vacation. (Hell, I just realized I didn’t get a picture of that either. Trust me, its glorious.) We discover that sour candy, like all things except Mexican food, is better in Europe. 

Woody provides beer, wine and champagne for the screening, and that with our candy and popcorn makes up a pretty satisfying lunch. The whole event is so fun, even though Stella says she saw a mouse in the theater. I’m not saying I don't believe her, I’m just saying I didn’t see it. 

Stella and I walk all the way home from the Picturehouse. It's the warmest day of the year so far (70s) and picture perfect. Not a single Londoner stayed inside today which makes for a rush hour-like walk home. I’m not complaining, I'm observing.

These are probably pigeons

As Stella and I walk through the park, the throngs of people get more space to spread out which eases both our moods. People, babies, and dogs alternately play and lay all over the ground. Flowers are everywhere. It really is a stunner of a day. 

Away from the crowds, we relax and chat and smile again. 

Then. 

Out of nowhere. 

Clompy footsteps rush up behind and around me as a Peaked Man in Black with a Black Satchel approaches Stella with a breathless, “I saw you and I have to say…”

I can only assume the rest of his sentence is “I’d be honored if you’d be my wife,” because that is the level of his intensity. I don’t hear him, however, because Stella zooms away from him and I follow. She says he was homeless, I say he could have been a traveler. Two breaths don’t pass before we spot a guy peeing into a bush. We conclude that London is telling us to get the fuck out of the park already and go have Thai food at the pub. So we do. Thai or die!

"Only the crap ones had their shirts off..."

...said one of the girls on set to explain why she hadn't joined us to watch the crew guys play lunch-rugby. But I'll back up...

Today I righted yesterdays wrongs by waking up early, kickboxing and getting all my days writing done by lunchtime. Stella arranged to have a driver come pick me up at home to bring me to set for lunch (free! catering! yay!).

Any of my friends who have visited me on set will agree- I hate set visits in general. How do they know? Because I complain about it loudly and constantly. Taking care of a set visitor is the worst thing ever. Second worse is being the visitor- Its like going to your dad's job and sitting in the corner. I never visit anyone else's set unless I have a bunch of friends on the crew and it coincides with lunch because, honestly, there is just nothing to do at someone else's job.

I got to Stella's set (or as its known on IMDB, "The Wolverine") a little more than an hour before lunch. Of course, everyone was busy working. I chatted about horror movies with my new best friend Hugh Jackman (nbd) and watched them shoot til lunch. I have to admit, though I've been off and on sets for the last 12 years, I've rarely had the opportunity to just watch and listen to the director direct, and damn- it was cool.
It was better than cool.

It's easy to get jaded or bored or both about moviemaking (or life...?) if you're not doing what you want to be doing in them. If you don't have a passion for the role you play, it becomes like any other job you do to pay the bills- something you tolerate at its best and dread at its worst.

This set visit was supposed to be the highlight of my day because of the free hot lunch and Stella of it all. I wasn't in the least prepared to have my passion for moviemaking reignited by Jim Mangold or "The Wolverine" of all things, but... that's what happened. These last few years of details, minutia and coffee dissolved and I felt new again. I feel new again...

 lovvvvvve this...
at Fox Studios, a little hint of Baz

i...

love...

I was actually disappointed to break for lunch (that's when you know it's serious), but break we did. After eating like a lumberjack, I followed Stella and Jen to the field to watch the boys play rugby for the rest of the lunch break. I love boys. I love boys playing sports. I love boys playing sports with their shirts off. It was a good afternoon.

rugby.

I decided to hit the Sydney Opera House on my way home (NOT anywhere near on my way home as it turns out) because I'd taken the last couple days off from sightseeing, and was starting to stress. Why stress? All dumb reasons, the main of which being my name is Bianca and that's what I do.

Bus shenanigans to the tune of right bus, wrong direction, right direction, wrong bus landed me still in the general area and I found my way to the Opera House. NOT before I bought and ate another candy bar straight out of the wrapper like a Garbage Pail Kid.

"a unique combination of peanuts,
wafer, caramel & rice crips
covered in milk chocolate"

I have this thing about how I eat a candy bar - its my thing and probably no one else's. I hate eating candy bars straight out of the wrapper like they want you to. Commercials with kids taking a huge smiley bite off the end of a partially wrapped candy bar screams white trash to me. Still, that is what I did today. And I grossed myself out.

"Then why did you do it, you weirdo?" the world asks. Self-sabotage is the best answer I can come up with- that, and the candy bar was unruly enough as I walked that I couldn't dismember it with my germ-covered hands like I like to.

Sydney Opera House is party central

Anyway, I'd heard raves and gushing about Sydney Opera House from every book I've seen, website I've visited, etc, etc. To say my expectations were high was putting it mildly. The Opera House was definitely impressive, but I think the scene surrounding it was more of the charm than I'd anticipated. I hit the Opera House for sunset and there were throngs of people there for after-work/pre-dinner drinks. Though the Opera House is definitely a city highlight, I could see by the crowd that it wasn't just for tourists. I love when locals appreciate a city gem as much as the guide books want the tourists to.

i bet they have the machine from 'Big' here

Another highlight? A cool, creeeeeeepy looking amusement park at the far end of the Sydney Harbour Bridge across the water. I will find it, and I will go there. (I think it's Luna Park after doing a bit of research.)

I saw a sign for the Royal Botanical Gardens and decided to check them out, even though it was officially dark at this point. I learned a garden at night is less impressive than a garden during the day.

Maybe its because I was on set today or maybe I was inspired by Sydney's dark cinematic qualities, but the wind was blowing my hair just right and the streets had the perfect lighting for me to go noir and play "THEY'RE RIGHT BEHIND YOU" all the way home. I made the 20 minute walk back to Stella's in heart-thumping 15 minutes. God, I love that game.



Sydney Harbour Bridge  (see the amusement park??)



Sydney Opera House close up



man do i appreciate a great bathroom
(Syndey Opera House)

Sydney Cove and Circular Quay