The Jason conversation

I did promise a blog post to someone out there. :) Anyway, these divine events require recording. (It's been a while, I've been busy. Kinda.) OK, I've got my diary, but here's the international version. Dan happenings in purple, Jason stuff in blue. Up, up and away.

Diary 30 - July 31, 2006:
"...Then Metro said that next year Dan [-iel Radcliffe] is gonna be in some erotic London play about a... stable boy. And be naked on stage. ROTF!! Alan did that too. I so have to see that one. Which I would have done even if he didn't strip, pervs. Btw, how easy it'll be to get tix for this."

When, after many months, I even found me a source of tix for Equus, I thought long and hard about when to go. The play would run till June 9! Should I go then, and hang around in the UK until the HP 5 premiere, maybe even look for some roomies and a job, or at least go then so I could enjoy having survived the much feared spring course, but what if Dan didn't stay with the play that long and hey, while I'm on this ticket site I should check if there are any other interesting plays actors I could see, I mean, what if Dan is ill on the wrong day, *type type search* OMG Jason Isaacs will be in The dumb waiter till March 24, damn scary spring course will ruin my peace of mind I'm sure but HERE IS A FITTING TIME WINDOW IN MY SCHEDULE BETWEEN MARCH 22 AND MARCH 27! SQUEEEEEEEEEEEEE!

I booked plays, flights, hostel and gave Native Energy a lil something. My mum suddenly decided to go with me to the great city and made it look like I forced her. :p All the same, since I had picked a late nite flite it would be useful to have a bodyguard for the 15 minutes between Victoria Coach Station and the hostel. And it's nice to have someone help you look for tube signs and stuff.

It was I who read 97% of the signs on the trip. BRAIN EXERCISE!

But here is the story now, not completely chronologically jumbled.

MARCH 22. I figured out how to solve (easy) sudoku puzzles which cut into my valuable packing time. BRAIN EXERCISE! However, we took off (40 minutes late) and the plane did not lose a single wing. Our luggage had ended up in the same airport, and we found the buses even though the last sign pointing to them was oddly positioned.

See, I had been tipped off about Terravision in London 2005, so now I would try them instead of the twice as expensive train. We just missed one bus (they left every 15 minutes) and the driver of the next one was 45 minutes late. He then drove directly to Victoria, not via Liverpool Street as planned. Lucky we were getting off there. Some others were not. One bloke went hysterical and screamed that he didn't wanna go on a sightseeing trip, so he called the coppers. Other travellers, who weren't even hysterical, received no reply from the driver when they said he was going the wrong way. Uh...

By now, it was so late, cold and scary that my mum and I "had to" take a taxi to the hostel. (Her idea.) After our wild adventures we got into bed around 2 am. :)

MARCH 23. 10 years since I first saw my dah'ling Nicholas Lea! (Eh... On TV.) We checked the location of the Equus venue, Gielgud Theatre, which was... 2 blocks away. Gawd, do they wish to wear out my soles? I miss those good old days when my play of choice ran NEXT DOOR, SNIFFLE. *stagger stagger* EXERCISE! Actually, we had already spotted the MASSIVE POSTER the night before. So making sure I knew the way to Trafalgar Studios (JASONTHEATRE!) was of greater importance. We found it exactly where it had been on the map! Weeeee! Just south of Trafalgar Square, also on a walking distance from the hostel. The theatre opened 10 minutes later, I collected my precious ticket, stole a couple of playbills (the Equus ticket had been mailed to me for some reason), and located the stage door...

We visited Harrod's, where my mum had not been since 1999. :) Not to shop, just to gasp at the products and prices. I did see those mugs that celebs had painted for charity though... And there was one by Ewan... :B I've got 5000000 mugs... Moreover, I had fond memories of Harrod's 50's style fridges, and their pet equipment. :O This year I found some neat art, too. I only brought home names.

It was my Equus night! I picked up a coupla playbills in the foyer, since I was going siggy-hunting afterwards and had read that Dan would not sign Harry Potter material, for fear of E-bayers or something. After I went up to the 2nd floor I would not be allowed back down, but from there I could see programmes being sold downstairs. Hmm, WHAT if Dan would only sign programmes? After all there is a greater chance that someone flashing a programme is a real fan, and... :p Luckily, a bloke appeared next to me with a bunch of programmes in his arms. Cool.
My seat was not the worst ever, better than at Guys and dolls. And more expensive. :B Grand Circle, row 2, seat 20. This is where I artsily pretend that I cared LOADS about whether I liked the play. :B It was neat. Comments:

~Dan wasn't ill!
~Richard Griffiths wasn't ill! I had never seen him before.
~I always suspected that a shrink might slay MY passions. One of my excuses for never going to one and be given fun pills. Imagine if one cured me, or made me believe I was normal, or made me automatically behave normally, I dunno, by shooting me with staplers every time my small talk ceased for 2 s... My possible gift might get flushed down the same undivable toilet. Just a feeling. Lately I've had more reason to believe this. :q
~Horses are so worshippable. :)~I think the movements that the wire-headed horse actors made when spooked were cool. :B
~JUUUUUUUUUST wondering in an über-literal way... How does one rilly stick a hoofpick into both of a horse's eyes? Would it stand still for 0,5 ns after the first stab? "Easy Nugget, I'm just gonna poke yer eye out. There, not so bad, was it? Shhh, still, while I move my hand along the width of your forehead. Ahhh! NOW it hurts, so you may go bananas and kick open the door! GOOD BOY! Weee!"
~0 fangirls screamed at the sight of Naked!Dan.
~Not even my brain exploded from Naked Bloke OD. (I don't get to the meat market a lot, ya know.)
~2 days after the play, I realised that an actor from Van Helsing was in it! Will Kemp, the wolfie? I THOUGHT his... hair... looked familiar.
Afterwards, to avoid looking 100% stalkish or anything, I WALKED to the stage door, which was perhaps why I got to stand in 3rd row. :/ Dan exited the door though! :D Now I've got a Bearded!Dan-snapshot too!

MARCH 24. I had a cold hair wash (we were on the 6th floor, and hadn't been so smart as to sneak into the 3rd floor... the previous night, although there was a notice about hot water shortages 8-10 am... MY EARS!) before we went and behaved just like shoppers except I was about to shop nothing inedible and knew it. It was all right fun staring at all the fabric and glitter, however, and in any case I had to pass by Hamleys and shadowly re-live my POSSIBLE Sacha sighting (November 5, 2005... Remember, Lo?:) But if that WAS Sacha, why was he dressed as Ali G, considering Ali G was superfamous by then (no?) and thus in his grave (no?). Think of all the Ali G impersonators who must lurk out there... Like dem Elvis ones... Well, this enormous mystery will torment me till I die. Or till I see Sacha (?) again (?). :B AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA?! *stares at pic yoze was clever nuff to snap even tho she was not obsessed at the time* That height... Eh? I remember his legs. :)

Actually, I was mostly killing time. Staying in one's hostel room to study is a sin, and outside it was too cold to chill (HAAAAAAAAAHAAAAAAAA!!!!!!) in any park. Oh, and while I was doing the time, I tried to look at... gasp... HUMAN FACES... in case I'd meet some celeb. Hehe. Alas, everyone in town were Spanish or Swedish tourists. Aye.

I was waiting for the matiné of The dumb waiter to end, so I could position myself outside the stage door! I lurked a little way away for a bit and saw about 4 people outside to start with, so I sauntered up to them. The crowd filled up... like, after the play really ended... While hugging my little ole Chamber of Secrets, I was given a note about a huge DEATHLY HALLOWS UK RELEASE PARTY which I prolly will be unable to attend. XC

Some random people went through the stage door, but at last, there was JASON! :O Sporting a beard, a nice voice I barely recognised (after having listened to too much of chalkboard-Lucius, I presume :B) and Teh Eyes! The crowd was cool and no one fainted, or shot into the sky. So I could wait relatively calmly. A coupla Gryffindor ladies had come all the way from Vegas to see him and told him so. Jason: "You DIDN'T! :D" He was then told about the huge release party but said he wouldn't be able to go since he would be in Rhode Island. Oh aye, it's still that TV show, innit? D'oh! Lucky I didn't count on seeing him at the Order premiere then... :p

After some time and some signings, the next fan in the clump-shaped line was I! +) The book was ready. So ready. Jason signed it "Jason Isaacs x", so I suppose we have kissed on paper now. :x Anyway, I told him "I'm not seeing the play until tonight, I'm afraid..." to which he replied (paraphrased, 'xcept for the word in green) "That's all right, it'll probably be sloppy tonight though, since it's the last one!" "Hehe, no problem!" :p And he turned to the next fan. He was in a bit of a hurry to leave and get pressies for his kid (when he did leave, he left at a run!), but left no fan disappointed as far as me old eyes could see. :q And I got time for photos, too, though I did not ask for any posing. He still stared straight at my cam once, while posing with some others. :B

With my life nearer heavenly completeness, I euphoria-hovered back to the hostel just to eat and such. Soon it was high time to return to Trafalgar Studios. Due to all the detailed adventures I was of course lagging behind diary-wise, and wrote for a coupla hours at the theatre before The dumb waiter. I expected it to be extremely weird, seeing how it was written by a Nobel prize winner and all. Funnier than expected, however. I thought Jason was the superior actor (and not sloppy). So was my seat... relative to most of the other seats. 5th row! Also got a good many minutes of extra Jason Presence as the characters were already on stage, quiet and still, when the audience welled in. Lee Evans was under a blanket but Jason was reading a paper!

I, everyone else, and a taxi were soon outside the stage door. Lee Evans came out and wrote siggies and such, I didn't ask for one but got pics. Suddenly, while he was posing with a fan, there was someone doing the V-sign over his head. JASON RETURNS! I hung around while the crowd swooped down upon him. But... once, when someone asked to have their pic taken with him... the camera was placed in my hands! :D By Jason? Why did JASON and not the fan hand some fan's cam to me? Dream? :9 No. At least Jason posed for me, MUAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

I nearly missed my chance, but when Jason seemed finished with everybody there and moved towards the taxi I piped up "Jason!" and extended my hand which he shook and I said "Lovely performance, thank you for everything! :B" I was meaning the movies, the siggies, the play, the chatting, the posing, the handshake and all that. He... answered something. :) Then he thanked the whole bunch, and boarded the taxi.

After waving at the holy vehicle I would have glided away, Dementor style, but I ran/powerwalked back to the Gielgud. Just in time for another place in 3rd Row Of The Dan Fan Crowd. Hoping some Jason fans would have been less than accurate concerning Dan's siggy-signing rules ("First row only"), I stuck out my programme again when Dan passed by. No luck. Forgive me, everyone whom I probably decapitated with the pages of the programme while fiddling with me camera.

5 minutes later I bumped into my mum. Not so fat a chance. We went coolly into a cool pub where I downed an Orange Potion and flashed the Jason siggy to her.

MARCH 25. Sunday, so no stage dooring to be done, I suppose. We checked out a few markets, got lost in some empty business district, relaxed by the river, and spent HOURS searching for the bus stop whence we would return to Stansted. BRAIN... EXERCISE! Not that we were going home, we just wanted to... rehearse... for I had grand plans, which involved cutting it fine the next evening, bus-wise. Anyway. The tube is a bit disorienting... :S Eventually, we ran into the stops. There were two, 500 light years apart. A nice bus bloke showed us the fine print on the time table, so now we even knew at what times the differrent stops would be useful. :p Fecking adventurous.

In celebration, I had chips [CHEPPSSS!!!] in a cool pub.

MARCH 26. The breakfast bread had not reached the hostel.
Mum: "OMGWTF our white flour!"
Yoze: "Yo, it's not their fault if the bread truck fell over or whatever."
Trudge trudge.
Roomie: "Hey."
Mum: "Did ya know, roomie, they've got no breakfast today!"
Roomie: "Rilly!"
Mum: "Yeah, the truck had fallen over or something."
Roomie: "Oh dear! [How can we send £6000 to the truck driver's 18 orphaned young children? SNIFFLE!]"
Yoze: "Er, I didn't say it had..."
Mum: "Oh aye? I thought I heard someone say it. :/"

We got some food from a neighbouring place, checked out, raided Fresh & Wild and zoomed off to the PARKS, where we just sat. :9 First, Hyde Park. Sweet, a robin posed for me. Then St James Park. Sweet, we could see the water. When certain people got impatient we migrated slowly to Trafalgar Square and checked out the National Gallery. *shrug* Da Vinci stuff, though! And I found me some postcards.

Once again, I was really only waiting for a play to end. Grasping my this month's last chance for a Dan siggy, and in doing so risking everything missing the bus and thus the morning plane home. :) If Dan came out to sign at the normal time (probable), we should make it to the second last bus... Now that I was risking so much for my Dan siggy, I was not about to fuck things up. I stood for 3 h on the street around the stage door. EXERCISE! Think at least 3 people wondered if I was a hooker. Welllllllll... So, anyway, after a couple of hours I was joined by an extremely ambitious Danish siggy hunter. I think the first row patches were all taken about 30 min before the end of Equus. :) The last one was claimed by... my mum, who had nuthin better to do. And our suitcase. The Dane wanted an extra siggy for his friend, so we agreed my mum would try to get one. She was given a playbill.
The skinny little barricades came up, and then came Dan! He started signing opposite our spot.
Mum: "Ohhhhh, there he is..."
My programme had never been so ready. :) DAN SIGNED IT! I didn't get to look into his eyes and he probably did not hear my thanks, if they were successfully uttered. :p My mum was next in line, but he missed her for some reason. Mayhap playbill-slingers are taken for siggy hunters?Second last bus.

27 MARCH. Camp Stansted.

~*~

Some good shit I ate in the strange exotic land:
+Portobello Road market's onion and olive pizza slice, packed in a brown bag which some hours later looked like transparent plastic :)
+Vegan Calzone from Fresh & Wild, flabbergasting eco-food shop on our very block (COUGH 69-75 Brewer Street COUGH)
[/pizza collection]
+Apple & cinnamon cross buns
+Cherry & coconut flapjack
+Subway sub Veggie Delite *avalanche*
+Falafel
+Chips in Cosy Brown British Pub
+White flour with saccharose Hostel breakfasts of toast, jam and juice
+Chips from Large Fast Food Chain... for breakfast, when the hostel breakfast had not been delivered
+Fresh & Wild's fruit salad + soy yoghurt + müsli
+Canned pasta hoops
+Smoothies
+Juicez

Items shopped:
+Madagascar soundtrack
+King Arthur soundtrack
+Once upon a time by Simple Minds
+Persuasion by Jane Austen (used)
+Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen (used *sniffs books*)
+6 cards from the National Gallery
+Equus programme