Discount Shakespeare

A cold, wet Sunday morning here in Oxford. So much for going punting with Natasha and Jeremy who are coming up from London later on today. Looking out the window this morning it's hard to believe that last month was so hot. I just hope that it's not going to stay like this for the rest of the month.

Yesterday I went to London with Sophie. We had a great day - of which the highlight was going to see a performance at The Globe. It was threatening to rain all morning and at we weren't really sure that we'd go, but when we got there we decided to take the risk. Waiting in the queue we were approached by a woman who had two spare standing tickets. She didn't actually want any money for them, but we insisted on paying for one of them, so in the end got in for £2.50, which is a real bargain. The play was Shakespeare's Coriolanus, which I'd actually never heard of before (all the Shakespeare productions at The Globe this season have the Roman Empire as their theme). Apparently it's one of Shakespeare's greatest political plays and although I think I enjoyed Titus Andronicus more I still enjoyed the production. There were some excellent performances and I really enjoyed being part of the action in the yard.

In the morning we thought we'd have a wander through Portobello Rd Market. We should have known it was going to be a disappointing experience when we saw the crowds of tourists coming out of the Tube station. There are so many tourists in London at the moment that sometimes the place can seem over-run. I'm not saying that people shouldn't come, but of course tourism brings change and the Portobello Rd Markets seem to be only for the tourists. We did think about visiting afew museums and galleries, but after three hours standing at The Globe, we decided we'd had enough. I really want to check out a few places in London before I leave though, so I'll have to go again next weekend.

This is actually my last week working here in Oxford and on the 23rd the next part of my journey begins. I'm going to Berlin at the end of the month, but before that I have a week up in the North-East visiting my family. Hopefully it'll be a little warmer by then!