Watch the London marathon

Website: http://www.virginlondonmarathon.com

Yesterday was the 2010 London Marathon. This 26.2 mile race has been held in London every year since the first one in 1981. Even though I've lived in London for almost 8 years I'd never made it down to the marathon on race day to cheer along the runners - that is, until yesterday...

Before setting off we looked up the race course on the website. It starts in Greenwich and follows a circuitous route through London before arriving along the Embankment, through Parliament Square and to the finish line on the Mall in front of Buckingham Palace. ABJ and I decided to visit the last part of the race.

We arrived at around 3.30pm and the race had already been going for over 6 hours. The best runner had finished in 2 hours 5 minutes but there were still plenty of people running along the Embankment when we arrived.

All along the running course there were members of the public cheering the runners or looking out for their friend/family member who was running the race. Many people get sponsored to run the race and along the route there were small teams from the many charities that were there to support the people running for them.

We saw quite a few people in fancy dress - there were people dressed as bears, mice, superheroes, Wizard of Oz characters, firemen, rhinos... There were also tough-looking men wearing a full army backpack marching along stridently.

Every mile was marked with a huge archway which had a digital clock showing your current time:The racers could also grab a free bottle of water as they went:but this led to lots of litter on the track:At last ABJ and I walked up to Parliament Square, intending to see the finish line. To get to St James Park we had to cross the running course - something that was achieved by a sophisticated system which involved a kind of queuing island in the middle of the race lane. The runners were diverted along one side of the island while the public were urged onto the island. When it was full the runners were diverted along the other side and the public could cross all the way. The whole thing ran very smoothly thanks to the multitude of volunteers on hand.

At last we made it to St James Park near Buckingham Palace. There we encouraging signs for the runners:
and at last the finish line:
Since we were seeing the runners that finished around 7 hours 20 minutes many of them looked injured and slow but we cheered them on all the louder.

The whole event was very inspiring - making me want to try to run a marathon one day!

Summary: "Come on! You can do it!"

See some plays: The Real Thing

Website: http://www.oldvictheatre.com

Last night ABJ and I went to see a Tom Stoppard play called The Real Thing at the Old Vic. She had bought tickets which, although high up on the "Lilian Baylis Upper Circle", were exactly in the centre so offered a very good view of the stage.

The lobby of the theatre was packed full of people having a pre-theatre drink of expensive glasses of champagne:We got a drink downstairs in the Pit Bar and took them into our seats (this time we were experienced enough to ask for the drinks in plastic cups).

The theatre interior was ornately decorated with a huge chandelier in the centre: I managed to take one last photo of the stage before an usher told me off for taking pictures:
The play itself was very good. It dealt with love and tangled relationships. My favourite part involved a monologue comparing good use of words to a cricket bat and contrasting a coffee cup to the ideas of justice, honesty etc.

During the interval we has some tasty, but expensive Cornish ice cream.

Summary: Good play, nice venue, packed out audience.

Tour round BBC Television Centre

Website: http://www.bbc.co.uk/tours/televisioncentre.shtml

Yesterday ABJ and I went on a tour around the BBC Television Centre. The tour began at 4.30pm and I'd booked our £7.50 tickets earlier in the week by phone.

We arrived at the reception and waited with the rest of the tour group until our guide arrived. The group consisted of 6 teenage students on a school trip, their two teachers and a mother and young son Zack.

At last our tour guide Kevin arrived and took a roll-call to check everybody was there. He then led us out and to the main entrance where we were subjected to an airport-style security check before being given a "tour pass". We were then led closer to the building and given a short introduction to the tour.

We were shown a large anonymous wall and told that it was the side wall to Studio 1 - their biggest TV studio, about the size of half a football pitch.
We were then shown a TARDIS and encouraged to take photos. Kevin introduced our other tour guide and he showed us into the building and through to the news centre.

We arrived into a conference room which overlooked the news room. Since it was a Saturday the building wasn't fully-staffed and, of the few people we could see working ABJ spied one was on facebook... We were given a few facts and figures about the building. There are usually 8,000 people working on site and 2,000 of them in the news centre (which was a relatively new addition to the complex).

Some points of interest included the planning department, the BBC's own travel agency (which can get journalists anywhere in the world at the drop of a hat) and an area where there at two shifts, both 3 'til 3!

After the news area we were shown out to what used to be the main entrance when the centre was opening in the early 1960s. Since it was a nice sunny day we then left by the "stage door" and stood outside in the middle of the circular centre of the building. Apparently this was "hallowed ground" in the sense that no-one was allowed to drive there. Only 3 people have done do so: the Queen, Jeremy Clarkson and Jennifer Lopez.We heard all about the invention of TV and how the BBC was approached by John Logie Baird to do some test transmissions (since the BBC already broadcast radio). During World War II all TV was put on hold so the BBC could concentrate on radio. Apparently TV transmission stopped in the middle of a cartoon and restarted 6 years later with a woman announcing "We're sorry for the interruption". There were three pretty statues representing Light, Sound and Vision.

We also heard about the design of the television centre. This was to be the world's first dedicated TV centre. The architect was brought into design it was stuck for a while because his building had to fit onto an awkward triangular piece of land. At last he had a breakthrough and designed the building to be question-mark shaped...

The tour continued into a real live TV studio - Studio 4. This was a surreal experience. We walking into the large echoless space which had a dark black floor, immense lighting rig on the ceiling and plenty of control switches on the walls. This type of studio was designed by the architect to be a kind of "television factory". It was the first in the world and was so successful that all subsequent studios worldwide are based on it.The lighting rig had hundreds of lights each one of which could be individually positioned.
For shows with an audience there was seating that came out from the wall. The floor was divided into 2 foot squares with coordinates so that sets could be accurately planned and placed precisely in the right places.
Perhaps the most strange part of the whole place was the fact that for every single show they paint the entire floor, i.e. before a show starts they get huge brushes and paint the floor, they then set up the show, film it, pack away the show and then clean off the paint from the floor. This troublesome-sounding activity is done each time to ensure the floor is totally smooth so that as cameras glide around they don't bump up and down (apparently this would translate to a big wobble on screen even if the bump is small). I was initially shocked by the waste of all the paint and solvent but then they revealed that they convert it into fertiliser and sell it.

We left the studio and went upstairs to the BBC weather centre. Here we heard about how weather forecasters are each trained meteorologists who write there own scripts and have to make as many as 130 forecasts a day (for all all over the world)! It sounded like a lonely life - they film their forecasts in a small automated studio with no other humans around... There was a long corridor with photos of the presenters.While we stood in the corridor Kevin explained the use of green-screen special effects technology. We even had a chance to play with presenting the weather - Zack did a good job telling us about the rain in Hong Kong.

After the weather centre we were led to a celebrity green room - the fancy rooms that hold celebrities before they appear on a TV show. This was fairly plush with nice seating and subdued lighting. We heard all about the fantastic demands some celebrities make - e.g. Madonna wanted a portrait of the Pope. Apparently the stars themselves pay for this afterwards (ABJ and I speculated whether the stars are told they'll be charged before they make their big demands).

The tour finished off in an "interactive studio" where we could play at making a TV show. This was similar to the radio studio at the end of the Broadcasting House tour. Zack had a go at reading the news and three of the students took part in a kind of Weakest Link quiz show. This was a fun end to the tour and Zack and the quiz winners got BBC mugs for prizes.The final stop was the BBC shop where we could buy souvenirs. ABJ and I are now considering being in a TV show audience.

Summary: Good fun. The best bit was the TV studio.

Sotheby's auction

Website: http://www.sothebys.com

Today I had a high-class adventure by sitting in on a Sotheby's auction. The auction was "Arts of The Islamic World" and started at 10am.

I arrived on my bike to the New Bond Street auction house after getting hopelessly lost in the one-way systems in Mayfair. Luckily I'd left plenty of time... I arrived in the plush entrance lobby and asked an usher where the auction was. He said "Up the stairs at the back and to the top".

When I followed his directions I'd arrived in a kind of art gallery full of modern Turkish art. I initially thought I'd gone to the wrong place but then spotted that there was a hidden entranceway which led into a large auction hall:
There were quite a few people and lots of rows of seats. I took a seat near the front and waited for the auction to start. While I waited I looked around and tried to size-up which of the rich-and-powerful-looking people had the most money. There were men in exquisite suits and coiffed hair, there were women bedazzled with jewellery and fancy clothes. Since the auction was selling Islamic art there a lot of middle-eastern people in the audience. I tried to size up which of them were rich oil tycoons.

At last, slightly after 10am, the auctioneer stood up on his well-worm podium and welcomed everyone. He said hello in a variety of languages and generally beamed a smile around the room.

Without further ado Lot 1 was presented and the bidding was under way. The types of things up for auction included paintings, old writings, beautiful wooden boxes, silk curtains, intricately decorated Korans etc etc. The auctioneer was very good and did his job in a playful manner.
Sometimes the auctioneer would have an absentee bid where he would bid up to a pre-defined limit on someone's behalf. Here's an example, all called out in a posh English accent:

"Lot 13 now open. Absentee bid at 3000. 3-2? 3-2? 3200, 3-5 me, 3-8? 3-8. 4000 me, 4-2? 4.2. 4-5 me, 4.8? 4-8? It's with me not you. 4-8? 4-8 at the back, 5000 me. 5-2? Anybody for 5-2? 5-2 the gentleman on my left. That's me out. 5-5? 5-5? any advance on 5-2? 5-5! with Roxanne on the phone. 5-8? 5-8. 6? 6. 6-5? 6-5? Roxanne has it... 6-5? Any more? Roxanne for 6500. That's fair warning, I'm selling to Roxanne for 6500. Selling... Sold! SLAM!"

When a sale was made he'd bang down his gavel and immediately move on to the next lot. Sometimes he's say "bad luck" if somebody was outbid or while everyone was bidding he might ask someone politely to "Say 7-2" if he was trying to push them to bid higher (this often worked!).

The current highest bid (in a variety of currencies) would appear along with a picture of the item on two enormous TV screens:
When making their first bid the bidder would do a big gesture like raising their hand or their bidding paddle to catch the auctioneers attention. After that the auctioneer would look at them directly so they only had to nod or raise their eyebrows to make the next bid. At one point a man was waving to his friend at the back of the room and almost bid £10,000 for a painting! (The auctioneer warned him to be careful!). This made me very wary about gesturing when the bidding was taking place - one wrong move and I'd have committed to buying small wooden box for £45,000! I would sit there dying to scratch my nose but knowing that it just wasn't worth it!

Along the right-hand side of the room was a long row of people on telephones relaying the bids from people elsewhere:
The auctioneer would refer to them by name (e.g. Roxanne in the example above) and they would be continually quietly muttering into their phones (echoing the auctioneer) to keep the bidders up-to-date. After only a few lots there was a bidding war between two telephone bidders and the price rocketed from about £20,000 to £200,000!

Each time a new lot was started a wooden turn-table would spin around to reveal the item:
The far side of the turn-table was then loaded up with the next lot so that the process could be smoothly repeated next time. Sometimes the items were very small so a man would stand there and hold it aloft with white-gloved hands: Other items were too big and were "Sold as seen". This meant you saw a picture of the item but you were expected to have looked at it beforehand if you intended to bid.

As time went on bidding process became a bit repetitive. I starting wanting to bid early on (and then be out-bid) just so I could tell people that I'd bid at Sotheby's. The low bids were usually around £3,000 but I realised that if I chose the wrong one to bid on I might not be saved by a higher bid - ugh! I'd be stuck with an over-priced piece of Islamic art. Indeed, some of the bids never got sold - the starting price was too high so no-one wanted it.

I left after about an hour and passed by the posh art-sellers chit-chatting at the back of the room.

Summary: Surprisingly exhilarating.

See some plays: Sweet Nothings

Website: http://www.youngvic.org

A week ago last Friday ABJ and I took an evening out to visit the Young Vic Theatre. We were there to see Sweet Nothings - a play with the tagline "Four young people risk everything in a tragic game of love, lust and adultery"!

We arrived and picked up our cheap £10 student/"under 26" tickets at the front desk. We then went to have a drink in the crowded downstairs bar. In the hope of a place to sit we ventured upstairs to another bar but this was also packed out. While we stood there sipping out beers we wondered if all the trendy people we could see were there for the play or if the Young Vic was also a hip place to hang out.

At last we went into the theatre, awkwardly transferring out drinks to plastic cups. It was unreserved seating inside so we sat on the front row.

The play itself was really good and we couldn't have picked better seats - in some parts the actors were standing directly in front of us while they collected wine glasses or boiled coffee. The stage was round and slowly rotated during the performance. This was quite subtle and often you would have a double-take to realise that the piano that was 20 minutes ago on the far left was now at the back of the stage...

In the interval we overheard two men nearby discussing about how dreadful the play was "it's all style and no substance" etc. We discreetly made fun of them because we were enjoying the play. In the end they walked out and didn't stay for the second half.

All in all it was a good evening out.
Summary: Good play, funky venue.