I made apple strudel this weekend. Mmmmm. I peeled the apples and made the filling Friday night and then baked the strudel Saturday morning. The phyllo dough was shaped differently than I’m used to so it took a bit of experimenting to figure out how to cut it so I could get a nice triangular shape. In the end they turned out good enough that my roommates polished them off pretty quickly, but I would improve the recipe next time.

The rest of Saturday was devoted to the theatre. I saw a matinee performance of James Thiérrée’s La Veillée des Abysses. It was outstanding! Outstanding! It’s really tough to explain in words, but here goes: it was kind of like Cirque du Soleil, but with a 5 person cast that did everything from moving the props around to playing live music on the piano. The stage was set in very dark Victorian era furniture and props. It was almost haunting, but beautiful. You can check out the pictures and the videos on the link to try get a better mental picture.

Then in the evening I saw Measure for Measure at The Globe. Officially the Globe’s season ended on October 2 and I never went to see a show, which was unfortunate. Luckily, a performance troupe that’s going on tour in the USA next week decided to put on a week showing of their play in London as a warm-up.

The Globe is an amazing theatre – built just as it was in Shakespeare’s day. Exposed to the outdoor weather, with only a thatched roof covering the stage and the people sitting in the balconies. The die-hard (or poor) Shakespeare fans stand the whole show, but get the best view and only pay £5.

The play itself was excellent. The actors (blokes played all the male and female roles) wore amazing costumes and were superb, especially considering it was a warm-up performance. I had read the text before hand so I knew the story line. The play wasn’t a modern adaptation but a strict performance the way Shakespeare intended it. The actors did a good job making everyone laugh and the audience was great hissing at the evil characters and cheering wildly when Angelo gave Isabella a sloppy kiss. There were so many jokes that I had missed when I was reading the text that were more clear when you saw it acted out. My feet were killing by the end of the play (3 hours with a 15 minute intermission), but it was well worth it.

Sunday I went to Old Spitalfield Market with Gemma and her friend Lucy. I love how every market here has its own character. Spitalfield is all about being old and vintage. There were a lot of shops selling vintage clothing and booths with home-made jewelry and fashions. We walked into one vintage clothing shopped and I was amazed to see posh British women paying outrages prices to buy clothes that were in really rough shape. I wonder what they would think of Value Village?

What I didn’t do this weekend was run in the Nike 10 km. I saw a ton of people on Sunday returning from the race that was held at three different parks and was run by 45,000 runners, including Paula Radcliffe who was trying to break the women’s 10k record. I had the race on my calendar since August, but I forgot to register by the October 1 deadline. I’m trying to find a new race to go in now. I found one on November 6 near bath – the Over the Hills 12K – that looked amazing, but that’s the day of the new Harry Potter movie premiere in Leicester Square (I’m going to see Hermoine in the flesh!) and I can’t miss that. And the race is full now anyway. As Roxie correctly pointed out, it would be cool to have a race t-shirt from the UK. So the search continues. Look I just found one: The Roundhay Park 5 in Leeds. Maybe I’ll make a weekend of it, since it’s a 5 hour coach ride to get there.

Tonight there was a bit of a blow-up in our house. All the anger that has been brewing towards Miles finally came to a front. Actually it was Gemma’s frustration that started it all, but I threw in my 2 cents and so did Kimayne. It was a load of everyone’s chest as the atmosphere here has seemed poisonous lately. We’ll see if things improve now that everyone’s had a good rant.