Set-jetting

Set-jetting is my word du jour. It sums up a lot of my holiday. The Metro, a free newspaper distributed on the tube, had an article describing set-jetting as the act of taking a holiday to the location where a movie was filmed. My most recent set-jetting experience was when I visited the County Hall yesterday afternoon. County Hall is a huge ex-government building pretty much across the Thames from the Houses of Parliament. The building used to house London's city council until was it disbanded in 1986. The opening scene of Hitchcock's Frenzy was filmed here. The adjacent area also showed up in Die Another Day. Nowadays, County Hall is home to the London Aquarium, the London Eye, and the Dali and Saatchi galleries. I actually visited the Dali exhibition about two weeks ago (but forgot to blog). It has more than 500 original Salvador Dali works on display, and some are even for sale. I had no idea he created sculptures. All of the work was as fantastic as it was surreal. But of special interest to me was huge painting, maybe 3m x 4m) that Hitchcock commissioned for use in a dream sequence in his 1945 film Spellbound. I don't have a photo so you'll have to take my word for it.

Meanwhile, it is taking a lot longer to get a job than I originally hoped. There are plenty of jobs out there, but I am being particularly specific about the hourly/daily rate. Still, I apply for 3-4 jobs a day, and while I haven't had any interviews yet, 2 or 3 are shaping up to be promising. My plan is to keep with rate obsession for another week or two, then take the first job I can get. Money-wise I could hold off longer, but I have to be realistic. Also, I can't get my own place til I get a job, and after 3 months on the road I desparately want to be able to chill out in my own space... so a lot is hanging on getting a job.

On Friday night I had dinner at Mark B's place, a beautiful apartment in a complex built on the site of the old Gainsborough Studios (where Hitch made his first films in fact). It was very much a Brisbane reunion with four other Vegasians present, including Martin T. I thought he had dropped off the face of the earth, living in Samoa or somewhere, so you can imagine my surprise when he emerged from Mark's verandah. Martin's been here since March. I had planned to go to Brighton Pride with Troy on Saturday, but as I finished Friday night at 3AM I was barely in a state to get myself to Brixton, about a kilometre down the road. However, Troy and I did go to G-A-Y on Saturday night, along with a guy that Troy had met on-line. G-A-Y was filled with young and girly queens, expressing themselves to some very old pop. I had never before heard Belinda Carlisle's We Want The Same Thing in a nightclub, and apparently Gina G is still a hot item. The club was unbearable, like The Beat on steroids. I'm sure Gas Ben loves it there. :-)

Once I get a job, the biggest question facing me is where to live. I have a choice of:
- South London where I am now (limited tube, occasionally dodgy, but otherwise very close and often under-priced)
- East London (a bit rough)
- Just North or North-East of the city (maybe a bit expensive, although convenient and very hip)
- the City (ridiculously expensive, but very convenient)
- or South West (which Denise forbids me to consider saying it is too far away for us to catch up).

So I'm determined to get around and check out a few different locales in the few remaining days before I secure a job (ha, who am I kidding). To that end, I took the tube to Liverpool Street station and walked to the Petticoat and Spitalfields Markets in the inner east. I hate markets, but only remembered that once I got there. But the area is pretty cool, if a little too urban. I walked to Whitechapel (where Jack the Ripper worked) and have all but ruled it out. It seems a little rough, and very dirty. I'm also a little scared of the religious fanatics who grace the streets. I did get to see Royal London Hospital, just opposite Whitechapel tube station, which was home to John Merrick (The Elephant Man) for many years in the late 19th century.

It's when I do these little street-walking adventures that I realise (i) that London is great for walkers, and (ii) just how big the city actually is. Like HUGE. And it's a confusing city too with thousands of little streets, lanes, and back alleyways that probably follow 2000 year old Roman paths or creek beds, or are just the product of poor planning. I walk around with a mini A-Z street guide, which is a pocket-sized street directory covering most of London. Everybody has one of these angels, and many carry it with them. I'd be so lost without it. I also have a really cool geographic layout map of the tube network that helps me to identify where I am above ground, as the official tube map is famously unrepresentative of distance and location.

From Whitechapel, I took the tube to Tower Hill which is just behind the Tower of London. I didn't go to the Tower, having been there once before, but I did walk over Tower Bridge. I also shelled out £5.50 for The Tower Experience, which ranks right up there with Nihonkai Observatory as one of the most stupid themed attractions I have ever visited. Basically, I got to watch two pretty crap 4-minute videos (with Keeping Up Appearances' Clive Swift playing the bridge's architect), and walk over the pedestrian walkways high above the roadway. I also got to walk past the hydraulic engines that make the roadway open. Wow. I did get a couple of good photos from the walkway, but the engine room was the best part... even if it did have cheap animatronic dolls talking about Victorian life. Having experienced the Tower experience for the first and hopefully last time, I walked into the Shad Thames area, which are dock buildings on the southern bank just to the east of the Tower Bridge. The upper floors are now very expensive apartments, but there are some very well-priced restaurants on the street level. It reminds me a lot of Teneriffe.

I think it's high time that I upload some London photographs, so check the link at the right. I might also pick out a few special shots to post to the blog. Meanwhile, Ottawa and Montreal have been uploaded, and I am slowly getting my New York photos up there too... although there are so many it will take me a while to sort through.