Macbeth

Monday evening Jenna and I welcomed my parents to town with a night of theatre. We went to the Gielgud Theatre to see the opening night performance of Macbeth starring Patrick Stewart as Macbeth, Kate Fleetwood as Lady Macbeth, and Michael Feast as Macduff. The director, Rupert Goold, who recently directed Stewart in The Tempest did not disappoint.

The show was staged against the backdrop of Stalin's Russia, and included several non-traditional elements.

My favorite, was the portrayal of the witches who were airy, with sing-song voices. They wore field-nurse costumes, and appeared as extras during different parts of the show (in the same costumes). Their famous "bubble bubble" scene was done in a rapid fire percussive fashion that had the audience enthralled.

Overall, a great production. Patrick Stewart played a very convincing Macbeth, and the rest of the cast was fantastic.

Football

I went with some friends to to see the Tottenham Hotspurs trounce the the Cyprus team Anorthosis Famagusta in a 6 - 1 match. This is only the second football (soccer) match that I've ever watched in person, but I was under the impression that this was supposed to be a low-scoring game.

The match was great fun, and even though I wasn't able to follow the more subtle parts of the game, I really enjoyed it.

Stonehenge

A few weeks ago, Jenna and I took a trip to Stonehenge with some friends. This was the first time that we've been to Stonehenge since we moved to England.

I was afraid that it wasn't going to be nearly as interesting as I had built it up to be in my mind. It was crowded with tourists, and you aren't allowed to get anywhere near the stones. However, even with those detractions it was a really amazing place to visit.

Jabs not shots

I just put up a short post on my personal blog about getting shots for our upcoming trip to Tanzania. In the process of getting the shots I learned two new things about the NHS.

First, they use the word "jab" for injection. This is analogous to the American word "shot". It took me a minute to realize this when I sat down with the nurse who was doing the injections. When she looked at me and said, ''I'm going to be giving you two jabs," the first thing I thought of was a jab as in boxing.

Second, the NHS will actually charge you for some things. I was astonished, but I had to pay for my inoculations (£60 for Jenna and me). I didn't have any issue with being asked to pay for immunizations that aren't normally required for adults in this country, but I could tell that many of their patients did by the way the constantly warned us of the fee.

I think the staff at the clinic told me at least five times that there would be a fee for some of the jabs. The funniest part, was when we tried to pay. The girl behind the counter was new, and didn't realize that we would have to pay. She also didn't know how much to charge us.

Tube Strike

Tube Strike, originally uploaded by Allen Hutchison.

The rumored Tube Strike has taken place, bringing London to a crawl for the rest of this week.

London Tube Strike

Looks like there is going to be a three day strike on the London Underground this week. Hopefully the weather will hold and I can walk, or ride my bike to work:

The strike is expected to last from 1800 BST Monday, 3 September to 1800 BST on Thursday, 6 September.

The RMT predicts that the Tube network will "grind to a halt" as a result of the industrial action over the strike.

On Sunday, general secretary Bob Crow said: "There has been no contact over the weekend from Metronet or the administrator so as far as we are concerned the strike will definitely go ahead."