Ten Brown Days

For the past ten days, my very good friend Ronak, aka Ronnie, aka 'Brown, from the Fab Five' has been visiting Brennon and I. We had an amazing time! There was plenty of sight seeing and debacherous nights to fill a month or two, I'm sure. In this first photo, Ronnie, Bren [aka The Polish Midget, aka Midge] and I [Tall Giant] were preparing for a night out in Soho. Brown was underdressed and it was horribly embrassing. He wore... shorts. This isn't TORONTO, you know... Geeez. I'm kidding, it was fine. He didn't look like too big of a tourist. I think I found my new British hairstyle. Straight hair on guys in HUGE here. So with Ronnie's help, I bought a hair straightener to achieve the Brit look. I love it. I just need to get it cut into a proper style now.



Ronnie and I spent the day out at West India Quay while Canary Wharf Pride was happening. London seems to be a very proud city. This is exciting because this is very close to where I live. West India Quay is an old warehouse building that has seen adapative reuse into a row of restaurants and a museum with flats above. On any given day, the enormous terraces are packed full of people socialising and drinking. This photo doesn't capture the beauty or massive scale of the area, but it's fantastic, I promise.



Ronnie's Art History friend Heather [aka Switz] came down from Coventry [She goes to your school, Dave The Brit] and spent a couple days with us. The photo is her [with her owl necklace] and I. I took this photo for my good friend Chris who has an intense fear of owls after he was brutally attacked by one at his Beverley Street flat in Toronto. It was a full house with two guests but we managed to have a good time. While Heather wasn't off researching in the library, she was partying it up with us at Heaven. Heaven is Heaven. There are different rooms playing different styles of music. The main room is generally the harder, euro beats. There is a smaller Buddies-esque room and a hip hop room. We went on a Wednesday [hip hop night] so the main room played hip hop. It was fantastic. Ronnie befriended the bartender who gave us all free drinks. At one point, I was walking through the bar when I heard my name. Nik randomly happened to be there. What are the odds that in a city where I have 1.5 friends, I would run into one at a club on a Wednesday night? Pretty good, I guess.



Nki, Gareth and I at Heaven.. others are MIA.



Ronnie and I played tourist on Thursday and we really wanted to see Westminster Abbey. I met him after work at 2pm and we had to meet Switz at 5. The abbey isn't far from my work, but we really took our sweet time stopping in Trafalger Square, Dorothy Perkins and the National Portrait Gallery. We got to Westminster Abbey at about 4:25. I had time to snap this photo of the Parliament Buildings....



...and this photo of the apse of Westminster Abbey. Remember Gothic Cathedral, Anna? It was taught by the woman who wore clothes that were contemporary to the Gothic Era. Why were you so mean, Anna? :)



This past weekend, London hosted EuroPride [hence the proud city comment earlier]. It's a Europe-wide pride event. It was massive! It seemed like the entire city closed down first for the parade and then for the thousands of people afterward who were drinking in streets and public squares all over the city. I love that we were able to drink while we watched the parade and then wandered the streets with beers in our hand.



We spent the afternoon in Soho. Soho streets are narrow to begin with, but most of the parade-goers ended up here after. This photo shows just how packed the streets were. There were beer tents everywhere and the occasional sound stage set up.



We danced at 'Candy Bar' in the street for a while. It's hard to look this fierce among thousands of drunk people in 10-foot wide streets... but we pulled it off nicely. We went to Soho Square for a while where we talked with many a random people and learned about 'couch surfing', where you can sign on to a website and stay on people's couches for free. Crazy!

In the evening, Ronnie and I ran home to take a quick break. When we returned, Brennon was no where to be found and we couldn't reach him on his mobile. We feared the worst: he was passed out in a bar toilet with his pants around his ankles. We thought we never should have left him alone. But as it turned out, he did some window shopping on Oxford Street and when we found him and told him how worried we were, he pointed out that *I* am that one we need to be worried about [just kidding mom and dad]! Brennon, Ronnie, Nik and I spent the night at 'Ghetto'. Nik taught us how to say 'I come from the ghetto' in a British accent. My accent is getting better, but it's 'too posh' apparently. I need to ghettoise it. Geez, baby steps! Ghetto is a little like Buddies but it's smaller and about 40 degrees inside. I don't understand how these Brits party and travel in such overheated spaces. That reminds me, at the portrait gallery, I pointed to a picture of the 1851 exhibition at Joseph Paxton's Crystal Palace [an exhibition to celebrate industrial and engineering techonolgies] and I told Ronnie that was the last time the UK advanced technologically [a la Erandi DaSilva].

Ronnie, THANK YOU so much for coming. We had so much fun. I won't ever forget Lurky Dan, Retarded Sally or our kilted friends. The soundtrack of his visit includes Steps - Stomp, Nelly Furtado - Maneater, THE BAYWATCH THEME SONG [which is HUGE here], Sugarbabes - Push The Button.. these are good people, check them out.