and I answered. I spent perhaps too much money, but I went to London for the weekend. I was there 28 hours from touchdown to takeoff. I got to see Gillian Anderson in What the Night is For. Twice, in fact. I had a seat in the second row on the floor ("Stalls") of the theatre for the evening performance, and someone advised me that I wouldn't be able to see the back of the stage. It turned out to be true. Luckily, I bought a seat for the matinee in the first balcony ("Dress Circle"). Between the 2 shows I got to see both all the action on the stage and the expressions on the actors' faces.
When the first show started, I was briefly lost in my own mind. Gillian's voice doesn't sound "different" in person than what I'm used to, but for some reason there's just something magical about hearing something otherwise familiar in person for the first time after you've only heard it recorded before. (Except for those concerts where they've decided louder is better).
For those of you who think I'm obsessed, well, not exactly. Ok, I have a thing for Dana Scully . Still, I enjoy her work, and so I took the opportunity to go to London. The play was quite good, and despite my dislike of flying I really enjoyed the trip.
As an added bonus I brought back a bunch of Cadbury Twirl bars, one of my guilty pleasures (thanks to USAir back in 2000, when I was on a Frankfurt-Pittsburgh flight coming back from Göteborg, Sweden) along with Cheerwine, and ice cream from the Penn State creamery. Too bad Twirls are so hard to find; At least the ice cream and Cheerwine are available after a road trip, though I wish I knew where in West Virginia I could find 6-packs instead of bottles.
I do wish I had time to stay longer, but since stuntviolist couldn't come, I didn't think it was reasonable to do so.