When I was in London, I was always so keen to get out of the tube stations. So stuffy, dirty and just icky. I was bemused when I realised that here in Singapore I am keen to get into the nice cool MRT stations out of the stinking heat and humidity. The trains themselves are even cooler than the stations! I’m not sure why it is so different from London. I guess the tube network is much older there - and caters for a supposedly cold climate. Of course it’s not always that cold 200m underground.

This morning I bought a coffee from Starbucks… scoff if you will, but trust me - I reckon that the coffee selection here in London is limited. Well, there is a lot to choose from, but the quality is some what lacking. I suspect that this has something to do with the number of franchise places that sell coffee… and partly to do with the hard water. Anyway, the reason I sometimes get Starbuck’s is because I quite like filter coffee and as long as it’s fresh - it’s much harder to stuff up than espresso.

So this morning I noticed that the price of my grande drip coffee had risen from £1.65 to £1.75. I have been here for about fifteen months and this is the second rise I have seen (when I first arrived it was £1.5– something). Now in the scheme of things, £1.75 is pretty good for a coffee in London. I reckon you can expect to pay anywhere between £2 - £2.50 for an espresso coffee in most places.

People say that I should stop converting currency in my head… but I still do. £2 is an expensive coffee in AU$ ! And yes, I do earn a lot more over here - so perhaps it’s relative.

London certainly is an expensive place. There are lots of people here trying to make a buck or two. Is London the financial capital of the world? Does it exceed say NY in that regard? There is so much money floating around here… it streches from the exceedingly wealthy investment bankers - all the way down to the street cleaners. No wonder so many people see it as a place to seek their fortune.

Anyway, I’m not quite sure what… but I think that there is something significant about the price of that coffee.

Last week I went and saw a Lord of the Rings stage production at the Theatre Royal Dury Lane (London).

It is a musical. Before I went, i couldn’t work out if “stage production” implied “musical” or not.. but just to avoid anyone else’s confusion - there was definately lots of singing and dancing.

I’m too lazy to go into too much detail… but all in all - I don’t think that the story translates terribly well to stage.

There were contrived scenes for song and dance… and some of these were way too long (take note of the prancing pony, the ents, and the hobbits in the shadow of mount doom)

None of the characters were terribly likable, dislikable or moving in any way… and much of the epic grandeur of the story seems to be lost. The characters looked the part… but i’m not sure if it was the actors or their dialogue that made them seem just a little bit flat.

I will say that some of the liberties taken with the plot itself - were quite understandable. Most of this involved cutting out sections of story - but I do think the general flow from end to end still worked. We still had to sit there for three hours.

There is this big, doofus, freindly guy at work. One day I said half to myself - half to Russel, the guy next to me “whoa that guy is a Milton”. Of course Russell didn’t know what “a Milton” referred to and I explained that it is an expression I use to describe big lumbering blokes who are none the less friendly and good natured. I’m sure you know one.

It made me think about why I use that expression. As with many things… it has it’s roots in my wasted child hood. There is a cartoon which was all about Milton the friendly monster. It portrayed the adventures of a monster who had been created with a touch too much tenderness.

On doing my Google research, I was reminded of related classics like “Fearless Fly” and “Hong Kong Phooey”. I guess these are a little dated now.. and I suspect that they may also be a little politically/socially incorrect.

I went and saw Curse of the Golden Flower last night - I wasn’t too impressed.

It did have some nice cinematics, grand sets and beautiful costume. Given this style of Chinese film, I could forgive a degree of over-the-top theatrics and unrealistic action sequences - it’s to be expected. I thought that there was a good degree of drama.. conflict and unexpected twists.

But there were just some points in the film.. that I found really annoying. Take the final battle sequence - I won’t mention details - but there was just some ridiculous one word subtitles that didn’t need to be there.

If I had read a review like this yesterday.. I probably would have gone to see the movie anyway. This movie wasn’t a waste of time.. but it could have been so much better!