Thursday - Day FourLast night after uploading yesterday's page, Nico decides that she is hungry so she she is going to heat up some of the leftover hot and sour soup from the Persian Jewish Chinese restaurant. Now, Randy Newman once sang a song that said, "short people have no reason to live". You have to understand that Adrian and Jocelyn are by no means short people, like someone we know, and there are certain things in their flat that are really out of the way, like the microwave oven which is on top of the refrigerator. Nico gets the soup in the oven okay and even gets the timer buttons pressed to start to heat up the soup but the problem occurs when the soup has to be removed. The dish has turned and is now out of reach. Nico: I ga need some help gettin' this out. I go and take the dish out but it's not hot enough yet so I put it back and set the timer for another minute and head back to the couch. Nico: Don't go too far, I ga need you in a few seconds. Ah, the life of the vertically challenged. * Yeah fine. My turn. Today Philip and I went to DISNEYLAND. (Yep, Philip went to Disneyland. I took pictures. I have proof.) We arrived around lunchtime, and it wasn't too crowded, as it is a Thursday (as you read above). I had been to Disneyland before, back in 1976, and I had vague memories of a small, rather run-down place (as I was back then an aficionado of DisneyWORLD, which was closer to the Bahamas and which was much newer and bigger and shinier back then). This time though the park was very nice. Everything is very well kept, and there is construction going on eagerly, and all the Disney employees (who are all VERY friendly - so much so that Philip confided that he wouldn't last a day as a Disney employee) wear really cool uniforms. When I went before too there were several rides in Disneyland that weren't in Disneyworld - for example, the Matterhorn - and vice versa. Now, though, there are very few differences between the two (not including Epcot Center etc). So Philip and I strolled around, quite happily, and then we began picking the rides. The first one we went on was Star Tours, which is a ride based on the Star Wars movies. The basic concept is that we are going on a flight to Endor. In this attraction the line is very well managed; it is designed like a Star Wars-type airport and as you near the attraction you get different bits and pieces of information. When we get to the starship, we get in and we are told what to do a la an airplane, and then the attendant leaves the ship, saying "Good luck". In case any of you go to Disneyland, we won't tell you anymore, but we will say that although the thrill of the ride was not what it would have been had we been a couple of decades younger, we were fascinated by the way in which the ride was designed and the way in which the effects were achieved.
Philip in Disneyland After Star Tours, we decided we would eat something, so we stopped into one of the pavilions and got some food. Then we found a map of the park and decided that we would like to go on the Indiana Jones ride. Now I was very excited about that prospect but when we got there we found out that the ride was temporarily closed as there was some maintenance to be done. The closing was very temporary - it would be open again by the evening - but as we had booked tickets to 'Dreamgirls', the musical, which was playing in Rodondo Beach, we couldn't stay. So we went off to make sure we would be able to get into Space Mountain, which I have heard about for a long time but have never been on. At Disneyland these days you can buy a FastPass at popular rides, which allows you to avoid standing in line to get in. What you do is you take your entrance ticket (your passport, in Disney parlance) to a machine, put it in, and get out a FastPass. The FastPass tells you when you can come back, and then when you return you are admitted high up the line. So when we came back from Indiana Jones we made sure we got our FastPasses. Then we went to "Honey I Shrank the Audience", which was a very amusing 3-D attraction, and then we wondered around a place called Innoventions, which is a collection of cutting-edge inventions. Then we did Space Mountain (finally!!!), which was as good as everyone said it would be, but too short. * We left Disneyland in time to get to Rodondo Beach to pick up the tickets for 'Dreamgirls' and to have something to eat. We went to a sushi bar not far from the beach, and then met AD at the theatre. 'Dreamgirls' was very good. The lead ('Effie White') was played by the woman who, on broadway, originated the role of 'Asaka' ('Once on This Island') and she was excellent, as was everybody else. We were all very satisfied with the show. |
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