Camden Market, Film Music Gala, & Notorious Ham (May 14th -16th)

This post is a bit long but on the plus side there are a lot of pictures too.

--- Saturday May 14th ---

Camden Market. What can I say about you? I don't think I've been in a place that was so deliberately crowded all of the time. The Camden Lock Market is a mixture between a temporary farmers market and permanent market. Depending on which day you go, you can expect more or less vendors (and traffic). We went on the second busiest day of the week with Sunday being the busiest. There was no rest from the crowds. If you are prone to anxiety in crowds, germaphobic, don't like noise and/or people, this place may not be for you. (I didn't being my camera with me because the crowds make it easy to pickpocket and taking pictures would have made me an easier target. One of the ladies on our study abroad had here wallet pick-pocketed. Money, credit cards, room key, Id were all gone. Not fun. So I've been taking that seriously in these crowded areas.)

Camden Lock Market
(Not my photo)

Side story related to hating people: We had just barely gotten to the Market when I had lost track of my friends in the middle of a giant maze of clothes. So, doing what was logical, I stopped to look over the crowd to try find them. The Asian lady who owned the stall I had stopped by asked me if I was looking for anything in particular. I replied that I was looking for my friends. She said "Go away then. Shoo! We don't want you here." I'm not the kind of person who gets upset or angry easily but oh boy did I get pissed off with this lady. I never wanted to drop an F-bomb, flip someone off, and curse someone out in general, so much in my entire life. If she had said something like "Sorry, I/we don't allow loitering" or something in a polite way/tone, we would have had no problems. But the fact that she was just straight up rude, uncaring and condescending pushed all of the wrong buttons. I was trying to find my friends. Let me look for a couple of seconds to look and I'll be out of your hair for Pete's sake. And shooing me out? Really?...Oh, if I didn't have such a restraint on my mouth or emotions that could have ended really badly. I just nodded, tipped my hat and moved on. Great first impression on the place right? (I did find my friends btw.)

That being said it's a fun place. There are a lot of arts, crafts, and food there. You can buy shirts, jewelry, antique cameras, kitchenware, used books, and items that were definitely made with utter disregard to copyright laws. It's an interesting little place. The highlights for me was seeing all of the food which also happened to be the busiest part of the Market. There was a Polish sausage stand right next to a Spanish food stand. Indian food next to Colombian. Desserts, pastries, and sweets. Food in all of it's diversity in unity in one place.

Michelle, one of my friends on this study abroad, is a vegan. London has been the most vegan friendly place she has ever been to. At the market we found a vegan Ice-cream and Cookie shop called "Cookies and Scream". They make their ice cream with soy rather than milk. We also stopped at another bakery called "Cupcakes and Shhht" which did a little bit of everything. Gluten-free, dairy-free, or vegan. She was in heaven. If London is anything, it's very conscience of the dietary needs of people.

Cookies and Scream
(Not my Photo)

Cupcakes and Shhht
(Not my Photo)

That night we had the special treat of going to the Film Music Gala at the Royal Albert Hall. The music was played by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. We heard music from films such as: Mission Impossible, The Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter, The Incredibles, Star Wars, Rocky, Pirates of the Caribbean, Gladiator and more. It was so great! There are no words to describe just how awesome it was to hear the music live by a full orchestra.

--- Sunday May 15th ---

It was a Sunday. Went to church. Spoke some Portuguese which was nice. Was asked to help out with the primary children which I wasn't really excited about. Relaxed. Bed. End story.

--- Monday May 16th ---

We went to a place called Ham House today. And to get it out of the way, no it was not a place where they famously made or ate ham. It's actually called the House at Ham but has been simply called the Ham House. To understand why this place was so important, you need to understand what a "whipping boy" is.

Ham House - Front Gate

Back in the day, when royalty were growing up they were just like other kids and they sometimes needed to be disciplined. However it was against the law for royalty to be struck by a teacher or someone of lesser position so they came up with the position of whipping boy. This boy, the same age as the prince, would take the beating in place of the prince. This was a highly prized position. The poor would try to get their sons and daughters to be the whipping boy/girl of the prince and princesses because:

1. They would be taught right along the side of the royalty. The highest education one could receive and get paid...and beaten in place of the prince.
2. You now had a connection with the royal family assuming you got along with the prince/princess. The whipping boy was also considered to be a hired friend. If you got along well you could be well favored for the rest of your life.

So now that we have that out of the way, the house was originally built by William Murray in 1610. William had been Charles I whipping boy and they had remained friends as adults. William did not have the rights to the house but he did design and care for it for the royalty in case they ever wanted to stop by. In 1628, William was given the lease to the house and its estate as a gift by Charles I.

Ham House.
(It was much darker than this)

I don't really have a lot to say about this place. It was cool but it didn't really leave an impression on me personally. That being said there are some cool things. The basement kitchens and the room pictured above with its original tapestries and harpsichord. The gardens around were also interesting. We probably spent the most time there. Some played games. A number of the students made a music video. Other just sat/lay out in the sun.

Playing on the lawns

Part of the Gardens

Behind-The-Scenes of Music Video

Honestly the best part of our visit to Ham House for me was the walk to and from the estate. We walked along the river through the charming little town of Richmond and past fields and forest. A fisherman was panning water out of a little kayak with his dog. He would toss it high into the air and the dog would chase and jump after it, tail wagging. Painters painted the blissful scene of boats, flowers, and sunshine.

Richmond and the River Themes

That evening we watched "Rancho Notorious" at the BFI. The last western on our schedule. It was good movie and we had fun watching it. One interesting thing about it is that it used a song to lead you along in the movie in the same way old greek plays worked. At the beginning it tells you what the story is about, at the middle it tells you some more stuff, at the end it tells you the morale and whatnot. It reminded me of a certain Animaniacs cartoon called "Hearts of Twilight"...froinlaven...

There was one part that we all laughed at that has now become an inside joke for us. There's a random scene in the middle of a sequence that shows a couple of robbers are trying are riding along, wounded from their robbery gone wrong. One falls out of his saddle, dead. The other stops and says "Darn!". The randomness of the scene combined with the timing of the fall, the line, and our tired state just made it hilarious. It became our catchphrase for a couple of days and a meme.

Thanks for reading. I hope you're enjoying the reading as much as I'm enjoying the writing. More coming soon.