Covent Gardens(again) and some other things

Well, as I said yesterday, we were headed of to Covent Gardens on a gloomy Saturday afternoon.  However, it was a little bit different view at the South Kensington tube stop.  There were a medium sized group of people drinking all over the place.  As we entered the tube, we wondered why...? More to come later.

Anyways, we got to Covent Gardens and it was PACKED with people.  It reminded me of the state fair.  It was a lot of fun this time.  There were a lot of really really cool acts.  When we first got off the train we were met by these 3 guys....

These guys are fully painted head to toe and do not move AT ALL until a coin of some sort of money is dropped into their jar.  Then they will do some sort of dance and what not until going back to being perfectly still.  I put two pictures of the last guy because he was the best I have seen ever.  He looked exactly like a statue, color and all.  Anyways, we walked around the square and saw a bunch of live music and talent show acts and such.  We then came across this guy,

He plays an instrument called the Sheng.  It is the oldest wind instrument in the world.  The organ and accordion are based off this instrument.  I watched for a while and this guy was great.  We kept walking and found ourselves walking through the markets of Covent Gardens and then eventually got bored so we walked up to Leicester Square and then Piccadilly before making our way home.  On our way through the city we noticed that is was Chinese New Year.  We saw some celebrations for that, but the big celebrations are today. 

This is when I go back and talk about the small party that was happening at the South Kensington Tube stop. We came back and saw this,

Beer, booze, broken bottles and cans everywhere.  I, being interested, went up and talked to two police officers standing there and asked what this was for.  On Feb 6, or the closest Saturday to it, New Zealand celebrates their independence from Britain.  They march through the city and just drink all over the place until they make their way to some meeting point.  They trashed everything and the police officer said it happens every year.  Pretty interesting stuff. On top of all that, the Rugby season kicked off so we saw all sorts of people dressed up in Irish apparel because they played Italy.  It is a huge deal here, Pubs were packed!

This morning we headed to High Street Kensington to go to a Catholic Church.  It is a little different here in that they don't take screaming kids out of the service.  It was a nursery to say the least and it didn't bother anyone but me.  The kids were draining out the microphone of the priest, it was awful.  But, like I said, it didn't bother anyone but me.  9:30 mass at Nativity would silent compared to this mass.

Now I am off to Chelsea to see if I can find a good atmosphere to watch a soccer game, Lord help me!

Cheers

Jimmy