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At this very point in time, I am sitting on the Eurostar on my way to Paris! I thought I should take the time to review the London shows that I was able to see during the time I was there.

I was lucky enough to make it to three London musicals, namely The Lion King, Billy Elliot and Oliver! Each of which was fantastic, whilst showing three unique styles of theatre.

The first show we saw, The Lion King, was the one we had purposely picked out as the one we had to see if by chance we were only able to make it to one. Whilst I don’t think I ever watched the Lion King film completely from start to finish, the play almost followed the film script and soundtrack verbatim in parts. The costumes were very innovative, with the performers integrated into the animals they were portraying almost seamlessly.

The style of dance in Billy Elliot was much similar to that in the Lion King, very precise, more concerned with getting even the littlest of movements right. The acting was what you would expect from a drama, matching the original film performance. It was much more intense than either the Lion King or Oliver, particularly towards the close of the first Act when riot police took the stage. It was very powerful.

[Edit: Having watched the film  version of Billy Elliot on the plane from London to Tokyo, I am lead to conclude that the play was much better, in terms of delivering the plot and the power of the performances from the actors and dancers, Billy Elliot the stage musical is much an improvement on the film. Un-needed side-plots were ignored and the side stories that had a real emotional effect, such as Billy’s visions of his mother were emphasised].

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Both Billy Elliot and the Lion King worked well with the space they had on the stage, whilst I think they both had a lot of area to work with, it always felt like they were close to the audience. However, that is where Oliver differed. Oliver had a huge, deep stage, which they filled with a huge number of actors and dancers. Where Billy Elliot and the Lion King may have had a maximum of 20 or so actors/dancers on stage at any one time, Oliver would have had what seemed like 50+ at some points, on a stage setup like a massive streetscape.

All three of the plays used an amazing variety of sets and settings, the choreography of the set changes was almost impressive as the actors themselves.

I can’t see how anyone could ever be bored in London, regardless of all the touristy sights around the city, there are so many high quality theatrical shows, I think it would be impossible not to find something entertaining to do on any given night.

I am currently sitting in Narita Airport, a few hours before I’ll finally fly back to Australia. I’m totally spent. I’ve pretty much just lived through two days consecutively, without darkness let alone sleep, and it isn’t even finished (to give an indication of my tiredness, I am so desperate for coffee, I just spent 450 Yen ($5.50 AUD) on a Cappuccino that is tiny. I’m effectively loitering in the coffee shop, firstly because its directly across from my gate, but secondly because the gate itself is waiting to board a plane to somewhere called Guangzhou and as I don’t really feel like going to Guangzhou right now, I’ll steer clear of the gate until its cleared.

Today started in Paris, up at 6 am (Paris time) to walk down to the train station to see of my Dad and my Brother onto a train to Zurich, where they will spend about a week before heading home themselves. After that I headed to my own train, a Eurostar trip back to London. From there, I made my way on the Tube to Heathrow, arriving about 12.30 pm for my 4.30 pm flight.

Night passed during the flight, however I didn’t get much sleep due to the couple sitting next to me. I was lucky enough to get a seat behind the emergency exit, which gifts you the privilege of as much leg room as you would need, in return for being personally responsible for the safe evacuation of our section of the plane. A responsibility worth bearing. But with a British couple with no sense of respect for the cabin crew or the personal space of others, it was hard to rest during the flight. Throughout I constantly poked, prodded and bumped during the flight by the bloke sitting next to me, who had decided that his own seat didn’t provide enough room in itself, that he needed to spread himself into the seats next to him. Worst of all was their willingness to just throw their used food trays and rubbish onto the floor for the flight staff to pick up, but the same staff were whinged about privately when their English wasn’t sufficient (we were on Japan Airlines so I think they really should have given the flight crew a break …).

I’ve been upgraded to Premium Economy for the flight to Sydney, just through asking. Despite complaints about passengers, which can’t be held against them, I have really enjoyed flying with Japan Airlines. Service on par with Qantas at no where near the price.

It’s now about 5.30pm in Tokyo (Tokyo time, about 9 hours ahead), with my flight leaving around 8.30pm. I’m so desperate for sleep, but am hesitant to do it in the terminal out of fear of missing my flight. I’ve been in the airport since 12.30 and am bitterly disappointed that I wasn’t able to find a PS3 slim in the duty free shops (Wii’s and DS’s are in supply funnily enough…).

You may be able to tell that I’m just a little bit grumpy, but at least I’ll be home soon, to kick off another day by landing in Canberra at 9.30 am. Hopefully I’ll get decent sleep between Tokyo and Sydney. I feel like I’m doing a rewind of a month long trip, crammed into a period of 36 hours, with all the fun parts taken out.

I’ll eventually update on my time in Paris when I get the pics sorted out.

Irish team the Koni Kats have been crowned 2009 F1 in Schools World Champions at the award ceremony held at the Royal Horticultural Halls and Conference Centre in London. The Australian team Redline Racing has taken second, with the Australian-Canadian collaboration team AC Racing awarded third.

The Koni Kats (Ireland, First), Redline Racing (Australia, Second) and AC Racing (Australia/Canada, Third)

The two Aussie place-getters, Redline Racing, AC Racing

The evening was quite the spectacle, with F1 team bosses and technical directors making appearances along side current Formula One world drivers champion Lewis Hamilton

Redline Racing with Lewis Hamilton

Lewis signing the Redline Car

Redline Racing with Williams F1 technical director Sam Michael, who prior to being in charge of engineering at Williams lived and was educated in Australia, attending Radford College in Canberra and UNSW.

Myself with Sam Michael, he is a bit of a personal hero as a Canberra educated Engineer working as a leader in Formula One.

Lewis knows how to draw a crowd as he prepares to test one of the cars (he ended up hand picking the AC Racing entry). Redbull Racing technical director Christian Horner also made an appearance, as did representatives of Force India F1 with the ceremony hosted by ITV motorsport commentator James Allen (with BBC commentator Ted Kravitz still making rounds). All of the F1 celebrities were fantastic to meet, all being enthusiastic to talk to each of the teams.

Whilst disappointed not to take the top prize which included a University scholarship, the Australian teams were happy to claim multiple team awards as well as 2 of the top 3 places Each of the three Australian teams took away at least one team award, with Redline Racing awarded the Fastest Car award (and with it the England v. Australia Ashes!), and team Biohazard from Sydney being awarded best display booth.

The complete Australian related results are has follows:

• 2nd Outright – Redline Racing (Canberra)
• 3rd Outright – AC Racing (Noosa/Canada Collaboration)
• 4th Outright – Bio-Hazard (Sydney)
• Fastest Car – Redline Racing
• Best Collaboration Team – AC Racing
• Best Design Portfolio – AC Racing
• Best Pit Display – Bio-Hazard
• Australia v. England Ashes for fastest car – Redline Racing

Complete results to follow.

Congratulations to the winners and all the teams that competed in this years F1 in Schools, from International to regional competitions.

Attempted journalism style post imminent… I will update this blog within the next few hours with the final results.

F1 in Schools – 2009 World Championships

The 2009 F1 in Schools World Championships held at the Royal Horticultural Hall and Conference Centre is drawing to a close!

The Redline Racing Team, from Canberra, Australia performed extremely well throughout the competition, taking out the outright quickest car and making it through to the quarter finals of the knock out reaction round, where the cars are triggered by a member of the team, in an Formula One style light guided start.

The team was also assessed on verbal presentation of their design along with marketing materials, industry collaboration, sponsorship and research. The team was also required to produce a team booth and design portfolio as well as an engineering assessment of the car design itself. The team was confident of their performance, despite a few mishaps, such someone who had become lost walking into and interrupting their verbal presentation and a couple of disordered cue-cards.

The Redline Racing Team (left to right): Annie Harper, James Mazengarb, Alistair Smith, Chris Law and Daniel Boucher with BBC Formula One commentator Ted Kravitz.

The Redline Racing Team claiming the F1 in Schools “Ashes” after leading all Australian and English schools through the speed trials. Head of F1 in Schools Australia and the Re-engineering Australia founder Michael Myers on the far left.

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A selection of some of the team display booths

More to come…

Apologies for the lack of recent updates being caught up in the sights of London and guiding others around the city, I haven’t been able to sit down and workout some posts. But I have finally taken a morning break to write some updates (effectively buying a second breakfast to justify sitting in a coffee shop for almost 2 hours). There are plenty more to come as well, which should hopefully make an appearance in the next few days. There are plenty more images to come as well.

I’ll include links to each of the posts below, as there is quite a few of them and I’m not sure how they’ll display on the blog.

• St. Paul’s Cathedral
• The Competition Begins
• British Museum, London Eye and Time Team!
• London Explored

I’ll leave you with the fantastic image of my brother “riding the lion” in Trafalgar Square.

A quick picture update from London.

My brother in one of the red phone boxes that are scattered around London. I don’t quite understand the tourist fascination with these. As far as I’m aware, there’s only one last TARDIS, but these are everywhere!

A sneaked shot from within Australia House, home of the Australian Consulate, where the Australian F1 in Schools teams were invited for breakfast. This hall, of course, was used as the set for Gringotts bank in Harry Potter. Apparently shooting for the Potter film took six weeks, for a scene that lasted just a few minutes.

Buckingham Palace and the changing of the guard. I was a little under whelmed by the changing of the guard, with so many people turning out to watch, with the police having to close off the street during the ceremony, there wasn’t much to it. The guards with band march in and enter the palace grounds. Music is played for about 20 minutes whilst the actual changing takes place, and then they march out again. It really was hard to see what was going on as the ceremony is effectively shielded by the palace gates. Unless you are standing right up against the gates, you really can’t see much.

Behind the palace is Hyde Park and Hyde Park corner where the Australian War memorial in London is. The memorial consists of a wall with every town and city from which people who have served for the Australian defence forces has come from (Australian towns or otherwise). Canberra, Tuggeranong and Nimmitabel all make appearances! Nimmitabel was a little hard to find, after about 30 minutes of searching, we discovered that it was in fact around the back of the wall where two panels had been hidden.

Harrods! Same feeling in Harrods as you get when visiting a museum. Everything is beautiful to look at, but you know its all too valuable to take home. The prices are just as much a spectacle as the items themselves (examples being 35 Pounds for a dozen oysters and a 95,000 Pound chandelier!)

Yesterday was a busy day! Having started the day with plans to see the British Museum in the morning and to do the London Eye in the Afternoon, we also managed to day along to see the show Oliver with the Redline team. (we have also seen Billy Elliot and the Lion King, which I will post an update about later).

The British Museum has an amazing collection of important historical artefacts, serving not as a museum for British history, but more as an example of world history, with exhibitions dedicated to ancient Egypt, Africa, Asia and the Americas (disappointingly, Australia seems to be missing, but I suppose modern Australian history is relatively young, plus its not why I went to the museum in the first place, but it would have been nice to see us included).

A trip on the London eye was a fantastic experience, just like St. Pauls Cathedral, it provides a fantastic perspective of the city. The ever changing view allows you to take in different parts of the city and towards the end, provides probably the greatest views of the Westminster area, with the Houses of Parliament, Big Ben and the Abbey, from anywhere in the city.

With what must be an amazing coincidence of timing, for the last few days, there has been excavation working occurring on the grounds of Westminster Abbey. It was a little hidden at first, as the whole strip from Victoria station, to Westminster and up to Trafalgar Square is undergoing maintenance works (in anticipation for the 2012 Olympics, I think). Walking past we discovered that it is a excavation for the show Time Team! They are digging up the early foundations of the Abbey for an episode of the show to air early next year. All of the shows ‘stars’ were also on site!

I simply cannot believe the amount of luck that I have had during this trip. Things that would be notable sights on any given day, I’ve discovered out of chance by just walking around where ever I am. Be it Time Team at the Abbey or the Buddhist Temple in Tokyo, the number of things I have discovered without prior planning has been amazing.

The 2009 F1 schools kicked off on Tuesday (15 September) at the Royal Horticultural Halls and Conference Centre in Westminster, London. This, off course was the spark for this whole journey, as my brother is a member of the Redline Racing Team, representing Australia (see below for a picture of the team at Australia House).

The competition as drawn 31 teams, representing 17 countries (many more are represented by individual students), with each team bringing a unique approach to the competition, their displays and the designs of their cars. The make up of the teams were equally diverse, with teams representing each continent, some teams consisted of hybrid, collaboration teams, such as partnerships between Australia and Canada, and combinations of Scotland, China, the United States, Germany and South Africa.

At the end of the first complete day of racing, Redline Racing were well placed. Originally running in second the team were elevated into first place after the previous leader was penalised for having a car that did not meet weight requirements. Each of the teams are assessed on the speed of their car, as well as verbal presentations and the quality of their display booths, with approximately equal weighting. With the fastest car on the track, the team refocused on the presentation of their team and design with a welcomed confidence boost.

The competition continues for the following three days, with the conclusion on Thursday 17 September corresponding with a visit from current Formula One world champion Lewis Hamilton!

On Monday I was lucky enough to visit the amazing St. Paul’s Cathedral within the central City of London.

Whilst the current version of the cathedral is at least its fifth major iteration of the building (with the last destroyed in the Great Fire), the building itself, both as an example of architecture and of engineering is inspiring.

The modern version of St. Paul’s is rather unique for Britain, being one of the few dome topped cathedrals. The design allows for the fantastic experience of being able to climb to the top of the dome, giving amazing views of the city of London. It makes a pleasant change, as travelling around the city you begin to feel closed in by the buildings. Evidenced by the numerous occasions when I have passed close by to prominent sights without even knowing they were there (such as passing close to Buckingham Palace almost daily whilst going through Victoria Station without realising how close it really was). The views from St. Paul’s allow you the chance to put the city into perspective.

The view from the top of the dome, looking down into the Cathedral.

The unusual, unsupported staircase from one of the Cathedral spires, which apparently is another site used as a Harry Potter set.

The dome top allows you to walk completely around its peak, giving a literal 180 degree view of London.

As alluded to in an earlier post, I am now back in London after an enjoyable trip through Wales. I have also now met up with my Dad, as well as my brother and the rest of the F1 in Schools contingent.

Whilst the F1 group are off doing their own planned activities, I have been charged with introducing some of the London sights to Dad before we start to explore new areas of the city again and have currently made second trips to the Tower of London, Tower Bridge and through Westminster, which has worked out well as I’ve picked up places I missed the first time round (I can’t believe how close I’d gotten to Trafalgar Square without seeing it).

Above is a monument within the walls of the Tower of London, recognising those who were executed within grounds of the Tower of London itself (most were usually done externally on Tower Hill). The monument alone names Queen Anne Boleyn, Queen Catherine Howard, Jane Boleyn, and Lady Jane Grey. All figures of the Tudor period.

Off to see the Abbey and Buckingham Palace again tomorrow, and will hopefully venture out to a West End show in the evening.

This morning we had the pleasure to accept an invitation for breakfast at the Australian High Commission here in London. Held in Australia House on Strand. The breakfast was very nice, and was held amongst officials and representatives of the High Commission, providing the opportunity for the F1 in Schools teams to introduce themselves and the competition.

We learnt a cool piece of trivia whilst we were there, the main atrium within Australia House was used as the interior setting for Gringotts Bank in Harry Potter!

The marble floors and chandeliers are original to Australia House

I will endeavour to include some pictures of some of the latest adventures as soon as I can get access to them.