The Sultan's Elephant

So, I saw Mission Impossible III on Thursday down at the Marble Arch Odeon. I thought that it was an okay movie. Nothing ground-breaking but good brainless entertainment and a good night out nonetheless. I was interested in all the bits set in Shanghai as it was only eighteen months ago that I was there.

Then, on Friday I spent some time getting my money's worth wandering around the Michelangelo Drawings exhibition at the British Museum. Also discovered that it's a great place to meet members of the opposite sex! Then read something over the weekend that said that the V&A was the number one museum for meeting future partners. Wow! Who'd have thought it!? I'll have to check that out next!

On Saturday, we were lucky to have a warm dry morning but with rain forecast (surprise!) so I hurriedly walked into London to hunt down the Sultan's Elephant...

As it was it wasn't that hard to find. It seems as if any event organised in London nowadays draws huge crowds. So I walked past Buckingham Palace and down The Mall. I knew that something was going on as the Mall was closed to traffic. So I turned down into Pall Mall and things were still quiet. The streets were still sealed off, so I knew that I was getting close.

Then I spotted my first clue. A row of cars seemingly wrecked by the side of the road. I was so intent on looking for the elephant that I almost walked past without noticing. The cars were stitched together, literally! The rope that was sewn through their bodywork was made to look as if it went into the tarmac too. Tres cool!


Then ahead I heard music. I turned the corner into Waterloo Place and there was a giant puppet of a girl with little kids swinging backwards and forwards on her arms! Getting better...

I then carried on towards Trafalgar Square and just as I walked past Haymarket I saw a sight that took my breath away! It was like a scene from a monster movie. There down the other end of the street coming around the corner was the mechanical elephant that I had been searching for! Three stories high it turned onto Haymarket with hundreds of people milling around its feet taking pictures or just plain staring in astonishment!

A huge childish grin plastered itself onto my face. It was just so f***ing amazing! I hadn't known what to expect and this was too cool! I walked towards it and joined the local paparazzi snapping away. Shots from the front, from the side. How could something so large and obviously so heavy move so gracefully, I wondered?

I knew that it's destination was Trafalgar Square, so I headed there before it got there. By now the giant girl had finished playing with the kids and was now walking into the Square joined by the huge elephant. I got a good central spot and just carried on grinning.

They had closed off most of the major roads around the West End but, in my opinion, it was so original and amazing to see, that it was all so very worth it. Though I had only just seen an hour or two's worth of the event, it had in fact started on Thursday with a giant capsule smoking in the street having apparently crash landed from space and ended up on Sunday with the giant girl blasting off in her rocket

I look forward to seeing what the French theatre group who orchestrated the spectacle plan next for us Londoners. I'm sure they will be back.