The weather in London has been pretty hot and humid and the walking I've been doing in the last couple of days has really wiped me out. The forecast correctly predicted that it would be even hotter today and I was having a hard time facing more sightseeing in this weather. Very few things in London are air conditioned, including my hotel. It does cool down at night so I've been able to sleep, but it can get bad in the afternoon, especially when the sun is bright as it has been lately.
So today when the morning started out just as hot and miserable as promised I just couldn't face another day on my feet in the sun (or in a stuffy hot building). I decided I needed a down day. So I stayed in my room and read my novel until it got too unpleasant here and then I took a tube to the London Westfield, a big fancy new mall fairly near my hotel. Because malls are always air conditioned, right? Well, sort of.
I was a little shocked when I got there to see that the entrances were huge open spaces, with the muggy London air going right in. They did seem to have some kind of A/C inside because it was a little better than outside, but still not the cool I had been hoping for. And most of the roof was a skylight, so it was like a huge greenhouse. I'm sure that's a wonderful thing most of the year in a city that tends to be chilly and grey, but it's not the thing for summer. And they must do something to protect the entrances in the winter or every one will freeze. It was bearable in there, but not super comfortable. The shops were mostly very fancy and I didn't really want to buy anything. So maybe not as good an idea as I had thought.
I got some very good pizza for lunch and then passed a movie theatre. That sounded good. Movie theaters are usually kept nice and cool in Canada, so I hoped it would be the same here. And it was! And Ghostbusters was playing soon after I checked and I'd been wanting to see that movie. I had a gloriously cool couple of hours watching a very, very funny movie and came back out feeling like a new woman and able to face the rest of the heat wave. By the time I got back to the hotel the worst of the heat for the day was over. Whew!
Seems a bit silly to have spent an afternoon in London watching a movie I could have seen at home, but the weather was really awful. And even on vacation sometimes you need a rest. Plus this was by far the glitsy-est movie theatre I've ever seen, which made it kind of fun. They had **17** screens and a huge, fancy lobby with every kind of junk food known to man available to buy.
I highly recommend Ghostbusters for adults or teens. Some of the ghosts are too scary for children. I liked the original movie very much. I remember going to see it with David when we were first married -- that certainly dates us! I thought this new version did a good job of keeping the main idea of the original while changing up enough to make it fun for the old-timers to see. The gender swap was a lot of fun, of course -- a group of woman fighting the ghosts with supporting male characters this time. The actors were all great and I particularly enjoyed seeing Chris Hemsworth doing comedy instead of being a superhero. Melissa McCarthy is wonderful too, as usual, as were the rest of the ghostbusting team. As expected, there were some great cameos too, which I won't spoil.
The forecast says tomorrow's weather will be a little better. Let's hope they've got that right.
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