re: The non-drowsy Chaperone

I've been a little absent on the internet in the past month, but that is because Emily and I just went to London for Spring Break, and stayed right in the middle of all the fun in her sister's place in Covent Garden. We did a whole lot of everything that London had to offer, including a lot of the mandatory tourist stuff. Every time we would walk by a Ripley’s Believe It or Not! or a wax museum, I would cringe a little, knowing that there was no surer sign that we were in the heart of something touristy.

I loved this sign that we saw on all the ticket booths. Of course the student featured on the international student discount card is a smiling dude with dreadlocks. He looks like everyone I have ever met in a hostel:

Anyway. One night we were feeling ambitious and decided that we ought to embrace our #1 tourist option and take an overpriced spin on the eyesore that is the London Eye to get a fun bird's eye view of London at night. Everyone sits in these little transparent pods and stares at things while the wheel slowly rotates.

To our delight, in the pod right behind us, there was a couple that had splurged and paid a whopping £299.00 for the romantic Cupid's Capsule, which promises an entire pod to yourself with a bottle of Laurent-Perrier Champagne and a luxury box of Charbonnel et Walker pink champagne truffles. Sounds pretty great, right? Just you and your sweetie, suspended above the stunning skyline of the city in an all-glass capsule, feeding eachother chocolates and champagne? No better to guarantee that your date turn to putty in your hands!

What they don't really emphasize is that your champagne and truffles come along with a butler to pour the bubbly and make sure that you don't get up to any hanky panky in the middle of the ride. So what in theory is romantic, actually turns out to be weirdly awkward, because it is just two people on a date in a tiny glass pod with a butler in the corner wearing a suit and pretending that he can't hear everything you are saying. The poor guy tried to kiss his girlfriend at one point, but she was so obviously uncomfortable that he didn't try it again. I am sure it didn't help that our entire pod had our noses pressed to the glass, watching the awkward scene unfold in delight.

At least the butler can take photos of the two of you ...

As the rest of us stare you down.

This was the happy couple's tourist shot that they try to make you buy at the end of the ride. In one frame it almost looks like the happy couple is alone in the pod. Until the back shot shows a creepy butler lurking.