The trip to London
Well, we had a lovely day. :)
Got down at about 10.45 and had decided to go and do the London Eye which we haven't done before. So we headed down to Waterloo and luckily the queues for tickets weren't too long. I surprised myself by quite enjoying it (not good with heights). When it got to the very top I did have to sit down because my legs got a bit wobbly. There were also a couple of times when I thought that the pod was wobbling but D told me it wasn't! Despite living in London for 3 years I'd never really gotten it in perspective. I was surprised how close areas looked as I've always travelled by tube.
Afterwards D suggested that we headed over the river and had a look at Westminster Abbey. Sad person that I am started laughing because whenever someone says 'Westminster Abbey' I always think 'Westminster Crabby' as said by Joey when they did the Friends episodes over here! I thought it was a bit odd because to get back to the West End the quickest thing would have been to get back on the Northern Line at Waterloo. But we did and it turned out that he just wanted to get me over in that direction. We kept walking and I realised we were walking down Victoria Street, which got me thinking of any theatres that were down that way. The two obvious ones were the Victoria Palace (Billy Elliott) and Victoria Apollo (Wicked). I mentioned these and D was suitably vague! Time was getting on and D said that we should look for somewhere to eat so I guessed that it had to be one of those two shows, otherwise we would have headed somewhere else before eating. Whilst looking for somewhere we walked past both theatres and I saw that the sign outside the Apollo said 'performance tonight 7.30'. This then ruled that out as a matinee, and D confirmed that yes, it was Billy Elliott that we were seeing :)
Wow, great show. The boy playing Billy (we had Leon Cooke - 4 boys alternate the role) was incredible! It really showed that ballet is not just for wimps and was so impressive. The set was really clever as well. D said he was surprised how funny it was. 'Merry Christmas Maggie Thatcher' was especially funny. The show is due to open on Broadway next year and I would be interested to see how that works. So much of it is entrenched in the miner's strike in the 80s that I don't know how much will be understood. I'd be interested to know how the Americans understand the following in 'Merry Christmas Maggie Thatcher'
(sung to the tune of 'oh my darling clementine')
Oh my darling, oh my darling,
Oh my darling, Heseltine
You're a tosser, you're a wanker
And you're just a Tory swine!
After the show we went straight to the tube and headed back to the West End (specifically Shaftesbury Avenue area which is where most of the theatres are). We ate at Chiquitos in Leicester Square (having to do blood sugar tests before every meal is still very odd, especially in public!) and it got to about 7pm and I started getting itchy about being late (shows start at 7.30). D reasured me that we had plenty of time, therefore leaving me to think that it must be one of the nearby theatres. When we left he took me down Charing Cross. I knew that the first theatre we would hit would be the Palace (Spamalot) and from there we could go up Shaftesbury Avenue to pretty much any theatre.
We got to the Palace and we started to walk up Shaftesbury, down the side of the theatre. I commented that it looked weird seeing non-Les Miz photos on display there (that is where it played from 1985-2004 when it moved to the Queens). D asked me if this felt like my second home. We got to the back of the theatre where the stage door is, and I said that that was DEFINATELY like my second home.
Then he said, right, that that we'd better head back down where we had just come because we were going to see Spamalot! Wohoo!!!
So pleased to be seeing Tim Curry again (we saw the show on Broadway last year) but on the whole we felt the Broadway cast were better. David Hyde Pierce was a big part of this and it would have been amazing if he'd come over with the show. One difference we did notice was with the audience. There seemed to be a lot of laughter and applause as people recognised 'set pieces' from the film such as the Knights that say Ni, the wooden rabbit, and the Black Knight.
We were sitting in row E of the stalls, and at the end of the show when there is a wedding (won't say who to who) they throw the bride's bouquet out into the audience (fabric flowers). It headed our way and we both reached up to catch it, but the bloke (an American) in front of us got their first. As we were leaving I joked to him that we should have caught it because it was our anniversary. We got talking to him as we were leaving and we said we'd seen it on Broadway so he was asking us about the US cast. Then as we were almost out of the theatre, he handed me the bouquet and said 'Happy Anniversary'. So I got the bouquet!!!!
Then as we were leaving I realised that it was exactly a year since we saw it on Broadway. Okay, so not EXACTLY a year, if you allow for the time difference it was a year and 1 hour. We saw the matinee on our anniversary which was 7pm UK time, and this was 8pm :)
We got back to Euston and got on a train at 10.54. Unfortunately it wasn't a fast train so took about an hour, but I dozed most of the way home.
So all in all a really good day :)
But it's not all over! We are off down to London again on Friday for another show. D again won't tell me what it is, but at least I know two that it WONT be. And this time we are staying over night (don't you just love Top Secret deals on lastminute.com) at Riverbank Park Plaza. Then that is the end of our high-flying lifestyle (or the end of D's poker winnings!).
Got down at about 10.45 and had decided to go and do the London Eye which we haven't done before. So we headed down to Waterloo and luckily the queues for tickets weren't too long. I surprised myself by quite enjoying it (not good with heights). When it got to the very top I did have to sit down because my legs got a bit wobbly. There were also a couple of times when I thought that the pod was wobbling but D told me it wasn't! Despite living in London for 3 years I'd never really gotten it in perspective. I was surprised how close areas looked as I've always travelled by tube.
Afterwards D suggested that we headed over the river and had a look at Westminster Abbey. Sad person that I am started laughing because whenever someone says 'Westminster Abbey' I always think 'Westminster Crabby' as said by Joey when they did the Friends episodes over here! I thought it was a bit odd because to get back to the West End the quickest thing would have been to get back on the Northern Line at Waterloo. But we did and it turned out that he just wanted to get me over in that direction. We kept walking and I realised we were walking down Victoria Street, which got me thinking of any theatres that were down that way. The two obvious ones were the Victoria Palace (Billy Elliott) and Victoria Apollo (Wicked). I mentioned these and D was suitably vague! Time was getting on and D said that we should look for somewhere to eat so I guessed that it had to be one of those two shows, otherwise we would have headed somewhere else before eating. Whilst looking for somewhere we walked past both theatres and I saw that the sign outside the Apollo said 'performance tonight 7.30'. This then ruled that out as a matinee, and D confirmed that yes, it was Billy Elliott that we were seeing :)
Wow, great show. The boy playing Billy (we had Leon Cooke - 4 boys alternate the role) was incredible! It really showed that ballet is not just for wimps and was so impressive. The set was really clever as well. D said he was surprised how funny it was. 'Merry Christmas Maggie Thatcher' was especially funny. The show is due to open on Broadway next year and I would be interested to see how that works. So much of it is entrenched in the miner's strike in the 80s that I don't know how much will be understood. I'd be interested to know how the Americans understand the following in 'Merry Christmas Maggie Thatcher'
(sung to the tune of 'oh my darling clementine')
Oh my darling, oh my darling,
Oh my darling, Heseltine
You're a tosser, you're a wanker
And you're just a Tory swine!
After the show we went straight to the tube and headed back to the West End (specifically Shaftesbury Avenue area which is where most of the theatres are). We ate at Chiquitos in Leicester Square (having to do blood sugar tests before every meal is still very odd, especially in public!) and it got to about 7pm and I started getting itchy about being late (shows start at 7.30). D reasured me that we had plenty of time, therefore leaving me to think that it must be one of the nearby theatres. When we left he took me down Charing Cross. I knew that the first theatre we would hit would be the Palace (Spamalot) and from there we could go up Shaftesbury Avenue to pretty much any theatre.
We got to the Palace and we started to walk up Shaftesbury, down the side of the theatre. I commented that it looked weird seeing non-Les Miz photos on display there (that is where it played from 1985-2004 when it moved to the Queens). D asked me if this felt like my second home. We got to the back of the theatre where the stage door is, and I said that that was DEFINATELY like my second home.
Then he said, right, that that we'd better head back down where we had just come because we were going to see Spamalot! Wohoo!!!
So pleased to be seeing Tim Curry again (we saw the show on Broadway last year) but on the whole we felt the Broadway cast were better. David Hyde Pierce was a big part of this and it would have been amazing if he'd come over with the show. One difference we did notice was with the audience. There seemed to be a lot of laughter and applause as people recognised 'set pieces' from the film such as the Knights that say Ni, the wooden rabbit, and the Black Knight.
We were sitting in row E of the stalls, and at the end of the show when there is a wedding (won't say who to who) they throw the bride's bouquet out into the audience (fabric flowers). It headed our way and we both reached up to catch it, but the bloke (an American) in front of us got their first. As we were leaving I joked to him that we should have caught it because it was our anniversary. We got talking to him as we were leaving and we said we'd seen it on Broadway so he was asking us about the US cast. Then as we were almost out of the theatre, he handed me the bouquet and said 'Happy Anniversary'. So I got the bouquet!!!!
Then as we were leaving I realised that it was exactly a year since we saw it on Broadway. Okay, so not EXACTLY a year, if you allow for the time difference it was a year and 1 hour. We saw the matinee on our anniversary which was 7pm UK time, and this was 8pm :)
We got back to Euston and got on a train at 10.54. Unfortunately it wasn't a fast train so took about an hour, but I dozed most of the way home.
So all in all a really good day :)
But it's not all over! We are off down to London again on Friday for another show. D again won't tell me what it is, but at least I know two that it WONT be. And this time we are staying over night (don't you just love Top Secret deals on lastminute.com) at Riverbank Park Plaza. Then that is the end of our high-flying lifestyle (or the end of D's poker winnings!).