Moving to London

I managed to squeeze in a workout in Southend in the morning and grabbed some lunch before Donna picked us up and drove us to Westcliff Station. She’d been on night shift so we were lucky to get her. Couldn’t think of anything worse than night shift, especially every two weeks for a week at a stretch.

We caught the train to West Ham then to Waterloo and then Pitney where we were staying in an AirBnB. As we still had much of the afternoon and evening to go, once we’d settled in we went into Leicester Square to the half price ticket booth to see what tickets we could buy. The selection was rapidly dwindling, which wasn’t surprising for the time of day. In the end we settled on The Dresser.

It starred one of the League of Gentlemen, Fleur from Absolutely Fabulous and the pharmacist from Doc Martin. I think I recognized the other main character but couldn’t place him. The performance was excellent but I think the story lacked something as it started to feel like a 2 hour and 10 minute production. Dad slept through most of it.

New Year’s Eve

We braved Regent Street but surprisingly it wasn’t too busy. Sales were everywhere but I rapidly ran out of energy for checking out all the stores. I bought a T-shirt from Ted Baker, tracksuit pants and chinos from Uniqlo and checked out a few other stores before we decided we’d had enough and needed a rest.

After a few hours rest at home we got ready for New Year’s Eve and headed into Central London to meet my friend, Paul, and Donna at Paul’s hotel. We walked to l’Ulivo, an Italian restaurant right near Heaven, where Donna, Paul and I were going to ring in the New Year.

We walked past a long queue of people who had tickets to see the fireworks from the banks of the Thames. When Glen and I had gone years before, we didn’t need tickets and we managed to stand right behind the London Eye. No way would I want to queue for that.

Dinner was nice, filling too, and went well with a bottle of prosecco. Fortunately the station at Embarkment was still open for two-way travel so after dinner we put Dad on the underground to go home and the three of us joined the queue for Heaven.

We got in at opening, checked our coats, bought some drinks, checked out the multiple dance floors and danced along to pop music. We made a friend – Peter – who was there by himself and made random acquaintances throughout the night. I was unwittingly given a counterfeit £5 note that the bartender pointed out and then gave me a real one to make up for it. How nice.

Donna and I had a wish come true: that they’d play Let It Go from Frozen. They played it as the second last song of 2016. Ecstatic! The countdown happened with the pop bad Steps on stage. They then disappeared without singing anything until 1:30. Donna left just before them as she was fighting a cold but Paul and I stayed.

Steps was advertising the fact that they’d been around for 20 years which was a sobering thought. When I first went to G-A-Y and Heaven, I was 19 and dancing with mostly other young people. And while it’s not yet been 20 years, time has definitely passed. I knew one of Steps songs (Tragedy) and the other five I had no clue about. They didn’t sing 5, 6, 7, 8 which I think was an oversight.

We left sometime around 3 or 4, I can’t quite remember which and headed back to the hotel.

New Year’s Day

Paul was out of the hotel early as he had to catch a flight to Malta, as you do. Donna and I took our time getting up, then headed downstairs to take advantage of their breakfast buffet. We then had a rather tired journey to Putney.

Despite our best intentions, once we were inside again we didn’t really want to go anywhere. In fact, I went to bed and caught up on sleep. Long gone are the days when I can function on minimal sleep after a big night out.

In the evening we walked up to Jackie’s for delicious dinner, some wine and a catch-up. Always a good time. And then we walked home at about ten for some more sleep.

Hampton Court Palace and Wimbledon

Not wanting to waste a morning, we caught the bus out to a Hampton Court Palace for a bit of a look around. It’s been years since any of us have visited. Unfortunately we only had limited time so we only saw about half of it, and didn’t get to go in the maze either. But we made the most of it.

We donned our velvet robes (the hand them out for you to wear during your visit…except not in the gardens) and stuck the audio guide to our ears and followed the Henry VIII royal chambers tour. I really liked the interpretation here. The guide filled in much of it, available in two different styles, with some proclamations and household rules stuck to the walls. There’s also an app and various trails.

I also liked the Georgian interpretation, particularly the games room, where there were four tables that each featured a game from the era. We sat down to play Win or Lose, which encouraged others to take a table too. I won 🙂

All too soon we had to leave to catch the train to Wimbledon to meet Jo and Roger for lunch at Le Pain Quotidien. The food was good and the company even better. It was a shame to say goodbye as one afternoon is never enough.

After lunch we caught the bus back to Putney, and Donna packed up her stuff and ran to catch the train back to Essex. In the evening I went to Richie and Jenny’s for dinner. They’re a couple of doctored from back home and Richie is in London to do a fellowship.

They’re living in the new posh part of Kings Cross which looks amazing and definitely does away with the old impression of Kings across. Apartments there must cost a fortune!

I met their six month old daughter Aurora, who, not to sound too conceited, took a shine to me, and I to her. Talk about adorable. The hours past in conversation and eating curry before I caught trains back to Putney.

Getting Our Art On

I finally returned to the gym, signing up for one that’s a couple of streets away from where we’re staying. It’s a good facility, the only slight minus being that it’s spread out over four floors so until you figure out where everything is, it can be a bit confusing. Still, it was good to hit the weights again after a few days off.

Afterwards, Dad and I headed into the city as I was keen to see the National Portrait Gallery, which is one of my favourites. We forewent the paid exhibitions and instead spent our time in the free ones. My favourites are the Tudor Gallery and the more modern gallery. The Tudor gallery just seems so iconic and recognizable to me, while the modern is more relatable.

After about an hour and a half, we went for lunch at Pret then went briefly into the very busy National Gallery. The only reason we went in was so I could show Dad Holbein’s The Ambassadors and its visual illusion with the skull. I have since been told I’ve committed sacrilege by not seeing the Caravaggio exhibition which was on display.

Our dose of culture done for the day we went up to a Regent St so Dad could buy a jacket from Uniqlo and have a coffee from Nespresso. From there we went to Burrough Markets as it was closing, and then I met a friend from Australia for a drink before going to meet Noel and Marcus for Japanese in Soho. Thanks to Marcus, I’ve now bought a copy of Five on Brexit Island.

Kinky Boots

Feeling a little under the weather I spent the day at home. This gave me a chance to do a bit of planning for our trip to India which is in a couple of weeks. Nothing has been booked except flights in and out. Trains book up. It’s a little worrying. A little clearer on what we’re doing and when but still lots to do.

In the evening we headed to Covent Garden to meet Jackie for dinner at Wagamama. The place was busy, we had to queue, but, whether by design or accident, the staff were great at managing our expectations.

The waiter said the wait would be fifteen minutes and food would take 25 minutes. In actual fact we waited for five minutes before being shown a table. Food took about 25 minutes but we were all done well before we needed to leave to collect our tickets. The food was pretty good, considering in the past Wagamama’s has left me a little underwhelmed, but this time it hit the spot.

I collected the tickets from the Adelphi, meeting Donna out the front. She’d come up from Essex to join us for Kinky Boots. The seats were good, although I had a tall guy’s head in my way through the second half. Hopefully I wasn’t ‘the tall guy’ for the person behind me.

The show was a lot of fun. We all remarked on how good the Angels were (the drag queen ensemble), and the guy who was Lola was excellent. I thought the conflict at the end was a little forced but overall the story was fun, different and enjoyable. Some catchy tunes in there and a great performance. Glad we got to see it…especially as Glen saw it in Melbourne at New Year’s.

A Change of Plans

Thursday we were meant to take the train to Lincoln (a three-hour journey north) to stay with friends Ashley and Karen. Unfortunately they’d come down with chest infections following their trip to New York over New Year’s and weren’t feeling very good. We’ll see them next time though.

So, now with a day and a half ahead of us that we needed to fill, we went into the city to the half-price ticket booth and bought tickets to that evening’s performance of Art at the Old Vic Theatre. I’d seen posters for it in the Tube and two lots of friends had said how good either the current performance was or the play itself. And considering it was by Yasmina Reza (who also wrote God of Carnage) I was hanging out to see it.

Tickets bought we went to the Wellcome Collection to see their latest exhibitions, Bedlam and Making Nature. I forget how I’d heard about this place but Glen and I went here a few visits ago and loved it. The exhibitions were interesting, particularly the one about the cultural constructions around nature and wildlife, but after a couple of hours our brains were full and feet were sore.

I bought some books and a couple of things in the gift shop (Glen would be proud that I’d gone into a bookshop) and then we sat for a tea. With time to spare, we went home for a while before setting out to see Art.

What a performance! What a play! We had excellent seats in a packed house. The writing is so damn good in this play that it was just a treat to listen to the words alone, never mind how else it was put together.

The play is about three friends, one of whom buys a completely white painting for 100,000 Euros. One of the other friends can’t bear the thought of this and what it means about their friendship. The third friend is stuck in the middle.

Actually, that’s what happens. What it’s about is the meaning of ‘art’ and how relationships are constructed. It’s brilliant. And at 90-minutes it was sheer perfection. I could easily see it again, especially as it had the same sort of destructive force that was in God of Carnage.

I felt sorry for the actor who played Serge though, as his voice was going, but nevertheless it was an excellent production. Thoroughly enjoyed it and I’m so glad we got to see it.

Afterwards we went to Wahaca for dinner, still busy at 9:30pm, and then caught the train. Serendipitously, Jackie was on the same train and completely by chance sat on the seat behind us, spotting us just as she sat down. We chatted, a nice way to end a really good day.