We woke up at 8am again and had our usual breakfast. Though
I think I skipped the cereal this day. We went straight to Leicester Square to
get theatre tickets. We were undecided about which show to see – contenders
were Les Mis, Guys and Dolls, Chicago, High Society, and the ballet. I wanted
to see High Society most because of the music, but would have been happy with
Chicago too. Brooke Shields had been Roxy Hart recently, but it seemed like her
season had finished. I would have been at Guys and Dolls in a flash had the
cast not just changed away from Ewan McGregor. Wow. What a show that would have
been. We were also tossing up seeing Ian McKellen in drag in Aladdin, but it
was a panto and the rest might have been crap. Anyway, Jess decided to go with
my choice. We happily trotted away with our £25 tickets.
From there we went to Green Park station and walked to
Buckingham Palace. It wasn’t a guard changing day, but we did see the horse
guards arrive with their long red jackets covering the horses’ rear ends. After
some photos we walked to Hyde Park Corner, and just as we came in sight of
Wellington Arch it started to sleet. It was supposed to be five degrees but I’m
sure it was colder.
We crossed into Hyde Park with the pigeons and went down a
bit of Rotten Road before crossing over to Knightsbridge and heading for
Harrods. Highlights here were the piccolo on sale for £424, the original
artworks, the trussed-up wood pigeons, and the piece of jewellery on sale for
£37,000 down from £91,000. Insane! The Tiffany stuff was just beautiful, but no
huge rectangular Audrey Hepburn diamonds. We didn’t buy anything, thought I was
tempted by the Belgian chocolates. Jess couldn’t find a small enough piece of
fois gras to buy.
We decided to walk to the Royal Albert Hall from Harrods,
which proved to be further than we thought. We passed the amazing Albert
memorial in Hyde Park on the way. So golden and detailed (and my photo is gone.
. .). We walked into the box office section of the Albert Hall and the tours
weren’t running that day. But as soon as I saw photos of the interior theatre I
vowed to see a concert there. It is absolutely beautiful with seats, then
boxes, then seats, then boxes rising impossibly high out of sight. Just
brilliant.
We walked around the back and I got a great photo of the
building with some rare sun on the warm colours (alas, gone now). Jess found
the amazing Science Museum building and we walked the endless underground
tunnels to South Kensington station. That put us on the right line for Westminster
station and we got out and gawped at Big Ben – just in time for it to strike
3pm (got a photo but it’s gone). I took a photo of the eye (also gone) but it
was closed for maintenance so we couldn’t go on it.
We walked around the corner to see the Houses of Parliament
and the protests set up on the road opposite, continuing on to Westminster
Abbey. Jess had never been there so she went in, asking me to come back to
collect her at about 4.30. I needed something meaty to eat, so in desperation I
went back into the Westminster warren of tunnels (station, that is) and
followed the signs to Maccas. Unfortunately, I was three blocks up besides the
Thames before I gave up on finding it. I was starving and cold and my feet were
killing me so I turned left and left again to try and complete the block to
where I started. On my way up Whitehall I saw the horse guards in their
courtyard surrounded by tourists. I then came across a café and walked in
without thinking and a waiter showed me to a table immediately. It was only
then that I looked at the prices, and they were fairly steep. I decided on
chicken soup, since it was £2.80. It was quite good, and warm in the café,
though they managed to charge me £3 in the end.
I kept on and ducked into Tescos to get more bread and
juice. After that it was time to meet Jess and so, after a false turn up past
the Houses of Parliament, I met up with her outside the Abbey. We had a choice
here – we could either hurry for the evensong service at St Paul’s, or just
meander up the road to the evensong service at Westminster Cathedral. We opted
for the easy way. In the end it was further than we thought and we only just
made it in time. The cathedral was beautiful and the music was interesting. It
was quite medieval and monophonic for ages, but it suddenly broke into the most
beautiful minor harmony. Just amazing. Really clever choir of male voices.
We didn’t stay for the next service as time was getting away
so we headed for the nearest tube station which proved very elusive. We ended
up at Buckingham Palace and then got onto a signposted route, which was quite
long and painful, before we found it. We headed straight back to Oxford St,
cooked our remaining pasta and sauce, and hightailed it to the Shaftesbury
Theatre to see High Society.
Our seats were right in the middle of the stalls, and so
apart from the guy in front of me with the giant head, we had a good view. The
cast was very good – Tracy was excellent, though had a weak upper register,
Mike had a real Frank Sinatra thing happening in ‘You’re Sensational’, and C.K.
Dexter Haven just had a wonderful voice. An understudy was playing Liz, and
while I thought she was good in the first half, she just didn’t cut it in her
solo ‘It’s All Right With Me’. The orchestra was very good – the piano-playing
leader had a camera linking his image to a monitor on the balcony facing the
stage. We could see it so saw how embarrassed he was when he accidentally
landed on the keys between songs. There was only one reeds player who was
billed as tenor/clarinet/picc but we didn’t hear a picc or a tenor. The other
horn chair was trumpet/flugel – an amazing player. So in harmonised horn lines
the reeds player was on alto and the brass player on flugel sounding like a
tenor. The reeds player’s flute left a lot to be desired but his alto and
clarinet were very good. On the whole, the show was very good – the orchestra
were great at bringing the dynamics down when the vocals were happening.
That finished close to 10pm and we headed back to the hostel
a lot more leisurely-like than we went. On the way we stopped at Tescos and
Jess got wine gums, drinking chocolate and baked beans, and I got some muesli
bars, vodka shots, and chocolates.
Back at the hostel, we had a late night sausage feast and
drank the vodka with soda. We chatted to some of the inmates – Carlos and
Guilarme (?) from Brazil and a girl from Argentina whose English wasn’t very
good. Jess got talking to some people who spoke French and was in her element.
I think she stayed up later than me. I was in bed by about 11.30.
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