Shopping is crazy
Thursday's first order of business was to go to Leicester Square to the half-price ticket booth, to see what was available for last night. We got tickets to Blood Brothers, which has been here for ... 20 years, but we'd never seen it.
Then Mom wanted to go to the Wallace Collection at Hertford House, which she had been to once before. To get there, we had to go through Oxford Street (the big shopping street). It's clear that the after-Xmas sales here are as good as the ones at home, if not better. Oxford Street was packed with people yesterday, just like Fifth Avenue in NYC around Xmas. (I took a picture of how crowded it was). Everyone we saw was carrying at least one shopping bag. We had a yummy lunch at a little mediterranean place behind Selfridge's, and then went to seek out the museum. Unfortunately, we didn't get there until 4 (after our great late lunch) so we only had an hour to run through and see everything. :( We'll have to go back -- something we've found to be true all over the place!
Then, since we had nothing better to do we went back to Selfridge's to shop a bit. Mom and I looked at gloves, we wandered through the designer clothes, and then found the shoe department. (please, are you surprised?!) We started looking at boots -- there are a LOT of boots here -- and found some neat ones from Nine West. Mom even tried on a pair of boots that I would attribute to Pocahontas... but we didn't buy anything.
We took the ridiculously crowded bus down Oxford street to Tottenham Court Road, and killed some time in Borders before the show. Dad bought a book of jokes for 1/2 price -- I guess he felt he needed to re-stock! (On the one hand, it's great that he'll have some new jokes. On the other hand... now he has more stupid jokes to tell!)
Very rarely have I ever thought about walking out of a production at the intermission (or 'interval' as it's called here). Let me tell you, I was seriously thinking about it. Blood Brothers is a VERY depressing play (it starts with both main characters dead!). My main point of judgement for a musical is, would I want to buy the soundtrack and listen to it again? and the answer for this one is, NO WAY! My final impression after it was over was "waah, waah, waah." I am shocked to read some of the great reviews of it. Maybe I'm jaded by Les Mis, the Producers, RENT and the like? I dunno. I just wasn't impressed.
So we might spend some time at the British Museum this afternoon (if we ever get out of the Internet cafe...) and then we're going to see Phantom. I am excited to finally see this show. I will recognize some of the music, and maybe I'll have to get the soundtrack? and/or see the movie version that came out last year. We'll see.
Did I mention that it was supposed to be warmer today? Well, fat chance. Today it's rainy and windy and 4 degrees C (39F). When people talk about typical London weather, this is it! Blech. We were going to go to Hampton Court Palace today, but since there's so much wide open space there, we decided that staying in town was probably smarter -- and warmer! Oh well, another thing I'll have to try to do on another trip. Hmmm... Maybe on Tues. after mom and dad have gone?
Don't know if I'll find a network connection tomorrow, so I hope everyone has a great New Year's - enjoy that extra second we all get at midnight tomorrow! Here comes 2006!!
Then Mom wanted to go to the Wallace Collection at Hertford House, which she had been to once before. To get there, we had to go through Oxford Street (the big shopping street). It's clear that the after-Xmas sales here are as good as the ones at home, if not better. Oxford Street was packed with people yesterday, just like Fifth Avenue in NYC around Xmas. (I took a picture of how crowded it was). Everyone we saw was carrying at least one shopping bag. We had a yummy lunch at a little mediterranean place behind Selfridge's, and then went to seek out the museum. Unfortunately, we didn't get there until 4 (after our great late lunch) so we only had an hour to run through and see everything. :( We'll have to go back -- something we've found to be true all over the place!
Then, since we had nothing better to do we went back to Selfridge's to shop a bit. Mom and I looked at gloves, we wandered through the designer clothes, and then found the shoe department. (please, are you surprised?!) We started looking at boots -- there are a LOT of boots here -- and found some neat ones from Nine West. Mom even tried on a pair of boots that I would attribute to Pocahontas... but we didn't buy anything.
We took the ridiculously crowded bus down Oxford street to Tottenham Court Road, and killed some time in Borders before the show. Dad bought a book of jokes for 1/2 price -- I guess he felt he needed to re-stock! (On the one hand, it's great that he'll have some new jokes. On the other hand... now he has more stupid jokes to tell!)
Very rarely have I ever thought about walking out of a production at the intermission (or 'interval' as it's called here). Let me tell you, I was seriously thinking about it. Blood Brothers is a VERY depressing play (it starts with both main characters dead!). My main point of judgement for a musical is, would I want to buy the soundtrack and listen to it again? and the answer for this one is, NO WAY! My final impression after it was over was "waah, waah, waah." I am shocked to read some of the great reviews of it. Maybe I'm jaded by Les Mis, the Producers, RENT and the like? I dunno. I just wasn't impressed.
So we might spend some time at the British Museum this afternoon (if we ever get out of the Internet cafe...) and then we're going to see Phantom. I am excited to finally see this show. I will recognize some of the music, and maybe I'll have to get the soundtrack? and/or see the movie version that came out last year. We'll see.
Did I mention that it was supposed to be warmer today? Well, fat chance. Today it's rainy and windy and 4 degrees C (39F). When people talk about typical London weather, this is it! Blech. We were going to go to Hampton Court Palace today, but since there's so much wide open space there, we decided that staying in town was probably smarter -- and warmer! Oh well, another thing I'll have to try to do on another trip. Hmmm... Maybe on Tues. after mom and dad have gone?
Don't know if I'll find a network connection tomorrow, so I hope everyone has a great New Year's - enjoy that extra second we all get at midnight tomorrow! Here comes 2006!!
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