Tea with Royals

London calling!

Leicester is all torn up with big promises of improvements coming this year! It's not so torn up as to not find tkts and book a matinee and evening show....I'm being so educational! The matinee is Three Days in May about Churchill. The second is on oldie The Ladykillers!I'm also going to try to see Rock of Ages and Jersey Boys while I'm here! You'll forgive me if I forego  Tussauds, right? I also want to see Tyne Daly in Master Class about Maria Callas but it doesn't start until the 21st-does that mean I'll be back or I'm not leaving ? On another funny note Sharon Gless is already here and her show is getting ready to close on the 14th. A Round-heeled Woman-weren't we just talking about women like that, Mol? It may have been late at night/early in the morning, knowing us;) I want to see them all;)

I walk around London feeling a part of the country,  but in a different way than Scotland or Ireland. Somehow there I feel more grounded by history. Honestly, grounded, like connected to the earth grounded-I haven't had any wine, I swear. But London. Is bustle-y and I love that feeling. Although it seems like California in that everyone seems to be from somewhere else! London looks like...London. It looks like it did when I was here almost 20 years ago, like it did in Love Actually (one of my favorites) and somehow how it looked when there were rolling down the streets in horse-drawn carriages or when we saw A Christmas Carol last month;)  London is just so London! In Trafalgar  there's the addition of an Olympic clock ticking down. I've been surprised initially by the Olympics and jubilee "stuff"....you can buy anything with either of the events featured on it! Hello....royal wedding....oh geez that was soooo 2011! Time flies! I wonder where I'll be for any of that? On the plane to London  I read a article about the man who had lent his barge to the queen for her float down the Thames. He was an orphan visited by Philip when he was very young and now he's very successful. Practically sounds like an American rags-to-riches story! Anyway the barge is hidden away being outfitted for the jubilee...how do you hide a barge? Grandma, you and Grandpa took one in France, I know. I'm sure people were lined along the river cheering you both on. I would have been! But I'm not interested in any jubilee or Olympics "stuff"....oh the freedom of an already full backpack;) I know this is a lesson I'll be taking " home".

Never been this theatre that I know of but I love getting to walk by all the pics...Maggie Smith-love! And John Gielgud just makes me well up. I think they should change this nameplate though....isn't it DAME Judi Dench? :) it's a small theatre and makes me think of how many shows we've fallen in love with in tiny theatres, mom;) I'm at Trafalgar but in the studio theatre. It's perfect! I'm three rows up in the center! I can see and hear everything perfectly! Yay tkts! 

Three Days in May is amazing! It takes place in May of 1941. It's six men,  one table, one desk  and some chairs and the acting is soooo good. I love it! At intermission, a new friend and I try to discreetly find the person whose cell phone has been going off;( no luck but it doesn't go off again for the rest of the show;) after the show everyone is throwing in their two cents about where they were, mostly they were little children. I think of my mom and dad and grandparents. It was so long ago and seems so recent, too.  They think I'm too young. Maybe, but I'd better make it part of my history, it's a part of all of ours. There is no music in this show, but dad you'll be glad to know that I spent a good part of the rest of the afternoon with the Marine Corp song going through my head;)   I love that the next thing I "have" to do is get to the theatre in a few hours;) I can't wait! But there are two temps in London HOT and COLD so I grab the tube back to my hotel to grab the big coat (Old Navy! At $45 you have totally come through for me! It's warm but not bulky, it dries quickly and in my mind I look great in it!) and scarf! I really need  to think about laundry. Up to the executive lounge! One of the luxuries afforded to me when I (now I'm singing-thankfully in my head! Iiiiiiiii i travel my life away) was traveling for work. I thought I'd have a quick glass of wine and veggies before heading out. No red wine...now I know why. This man may have literally traveled his life away! He's in what I can only describe as boxer shorts and draining what h seems to think is his personal bottle of wine. The server winks at me and miraculously pulls one from the back. While he's got his own the rest of us are sharing one;)  Back to the theatre! Can you hear my (kinda Madonna-ish) British accent? I  love the walk and I love the tube! A man opposite me rolls his eyes while the tube screeches and points to his ears. I say it sounds like a symphony and he loves it;) makes me think of going to Guns & Roses with sb Wiese, James and Mike-did we ever get ear plugs? Eh? But seriously the tube is sooooo convenient! You simply can't get lost! Ohno! I won't, don't worry;)