London, England. Wednesday 08/Sunday 12-January-2025.
A long weekend in London. This production has been on Mary’s to do list for a long time. As part of a holding pattern we went to see Matthew Bourne’s Romeo and Juliet the year before last which likewise was a very non-traditional interpretation.
We organised ourselves a Home Exchange in Hackney so we could make a full weekend of it.
Wednesday 08: We took the train down to London. Given the bitterly cold forecast, we decided that an icy drive down was a bad plan and that we would let the train take the strain.
The cheapest train was the slowest option but gave Mary the perfect opportunity to do some essential planning for our forthcoming New Zealand trip. By the end of the journey she had booked three wine tastings and three excursions.
We hit London and headed straight back out to our friend Andrea in Witham for a catch-up, a meal and a stay over.
Thursday 09: Next morning it was back into London and on to our accommodation. This time, unusually, we did a direct, simultaneous Home Exchange. Our hosts were staying in our house in Penrith while we were in their apartment. We overlapped briefly with the outgoing host when we arrived. He handed over the keys and then headed off up north whilst we headed into town for the main event.
We were not in a hurry so took a double decker bus into town treating it as an architectural tour. We got my favourite spot at the front upstairs which gives you a brilliant view of the buildings from shiny modern, through Victorian to some Georgian as we got further in.
We would normally have dined at The Gate, a brilliant vegetarian restaurant, but the Angel branch recently closed down so we went for a nearby Japanese (Sanjugo, Angel) instead for a delicious pre-theatre supper.
As I bought the program I was able to check on my phone and astound the young lady selling the programs that I first went to Sadlers Wells way back on 28th March 1977 to see the Dutch dance company Pilobolus. The following year I went to Sadlers Wells five times and four times the following year as well as many dance troupes at other venues. Living in London I took advantage of ready access to some great productions - a proper culture vulture.
It was my first time seeing this ballet although I knew the music. It was a fascinating and spectacular take on the story. Switching the swans to male dancers means the prince falls in love with a man bewitched while his mother want him to marry a princess. Lots of scope for alternative readings of the prince's sexual orientation and relationship with his mother!
Friday 10: The plan was that Mary would go shoe shopping while I went to meet up with my oldest friend Catherine Bott who I have known since the very first day in primary school when it opened in September 1957! Sadly she had to cry off due to the lurgy.
The alternative afternoon was a visit to the National Portrait Gallery to see an exhibition of prize winning photographs. That evening we were also able to meet up with two of my friends from the early 80’s coincidental with my early days in the bright lights, big city era.
Saturday 11: Morning was of course parkrun at the nearby Hackney Marshes.
It was a short walk from our accommodation and the marshes looked very atmospheric in the frosty morning light. Sunrise over the marshes.
The course runs, in part, along the side of the Lea River Navigation Wikipedia.
Mary got another volunteer credit as parkwalker in her fetching blue tabard with matching (of course) leggings!
That afternoon we met up with my best man and his wife at Bentley‘s Oyster Bar and Grill for a long overdue catch up and an extra extravagantly expensive meal but, what the heck, sometimes you just have to splurge because you’re worth it.
Sunday 12: The train was early-ish so we hastily flung all our stuff back into our bags when the alarm went and got the Overground with its new names and Lizzie Line back to Euston. Then it was another slow train back to Penrith, this time because it was a replacement bus service from Preston. However all went smoothly and we were back home by late afternoon to relax after a weekend well spent.
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