Wicked (again) London, United Kingdom

London, United Kingdom

Had a bit of a lie-in today which was nice – a slow morning and before I knew it, it was time to head out to Bank station to catch up for lunch with an old colleague of mine who now lives in London. It was good to catch up, and nice to see the nearby Leadenhall Market, and the ‘inside-out’ Lloyds of London building.

Boring tube trivia – I thought Leicester Square and Covent Garden were close together. Today I bothered to count, and from doors closing one station to opening at the next, was just on 30 seconds. I swear there are single stations that have longer walkways than that just to get from one platform to another.

One thing about Leicester Square – it has great buskers! There’s a defined ‘busking spot’ with amazing acoustics – this evening there was a seriously committed busker – who brought his harp along. Sounded amazing.

We took a wander back up Oxford Street the ‘fat peoples shop’ from a few days ago – called Jacamo. We each bought a shirt, so that counts as a successful trip. Stopping for ice-cream at Piccadilly Circus (as you do) we heard this chanting, singing … and what looked all the support of the Swiss team playing football that night marched past , singing, dancing, chanting, having a whale of a time. It was quite a sight (and a sound!).

The plan after that was to sit down and write out today’s blog … but an afternoon nap won out in the end… and suddenly it was already time to head out to see Wicked again. We’ve both seen it I think 5 or 6 times, and now across three continents. As always, it was an amazing show – and the lady playing Elphaba (the green one) had such an incredible voice, she hardly needed a microphone. It was easy to get to, just outside the (surprisingly huge!) Victoria station. Almost next door is the venue for Billy Elliot, so that was handy to know for Thursday.

After the show it was back on the tube to Leicester square (even late into the night you only have to wait a few minutes for a train – Sydney take note!) and a delicious dinner of pizza and delicious kebab.

No sleep in tomorrow – time for a canal-boat ride!