It’s fair to say we had an alarming start to the day. A very loud fire alarm at the hotel certainly did its job, alarming us from 0-100 in half a second. At least this was at 6:30 and not something like 2 in the morning. We got ready just in case, the alarm went off, there was no smoke or fire brigade and then it eventually went quiet. I couldn’t get back to sleep so I guess that’s the start of the day! I could have done without the accompanying headache though.

After all that drama we had a simple breakfast at Pret nearby, before getting back on the hop-on bus to slowly cruise around town on the way to our first destination.

There was some amusingly cheeky commentary about some BASE jumpers – “they somehow gained access to the hotel roof and then, much to the surprise of onlookers, proceeded to toss themselves off”

Today I was wearing a shirt that looked something like this.

So I must admit I was beyond delighted when a few people in the know commented on it and said they loved it. I figured if there’s anywhere I could wear it, it’s London. If you’re not in the know, no dramas, it was a character from BBC soap opera Eastenders, whose name was Dot Cotton, played by the amazing (and sadly now quite dead) June Brown. Anyway, I was just glad to not be the only one amused by the shirt.

After some quality bussing time and a short walk, we arrived at our planned destination – Borough Market. I wasn’t entirely sure what to expect, but whatever my expectations were, this place was like 5 times bigger than that. It’s a huge maze of stands nestled under a train line bridge, with an incredible range of produce, baked food, meals, spices, you name it, if it was food related, it was probably there. Quite amazing.

I ended up settling on a lamb and mint sausage roll for lunch – it was a roast dinner encased in pastry, simply delicious. Followed that up afterwards with a deliciously flavoursome and surprisingly dense pistachio pain au chocolat which was just super. It was only after that we spotted the “Humble Crumble” cart, so we had to have a go at that. Perry opted for a traditional apple crumble with crumbled shortbread and hot custard. I tried one with a frozen custard top (basically soft serve only not so soft). Delicious, and then some. By this time the whole place was absolutely rammed with people, I think everyone has chosen to pop in for lunch and things were just going bonkers.

We fought our way out of crowd, and back on the bus, for a slow and chilled journey back toward the hotel, since had plenty of time. I do not envy the bus drivers, or any drivers at all in London for that matter. The traffic is horrendous, it must be awfully frustrating. Not for us – all we had to contend with were some slightly rude bus passengers who considered it perfectly normal to expect other passengers to fix their headphones for the bus commentary and so forth. Rude. But you can get that anywhere, no need to travel specifically to London.

Just before returning to hotel Perry spotted a hairdresser, and it really was time to look less dishevelled, so we enjoyed two … ok… haircuts and beard trims at this Chelsea-adjacent hairdressers, at an eye watering “Chelsea-adjacent” price. Ouch. Would’ve been cheaper to buy some high quality hair clippers and DIY! 🙂

We returned to the hotel, ostensibly to use the time to write up the blog so far, but in reality, to fall asleep snoring at the desk. The rude and somewhat early awakening had very much caught up with me by mid-afternoon.

This evening, our first London show! Let the marathon commence! Tonight, it’s Moulin Rouge, at the Piccadilly Theatre, so off to the tube we go.

It was interesting (for me, and probably only me lol) that when we got to the train station and had to go to the Piccadilly line, suddenly all the decor completely changed and it super obvious how these used to be very different train companies compared to the Northern line we’d taken earlier from the same station. )

The other bonus was this little notification on my watch, meaning I just have to hold it on the entry barrier to the station without pressing any buttons, and it acts as my ticket / Opal Card.

So. Gloucester Road, Piccadilly Line. Eighty seven steps down a spiral staircase later, we weren’t at the platform. Still another corridor and a few more steps. And then there we were.

I never claim to be overly sophisticated, so yes I still stifle a giggle every time I see a train going to Cockfosters. Soon we were in the train. As we’re a whole bunch of other people. Within two stops there were a whole bunch more. It was sydney-peak-hour crowded, but it wasn’t too far off. Fortunately there was plenty of air whizzing about so it wasn’t too oppressive, and it was only 5 stops.

As if there weren’t enough people already, where did we exit? The good old crazy-town of Piccadilly Circus. People everywhere, and then some, of course. The place was heaving with its usual crazy tourist energy, we had time for a small wander around before the show. Chinatown was a delight when its hundreds of lanterns.

With our show we ordered the curiously-named Blue Elephant package, which meant a very bubbly and enthusiastic young man escorting us to a corridor, no, to the Admirals Lounge, a very tastefully decorated corridor with some super comfy seats, closely follow by a lovely cheese board and a bottle of Veuve Clicquot, as you do. A lovely way to relax and wait for the show to start, feeling rather fancy.

We saw Moulin Rouge three times when it was in Sydney, so we’re really interested to see what the differences were now it is (and we are) in London. The ‘club’ seating at the very front with little tables was a bit different from Sydney, but we were in the ‘normal’ seating so didn’t affect us at all. The show itself was fantastic – it ran pretty much identically to the Sydney one as far as I can tell, but, I’m sorry to say, I do think it was ultimately better than the Sydney production. The cast were all incredible singers, great actors, you could really see the chemistry between them on stage, which really helped ‘sell’ the story even more so.

The audience were funny as well, at least, one woman a row or two behind us, I don’t think she goes to shows very often, and she was as excited as a kid on Christmas Day, it was just wonderful to hear. “Ooh, are these our seats? They’re wonderful! Are you sure they’re really for us? Oh wow, really?” Followed by “Oh look at the windmill isn’t it beautiful! Oh they’ve even got an elephant! Oh my goodness that girl’s bum’s hanging out!” – I really hope she enjoyed the show, I think it’s pretty much guaranteed. It was all brilliantly done, and that’s not just the bottle of champagne talking 🙂

After that it was time to be thrown back out on to the street, and despite the severe delays report on the Piccadilly line, we got on to a not-very-crowded Piccadilly line train straight away, and back to the hotel in maybe 25 minutes all up, making for a very smooth end to the day.

Just to be nerdy for a few moments I love how on the Piccadilly line they have the station names written into the wall tiles themselves, it’s quite elegant, I guess it helps that it was all built back in 1906 and barely changed since. The other thing I like are all the tile patterns – ever station has a different tile pattern/colour combos and I believe this is because way back in the early 1900s standard of literacy were lower, so there were people catching the tube that couldn’t really read which station was theirs, but they’d recognise the pattern so they still could tell where they were going. A surprisingly thoughtful touch for back then, so yeah maybe it’s not true after all. Anyway, it looks nice!

Tomorrow – possible rail strikes, definite need to go to Euston in the morning. Let’s see how these two things balance themselves out in the next exciting (*not at all guaranteed) episode!