London Tourists…

This weekend we went and played tourists in London and had a thoroughly enjoyable (and moderately expensive) time.

We bought discounted tickets to see Barking in Essex, a comedy stage show at the Wyndham Theatre with Shelia Hancock, Lee Evens, Keeley Hawes, Karl Johnson and Montserrat Lombard in it. We were warned that there was a lot of foul language, but it was still an enjoyable shock to here Shelia Hancock drop the C bomb for the first time. On the whole it was the women who ‘owned’ the most shocking word with other expletives used more like punctuation. We were up in the nose-bleed section but luckily the Wyndham is quite a compact theatre so we didn’t feel to far away from the action.

‘Freedom finally beckons for delinquent villain Algie Packer. He’s done seven years inside and now he’s coming home to spend his carefully stashed cash – ￡3.5 million in untraceable notes. But there’s something Algie’s family has forgotten to mention…

Meet the Packers – just your perfectly average, totally dysfunctional, ‘well-dodgy’ Essex crime family with a BIG problem. Are they going to be able to cover their tracks before Algie arrives home? Maybe it’s time to go on the run…’

We booked to stay in one of the lastminute.com’s Top Secret Hotels (you don’t know the identity of the hotel until after you confirm your booking so as to get a better deal). We ended up at the Copthorne Hotel at theChelsea Football Club (I understand it is a popular team game with a round ball). The hotel was fine though we had to argue to be moved from a room with two singles in it to one with a double.

We went into town on the Friday and had booked to have lunch at the Koffmann's restaurant in the Berkeley Hotel. We had been told by Sue’s uncle Tony that they do a very nice fixed price menu (though we were warned not to go off-piste). We went for the upgraded menu that included three courses, wine, coffee and petit fours for £39 per person. We thought it was very reasonable price for a top quality meal and superb service.

After lunch we strolled passed the Ferrari dealership to Hyde Park Corner and into Mayfair, across Berkeley Square and lingered for a moment at the Rolls-Royce and Bentley dealership until we got to the HalcyonGallery on New Bond Street that we holding an exhibition of Bob Dylan’s metal work of gate-like pieces called Mood Swings. Elsewhere in the gallery were some of his paintings and his reimagining of magazine covers and a group of fantastical machined gunned car doors of famous gangsters.

From there we crossed into Carnaby Street (now less edgy fashion and more big name brand labels) where we saw an interesting promotional street performance for a new men’s fashion store. Crossing Piccadilly Circus we saw the statue of Eros enclosed in a giant snow dome for Christmas as we continued on down to the National Gallery where we had a sit down and coffee and tea as we looked out over Trafalgar Square with a large blue cockerel on one of the Fourth Plinth, Nelson’s Column and the London Eye in the background.

Once recovered we went to visit the National Portrait Gallery that was showing more of Bob Dylan’s work amongst some other fabulous portraits.

After our highbrow excursion we went to have a drink (just the one at those prices) and onto eat dinner at the J Sheekey Oyster Bar (neither of us was brave enough to have oysters, and we were still full from lunch, so we ended up having a starter and a desert each). This fun place is located next door to the theatre so we could just stagger over and up to the bar in plenty of time for the opening curtain.

Afterwards we decided we had enough excitement for one day so we jumped on a bus and took in the Christmas lights as we returned to Chelsea and bed.

We had hoped to spend the whole of Saturday with Lucy and her dad Chris but Lucy had just got a part time job so we arranged to meet up with them near Waterloo later on for dinner. We had a leisurely start and a hearty breakfast at a pub called the Butcher’s Hook opposite the hotel.

Feeling much fortified Sue and I went to the Vinopolis shop (via the much improved and touristy Borough Market) to buy some gifts that we stuffed in our bag and left at the train station left-luggage place.

We then traveled north to Camden Lock Market where I wanted to visit a particular shop for another gift. We had a wander around the fascinating warren of stalls and shops until we were worn out and in need of another sit down. Another bus trip across town brought us back to Waterloo Bridge where we wandered through the Christmas stalls in front of the South Bank Centre before going in and enjoying a bit of free jazz that was being performed for the London Jazz Festival.

We took in a few more shops and had a quick drink before Chris and Lucy arrived and we all went to Ping Pong for a wonderful dim sum meal.

Afterwards we went and took in the atmosphere of the Christmas Market and all the twinkly lights before getting on our respective trains and going home.

Sunday we had planned to visit my uncle Terry and friends to celebrate his birthday, but the car got a puncture and since I have one of those ‘fancy’ cars with run-flat tires I don’t have a spare, so we had to return home and ring and make our apologies.