13.11.19
Another sunny day with blue skies greeted us this morning. Remembering the weather change yesterday, we secretly made sandwiches, hid them in the backpack and crossed our fingers.
My mission this morning was to get theatre tickets at the Leicester Square 1/2 price ticket booth. John’s mission was to get a haircut. Both winners!
I snagged £150 tickets for £45 and John scored a bonus eyebrow trim!
Miraculously, at 10.30am, it was still a beautiful day, so we wandered down to the Thames, crossing over the Golden Jubilee Bridge which landed us next to the London Eye.
Walking up toward Parliament, we then crossed back over Westminster Bridge, passing this wonderful busker. Wearing sunnies!
Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament were having a facelift. From what we could see, they’ll eventually look terrific. Lots of gilt!
We found a good people-watching bench on which to have our picnic, then wandered through the back streets returning to Trafalgar Square. Lots of curious shops around about.
One of my favourite places to go in London is the National Portrait Gallery. It’s good to visit in short bursts, concentrating on one section. Between us, we knocked off the Victorians and Tudors. These are my fav’s.
No1 would be Elizabeth 1 in coronation robes.
Plus a couple of contemporaries, Amy, Ed, Baden and Elton.
The show we went to see was called Come From Away. It was about a town called Gander in Newfoundland, that found itself hosting 38 planeloads of people who were grounded there in the hours after 9/11. USA airspace was immediately closed after the terrorist attacks, and the planes and people told to land at Gander remained there for 5 days. The story follows the emotions of both the townspeople and the ‘outlanders’ over this time, specifically American Airlines flight 49 from Paris to Dallas. We’d actually listened to a ‘Conversation Hour’ with Richard Fidler interviewing the pilot of this plane, Beverly Bass – the first female pilot AA had ever employed. So we knew a bit of the background of this story.
You’d wonder how they could make a musical out of a story like that! But they have!
Newfoundlanders have a unique language, and this is how the show came by its name.
We loved the show. No dazzling set changes. 12 cast members who doubled up as both plane passengers and Gander townspeople. All shapes, sizes and colours. Very simple. I cried at the end! And they received a standing ovation.
An amazing story.
Kanga And Wombats Adventures 