Two days in London

Last month we were on our travels to London. The main event that led us to getting a plane to Heathrow was Fulham Vs Crusaders at Craven Cottage but we decided to make a little bit of a holiday around it. So here are some photos from the couple of days we visited the capital of England at the end of July.

After our flight to Heathrow we bought an Oyster card each and topped then up before taking the tube into the centre of London. After getting off at Covent Garden tube station, without realising it at the time (and unfortunately for me, as it was my idea - I honestly thought I could hear the street above) we took the stairs... all 193 of them. It turns out it's one of the deepest London Underground stations... and unsurprisingly, it has many stairs to climb - only really beaten by Hampstead Tube station having over 320. With bags on our backs that contained clothes for 4 days, it wasn't the easiest climb. Half way up I think I may have sold it to Norngirl as an alternative gym workout, she wasn't impressed.

Once we'd had breakfast in a cafe opposite Drury Lane Theatre and had a look around some shops we got some cupcakes and headed back on the tube to the V&A Museum of Childhood. Before we went in we sat in the park next to it and ate our goodies. Mine being a nommy chocolate number that didn't taste as much of glitter as it looked, indeed it was quite delicious.

It was then into the museum which was free and we headed to a section that had games you can play. We rewrote the rules for snakes and ladders but had fun playing anyway before looking around the rest of the various toys, games, activities and displays.

Most of the toys were in glass cases but it was fun to see some toys we'd forgotten existed from our childhoods though I was disappointed after seeing things like the Turtles and Sooty that there were no Manta Force toys, I used to love those! The mechanical toys section was pretty cool though and I finally got to see the boxes/put names to some of the toys and bits of plastic we used to get given to play with at primary school.

Once we'd relived some of our childhood it was then back on the tube to go take a look at the already famous construction site of the Shard, one of the new skyscrapers to have popped up around London.

From the bus station at the base of the Shard, we went for a walk down past the Scoop at MoreLondon. Personally I thought it seemed like quite a depressingly corporate part of town given the cultural highlights of a performance going on in the Scoop and the River with HMS Belfast floating not so far away from Tower Bridge.

The buildings, as shiny as they are, each looked quite dark and cold, reflecting the overcast day above them. It was also hard to miss the depressed looking office workers walking out of them with sullen looks on their faces trying to find a spot to sit to eat their lunch.

To be honest the Tower of London looked more inviting.

We were soon at Tower Bridge and I was competing with the other tourists in taking some pictures of the Bridge and the skyline.

Lunch was a trip to a Mexican fast food place for Burritos and Tacos. It was then on to Fulham to the hotel before heading out to sample what the Fulham and Putney Bridge areas had to offer. After a drink on Fulham's North End Road, we headed down to Putney Bridge itself.

A meal south of the river in a Weatherspoons, we headed on to the football match.

The next day we woke up to a brighter Friday morning. First port of call was a tour of BBC television centre.

There we got a great insight into how things like the news and weather are produced, the layout of the building and where the guest stars of BBC shows get to stay. The best bit for me was seeing one of Kryton's heads from Red Dwarf and a Tardis from Dr Who.

After the tour we headed down to St Paul's Cathedral where we had a walk around the building.

It was then time to head to One New Change a relatively new shopping centre that opened in October 2010.

The thing that took us there, other than it appearing on 'The Apprentice' TV show, was the roof terrace that is open to the public which gives a great view of the surrounding area.

We had some nice pies from the fast food place 'Eat' and sat in the sun eating them and trying to find on our phones a new plan for the afternoon.

We didn't really have one when we headed to get some essentials like a razor (the problem of only having hand luggage on a plane), after that little bit of shopping we just headed west, the plan was to find a pub and work from there. Instead I found a sign for the Museum of London. Wires slightly crossed, I ended up leading us towards the Museum. Norngirl realised this before me and so we stood debating what the heck we were doing next. As it became clear a pub indeed was a priority I got rather lucky in that when we turned around we'd been stood right outside a bar - the Lord Raglan. We went inside and I bought Norngirl a London Pride as a peace offering.

In the end we decided to give the Museum of London a try, after all it was free. It turned out to be an enjoyable visit and I learnt a lot about London, especially how the settlement developed and how the various parts of London merged to be the megacity it is.

Another tube ride and we were back in Fulham getting dolled up for the night. We'd booked some tickets to go to see the musical Wicked as Norngirl really wanted to see it and I was curious as to what the hype was all about. We headed to the theatre and picked up our tickets before a quick visit to a supermarket to pick up some snacks and sandwiches to eat before we headed to the show. A pint of ale in a nearby pub later and we headed back to find our seats.

Little mini binoculars purchased we watched the show, and you know what, quite a show it was! There aren't as many individually great stand alone songs as you'd get in something like Les Misérables but in terms of a spectacle it was brilliant. It had a great use of the stage and stage effects and some really strong voices. Oddly the peak of the show came with 'Defying Gravity' which is sung as the pre interval crescendo. It was a great plot and show and if you get chance to see it, I have to warn you that you'll never watch The Wizard of Oz in the same way again... in a good way though!

A slight mishap with tube stops resolved by a short walk and we'd got back to Fulham a little late for a meal in a restaurant so we headed out for what turned out to be a Subway and Dominos.

We had a great time in London but it was bedtime and we got some rest to be ready to travel to Cardiff the next day... though we didn't set off the next day until we took a slight detour to take a look at Stamford Bridge.

Avenue Q in Belfast - but does it travel well?

On the curtain up on the stage, the sun was hiding behind the hills of New Jersey, closer yet was the skyline of Manhattan but the Belfast Grand Opera House audience was in neither place. Yet closer, Brooklyn and Queens had their names in print but we were not even there. A big highlighted arrow gave away our location, a long island neighbourhood to the east of the city. A place where some monsters and people a little down on their luck lived. The theatre settled down, the TV screens descended, the curtain raised, we were gleefully immersed back into the world of Avenue Q.



You may have already read my experience of the comedy musical Avenue Q when Norngirl and I went to see it in it's native land and form last year. We were very impressed by it, had listened the the songs on repeat on our mp3 players at the gym ever since and were very eager to see the show again. This time we were sharing the fun with friends and family and we were all very happy that the show was visiting Belfast, giving us to chance to see it again so close to home.

This was the first UK tour of Avenue Q and I hadn't seen any of the performances from the likes of Youtube for the cast we were going to see. I'd heard there were a few changes between the New York and other versions of the show including the UK one and this was true, these were small changes but if you've spent a while listening to the original cast recording you might spot them. The changes were both good and bad, some bits made it funnier, other bits less so, it did seem the show was run at a faster pace but that could have just been our familiarity with the recording.

The biggest of these small changes was that some of the lyrics and words were changed or cut from the original. From an interview with Jeff Whitty back in 2006, he explained:

"For those who haven't memorized the cast album, there won't seem to be many changes at all. The experience of the show is almost exactly the same in London as in the United States. For me, knowing the show so well, it's peppered with changes, but usually it's a matter of two or three words changed, a few lyrics, a few changes in the orchestrations. And some cuts in the book and score that keep the show from eddying."

Norngirl and I admittedly qualify for 'memorized cast album' people. Most of the changes were indeed just subtle changes of words to make things more culturally specific and relevant to the audience in question - like 'Frat boy' changed to 'Drunk guy', 'Polak' changed to 'French', 'Long Island Iced Tea' changed to 'Absinthe Daiquiri'. For anyone who watches American TV shows (which would be hard not to do these days) these changes probably aren't really needed but it no doubt helps to ensure as many audiences as possible understand.

There were a few main differences between the New York - Off Broadway experience we had and my Belfast - Grand Opera House experience, and here they are:

> The song 'Schadenfreude' was better in it's original form (like we heard in New York) - the song really shouldn't have had so much cut out of it for a UK audience. Some of the best lines disappeared such as "Straight A students getting Bs, Exs getting STDs", in the words of a bad idea bear... 'that makes me sad!'

> The song 'Fantasise Come True' had better stage effects in Belfast - you wouldn't think it was a touring show at all. They really took you into Rod's dream and got the atmosphere just right, I dunno anything about stage production but I just know it was great visually.

> The character of Gary Coleman was played by a man in Belfast and a woman in New York. This is a tricky one. On one hand I think the songs seem to suit a female voice better, on the other hand the male Gary had more dance moves and was more a focal point in the scenes, but then on ermm, damn, I've run out of hands, OK, on the other metaphorical hand, the female Gary was able to get much bigger laughs from the playing on the juxtaposition of gender stereotypes. I think I'd personally opt for a female Gary but it is quite a trivial difference that doesn't effect the plot or the enjoyment of the show.

> I'll not spoil what they changed George Bush to in the the song "Only for Now" but it was just as funny.

The other little thing in comparing the two performances was that I did get the feeling of a little more authenticity about the show in New York but that's probably because we were watching actors pretending to be in New York when those very same actors lived and worked in the very same place, we were also in that place and the words were suited to that specific audience. There were some great individual performances by the cast we saw in Belfast but there were 3 or 4 moments where some of the cast's vocals at the ends of words didn't quite hit the accent they were speaking in - not that I could even do the accents they were pulling off for 2 hours for a second without sounding Indian, Jamaican or Welsh. Again this didn't effect the enjoyment of the show at all but it was why the New York show did suit the setting of the plot a smidgen more.

Other than that it was hard to pick out any other difference, it all just flowed along seamlessly and the plot is the same in both.

There was one other thing that was unexpected but pleasantly so; on the face of it the audience reaction was the same in that everyone was laughing and having a good time. The unexpected thing was that laughs didn't always materialise in the same place as they did the first time we saw the show. For the most part I was laughing at same time as the Belfast audience when in Belfast and the New York audience when we were there but a little bit of the New York memory was still in my head and there was one point where both Norngirl and I laughed but no one else did. The folks around us must have thought we had a supply of Nitrous Oxide under our seats or something. I think a big reason for this was just the subtle nuances on stage such as facial expressions and emphasis placed on the words in a different places by the cast. And it worked. Each cast played to their audience very well. I quite like the fact it wasn't identical for although we obviously knew the songs and plot, it was just the little bit of unpredictability needed to make it fresh and exciting.

The casts were fantastic in both and the puppets, well they were fantastic too. In the Belfast show my favourite cast member was Chris Thatcher who was operating Trekkie Monster and Nicky, he really brought those puppets to life. The best vocals undoubtedly came from Rachel Jerram who sang brilliantly as Kate Monster.

Overall, even with the differences in performers, audience, venue and the minor changes, the result was exactly the same. It was brilliant.

Avenue Q is a very funny, witty and engrossing musical that doesn't take itself seriously yet gets across messages of tolerance, perspective, hope & happiness that audiences (if they don't already hold) will keep with them forever and you know what, I don't think it matters where you see it, it's still a phenomenal show. Sadly the show finished at the Grand Opera House in Belfast on the 25th June but who knows... maybe it will return one day :)

Our last night in New York was spent on Avenue Q.

It was the last evening of our last day in the awesome city of New York and it was the time that we first immersed ourselves into the wonderfully open and wacky world of Avenue Q.

In one of the New World Stages, well ermm, stages, we sat down on the front row not really knowing what to expect. We'd purposely avoided listening to the music from the show before hand for we had seen the adverts in London for the show when we were on our honeymoon a year before and it was our backup show on that occasion and we didn't want to spoil it.
This time it had been our first choice of show as we kinda knew we'd love it from the rave reviews from my sister-in-law and the briefest of explanations we'd allowed ourselves to hear.
Back in the theatre and it turned out that taking alcoholic drinks into the auditorium was positively encouraged. We didn't need much convincing and very soon we each found ourselves with a monster themed cocktail in hand.

Don't worry I won't spoil the show itself for anyone... especially since the UK version of the show is touring Belfast later this month (my tickets for the Grand Opera House sit alluringly on our mantel piece making me feel all happy when I glance at them).
However, there we were being introduced to some of the most memorable characters and songs of musical theatre.

As we were in the US, we were lucky enough to see the show (as it should be - like the original!) with a female Gary Coleman character. It wasn't the original cast but in retrospect it was hard to tell the difference between the CD version of the songs and the show we saw that night. The show was great, I won't say more though because I honestly can't think of a way to talk about it without dropping spoilers. What made the experience even better though was that instead of going to stand in a long queue, there were staff who came around to take orders from the bar and delivered it to your seat, well worth all that tipping!
After the performance had finished , our 1st Avenue Q experience still wasn't over.
As you may have read on Norngirl's blog, the cast of the show were fundraising for charity by selling signed playbills and posters and pictures with the cast.

How could you turn down an offer like that!? The only problem being, I didn't have enough cash left on my person and after asking one of the cast found out there was a cash point on the upper level of the building. It was a mad dash to find it, get some cash and make our way back.
Unfortunately, by the time we did all that, everyone had left. Luckily, there was still a guy closing up the merchandise stall. We asked if they still had any of the signed posters but they didn't have them out front any more. To our surprise, instead of hearing "sorry, go home now crazy theatre going tourists", we were advised to go through big doors and ask in the office about the posters. Perhaps a little timidly, we did indeed venture through the double doors and, after passing through a sort of holding room, something awesomely unexpected happened; we were backstage. In front of us in a small room were all the puppets hanging up and by them, the cast and staff were all cooling down and having a post show chat. As Norngirl said, we had a feeling like we really shouldn't be there but it was brilliant to see how it was all laid out behind the scenes. After looking a bit lost, we were found by a nice man who couldn't help us enough and managed to dig out a signed poster for us to buy and he even gave us a couple of badges with slogans on from the show.

I didn't take off my badge until we got back to the hotel so the whole of New York knew that 'It Sucks to be Me'... but it didn't suck to be me, I was having a great day!

The night didn't end there though... once we'd dropped off our bags and poster, we headed out for sustenance. First of all we brought back a bottle of wine to the hotel room from the local liquor store then headed out again for food. For a city that 'doesn't sleep', there are actually some limits and one of those is that not all restaurants have very late opening times.

We didn't find any of Norngirl's list of recommended restaurants open, or at least open for much longer.On our quest to locate the restaurants we didn't go to, we happened to witness (and almost took part in) a side-walk cycling accident. A dude on a bike flew down the pavement but had to dodge two delivery guys, a little unbalanced, he then had Norngirl and me to avoid; though we'd stood as far out of the way as we could having seen the near miss in front of us.
It wasn't long until the cyclist was on the floor anyway, behind us, a guy hadn't been so lucky as to have spotted the danger. Man Vs bike, we're not too sure who won, they both gingerly made it back onto their feet, so although it must have hurt, there didn't seem to be too many hard feelings or lasting injuries between the two. Maybe that sort of thing happens all the time but it was certainly noteworthy for us.

Feeling a hint of Schadenfreude related happiness (Avenue Q does that to you), we decided not to push our luck any further and so headed back to our 24 hour diner from earlier in the week.
We ordered what turned out to be the biggest meal I've seen outside an all you can eat buffet and it was delicious.

I had noodle soup for a starter followed by a gorgeous open pastrami sandwich with roast potatoes and cauliflower all doused in gravy - I was stuffed after only half of it.
The bread and gravy all soaked up together and this combined with as much free water, tea and coffee as you could get squeeze into yourself, it was probably the best meal I had during the whole trip.

We didn't have the wine in the end, that was put in the luggage to take home, instead we went to sleep very happy but very very sad that our last day was over and our New York trip all but at its end.

Promises Promises in NYC

Giving up the Ice Skating as one of those things that just wasn't meant to be, we instead embraced our love of plastic interconnecting toys and headed into the Lego shop to buy a couple of Lego themed souvenirs. NornGirl bought a brick and I bought a Toy Story 3 Lego Alien keyring. It was then a quick dash across town to get in line at the TKTS booth in Times Square for some discount show tickets, our first choice would have been Avenue Q but as we saw the sign and got in line it became apparent that it wasn't on that day. D'oh! Instead we looked around and desired to give one we'd never heard of before a try. 'Promises Promises', caught our eye and so that's what we bought tickets to.

We had a wrap and beer at a Chipotle on the way back to the hotel where We dolled ourselves up and headed out for our anniversary night out.

First came the show which was at The Broadway Theatre. The musical of Promises Promises is set in New York and it's the same plot as the film 'The Apartment', a comedy with a romantic plot that plays with themes of affairs and attempted suicide. Set to the music of Burt Bacharach, we're led through the story by the lead character Chuck who is a quite junior employee working in the corporate world of a 1960s insurance company whose life takes a few twists involving his love interest and his apartment.

When we were there, the character of Chuck was played by Sean Hayes (aka Jack from Will and Grace). His comic acting as you'd expect was brilliant and really made the show.
Both he and the female lead of Fran who was played by Kristin Chenoweth (of West Wing, Pushing Daisies and Glee fame) did a great job and it was great fun, Kristin's voice is quite something.
Apart from one or two rather unbelievable moments in the plot around the Fran character, there wasn't really a downside and although not our first choice it was a great substitute.
As far as an American cultural experience goes, it really was very American, which you'd hope for really being on Broadway! However this did leave us ending up laughing at somewhat inappropriate moments that most of the room didn't seem to get - ah well!

Leaving the theatre with the glow of having had a good laugh we made our way out into the rain for the grey blanket was still snuggling the tallest of the city's skyscrapers. Our next destination was the Marriott Marquis View Lounge for some drinks and deserts.
The viewing lounge is on the 47/48th floors of the hotel and rotates around a central column giving a view of the city and the Hudson river. We had a lovely desert and some nice drinks and enjoyed a little us time chatting as couples on their anniversaries do (in our own 'special' way). The view was largely of clouds and rain but beyond the raindrop painted glass we could still make out a fair few of the NYC Skyline's well known features.

Sadly, apart from the guy who served us who couldn't have been more helpful; our experience did end up a little tainted. This was because a rude member of staff commandeered the rare sighting of a lift that a group (of about 8) of us had been waiting on for a good 5 minutes or more. It wasn't like the member of staff had some urgent repair work to do, he just had a trolley of supplies and the place was closing for the night. We were not amused, especially as it took the best part of another 5-10 minutes for another lift to reach us. We were even less amused though when the hotel never released their hold on a reservation of money they had placed. Norn Girl even emailed them weeks after the event and they said they were in touch with their accountants to release the hold. It never happened. In the end - a month later, it was our bank who by default broke their hold on the money in our account - sure $48 to some of their clientèle might not be much but to us that is a fair old chunk of money. It has to be said that this was all 4 months ago now so I wouldn't worry if you're heading there soon, they could have been one off's. Thankfully we didn't have to worry about too much on the actual day and another good thing about the Marriott was that the lift to the rotating restaurant is quite a ride - it moves through a massive space inside the building. If you stand facing towards the glass and just look out it's like a theme-park ride. It was awesome!

Overall, my personal opinion on the rotating viewing lounge is that if you have a bit of money to burn, the place is worth a one off trip, but given the cost of it (over $120 after you count the cover charge, the desert buffet, two drinks each and the service charge, the bill came to over $120) it won't be on our to do list if we're lucky enough to return to NYC again.

We ventured out happily into Times Square, a period of very heavy rain had left what was usually one of the very busiest parts of New York almost empty, an odd sight indeed.

My head at this point was filled with fond memories of our wedding the year before, I was also happy as always (when not in the dog house) at being present in the company of my wife Norn Girl which was made more special by being surrounded by one of the biggest urban rainforests in the world. We merrily meandered back to our hotel. The day hadn't gone completely to plan but we'd enjoyed ourselves nevertheless – as Norn Girl wrote; “the whole holiday was really a celebration of our anniversary anyway and we were really looking forward to what we had planned the next day... “ and that day was 'AWESOME DAY!'

[Back to Part 1 of this 2 part post]

Losing our Rocky Horror Picture Show virginity

Not last Friday but the Friday before, 7 people gathered at a Restaurant in Belfast City Centre. Their fates from this point on are a little blurry as they became embroiled in a transexual, Transylvanian, extra terrestrial adventure at Belfast's Grand Opera House.

What they do remember is that they had consumed their inter dimensional sonic transducer fuel at Restaurant Olio on Brunswick Street found underneath the Travelodge hotel. It was rather tasty, especially the tangy chili pasta dish that harboured a fair bite. The early evening science fiction double feature at Grand Opera House (GOH) was not long from getting under way as they took to the stairs to find their seats.

Looking around they noticed some people were more scantily clad than others. A Friday night in Belfast often has a few risky numbers on show but with Rocky Horror in town its the men scaring the taxi drivers with revealing outfits. Some of the more dedicated fans seemed a bit cold and should maybe have worn a 3rd sock like the soon to be on stage Brad, but kudos to them for the effort - face paint and all!

Our band of Rocky Horror virgins hadn't really specially dressed for the occasion. Some would say the one known as Simon was representative of the bunch, as he'd seen the movie but only several years ago and couldn't even remember how it ended. At one point they'd all planned to go dressed up, or down as this case would be, he like many thought to be tricky to know what goes, and it had put them off. A shame, but probably the best for their work colleagues. It may have made for an interesting dress down day but a day likely to be followed by a weekend trip to the Job Centre. Basically, like any self respecting virgins, they were playing it safe.

The curtain rose on the back of the opening number and we were introduced to fellow virgins of another kind, Brad and Janet. Soon joining us was a former screen Transylvanian, making a star guest appearance as the Narrator... none other than legend Christopher Biggins.

The show was great - the sexual in your face comedy, whimsical love, hate, life and death plot intertwined with some very talented performers who seemed as dedicated to the interaction with the audience as the audience were to the actors and actresses on stage. Hardly an act went by without those who had either seen the show live already or had just spent too much time looking such things up online (like this rocky horror virgins guide), throwing the lines,  that are seemingly now part of the experience, out into the open within the theatre. Our wee band of virgins were soon getting used to this retro new world of musical theatre that brought the actors to the seats and the audience into the show. Somewhat like a Victorian music hall being audio-vibratory-physio-moleculary transported into the Moulin Rouge. The time warp was hardly over before our almost experienced Rocky Horrored contingent were being mesmerised by yet more transvestite shenanigans. For after a quick break they were jumping right back into bed with it. And so they all flew through this new realm, through space and, who knows, perhaps even time itself. It all went very quickly. Frank-N-Furter, Brad, Janet, Riff Raff and Magenta amongst others had ended their tale, the book had closed on the adventure and now Rocky Horror Picture Show virgins no more, 7 people amongst the masses were brought back to Belfast.

As they left even happier than they had arrived those who had gone dressed up spilled out into the streets and as they passed by the city hall on our Bus, it was a great sight to see the rocky horror spirit walking down the street, heading home. Men in corsets and fishnets, women in plastic and leather dresses with the odd Surgeon, Rocky and Riff Raff close by. Our witnesses were glad to see the realities merge and a bit of repression, if only for a fleeting moment, being lifted from the streets of Northern Ireland. So the next time the newly indoctrinated fans of Rock Horror have chance, they'll be getting into the spirit of it... they're already planning their costumes!