A Day Out in London

So I had to get out and do something fun since I didn't have to work on a Saturday. I decided to go to London since the train tickets are a lot cheeper to go there then anywhere else - really. We had our breakfast at this lovely park with all of these strangers and mapped out our path of destruction.

(For those who like to know what we eat (mom) we had pan au chocolate (my fav) a banana and strawberry milk. Yum! Ya, we're healthy like that.)

We decided to see what kind of deal we could get for a show. We went to tkts and decided on Avenue Q. A bunch of our friends said it's really good and funny so we thought we'd give it a go. We had a few hours to kill so we wandered around the area for a bit. We ended up in China Town and Soho. There wasn't much to see except for the wild and crazy Pride Festival - but more on that in a minute.

We decided to go to the National Portrait Gallery. It was so good!

We made it in time for the 12 noon Portrate of the Day lecture. We learned about the portriate of Lady Collin Campbell. Oh the scandel she brewed upon herself! She was ostracised by society while trying to divorce her husband. She was a writer, feminist and believed every woman should be able to have a career. She looks quite eccentric and sexy in this painting but the lecturer showed us an actual photo of her and she doesn't look a thing like this. Giovanni Boldini is the artist and was known for emphasising everything hence the beauty and elongation of Lady Campbell. I really enjoyed learning about a painting that I may have just glanced at and kept walking. It really made the experience much more enjoyable!

After the gallery it was time for our matinee. The musical is at the Wyndham Theatre and was good fun. It made us laugh the whole way through. Avenue Q is set in New York and most of the characters are puppets! It's about how one works through relationships, work, and life's overall ups, downs.

We couldn't take photos but I snuck this one before the staff started yelling 'no photos'. It's the front of the stage before the show began.

So we were lucky enough to take part in the Pride 2010 festivities whether we wanted to or not. Glitter doused men pranced all around the streets of London showing off their bare chests and tight clothing downstairs. It was quite the party.

We still had some time to kill before our train left for Brighton. So we decided to explore. We found this mini changing of the guard...

...Downing Street - it's the home of the Prime Minister!

.. A lovely glimpse of the London Eye...

Eric making a phone call

And by request of Chad, Eric mooning Big Ben.

You're welcome.

It was a lovely, sunny day in the capital and we loved every bit of it. I love that we can just hop on a train to London and we're there in 50 minutes. It's a bit surreal. Sometimes I have to slap myself because I'm starting to take things like this for granted. Our time is dwindling quickly!