An Audience with Helen Mirren

     Goodness! Today was quite the eventful day! It started out with a debate in Shakespeare class today. Here's the deal. I don't like debate. Never have, never will. This class today gave me so much anxiety, and actually infuriated me I think. Whatever the emotion was, there was a lot of it boiling up in my chest. Debates never do anyone good, regardless of the intentions. Especially not with stubborn theatre people, as we are most often stubborn. So that was a very rotten way to start my day.
   But the day got better when we decided to take an impromptu stroll through Kensington. The original plan was to go to this Crepe shop but we got a bit sidetracked and ended up going in a lovely little bookshop. (I'll have to go there again, I found a few books I'd like to buy.)

      We then headed over to the creperie. To my mistake, I ordered the Crepe Suzette, which I saw was drizzled with some alcohol. WHOOPS. My roommates got some good jokes out of it, but hey - it's best to try new things while travelling. You live and you learn. (Next time I may stick with Strawberries and Cream though)

     Afterwards we went to Waitrose to get groceries 

sitting outside the store in the Gloucester Rd Station

(I actually bought some this time), dropped them off at the flat, and decided to kill some time by finally going through Hyde Park. We had yet to go in and we live literally across the street from it! So we thought it was about time. The thing is GIANT - we literally only saw a very small pocket of the park, but it was a delightful pocket. :) It was pretty funny, we tried taking these jumping pictures off of a tree with really cool bark. Well, apparently I am the only photographer in the group able to take jumping pictures, because I literally jumped over ten times to get this shot. We tried Melissa's camera, Christie's camera, both cameras at the same time (my camera had died by this point)... it was a hot mess. But we finally got a decent one. They'll be posted as soon as I get them from them.

Anyway, picture time!

Part of the Gate by our flat

Classic tourist picture time

NAILED IT

In-progress monument to Queen Victoria

Royal Albert Hall

"Asia"

"America"

"Africa"

Beautiful land went on for miles

Making wishes in the Gardens

     After our escapades at what I have now dubbed the jumping tree, we left for Picadilly Circus to see our show for the evening. GOODNESS we got there early! 45 minutes in fact! Which is such a record for us - and SO much nicer than running with less than 5 minutes down the streets of the West End. So we took the time to look at the fountain 

and grab a super quick bite to eat at Mickey D's. It was really throwing me off that they were playing American music; from Lady Antebellum to old Stefani to classic Buble. It was weird. But soon enough, it was time for The Audience with Helen Mirren. May I just say that it was absolutely superb. Stupendous. One of the greatest theatre pieces I have ever seen. The direction and composition, as well as the script itself was just beautiful  I loved the simplicity and cleanliness of it all. And I must say - I'm a sucker for some great symmetry. I really adored the entire production. Granted I didn't understand all of the jokes/references because I m unfamiliar with a lot of British history and it's subtleties, but it was still completely entertaining and brilliantly acted.

The set from my seat, pre-show

   Speaking of the actors; Dame Helen Mirren was stunning. Absolutely stunning. Everything about her, her costumes, her performance, just all of it. I was surprised at how moved I was by the performance; I found myself getting emotionally agitated at the Prime Ministers when they disagreed or bashed the Queen. I never would have thought I could feel such pride for a monarchy, or monarch rather, that I am not under or have any connection to. But I was truly touched by the piece. It was a delightful piece of entertainment; poignant, simple, elegant, and astonishingly humorous and touching. 

    And as if the performance wasn't enough, I GOT TO MEET HER! She was just the sweetest thing! She waited for everyone to take pictures of her as she exited the theatre. She pointed at a women and said "you were in the first row, weren't you? I thought so!" The woman was a tourist visiting from Asia. She then proceeded to ask the guest "How is your English  and struck up a nice little conversation with her. She did this with several people as she signed more programs and tickets, even though she had technically done all of the signing for the evening. She was very gracious and quite the lady. I was so excited I was almost shaking when she took my ticket to sign. That's right. CHECK IT.

     It was such a delightful and very exciting evening. Just a lovely night. I was in such a good mood at this point, such a fabulous mood! Especially in comparison to how I was feeling this morning. I was just loving life at this point, bouncing along the streets of London. My roomie and I started getting pretty goofy - or carrying our goofiness out of the theatre rather. We ended up singing Pussycat Dolls - specifically the first 5 seconds to "When I Grow Up" among other songs of a similar nature. We also went strutting around the underground (or at least I was strutting). We've decided that we need to call ourselves one sixth of the Pussycat Dolls. I'm not ashamed. To be quite frank, I'm loving it.

I'm still loving this London life more than ever. 

Cheers from a very happy Londoner!