London Life contd -5 to 7 August and War Horse

Monday August 5

With Mike and Carol at The Golden Hinde

Following our hectic birthday weekend, a restorative Monday was required, and it was our pleasure to share it with our long-time friends Mike & Carol, who drove up from Weybridge. They arrived around 1030, and after a coffee and chat aboard, we meandered along the North bank to The Little ship Club (where we are now considered regulars). Our relaxing lunch took some hours before a winding stroll back, this time along the South bank, and, amazingly, it was well gone 4pm and time for our guests to hurry home for grandparenting duty, while we had a pre-teatime snooze. It’s a hard life!

The Blue Trees, near St Paul's

Tuesday August 6, and the office work has caught up. A batch of forwarded mail contained a couple of hours of desk work—mostly on the phone hearing for the nth time that public utilities and phone companies are having a large number of calls. Glorious weather for sunbathing in the afternoon, occasionally assisting in a berthing operation nearby. Apart from a short expedition to collect new glasses and yet another dongle (!), a very restful day on the boat.

Buying tickets for the ballet

Wednesday August 7.  We were up and out very early to get to The Royal Opera House where The Bolshoi Ballet was performing Tchaikovsky’s “Sleeping Beauty”. However, when we arrived at the door, we saw that day tickets were not on sale (a Bolshoi requirement). Undeterred, we consoled ourselves with a (second) breakfast at “Valeries”.

 

Morning workout, al fresco, Covent Garden

 

Query: Does a Belgian pastry qualify as a second breakfast?

We passed some time taking in the sights (including open-air Zumba dancing), and went back at 10am hoping to get any returns. No joy on “Sleeping Beauty”, but we did secure two good tickets for “Swan Lake” on Saturday. From there it was a short walk to the New London Theatre for two tickets to the evening performance of “War Horse” - one of the “must-see items” on our list. Then after a lunch, laundry, snooze and shower we were back on our trusty No 15 Routemaster to Covent Garden for an amazingly great  show.