I followed Chiew Sinn out in the morning...we took a bus to Angel of Islington...and changed another bus to go to King's Cross which is near her university...i continued on the bus till i reached near Chinatown... found my way to Leicester square where i continued my hunt for Les Miserable ticket...i noticed a few shops offering discounted ticket at Leicester Square the day before...so i randomly picked a shop and asked if they had discounted ticket for Les Miserable...and guess what? they did!!! it was a 65 pounds ticket which was going for 41.50 pounds...i thought that was quite a save...and the seat was a very very good seat (which i found out eventually although initially i was wary that the lady might be playing me on)...hunt over, i went on to do the touristy stuffs since i had about 3 hours to kill...
Chiew Sinn lent me her oyster card which i was using on a 'pay as you go' basis but which maximally deduct 6.60 pounds per day (as in the day pass)...so i thought, what the heck, just use the tube...took the tube to Waterloo station where the London Eye is just about 5 minutes walk away...didn't bother to go up the Eye...just took some photos...then walked along the Thame Banks...saw the Parliament house over the other side...saw the Westminster Bridge...and the real London Bridge...bought a toasted pita wrap and had my lunch by the riverside...novelty to me...but everyone's doing it in London...then it was time to find my way back to the Queen's Theatre to watch Les Miserable...
Thought i got lost for a while but managed to find my way back to the underground station and went back to Piccadilly Circus...then walked to Shaftebury Avenue...almost went into the wrong theatre...there was another theatre before Queen's...hehe...reached just in time to use the bathroom and find my seat...it was at the dress circle and right in the middle...the view was fantanstic...i'm not as familiar with Les Miserable as i am with the Phantom...only know the song sang by Fantine 'I dreamed a dream'...but a classic is always worth a watch...and i really enjoyed it...so many beautiful songs...and poignant moments...though i must comment on the way they made Javier jumped off the bridge...interestingly cheesy...with the slow-mo movements and all...but i guess that's theatre....
Post Le Mis, i contemplated between hanging out in Chinatown or walking towards Victoria...decided on walking my way to Victoria where i would be turning my younger sis green with envy coz i get to watch Wicked in London (oh well, she'll get to watch it in Singapore next Jan)...thank God for the google map saved in my ipad...so i could walk through the Buckingham Palace Gardens towards Victoria...met this chatty middle-aged English woman who exclaimed, "now that's a very smart thing" when she saw me navigating my way with the ipad...apparently she was heading towards Pimlico for a dinner function and she preferred to walk then taking the cab...she was definitely dressed for dinner...and she talked the whole way while i was frantically looking at the map hoping that i wasn't lost...finally i saw the Victoria underground station...and the Apollo Victoria Theatre was just opposite it...and i didn't realize this the day before when i was there...
Anyway, grabbed a burger at Burger King at the Victoria station before going to the theatre...it was quite packed..and the theatre was illuminated with green light...my seat was quite a good one...although it was at the stalls...it wasn't too near that i have to spend the whole night looking up at the stage but it was near enough to see the actors on stage...and i must say, Wicked is WICKED!!! i loved it!!! even if they changed part of the storyline and totally changed Fiyero's character (and robbed him off his blue diamond whole body tattoos and turned him into a scarecrow in the end)...but i just love the ending...i'm glad that the 'wicked' got their happy ending and the 'good' received their just reward...i love the scene when Elphaba was singing 'defying gravity'...i actually bought some Wicked paraphernalias (although they are damn expensive after conversion)...one of which was a 'defying gravity' t-shirt and an Elphaba necklace for Pei...i have a feeling Wicked will become the next classic...
After the show, i took the tube back to Manor House, which was the nearest tube station to Chiew Sinn's apartment...then took the 141 bus back to the apartment...had to call poor Chiew Sinn to brave the cold to open the gate for me...while waiting for her to come down, met a guy at the gate...he asked if i was waiting for my friend to open the door and if he/she was on the way down...i said yea...he told me he was visiting a sick friend (a she :(...) who's staying at the apartment as well...he asked me where i was from...i told him "Malaysia" and he had a blank look for a while...and i asked if he was from Austria...coz he was wearing a jacket which has Austria written on its sleeve...and he said "yea, good power of observation"....then Chiew Sinn arrived at the gate and let us in...and we stopped at 3rd floor while he continued up to 5th floor where his 'girlfriend' was staying...and that was the end of my cute Austrian guy encounter....
Quite an overwhelming day...really felt like watching more musicals...but Chiew Sinn was like, "Wei, you come to London to watch musicals only ah?"...honestly, that was the whole idea of my London trip...musicals and shopping...Mamma Mia was tempting...and then there was Crazy For You, a musical by Gershwin...i even saw a poster for The Marriage of Figaro...think that was ballet...gosh! London is theatre haven...not that i would love to live in London...too KL for my liking (in the sense of crowd and jam and air pollution)...but it would be nice living at the suburbs of London...the countryside even so that i can satisfy my theatre cravings...hehe....
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