Europe 2009 – London Day #3

Migrated post from Blogger.com.
Refer to Europe 2009 Blog Migration.

Events of Day 3 in London:

1. I headed out later today… 9:30am instead of before 9am like Monday/Tuesday. Joined younger brother of my host on bus ride to Convent Gardens. This was my first ride on a red double decker bus!
2. Explored Convent Garden & Leicester Square, but not for long since it was raining lightly… Dropped by one of the Westend cheap theatre ticket stalls. Here I got a stall seat/ticket for the matinee show of Wicked (2:30pm)
3. I then caught the Tube from Picadily Circus to Marylebone, where my friend met up with me and brought me back to her place for lunch.
4. Lunch was a relaxed affair; a most delicious home-cooked meal!
5. After a few hours with my friend it was time to head to the Apollo Victoria theatre (Victoria tube station)
6. Wicked took up 3 hrs from 2:30pm to 5:30pm. A most enjoyable show, talented actors and scripted storyline. Brilliant music although it’s not the kind that’s easily stuck in your head…
7. Tubed it back to Borough, had enough time to freshen up before we my host drove us out to Hemel Hempstead (my godmother’s brother’s home) for a home-cooked meal.

Thoughts for the day:

1. The expected rain has finally hit! Not heavy but enough to restrict exploration efforts around Leicester Square…
2. The bus ride is definitely better than the Tube, but you need to know the routes and connections…
3. Having home-cooked meals were a great change from all the eating out…
4. It took quite a bit of effort to get a prepaid SIM up and running – finally got credit added…
5. I’m so glad I saw Wicked – I had been previously disappointed that I had missed out in Melbourne but this experience more than made up for the loss!
6. Ended the day with speculation on whether my hosts’ dad may have known my mum back in KL in years gone past.

2014 Thoughts:

Seeing this post triggered a quick search and re-read of the 2014 posts that mention Wicked. The main article to link off to here is Defying Gravity! which provides a bit of a song analysis. In re-reading that article, you may notice I have taken this opportunity to provide a short analysis on musicals and their signature (dominant) songs.