Most of the time I just live my day-to-day life with no thought to the joys of living in London. For years, if asked “where would you most like to live?” I would have answered, “London!” without a moment’s hesitation. (In fact I remember a really bad date I had when I asked the guy that question and he said “near his parents” and I said “London”. Of course, I also told him I wanted to join the circus, but that’s another story.) Anyway, now I just tool around my little neighborhood most days with little thought to where I am. I take Isaac to preschool, take both boys to play group, go to church, go shopping, without leaving the same little area. But recently I have been reminded how great it is to live in central London–just a short tube ride to places like Westminster Abbey or Buckingham Palace.
A couple weeks ago, my friend Bonni and her family visited from Connecticut. While she was here, we did several touristy things. We took a walk from Trafalgar Square through Westminster and Whitehall; we saw the changing of the guard at Buckingham Palace; we walked from Richmond to Kew Gardens; we shopped at Covent Garden; we took the kids to the Science Museum, and basically wore ourselves out with seeing the sights.
Then just this past Wednesday night I went with some women from our play group to see STOMP in the West End. It was my first time to see a West End show. It was awesome.
Brian was out of town, so I got a babysitter. The evening didn’t start so well because the sitter was late. She called rather lost and I tried to tell her how to find us. Finally she showed up and I hurriedly explained things to her and left her a couple pages of information. Then I hurried out to Warwick Road and hailed a black cab because I was running so late. Luckily it didn’t take long to find an empty cab on the busy street, and I took it to the church where we were supposed to meet. Luckily I was still on time and we all carpooled to the Vaudeville Theatre.
It was weird to be out without the boys but it was great. It was also a wonderful drive over–I so rarely travel aboveground in London. On the way over, we passed so many amazing London landmarks: Piccadilly Circus, Trafalgar Square, Parliament and Big Ben, the London Eye, The Temple, and St. Bride’s Church. Then on the way back we went a slightly different way and saw the Savoy, Buckingham Palace, Marble Arch, and Harrods. It was another reminder of how cool it is to live in London. I think it is still my favorite city in the world (of the ones I have seen, anyway), though I do love Edinburgh and Haarlem dearly as well.
The show itself was also wonderful–I didn’t entirely know what to expect, but STOMP was great fun and hilarious, in spite of being entirely without words. At times it did get a bit noisy (which was tough considering we were a bunch of moms escaping noisy toddlers) but it was always enjoyable. The energy and rhythm of the performers was infections–we all left the theater wanting to make music with everyday objects. We were hearing it even in the rumble of the car engine.
I came home to two peacefully sleeping boys but I was so excited it took me a while to sleep.
Now there’s only six more months to enjoy life in London!
