Friday Night Fever

My friday actually started earlier than the rest of ya'alls. Technically, it started at around 3am, CST, but it was a bright and early 9 am London time when my plane landed at Gatwick. It was around 11 am when I arrived at the apartment, just in time to miss the rest of the family I drop off my bag, freshen up and head out. After that, I quickly leave to go pick up the tickets. I try to drop them off at the conciglier's desk, but the Sainsburry guy is making a delivery, so I have to let him in and put up the cold grocieries before they go bad. I leave the tickets on the front desk and head out, so I'm not caught. I, with my voice dragging behind me, went to eat at Wagamamas, yummmy. Since I still had time, I went shopping. The used books under the bridge had a few books I wanted, so I shelled out a few pounds. I also stopped by the National Theatre and picked up a theatre newspaper. Still with plenty of time, I went to the local corner shop and stocked up on juice drinks, dr. Pepper, and kinder eggs. I still had plenty of time by the time I reached the old vic again. There's a lovely little pub there called the Firehouse, and I was able to get some hot chocolate there before heading back to the theatre.
Oh, I guess I should clue you in on what was a little secret: No one knew I was going to be in London (except my Mom... who told Stewart, who told his wife... so that I could get a seat for dinner and a ticket for the Eve show). I had purchased tickets to see Ian McKellen in the Old Vic's production of the pantimime Alladin. My family thought that that was my christmas present to them, and that I hoped they enjoyed it. They were scheduled to call me afterwards so I'd get to hear all about it. The truth was that I was going to meet them there, surprise them. I get there, and I'm all ancy. I take my time getting to my seat, just in case they're allready there. But they're not. So I go back out to the stairwell to wait for them, suddenly I see Jeni and Mom heading up, so I rush back through the crowd to get in my seat. I whip the paper out of my bag and turn away from the isle. Pop is lightly arguing with mom on where to sit, because he doesn't want to sit by some "young girl". :) But Mom makes him. I turn to hiim, and he says "Good day, Miss." and turns back to mom to argue a bit more. I just sit there and smile. He turns back to say something polite, stops, does a double take, and asks "What are you doing here?!" I just laughed. Mom was laughing too. Jeni and Don were looking on, trying to figure it all out. Everyone was so surrised, it was great. Pop quickly, after gathering himself somewhat, whips out his phone to call up Stewart. "You knew? Was I the only one that didn't know?!" Stewart, as previously mentioned, already knew and was waiting for the call. It was quite a lot of fun.
I don't remember seing a panto before, though I'm sure I did in elementary school. It was a ton of fun. Pop even got really into it. Ian McKellen played the part of the Dame... which is always played by an elder man in drag, playing an older woman. So, if you will: Imagine the man who was Magneto in X-Men, and Gandolf in Lord of the Rings as Widow Twanky. Very very fun.
Once that show was done I had a snack and took a snack while the rest went to Chemises (the Italian Deli) before heading out again. Then I headed out to see Edward Scissorhands. I thought it was going to be a musical, which I was really looking forward to... turns out it was a ballet. Imagine it as you will. It was visually beautiful. And siince I knew the story, I could follow it really easy, unfortunately not everyone had watched Tim Burton's "classic" so they were a bit lost. It was very Burton-esque. The ending was a beautiful scene that needed no words during the beatiful love sequence between Kim and Edward, the fight happened quickly. When the curtain call came, all the dancers went out of character to bow, except Edward, who came out on his own at the end, fully in character. He rose his hands to the audience with roars of applause, and when he bowed and brought his hands down, snow fell into the audience. It was absolutely beatiful. A lovely night over all.