Tom and I went Christmas Shopping at Westfield yesterday. It was…interesting. There are a LOT of people shopping at the moment!

Tom and the White Tree of Westfield.

Ferrero Rocher Tree <3

It’s exactly two months to my 21st. Presents can be sent care of the communications centre in the Sherfield Building

Go to the theatre.

The West End. A bit of an ambiguous term, but amazing all the same. There is a string of theatres in Central London that have shows on throughout the year and you should try go to at least one in your time at Imperial. I’ve been lucky enough to go at least once a year:

First year

We went on a halls trip to see We Will Rock You, based on the music from Queen. Reason enough to go in itself. The musical is good, though I wasn’t as excited about it as I thought I would be – it was Fresher’s Week and I was feeling a bit grumpy (as I tend to be sometimes). It’s a lot of fun, set in the future with some cool sets, and the audience gets really into it, with glowsticks and standing up and swaying…it’s particularly good for people who don’t think they like musicals cos the music is ‘naff’. This is pure Rock. Yeeeah.

We also went to see La Traviata, a ballet, for Maddy’s birthday. It was awesome (although it was in Italian, and reading the subtitles detracted a bit from actually watching the onstage action). One of the best things for me was the music, which honestly sounded like a recording. I’d never heard an orchestra play so perfectly. This is worth it just for the extended death scene, in which it takes the damsel about an hour to die.

Second Year

Mum came to visit and we decided to go to the theatre. We looked up cheap tickets on lastminute.com and found some for £15 for La Clique in the London Hippodrome. We rang the bro, booked the tickets, then decided to find out what La Clique is all about. We didn’t really know what burlesque meant…until I rang Tom and asked him. His mum informed us it is effectively a strip show. With my mum and brother…yay… It was actually AMAZING. It was more like a very saucy circus side-shows act, with some hilarious ones such as the really fat operatic drag queen, and the Swedish comedian who lived in IKEA. I was laughing so much that Ashton kept telling me to calm down, and where there was nakedness it was rather short. You could just close your eyes for the worst bits I think it might have closed down now, but if you get a chance to see it you must. Especially if it’s a big group of girls. I imagine a Hen’s Night party to this would be brilliant!

Chigago – with Tom, for our anniversary. It was quite good, but I wasn’t blown away. I know all the (film) songs off by heart, and I love the film as it was how I learned about Chicago. It spoiled me a bit – the onstage version is nowhere near as colourful and flamboyant; at least the version we saw wasn’t. They only really had one set, and I didn’t much like the people who played Roxie and Velma Kelly. It was especially not as amazing as I thought as the tickets were really expensive, even though we booked like four months in advance. Good points are that they include the songs that didn’t make the film, and I especially love “Class”, and the atmosphere was nothing like watching it on the computer. I guess that’s why people go to musicals!

Third Year

One of my friends offered me the chance to go to Wicked for £17 a ticket – his friend had booked two and then realised they couldn’t go. I took a home friend, Jodie, along to the Victoria Apollo, and the seats turned out to be like four from the front – amazing. The whole thing was hilarious, sad, happy, illuminating, and the visual effects were soo good. I still expect every show I see to be a bit like a school play, with actors forgetting lines and cues. This one was flawless. They were singing their hearts out and there wasn’t a single crack in a voice, no small mistakes….I’d definitely recommend this if you loved the Wizard of Oz. Or even if you didn’t.

The set of Wicked before I got told off for taking photos.

Tom and I went to see Phantom of the Opera in April. This was a major triumph on my part, as Tom hates Andrew Lloyd Webber but likes Phantom. I was worried the film would spoil it (again), as this is one of the longest running musicals ever and I wanted to see it ever since Mum and Dad went to see Cats in 1997 and came back to Zim to tell us all about it. It didn’t. It was amazing!!

The stage before it started (and before I got shouted at for taking photos!)

The theatre where it is on show.

In summary: GO TO THE THEATRE!

Wow, it’s been an incredibly long time since I wrote a blog. I can’t do a video blog today. I’m still in my pyjamas.

Since exams (and Phantom of the Opera) my life has been one big procrastination. If I wasn’t worried about not getting the required grades to do fourth year before, I am now. Minimum is 60%. Yikes.

Lucia in Covent Garden

Lucia turned 21 on Thursday. We have been celebrating – on Thursday we had tea, on Friday we went to a restaurant in Fulham Broadway which was Turkish and had a clever name that I can’t remember, we watched Iron Man 2 and went across to Orient House to eat fairy-cakes which I spent several hours making on Thursday, and watch Carlos play a suspicious game on his iPhone.

Excited at the start of the HP tour.

Yesterday we did the Harry Potter walking tour. It was AMAZING. Not least because we walked around bits of London which I have been to before, but never in the order of going from disgusting modern buildings and wide open roads, to cobbled streets, little hidden alleys with all manner of exciting things down them, and past a cathedral, a massive butchers and down a market that makes me remember London is actually pretty old. I would like to point out, to those of you who shake your heads and laugh at how much more uncool I’ve just revealed myself to be, that I just don’t care. We nicknamed yesterday “The ‘Cool’ Day”.

Plans for the coming week include revision, going with Lucia to get her second tattoo (more on this later) and more revision.

The birthday cakes

With lit candles.

Loving the Iron Man 2 board...

Out to dinner!

Inspiration for Diagon Alley.

Our tour guide.

The pub Sherlock Holmes hung out in before it was renamed...

A polka dot boat.

A cool tunnel.

Southwark Cathedral

Straight out of LoTR.

An old building.

I like the lines in this photo.

A tower with bells in it.

St Pauls

Leaky Cauldron from HP1.

Leaky Cauldron HP3

The gherkin.

A marketplace in the financial district.

Pub in Covent Garden. Do good pies.

The flat from Bridget Jones' Diary.