The morning dawn on me again… yet another day in London! I was hard pressed deciding where to go. In the end I thought I will head out to Piccadilly Circus and formulate a plan later.
It was late morning by the time I reached the place, and my legs brought me to Chinatown. The city’s present Chinatown is in the Soho area, occupying the area in and around Gerrard Street. It contains a number of Chinese restaurants, bakeries, supermarkets, souvenir shops, and other Chinese-run businesses. There was only a couple of early shoppers (tourists, more like) walking around when I was there.
Went into a “eat all you can” vegetarian place… simply because their spread was so colourful and tantalising. The food tasted rather bland, but since I had it with a pint of beer, I didn’t really complain. At 7 pounds I think it was a worthwhile lunch.
I got restless again after the lengthy meal, so I decided to head to Theaterland and check out what is on offer. Because I was in London during one of the peak weeks in the year (the week around New Year), a few musicals stopped running, and most of the running ones ran out of tickets days beforehand.
But as I walked pass Queen’s Theater, I saw a notice that they were running an afternoon matinee show for Les Misérables. Quickly I dashed to the box office and enquired on ticket availability, and yes! They have some of the best seats available too. For 55 pounds, I got myself a nice spot at the Circle Seats.
I have been arranging and performing the music from Les Misérables since my secondary school band days. Never in my wildest dream did I ever think that, one day, I will be able to watch the original cast performing the show on their homeground.
But I did. From the start of the show till the curtain fall three hours later, I couldn’t stop tearing. Of course, my two glasses of red wine (yumm, isn’t it just the most fabulous idea? To be able to enjoy some drinks in theaters. Singapore is just too sterile!) helped in getting my emotions all stirred up. The kind gentleman sitting to my right kept asking if I was okay. I sniffed and said, yes I am, I am just too moved being here, that’s all.
OMG. I can’t believe how drama I was.
After the play ended, I met up with Liping, Huisi, Huili and Melvin for a “reunion” dinner at the famous Four Season Duck in Chinatown. I was there half and hour early, and there was already a waiting list! So I got a table first, and happily ordered something to munch on while waiting for the others. And in walk Liping with a HUGE bouquet of flowers – not for me – and followed by Huili and the rest.
It was a fun dinner time when we caught up with each others’ life. These were my band friends back from uni-days, and it was great to see them again after such a long time.
After dinner, we adjourned to some pub for drinks and continue to yak. Since all of them are working the next day, they headed home for an early night while I continued my adventure in Soho late into the night. What did I do? Just pub-hopping and stuff. I felt alive in the nightlife of London!
Click here for some pics on my day in London.
