West End Live 2014

West End Live is a yearly event which showcases and celebrates all that London musical theatre has to offer. This years event snuck up on me and I didn't even realise it was happening until I was walking through Leicester Square and saw a tent erected. Although the main event happens in Trafalgar Square, to celebrate the 10 year anniversary they had a special exhibition in Leicester Square, where the event originally started.

Inside the tent they had a whole bunch of awesome stuff, including set plans, props, make up demonstrations and costumes.

Matilda set design

Elphaba

Willy Wonka

Costume from the Royal Ballet

Mamma Mia!

After I had my fill of looking at freaky props and had sadly decided against asking the make up artist to turn me into a cat I headed to Trafalgar square to catch some of the performances. 

The place was absolutely heaving with queues wrapping round the square but after a bit of patience I managed to find a space by the big blue cock.

Throughout the day I saw performances from Wicked, Billy Elliot, Thriller, Carousel and Matilda. There was a lot more on but in the end the heat got to me so I headed home to enjoy a free comic, that Forbidden Planet were handing out at the event, and a cold drink. As it does every year West End Live has inspired me and I know I need to go see some shows very soon. Don't worry I'll be sure to let you know what I pick and maybe try a little review just for you!

St James Park

I had some plans fall through which meant I had a morning in central London to myself. The sun was blazing so I thought this was the perfect opportunity to head to my second favourite park in London; St. James Park. 

St. James Park started as a location for a women's lepers hospital but around 1530 Henry VIII brought the land so he could go hunting in London. Although the landscape has change dramatically since then I like to think of him dashing through the fields at the height of his power and health (you know before he went a bit too far and killed two wives). Today St. James Park is a stunning green space with beautiful flowerbeds and an interesting selection of water foul on the lake. It's on the door step of Buckingham Palace so does get extremely busy with tourists, but it never feels too congested.

I was glad I had brought my camera and decided to take the time to mess around with my macro lens.

Just I was getting carried away my camera stopped working; I'd made a rookie mistake and not checked my battery pack before I left and was now out of juice. First thing I'm going to do when I get paid this month is buy a spare battery pack! This unfortunately means the photos in the rest of this post were taken with my ipod. My morning of finally trying to learn how to use my macro lens had to be postponed. 

With no real camera to play with I decided to a cafe for nice cup of  tea and a muffin and watch the world go by. It was a little weird, although I've had lunch on my own tons of time on workdays I normally have a book to distract me. This time I had no book and I felt a little strange sat on my own, but they do say you should eat alone at least once (I don't know who 'they' are but I'm pretty sure I read it in a magazine somewhere). Within half an hour my view started to get a little busy, and I still felt a bit awkward on my own so I drained my cup and went to wander around a little more.

It was a lovely stroll and I soon found myself outside Horse Guards parade.

As I arrived the mounted troupers of the household cavalry were getting ready to move off to Hyde Park. I managed to push through to get some photos of horses bums (it was the only area where there was space - strangely tourists don't choose to stand behind horses!).

It was a fun morning, being a tourist in my own city, but next time I'll remember to charge my camera battery!

A day trip to Cambridge

After wasting most of Saturday feeling a little sorry for myself (don't worry it was due to a few too many drinks the night before) I decided we had to head out on Sunday to make the most of the beautiful weather. I've recently brought a 'Two travel together railcard' which gives me and Stuart about a third off rail travel, and will hopefully encourage us to leave London now and then. Today we decided to go to Cambridge. I'd never been before but it was only 50 minutes on the train and promised a nice mix of history and grandeur. As soon as we stepped off the train and headed into the town we were greeted with sunshine and dramatic buildings.

There were three things I wanted to do in Cambridge; Go Punting, visit the Round Church and have a cream tea. To get the first one on this list checked off we headed to the river Cam and joined a Punting tour. There were eleven of us squeezed onto one boat, and even though we were first in the queue some people bemoaned that they would get sick if the travelled backwards so with a scowl and a sigh we gave up the best seat at the front of the boat. Despite this it was a lovely tour with the sun beaming down on us and inexperienced Punters(?!) occasionally crashing into us.

The river was extremely busy but my favourite people we saw, in fact perhaps my favourite people of all time, were the guys who, defying the Cambridge stereotype, went past in a rubber dingy. My kind of people!

Our tour guide was great, giving us little snippets of facts about some of the colleges, chapels and bridges as we went past. My favourite was King's College Chapel, founded by Henry VI. 

As we went under some of the many bridges it was lovely to get a very little bit of shade, if only for a few seconds, away from the blazing sun.

Apparently the swans have got very smart and realise many of the boats contain tasty picnic treats but unfortunately this guy went away empty handed.

As we returned to dry land I was glad to be able to stretch my legs and head into the shade, but the tour was a lot of fun. Now we know all about the colleges if we ever head back to Cambridge I think we'd hire our own boat and take our time messing about on the river.

Next stop was the Round Church. Unfortunately I didn't take any photos of this as there was scaffolding all around the outside and inside was a little quiet so I wasn't sure if I allowed to take any snaps. However it was very interesting, and so refreshing to be away from the sunshine for short while. If you want to see what the church looks like head to this wiki page where you can learn a bit about it. I wanted to check it out as it dates all the way back to the Norman times and is one of about four medieval round churches still in existence. If you're in Cambridge I recommend you pop in to appreciate the history of the building.

Finally it was time for some refreshments. We stopped outside a very dramatic building for my cream tea, and a large waffle covered in ice cream for Stuart!

We finished the day by wandering aimlessly around the streets until we got to the other side of King's College chapel that we'd seen from the river.

Normally you can walk inside the grounds of the college but it was closed today due to examinations, so we just had time to say hello to my favourite monarch before heading back to the train station. It was a very lovely day and I think we'll definitely be heading back to Cambridge soon.