Started on Friday 2 August with the Wizard of Oz at the Compass Theatre which opened to rave reviews on Friday evening. Unfortunately due to prior commitments of the cast it closed on the same night. Georgie Regan put in a star performance but photography was not permitted in the auditorium and all publicity is going through her agent.
Saturday morning early start for emergency appointment at the passport office in Ecclestone Square, Victoria. It always comes as a surprise to me when someone else turns out to have the same sense of direction as me. Took us 15 minutes to find the passport office. Later when we got back to Victoria station I noticed the directions printed on the ground in the station. No sense of direction and missing the blindingly obvious is not a good combination.
Lovely breakfast at Giraffe, I can recommend the Mexican breakfast and some of the sausages had magical powers (but not all).
4 hour wait for passport so we took the opportunity to visit the British Museum.
Mattie enjoyed the Egyptian objects and the Parthenon marbles. Georgie didn't.
I love these Greek tripod pots, they make me want to take up pottery again.
We left the museum and headed for Chinatown in the hope of buying a waving cat but only found lots of restaurants and souvenir shops.
Saturated with culture and new passport safely obtained the Regans returned to Ickenham and I met up with Adrian at Victoria for a planned trip to Apsley House. But on the way we changed our minds and went back to the British Museum instead to see the Pompeii exhibition. Well worth a visit.
One of the famous casts found inside the house with this mosaic dog guarding its entrance. You don't really think of the Romans as dog people but some of them obviously were.
In search of a beer in the sun Adrian came across the source of his favourite publication.
And I found a watch to keep me going while mine is being serviced.
Got our beer in the sun, lovely dinner opposite the Gielgud theatre before we went in to see Noel Coward's Private Lives with Toby Stevens and Anna Chancellor. After watching the Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton film where about their disastrous run in the same play I was intrigued. Very funny play, I recommend it.
Rounded off the weekend with a trip to The Royal International Horse Show at Hickstead and watched 49 riders compete for the King George V Gold Cup won by Ben Maher on Triple X III. Thanks Kerrie
