On Monday theatre is dark - or is it?
I must have been really tired because when I opened my eyes on Monday morning and checked the time it was 9:30. Guess I was catching up on the travel sleep deficit. Couldn't really face breakfast so I ordered a pot of coffee from room service and got myself thoroughly caffeinated while I dressed and got organized for my theatre booking expedition.
My Tuesday night was already allocated for All My Sons so that left me with Monday night and Wednesday night open. The last time I was in London there was virtually nothing on on Sunday and Monday and I wondered if that would be the same this time. However my last visit was in January. Now it is the height of the summer theatre season so probably there would be a reasonable selection of plays on.
By the time I was ready to go it was nearly eleven and I thought I had better get moving. My plan was to see what was available at discounted rates and if I could not find what I wanted, to go directly to the various box-offices.
On my way past the store where I bought my phone I stopped in for a quick discussion about OK buttons. By trial and error we decided it was the same as the back button - go figure - but it seemed to work.
At Leicester Square I got a dress circle ticket for Prisoner of Second Avenue and then I thought I would really like to see the follow up musical to Phantom, Love Never Dies. So I wandered along the Strand to the box office at the Adelphi and bought what I was assured was a good ticket for the Wednesday night 7:30 show. At 66 GBP it better be, and I pray for a little gnome in the seat in front of me.
On my way back I dropped into Sainsbury's to pick up some fruit and nuts.
Supping Away: ROKA in London
Roka Restaurant and Sochu
37 Charlotte Street, London
Ph: 020 7580 6464
As I walked along Rathbone Street to and from the hotel on Saturday and Sunday, I noticed that the glass-fronted restaurant on the corner of Charlotte and Rathbone, always seemed to be busy. I couldn't see the name anywhere so on Monday on my way to organize the rest of my theatre tickets,
I went to check out the name and the menu posted outside the restaurant. Roka.It seemed familiar. I checked back at my pre-trip research and sure enough on an UrbanSpoon London search for restaurants in the Fitzrovia area, Roka was on their "Best Restaurants" list.
If it is Sunday it must be Southbank
For some bizarre reason technical problems with this specific post are preventing me from attaching images so my wonderful pictures will hopefully appear in a separate post. Can't find any explanation in the html source code so I am posting this as is because trying to fix the problem is driving me nuts.
So here goes with Sunday and Southbank.
Sleep? or Dinner and a Show?
Flight, train, taxi - smooth as silk. The big question was sleep- or start my London adventure.
By shortly after 1 PM I was unpacked, showered and ready to head down to Leicester Square to check out the theatre scene. I also planned to see about getting a local cell phone so that I could call home without having to mortgage my home to pay my Fido bill when I got back to Vancouver.
As I walked along Charlotte Street I noticed that both sides of the street had restaurant, pubs and cafes, one after another. Basically the whole street is food and drink heaven. I turned right on Tottenham Court Road and passed a number of electronic stores.
I stopped in to enquire about a cell phone. After some negotiation I ended up picking up a small Sony Ericsson phone and a Lebara international mobile SIM card. Then I bought a calling credit top up for ten pounds and I was set for the rest of my trip, or so I figured.
I set off again down to Leicester Square feeling a bit like I was channeling Matt Damon - or maybe these days I should say Lisbeth Salander. Mind you I still had not figured out how to use the phone other than how to switch it on and off! More about that later.
I checked out the various discount booths at Leicester Square and finally decided to try for a ticket to Thriller Live at 4 PM at the Lyric Theatre. This is a show of songs from Michael Jackson and the Jackson Five and I figured if anything would keep me awake it would be that show.
Vancouver - Heathrow - Paddington - SoHo
It seems as though it would be a long and exhausting journey from Vancouver to my hotel in London but this is how the timing actually went:
Depart Vancouver around 5 PM (equivalent to 1 am London time the next day)
After a nine hour flight, arrive around 10 am at Heathrow
By around 11 am, I am on the Heathrow Express for the 15 minute ride to Paddington Station
The wait for a taxi was under 5 minutes and by 12 noon I was standing at the desk of the Rathbone Hotel for check-in.
Eleven hours from YVR to my London Hotel. Isn't it great to live in the 21st century!
Vancouver to Heathrow: Air Canada's direct flight
The Air Canada Boeing 777-300s have been in operation for about three years according to the Enroute magazine but this plane was so immaculately groomed it seemed almost new. I booked my flight when Air Canada was offering one of their discounted airfares so my budget allowed for a seat in the Executive First cabin. The London flight was packed and I was happy that I made that choice.
The flight took off a couple of minutes late but we were still scheduled to get into London on time. I enjoyed a glass of orange juice before take off - the sparkling wine does not do it for me! and shortly after we were aloft, I was offered a portion of mixed nuts and a choice of drinks.
London 2010 for Theatre and Dining: The plan unfolds
I'm a planner as any one who knows me even remotely is aware. My electronic calendar gets sorted out weeks, even months in advance. When asked, I declare that I have to do things that way because I am so frightfully busy - the life of an entertainment/food and wine/ travel/ dance-cruise writer is so full of attending events, eating and drinking (well maybe not drinking so much), traveling and dancing - that I need my PDA to keep track of what my weary neurons cannot. But the truth is that even before electronic PDAs existed and when the main events in my life were 1) work a 10 to 11 hour day at the hospital 2) have dinner with my family and 3) work some more at home, I still tried to fill out my paper calendar months ahead.
Today as I depart to spend five cultural and gastronomic days in London prior to a Ballroom Dance Cruise around the British Isles, it's a glorious July day in Vancouver, and I think "how crazy am I to be leaving town?"
Destination Kelowna: The Kelowna Actors Studio
In Vancouver, arts organizations and theatre companies are reeling under the impact of massive cuts to arts funding. From our recent visit to Kelowna for the Spring Wine Festival, Destination Travel: Kelowna in the Okanagan Wine Country , here is an inspiring story of "a little company that could" - The Kelowna Actors Studio is thriving and looking forward to an expanded season next year - and they do it through ticket sales.
Randy Leslie and Nathan Flavel are the brains, passion and talent behind Kelowna's independent theatre company, The Kelowna Actors Studio. Despite being a week away from the opening of "The Miracle Worker" when we called to see them, they generously took time out of their frenetic schedules to show us around their theatre and describe their impressive plans for 8 productions during their 2010/2011 season.
Although neither mentioned this during our talk, some prior research on my part revealed that both Nathan and Randy have established themselves as dedicated contributors to the cultural and entrepreneurial scene in Kelowna. Randy was the recipient of the first ever Okanagan Angel Award in 2005 for his contribution to the local arts scene and recently received a civic award for Honour in the Arts. Nathan was the recipient of the Kelowna Chamber of Commerce Young Entrepreneur Of the Year award for his work with Kelowna Actors Studio.
Destination: Kelowna: Dance, theatre, wine and great places to dine
Over the remaining five days of our jam-packed visit to the Okanagan we were able to get to almost everything on our list of to-dos except one. And it wasn't wine tasting!
With the Spring Wine Festival in full swing, obviously wine tasting and fine food were top priorities. Although, as my regular readers might point out with some justification, when has "Sipping and Supping" not been a top priority in my life?
But as well I was eager to find out about the cultural and dance scene in and around Kelowna - and then, as we planned to be utterly exhausted from our intense labours, what better excuse could we have for relaxing and being pampered at a Spa?
Alas, although our research indicated a number of local spas that looked enticing, pampering was the one activity for which we just could not find time. So no Spas for us. Oh, the tough life of travelblogue writers!
Wine Festivals in the Okanagan
In spring, summer, fall and winter in British Columbia's stunningly beautiful Okanagan Valley, the Okanagan Wine Festivals Society organizes a Festival to celebrate wine, food, culture and a wide range of summer and winter outdoor activities.
I was in Kelowna for the May 2010 Spring Wine Festival and met with Christina Ferreira and Blair Baldwin of the Society to learn about the origin and current festivities of these Wine Festivals.
This year is the 30th anniversary of the first Fall Festival which was an informal gathering of local 5 wineries to party and celebrate the end of harvest. The Spring Festival was started much later but over the 16 years of tracking attendance at these two festivals, it seems that their popularity is now on a par.
Thirty years later, the Spring and Fall Festivals have grown into 10 day events that see approximately 200,000 visits to participating wineries. About 1000 people attend the smaller weekend long Winter and Summer Festivals held at the resorts
Although the Festival Society coordinates the overall event, the programming is a cooperative venture with the 96 entrepreneurial members of the Society. Participating wineries and restaurants create their own unique events whether wine tasting, food and wine pairings or educational programs. This year's Spring Festival had 110 events, including 5 consumer events.
Destination Kelowna: Designated Driver: Not!
Destination Travel Kelowna as seen through the eyes of Guest Writer, Amanda Lockitch
May 3, 2010
Destination: Kelowna. Designated Driver: Not!
It was only the day before we left Vancouver that I was informed that the real reason my mom invited me to accompany her to Kelowna for the Spring Wine Festival was so that I could be her designated driver. As I am a bit of a teetotaller anyway, this was not really a big deal. However, the reality is that my mother apparently doesn't actually trust me to drive, so in my time in Kelowna I have had the chance to taste many a fine wine. More on that in a bit...
My mom and I are both working towards actively lowering our irrationally self-induced stress levels. We both have the tendency to live in the future: Where am I going to park when I get there? or the past: Oh, maybe I shouldn't have said/done that.
Now, however, instead of getting riled up about the things we cannot control, we breathe. As my mom would say courtesy of the TV show "Dharma and Greg" - we just put it in a bubble and blow it away.
Instead of yelling at drivers who pass us dangerously close over double yellow lines, we slow down and say, "We're not in a rush, we're on vacation" and let them go on as they will. Instead of worrying about what is to come, we are trying to stay in the present moment and deal with things as they arise rather than projecting what may happen. Overall, this is making me a more relaxed and happy gal. I still clench my teeth occasionally as my mother drives, because from my perspective she is always too far over to the left or the right.
- 1 of 14
- ››
