Mamma Mia

Well after a slight luggage hiccough Marie and I were on the 13:07 train heading for London. First class mind you since it was a special occasion. The peace and quiet engendered by not many other people being insane enough to pay First Class ticket prices was pleasant. For a few minutes anyway, until a couple of businessmen got on who were of the genus Mobiletelephonus Permantus and one of them managed to incense Marie by opening his first call to Andrew with "Sorry about that Andrew, I am in the wilds of Nottingham". Well, that's the sort of statement you only really allowed to say about a place when you're a native isn't it? Anyway, whoever the heck Andrew was managed to get off the phone after about 20 minutes and relative peace was restored.

The steward came around and poured the complimentary tea and coffee. We ordered some non-complimentary sandwiches and drinks - which were extremely nice, and nicely served too. And all was well with the world - Marie read her book and I read my gadget magazine and mentally spent about £40,000. We arrived in London bang on schedule and strolled out into the bright winter sunshine and got a cab to the hotel.

The cab driver was the complete antithesis of the stereotypical London cab driver. He had long hair and was playing some rather interesting (i.e. quite good) music as he drove us to the hotel. I suppose he was typical in as much as we had a long discussion about the 2 hotels that were both called the Thistle and were both near Trafalgar Square. By process of elimination - explaining that our Hotel was not the one next door to the Prince of Wales Theatre he knew which one we did need.

We checked in to our "Deluxe Room" and made our way to the fifth floor. Not quite sure what the criteria is for "Deluxe", but like many central London hotels that I have stayed in over the years it was most certainly "Bijou". Anyway, we settled in and had a rest before heading off to the Theatre.

We got settled into our seats about 15 minutes before curtain up - and then proceeded to do the "up and down thing" ... no not that "up and down thing", the other one, where after you sit down, everyone else in that row arrives about a minute apart to you have to stand and sit about 10 times in succession.

The show started bang on time and I shall not relay the entire story here or everything that happened etc. Suffice to say, that it is a great show with good humour and a bit tongue in cheek, so if you have any sense of humour at all you'll enjoy it. If you even vaguely appreciate classic pop music then you'll enjoy it even more. It made me feel good to see it - quite uplifting, which for those of you who know what a miserable git I am will understand the achievement of lifting me up!!

The show finished about 7:35pm - about two and half hours long. We collected our coats and headed off with dinner in mind. Original safe bet, but boring plan had been to return to the hotel. However, Planet Hollywood was just across the road from the theatre so we went there - had a few drinks in the bar and had something to eat there. Quite a fun place to be - lots of party groups there for birthdays and suchlike. A DJ playing music and showing videos on a huge video wall. Typical american diner style food. Strawberry and Banana Daiquiries. What more could you need?

After dinner, we headed back to the hotel. Next morning, breakfasted at the hotel after what can only be described as a cool night's sleep. The room might have been "deluxe" but it was also "cool" - the bloody heating didn't work. Ah well - when we checked out, they asked me if everything was alright with the room and of course I just muttered "Yes".

And since being a bit chilly all night was really not a problem - we decided that the best way to consolidate on our coolness was to embark upon a two hour tour of London on an open top bus. Ha ha ... mad dogs and englishmen eh? However, I have to say that it was very interesting and gave me a better feel for the geography of London. What I mean is, I have been to London lots of times and this has almost always entailed - train arrives - taxi to office - taxi to hotel - taxi to office - taxi to station - train departs. Well something like that anyhow. Now though I have a better idea of where things actually are and I get the impression that London is a lot more compact than I previously thought it was. Of course - this could be another complete misconception.

After the bus tour we were quite keen on being somewhere not cold. So we headed into HMV to get a DVD for Marie and then to Starbucks for a hot cup of coffee.

After that we decided it was time to head back to the wilds of Nottingham and jumped in a cab with a much more stereotypical London cabbie. Who upon discovering our ultimate destination gave me the two one-liners that must be in "The Knowledge" for London cabbies under the heading of "Appendix A: The Provinces".

Number 1 being "Nottingham eh? Ain't there 3 women to every man there?"

and

Number 2 being "Nottingham eh? Didn't they used to have a decent football team".

Being with my wife I decide to discuss football. Why I have no idea since I have had little interest in football since the mid-80s? However, I do have marginally more knowledge of football than I do the gender demographics of Nottingham.

We get to the station and we're comfortably in time for the next train back to Nottingham - hard to not be since they run every 30 minutes.

Two hours later we're back in Nottingham and Kim picks us up from the station and shortly afterwards we're back home after a really nice, fun trip to London.

Two things learnt at least on this trip. First class rail travel is expensive but it does mean you get somewhere more comfortable to sit and not quite as packed out with people. The second thing learnt is that at a weekend - you can probably get away with buying a standard class rail ticket. And when your ticket is checked you can upgrade to first class by paying an extra 6 pounds. Which is somewhat cheaper than the premium you pay when buying the tickets before the trip ... by about 60 pounds, yes that's right. I have decided though to merely learn this and not get upset about it - since it was worth every last penny to have a comfortable and spacious journey in both directions. But more, to see Marie chuckle and smile and really enjoy the pampering of having lunch served to us on the way down to London.