December 31, 2013 (New Year’s Eve Day)

Wicked was such a magical experience that I’ve put off writing about it for three days because I can’t think of what to say to do it justice.  I finally realized that I can’t do it justice.  There is no substitute for a live theater experience.

The kids were mesmerized, particularly Isabella.  Her choir performed the song “Popular” last year, so she already knew all the words, and had heard several of the other numbers before, as well.  She thought she knew what to expect going into the performance.

She had no idea how powerful a really well-done live performance can be, and this was the best one I’ve ever seen.  The woman playing the wicked witch, Elphaba, is Willemijn Verkaik.  She’s a Dutch actress who has performed the roll over 1000 times since 2007, and is the only actress to have performed Wicked in three different languages (German, Dutch, and English.)  She is probably the most talented singer I’ve ever heard.  The rest of the cast was excellent as well, but none of them came even close to her level.

At the end of Act 1, they perform “Defying Gravity”; Elphaba is hoisted far above the stage and her voice reaches through your body and grabs onto your soul.  You feel only what she wants you to feel; you are no longer master of your own emotions.  Elphaba has somehow taken complete control of your mind.  Then BAM! the theater goes black and BAM! the curtain falls and the entire audience sits in stunned silence for a couple of beats; then erupts into foot-stomping thunderous applause.  You’ve been emotionally violated, and yet feel lucky all at the same time; how can one little green painted woman cast such a powerful spell over 2,300 people?

At this point I thought the play was over.  “Defying Gravity” packed the sort of punch I associate with the grand finale at a fireworks display.  I started to exit the building and an employee called out, “Madame, do you have your ticket stub?  You’ll need it to get back in.”    Like the little country mouse that I am, I stupidly said, “Why do I need to get back in?”  She said, “Don’t you want to see Act 2?”

“There’s an Act 2?  It’s not over?”  Isabella, standing right behind me (and who also thought the play was over) said with breathless hope in her voice, “Wait … you mean there’s MORE?”  We raced back to our seats.

When it was over for real and we left the theater, Isabella said “I’ve found a new passion.”  Holden and Josie enjoyed themselves, too, but for Isabella I think it was one of those life-changing experiences that opens up whole new worlds.  For that alone, it was worth every single penny.

Back at our apartment, we ate dinner in because all the restaurants were packed with New Year’s Eve celebrators.  We thought we’d have a quiet evening, but when midnight hit the entire city erupted in fireworks.  From our bedroom windows we could see the fireworks display being set off over the London Eye (or, for Chevy Chase fans, over near Big Ben and Parliament.)

We had one of those rare magical days where everything exceeds expectations.  It was a beautiful way to end 2013.

January 1, 2014 (New Year’s Day)

We planned a day in for New Year.  Two years ago, we were in Paris for New Year and had a heavy day of sightseeing planned.  To my horror, the entire city was a giant vomitorium.  I didn’t want to risk getting in any of the tube cars this time around, so we figured we’d walk over to the park and feed the birds as our one little entertainment.  It would also be nice to have a day where we spent no money — we didn’t have Wicked factored into our original plans, which was very expensive and we hadn’t budgeted for it — so a free day sounded excellent.

Unfortunately, it rained all day and was quite windy.  We did march over to the park, but both Holden’s and Josie’s umbrellas flipped inside-out and broke.  Isabella was using the umbrella that belonged to the people who own this apartment and it was much higher quality … but she put it on a park bench so she could use both hands to feed birds and a guy stole it.  (In his defense, it probably looked like it had been abandoned; he likely was struggling through the inclement weather and thought, “Oh! What a stroke of luck on New Year’s Day for me!”)  So, we informed Isabella that she’s responsible for buying a new one because it was her carelessness that lost it.  We’ve seen that type of umbrella around town and they cost roughly £20 ($30) and she was plenty mad about that.  She was feeling like 2014 was not off to a very good start, especially after having such a perfect day yesterday.

By accident, Adam and I discovered that Sherlock (Series 3) was premiering tonight on BBC 1.  Two years ago, at the end of Series 2, Sherlock committed suicide by jumping off a building.  Fans were shocked; we watched him splat!  The internet has been abuzz ever since with speculation about how the writers were going to explain Sherlock’s resurrection.  Tonight we’ll finally be able to find out!

I should mention at this point that our apartment is two streets over from Baker Street.  We pass 221B Baker Street every day on our way to the local Starbucks, which in Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s day was a fictional address but now is a Sherlock Holmes museum.  (We keep meaning to go, but the line is always dauntingly long.)  We are living for these three weeks right in Sherlock Holmes’s stomping grounds.

So, back to the series 3 premiere;  (don’t worry, NO spoilers!) a goodly portion of the episode was filmed right in this neighborhood (Marylebone).  We kept seeing stuff we recognized and were freaking out …. it made it so much more fun to watch!  We almost need to watch it again to pay attention to the story because we were so focused on the location of each shot it was hard to follow the dialogue. Never have we been so sad not to have DVR capability.  We wanted so badly to hit pause and really go over each frame with a fine-tooth comb. Luckily it airs in the US on January 19.  We’ll be home by then and able to record it for a right proper viewing.

The second episode is airing on Sunday (Jan 5th) so we’ll get to see that one, too, before we go back home.  The entire season only has 3 episodes (they are each 90 minutes long — which they air with no commercials or breaks … wish I’d known that, too, because I had to pee and kept waiting for a commercial.  It finally dawned on me there weren’t going to be any.)  We’ll have to wait several months to see the last episode.

January 2, 2014

Today was the London Zoo.  It’s very nice, as far as zoos go.  You are all familiar with the zoo concept, so here are a few pics.

Eastern White Pelicans. These birds are enormous, and turn pink every spring at the start of breeding season. They have the most un-bird-like voice — they sound like pigs grunting or bears growling.