A visit to Londinium

I gave football a break for this weekend and headed to London for a few days away with my fiancée. I've been to London before when I was a kid and over the last year I've been there a handful of times on business. I've never really explored the place properly though or done the whole tourist trail so we decided to give it a go this time round.

First up was a bit of retail therapy around covent garden. There was a cool David & Goliath shop in the Market Hall that we liked and picked up a couple of tops and t-shirts. The slogan on the t-shirt I bought is on the left.

Friday night brought a trip to the West End for the mandatory West Musical in London. We went to see Fame the Musical and it was honestly really good. Sure, the couple of bottles of wine we had beforehand helped get us in street dancing mood but it was honestly a good show. Bit thin on plot but that helped the show hammer along at an enjoyable pace without having to worry about any of those annoying character development sub-plots. My fiancée is a big fan of the original gritty life-on-the-streets-in-leg-warmers-and-matching-headband-movie but she still really enjoyed the stage show despite its watered down content.

Saturday was more retail therapy on Regent Street, Oxford Street and Picadilly Circus. We really enjoyed just exploring the city ourselves and getting used to using the tube to nip about the place. Saturday was also to be the day we went to Madam Tussauds but we got a fright when we turned up and the queue went right up the street. Luckily there was a guy called Leroy walking the line with a handheld ticket dispenser. It cost a quid extra each (bringing the price up to £25 each) but it meant we could skip the line and go straight in. Really enjoyed the waxworks. I always been a bit skeptical when I've seen any news items in the paper or on the telly where some celeb has got themselves a waxwork coz I reckoned they looked a bit rubbish. After visiting the place though I've have to admit to changing my tune. It was really impressive (despite some of the other visitors being absolutely manic!!) and the new Chamber Live was really succeeding in scaring the crap out of people. There was snot and tears in abundance.

Sunday was rained out so we decided to take in a bit of culture and visit the Tate Modern. I'm not an art enthusiast by any stretch of the imagination but it was fun to potter about and talk about the pictures we like, cynically slag of the ones we thought were rubbish and snigger like schoolkids at the more suggestive ones. It was nice to get to see a few Picasso and Andy Warhol pictures up close and that famously simple Piet Mondrian was there too. The narratives they have on the wall beside the pictures are a really good little insight into what each painting is about.

So I got this far without mentioning the football and that is really a credit to how good a weekend we had because not only did Liverpool knock Manchester United out of the FA Cup but Celtic romped home to an 8-1 win over Dunfermline with......I needed to sit down when I heard this.......Neil Lennon getting on the scoresheet. The week ahead looks good for footie fixtures with Arsenal vs. Madrid, Chelsea vs. Barcelona, Benfica vs. Liverpool and Rangers vs. Villareal all coming up on Tuesday & Wednesday. It must be a killer for Man U fans to be out of the running for winning anything for a second season :)