There was Showstopper! The Improvised Musical with Jeremy, Rachel and Sasha - a musical where basically the audience chooses the theme and show name, and has input into various elements throughout the show; the cast are then forced to weave an improvised musical out of the material they have to work with. And they do that very, very well! It also means that the show is never the same from one night to the next. A biggie for me was seeing The Book of Mormon, the highly rated musical by the creators of South Park. I'd wanted to see it since I got to London, but I was hesitant to pay the £60-75 for a ticket when there were cheaper options although they were all lottery options. Luckily for me, Sasha won £20 tickets in the online lottery on her second go - and she took me along. Suffice to say, very spectacular and it makes light of the Mormon religion without actually making outright fun at it. Very clever and a must see if you ever get the chance! Lastly, there was also Miss Saigon - my second viewing of this show, which was the first musical I'd seen in London (and ever in person). Sasha hadn't been and the show's run is coming to an end soon so we went and saw this visual spectacular. I still can't get over the elaborateness of the sets, and this time I was seated much further back - and feel like I got a greater appreciation of some of the goings-on than I had being so close to the stage last time.
Comedy
Having seen the poster for ages and having kept thinking "Oh I must do something about that", it wasn't until the last minute that tickets were procured for An Evening with Noel Fielding. Noel Fielding is a comedian who I knew of from the TV show The Mighty Boosh, and whom I wanted to see live if at all possible. In the end, for a last minute booking we had great seats in the New Wimbledon Theatre (not only a 15min walk from my flat, but the only place where you could see him in London) and the show was utterly fantastic. Noel was hilarious, as was his brother Mike and someone else who's name escapes me with their eclectic brand of humour. The show was at least 2 hours long or more, and had an intermission halfway through - going for far longer than either I or Sasha anticipated which was excellent! He also got down into the audience for part of one of his sketches and sat very close to us in some empty seats in the row in front. Very pleased to have seen this, even though organisation became very last minute!
Boat Party
Went on the Britbound Halloween Boat Party, a boat which cruised up and down the Thames containing people all dressed up for Halloween and having a good time. I went as Wally from "Where's Wally", and Sasha went as Carmen Sandiego from "Where is Carmen Sandiego" (a series of TV shows and Video/Computer games) so we were a "mystery duo". I wasn't the only Wally, but the other Wally and "Wanda" (the female Wally) went as the Zombie versions. On the whole there wasn't too many gory costumes which was heartening, and I had a thoroughly good time even though I lost my hat - which was just a £2 beanie in christmas colours from Primark so should be easily replaced. Oh and as for the scenery, London was lit up rather nice just like we saw on the Paddle Steamer cruise except the London Eye was lit up half gold/orange and green, and half "black" and white - the black being achieved by not having lights on those parts at all. It was signifying Australia and New Zealand, who would battle it out for the Rugby World Cup the next day, held in London. Speaking of which...
Visited the TNT Travel show again - I'd been in March, but this was supposed to be the big one. It wasn't any bigger than the one in March and in fact I swear it had less vendors/trip companies. We only went to get ideas and see if there might be a tour that would suit our dates to somewhere we wanted to go, but there wasn't. The one good thing the TNT Show did do for us was a venue to watch the NZ vs Australia Rugby World Cup final - personally I wasn't fussed about the whole RWC at all although we decided on the day we'd watch it with a few friends at the show, as it was £5 admission and you got two beers (which was worth the admission cost alone). I was surprised how much rugby knowledge I actually had, as I explained to Sasha what was going on as she'd never seen a rugby game before. In the end entertaining to watch, and see NZ almost lose it before clawing it back to win it. Which was good because if there's one thing I can't stand is the disappointment, blood-letting and complaining when NZ don't win the Rugby World Cup. I get that a lot of people feel passionate about Rugby, but why do they seem to fall into deep depression and start playing the blame game instead of being all "Oh well, not our year - we'll try again in 4 years" or "We had a good team but at the end of the day, they were better". Yeah, pretty obvious Rugby isn't my thing huh.
Fireworks
Having missed out on Guy Fawkes last year because Australia don't mark it, I was definitely keen to see them this year - and in the city where the Gunpowder Treason and Plot took place no less. The 5th was a Thursday, and we saw the fireworks at a display in Wimbledon Common. Two displays actually - we arrived strategically early to also see the 6pm "Kids Show" which had the fireworks set to Disney music from outside the park gates, and the 8.15pm show to contemporary music which we'd got tickets for. There was a huge traditional bonfire, and lots of food stalls and "carnival" type rides but curiously only one Mulled Wine/Hot Chocolate stand (with no other alcohol available in the park). Needless to say the Mulled Wine stand got over-run. My work shoes got atrociously muddy but I enjoyed the event - the shows were just as good as what Christchurch puts on, but not quite up to par with the Wellington shows. Nevertheless, they were really good and I enjoyed it a lot.
Bingo
I went and played bingo - not just any kind of bingo, but Bogan Bingo where two comedians pretend to be rough Aussies and perform the bingo draw in a hilarious, fun filled way. Drinks are also super cheap, and there are some decent prizes up for grabs (no, I didn't win anything). Had an absolutely fun night, and once the bingo was over everyone started dancing to the music - turned out to be quite a late night, especially for a week night and a few of our party had sore heads the next day (mine wasn't too worse for wear though - not that it would have mattered, no one seems to care whether you show up at work hungover here in the UK!).
Family
Had my cousin Ellen and her husband Matt come down to London for a conference, so managed to catch up with them during the Saturday they were here. Starting at lunchtime, what followed was an afternoon of good company, good conversation and good drinks (English beer, Belgian beer and Cider) at different spots in London before catching up with Jeremy as well (Rachel was unwell) and having dinner in Chinatown, followed by more of the previous and finishing the night off at a neat Cider bar near Euston station. They had some interesting ciders, although after some sweeter Belgian beers and ciders earlier in the night I wasn't quite up to trying any of the "gamier" ciders they had, which Ellen and Matt enjoyed a lot (being quite into their Cider). Was really good to catch up with them!
Movies
I haven't been to the movies for a while, but was definitely going to go and see the new Star Wars - The Force Awakens movie. Sasha wanted to see it too, and she hadn't seen a movie at all since she's been in the UK and floated the suggestion of going to see it opening night. Why not? there was midnight screening's everywhere - but once I established that it wasn't shot in IMAX and that the 3D was the post-production type (which just looks like one of those pop-up books to me, with a flat image protruding in front of another flat image) we resolved to see it in 2D at the Odeon in Wimbledon. I'd been following the movie a bit, knowing that although George Lucas had written concepts for movies 7, 8 and 9, Disney who now owns the franchise had elected to go in a different direction. Its always bothered me that although the second Death Star blows up at the end of Return of the Jedi, the Emperor is dead and the rebels claim victory, you can't just make an Empire collapse instantly or unilaterally surrender after something like that - especially when it is a huge military force spread throughout the Galaxy. The new direction Disney has taken acknowledges this to a degree, which I love - and without giving anything away, this is the movie any Star Wars fan has been waiting for since Episodes 1, 2 and 3 seemed very anti-climactic. I went in with high hopes, and they were most definitely met - and I look forward to seeing what occurs in Episodes 8 and 9 when they are released over the next few years!