Lillibet's Xmas Message

A Wicked time in London !

It's been grey and bleak and bone chillingly cold but our time in London has been a wonderful couple of days.

There wasn't a lot that was really a 'must see' for me this time around - except for tomorrow when we are going through Westminster Abbey and the girls and I are going on the London Eye (BJ wont be in it - he's going to see a Dali exhibit instead) - for me, this has been a theatre trip and we have not been disappointed for a single minute.

Last night was Mamma Mia. I included this at the last minute since we ended up with a spare night here and while I still think the original Australian cast is unbeatable, this production is a pretty damn close second - only 2nd though because of a few minor (and personal) preferences.

Don't take that last sentance as being a typical 'home town' patriotic assessment - I would be just as quick to slam an Aussie cast if it didn't do a show the justice it deserved - it's about the show not where it's being performed that matters to me.

For me, Mamma Mia is about the chemistry between the 3 lead females and in the original Australian cast, Anne Wood, Rhonda Burchmore and Lara Mulcahy we just magic. I saw the return season a couple of years later and while the show was still great, to me it was lacking something and that something was an undeniable chemistry between the (new) actresses in the lead roles. They were all very good but still it wasn't quite there.

In the show last night the 3 leads ( Linzi Hateley, Jane Gurnett and Joanna Munro) were just amazing and the show over all is every bit as much fun as I remember it to be.

BJ has seen it before and I worked on the show during the original Brisbane season so we were both well acquainted with Mamma Mia. this time was about the girls and they both loved it.

I will admit that it made me very 'homesick' for the theatre though !!!!!

With the movie coming out next year I strongly urge you to see it if you are unfamiliar with the show - the producers have chosen their cast with great care and Meryl Streep, Julie Walters and the sublime Christine Baranski will be superb.

Tonight of course was the whole reason for the side trip to London - Wicked !



Out of all the shows we are seeing while we are away, Wicked is the only one I have not already seen. It's a tough call to spend that much money on tickets to a show you really know very little about and have seen and heard virtually nothing from but tonight's show was ...................

(a) Everything I expected

(b) Nothing like I expected

and

(c) Much more than I expected

...................... all rolled into one show !

Kerry Ellis and Dianne Pilkington as Elphaba and Glinda (respectively) were both amazing.

Pilkington's 'Legally Blonde' meets 'Clueless' portrayal of Glinda was hysterical and must have been an incredibly hard character to keep up for 2 hours. Ellis's 'Ephalba' was a character you immediately both empathised and sympathised with as someone who was different through no fault of their own and constantly ridiculed as a result. The sincerity of her performance and the sheer power in her voice were both incredible.

'Defying Gravity' which closes Act 1 was 'goosebumps' material !




The basis for the plot was the age old Good V.s Evil scenario ...... but which is which (or Witch is Witch) is the question posed here.

There were a few other interesting twists throughout the show and what really surprised me is that the show is not actually a prequal to The Wizard of Oz as I had initially thought. From about half way though Act 2 it actually runs concurrently with W of O and the end takes place after W of O had concluded !

Looking back over the information I had it doesn't actually say anywhere that it is a prequal - rather that it is the 'untold story of the Witches of Oz' - and a pretty damn spectacular story it is.

It opens in our very own Oz in 2008 and I can highly recommend you see it ! I will add a bit more about the show in the next day or so.

Back to Paris via the Chunnel tomorrow night - we are about half way through the adventure now.

More later :-)

WARNING !!! BAD TASTE ENTRY FOLLOWS - May offend some viewers !

As a post script to my 2nd shopping expedition to Montmartre yesterday - the sign on the shop I wanted to go to that said it was closed on Saturdays must have meant that it was closed on Saturdays IN ADDITION to Sundays as the roller door remained firmly locked yesterday - as were the doors of ALL of the shops in the immediate area !

So ........................... what do you do when you are all dressed up with nowhere to shop ?

Simple ................... you go to the local museum of erotica, that's what !!

A block of flaps ?

Perhaps where the urban legend about them having teeth came from ?



Under glass

Useful art - decorative and practical

Can't say what this represents but it doesn't look comfortable !

Arrived in London this morning to a pleasantly warm winter day ........................... for about an hour. After that the mercury hit zero and those howling winds we remember so fondly returned to greet us.

Welcome to London !

Off to Mamma Mia in a little while......... more when we get back to Paris.

Une autre semaine dans le paradis ! (Another week in paradise !)

It’s 8am Sunday (at the time of starting this entry) and a beautiful minus 3 degrees (feels like minus 8 !)

Heading off to Montmartre this morning for the 2nd day in a row. I went yesterday to check out the fabric and bling shops in the Abbesses area but the one particular shop I really wanted to look through is closed on Saturdays as it turns out!! DOH! Good excuse to go back for another look though.

We’ve had the chance to use the Metro a fair bit over the last week or so and all I can really say is “ Qld Rail – you really have no idea !”

The trains run approximately every 3 to 4 minutes on every line and you go anywhere on the Metro network for 1.50Euro (as long as you don’t actually exit the subway system – like a train from Beenleigh to Caboolture costing about $2 @ home)

For all the bleating the powers that be at home do about not enough people using public transport they really don’t seem to get how to make the public system attractive to people so that they will use it.

A 30 minute wait between trains or busses is too long – if you miss a train here, so what! There will be another one along in 3 minutes.

Much more attractive!

You do need to be careful that you don’t muck around getting on and off though – there is no guard standing watch to make sure all the action has finished before the doors close. I helped a Sth African girl the other day who was lugging a suitcase almost as big as she was – she was part of a group of 3 heading to Gare du Nord ( Paris North station ), all with mighty big suitcases so I did the gentlemanly thing and offered to help.

BJ got on as did one of the other girls and the girl I was helping out – next thing the buzzer sounds and the doors close with my arm and backpack inside the train and the rest of me outside !

Got my arm out of course but had to wait a whole 3 minutes to jump onto the next train. I had the remaining Sth African girl for company though and getting left behind on the platform was nothing new for her – she joked that the smallest girl in the group had the biggest and heaviest suitcase which had been the cause of many missed trains and connections during their trip through Europe.

So.................................... what's been hapening ????

Last Sunday we packed a few things and headed off to Disneyland for 3 days. Well, BJ and I packed a few things - the girls packed just about everything judging by the weight of their bag !

Disneyland Paris had all of the cheesy and kitschy decorations and displays that you would expect to see but what a magical experience. Music playing everywhere, snow falling (really soap suds but who cares).

We went on just about every ride we could possibly go on - some of the roller coasters we made multiple visits to. Back home we went to Movie World and went on the Superman ride which launches you from 0 to 100 in X seconds and also on the Scooby Doo ride which goes through most of the time in pitch blackness - the rollercoasters at Disneyland are a combination of the 2 - launch you at incredible speed into pitch black - scary scary scary !!!!! But fantastic !!!!!!!!

The only thing I was a little disappointed in was that there were nowhere near as many characters walking around the park throughout the course of the day. I kind of expected to see 'living' Disney characters everywhere but we maybe saw about a maximum of 20 over the 3 days and usually all at the same time and place. Nothing that spoilt the time there but just would have expected with the enormous number of characters available to Disney that they would have been everywhere.

On Wednesday after we got back, BJ and I headed off to Pere Lachaise cemetary.

The cemeteries here really are the stuff of nightmares. At home, most grave yards are neatly lined with rows of plaques and tombstones but here they are a hodge podge of tombs, crypts and mammoth statues tucked into every possible spare piece of ground.

Very serene to walk through during the day but there is no way you would catch me near one at night !!!!

After being unceremoniously thrown out of the Montparnasse cemetery the other week we were hoping there wouldn’t be a repeat performance at Pere Lachaise. Fortunately there wasn’t and we spent a good few hours wandering around.

We went there specifically looking for the final resting places of Jim Morrison, Oscar Wilde and Edith Piaf – and managed to find all of them. Morrison’s was a bit of a problem though since it was tucked in behind a number of larger tombs.

Something astounding is that there are fresh flowers at the graves of Piaf and Morrison - fresh as in left there in the last day or so.

EDITH PIAF

OSCAR WILDE

The strange marks you can see here are lipstick marks from fans kissing the grave.

JIM MORRISON

Notice the cigarette on the edge and the joint in the glass tube with the green stopper !

People are so kind ! :-)


More views of Pere Lachaise

CREEPY !

Waiting for the Mrs

No entry

This was REALLY creepy !

You will need to enlarge to understand



The intention was to head to Versailles on Thursday.

Rather than wait in a potentially huge queue to get tickets once we got there we went to get them from the FNAC store (music chain store) but oddly enough they can’t sell tickets for same day visits (???) Decided instead to hit Versailles on Friday and headed off to have a look through the Opera House and Invalides.

We’ve only been around the outside of the Opera House and the last time we tried to have a gawk inside it was closed to visitors – not so this time and I gotta say it’s mighty impressive on the inside !

At the top of the list of many things the French do well is opulence - with a capital 'O' ...... actually a capital everything !

There was a rehearsal going on so we couldn’t actually get into the auditorium but we worked out that we could get into the boxes while they were on a break so I got a bit of a peek.

Sorry these 2 are a bit dark -

2nd one is THE chandelier from Phantom of the Opera !




Invalides isn’t all that spectacular really compared to other attractions until you get to Napoleon’s tomb. Like most of the chapels we’ve had a look in here this one is splendidly decorated – and such an enormous coffin for a supposedly small man ! It is 6 layers I suppose.

Napoleon's coffin

THAT hat & coat

Not Invalides but I loved this one of the Eiffel Tower disappearing into the clouds


Our visit to Versailles on Friday coincided with (a) the coldest day here so far and (b) Colonel Gadaffi’s visit to Versailles.

There were police everywhere when we got there and I said that Gadaffi was probably going to be there – as t turned out I was right ...... BJ was interviewed by, I assume, a radio person. Not asked any real questions, just whether he knew Gadaffi was going to be there and was it going to spoil his visit to Versailles – “Yes” and “No” were the answers in that order. He possibly ended up on Al Jazeera !!!!

Versailles is magnificent.

The palace part of the tour is not all that long – a lot to see and again, opulence is the name of the game but the grounds are the real attraction here – the vastness of the estate is astounding. We spent more time walking through the grounds than the palace. Unfortunately the fountains were off and all of the statues in the grounds were covered with tarps –presumably so they don’t get cold ???

Hall of Mirrors

SOME of Gadaffi's protectors

Just for the 'AWWWW" factor

This kitten had a price tag of 3600 Euros - thats just over $6000 Aussie !!!

This cat would want to buy it's own litter and clean up it's own le poop from le pooper for that !

Off to London in the morning until Wednesday ........ brrrrrrrrrr !