Four Nights, Four Musicals - August 2014

Four nights in a row, four different musicals, one very tiring week but absolutely worth it! It was Kids' Week again and this year, I had managed to secure a pair of tickets for me and Rachael, across four nights to see four musicals. Yes, many complained that it was unfair we had secured that many, but we were just two people and tickets for two people are far easier to buy than for four! So between the 18th of August and the 21st of August, we saw: Wicked, The Pajama Game, Les Miserables and Phantom of the Opera.

Wicked has long been our favourite show and every year, we go and see it. This year, we were more excited as Kerry Ellis had been announced as doing a short run back in the show. For me, it was a chance to see my first ever Elphaba again, for Rachael, it was a chance to see Kerry in the role. Sadly, on arrival, we discovered she was not appearing that night and instead we were seeing Emma Hatton in the role. She was outstanding in the role and next year we get to see her again as she has been offered the principal role from January 2015! We also thoroughly impressed with Savannah Stephenson and Jeremy Taylor as Glinda and Fiyero! As always we stage-doored and were so happy to finally meet Savannah as throughout the year we had kept missing her at events, only realising it was her when it was too late! She was so touched by the story, she came out from behind the barrier and gave us an extra photo to make up for the lost opportunities!

Our next show was The Pajama Game. I took a risk in booking these tickets as it is an unknown show for me, but as it was on a limited season, I thought we should give a try! To be honest I had been wanting to see the show's lead, Michael Xavier for a while after hearing great things about him and having seen him present West End Live the year before. On arrival, we ended up having our seats upgraded to much better seats, though I never did check what the difference in price was! The show was fantastic and had an amazing cast. It was definitely worth me booking it and everything I heard about Michael was right, he is amazing leading man. At the stage door after the show, Rachael got chatting to another little girl and Joanna Riding mistakened them for sisters or long time friends!

Les Miserables is the World's longest running musical and it is only this year that I have finally been to see it. Rachael has been asking for a while so this year I thought it was about time we did. And I am so glad I did, despite having a nasty headache all day and throughout the show! The show is most definitely phenomenal with one of the best ensembles on the West End. It is worth going to see just for the Barricade scene alone, which is spectacular! Admittedly, I preferred some actors from the movie over those in the show, but this is why you should always see the show before the movie! My biggest praise has to go to the theatre for the way they handled the stage door, which is located on a busy side street. Even with loads of fans stood outside, they had someone on the door making sure every cast member who plays a named character stopped for those waiting. This left us with the most autographs and photos we have gotten at any stage door and we definitely appreciate the time they all took!

Phantom of the Opera is another long running show I had yet to see and movie I had seen. It is the most spectacular show I have ever seen. The costumes, the staging, the ballet and the sets are just wow! The scene when the candles rise from the stage floor just amazed me and the ending when the phantom disappears right before your eyes, astounded me! After the show, after a long climb for the top of the theatre, we rushed to the stage door as I had been warned that many cast members were fast to change and fast to leave! Luckily we didn't miss them! We nearly missed the guy playing the phantom as the alternate had been on that night and obviously he was not used to stopping but a regular at the stage door called him back before he got too far!

Four nights in a row was worth the money and how tired we were but next year, I think I will try and spread out the shows a bit more!

Glasgow 2014 - July 2014

After the success of London 2012, I absolutely could not miss out on attending the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow. I was able to secure two tickets to see the hockey, but missed out on gymnastics and athletics. Originally I planned and booked to stay for one night in Glasgow, but decided that with such a long train journey, we would probably be too tired to want to even attend our event. So after constantly checking for months, I managed to get us booked into our preferred hotel in Edinburgh for two nights, allowing to make more of our visit.

After a four hour train journey, we enjoyed our first evening exploring Edinburgh. The next morning, the day of our event, we spent the morning at Edinburgh Castle, which has the most stunning views. Despite our event not being till the evening, we spent the afternoon in Glasgow, exploring the city. With the upcoming referendum on Scotland and independence, there had been a worry and rumours of English people receiving abuse from Scottish people, but we found none of that and found the Scots to be very welcoming of everyone to their city.

By the time we got to the Hockey Arena for our session, Mattie was very tired and had a huge meltdown, so our time there ended up being very short, but luckily we got our money's worth. The first match was India vs Trinidad and Tobago and by half time, it was something like 10-0 to India! We were sat behind one of the goals, where India happened to be scoring all these goals! Despite being tired, this made Mattie very happy and made the cost of tickets more than worth it!

In the end, we ended doing what we did when we to see the Hockey at London 2012! The mini hockey courts had been set up outside for the kids and Mattie ended having so much fun trying it out! I ended up letting him continue playing rather than dragging him back to our seats for the rest of the hockey session! We left before the end of the second match to avoid the crowds and to give us plenty of time to head back to Edinburgh. We had a fab time, though we do wish we had had more time to explore Glasgow and been able to see more events!