Spent a (long) lovely day in London yesterday celebrating my Wife's birthday, (21 again!).. We kicked off proceedings by walking into town and having an early breakfast in a local café/restaurant called Hamlets; we like this little independent spot, and they do make a mean sausage sandwich! After that we decamped to the station and caught the train into Paddington arriving some 40 minutes later, we then switched to the "Lizzy line" and hot footed it over to Stratford for some retail therapy in Westfield (the birthday girl had vouchers burning holes in her pockets!).
Around lunch time we met up with our Daughter and had some drinks before heading out to Pudding Mill Lane (one stop on the DLR), where the main event of the day awaited us. We'd booked for all three of us to see the ABBA Voyage show at their shiny new venue there and after a pit stop in the box park next to the arena we headed on in, slightly unsure about what we were about to see! Understandably the venue disallowed photos during the performance itself, but you could take some before the event started so I snapped a quick pic of the stage (above), a suitably Swedish projection! I must say as people started to stream into the hall we were a little concerned that we weren't sporting enough glitter, I've never seen so much of the stuff in one place and a real mixed crowd, young and old alike!
Once things got going though the excitement was palpable, very much like a real concert, although it felt a little strange cheering and applauding a holographic display! The technology was amazing, saying it was almost like the real performers being there would be a cliché, but it's true. The music, of course, was classic and impossible not to tap a foot and sway a hip to, there was also a live band on stage giving things the oomph needed in a large venue like that. A great concert, surprisingly emotional for those of us that remember the 70s and for the youngsters just a damn good boogie!
After the show we headed back to the West End and propped up the bar at one of our favourite watering holes while we waited for our Son to join us, he happened to be spending the week in Bristol so could hop on the train to London quite easily. We all met up successfully, and had a celebratory toast then headed up the road to our chosen eatery for some banging Mexican food at a great little place called "Café Pacifico" near Covent Garden, after several rounds of margaritas, lot's of catching up chat, and a chimichanga or two we headed back to Paddington and the train home.
A great day out all round, nice to check in with the kids, superb entertainment and scrummy grub! We arrived home at around 11pm, absolutely knackered, unsurprisingly we both slept like logs and thank goodness there was an extra hour in bed this morning!
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