London - Les Miserables

 23 November - Queens Theatre, London

It had been a long time trying to arrange a suitable date, but finally, myself and two work friends, Mary and Lesley trundled off on the early morning train to London to go and see 'Les Mis'.  Mary is a huge fan of the show, having seen it about 11 times, and had gone on and on (and on ... and on ...) about it so much that I said 'Yes, I would love to come to London with you to see it!!!!

London was a bit cold, but we hopped into a taxi once off the train at St Pancras.  The plan was to zip off to The Air Gallery on Dover Street to see the 'Art of Mapping' Exhibition, where the sister of my friend Lily had some artwork displaying.    London between 12 noon and 2pm however, is worse than rush hour.  The cabby even said that it wasn't looking good, would take too long and the pounds were racking up, so we made the executive decision to be dropped off at the theatre instead.

I wasn't sure what to expect.  All I knew was that the show was about the French Resistance ... erm ... how wrong can you get?   Once the curtain came up it all became clear that it was actually set during the French Revolution and not WWII!!!.  Before seeing it I didn't know what the story was about but was completely blown away by the tale of unrequited love, heartening grace, forgiveness and redemption, and how sometimes, we cannot escape our past.   I sat and cried my way through about half of it much to Mary and Lesley's amusement,  What a wonderful production though and fabulous experience all round.  I will be making a return trip with Jenny in the not too distant future, as she had hoped to come with us originally but couldn't in the end.

Afterwards we wandered off up Regent Street looking at the magical Christmas lights and stopped for some tea at Piccolino's which was yummy if a little pricey.   It was a long walk back to St Pancras and we stopped at the new and wonderful St Pancras Rennaisance Hotel for a quick drink (which wasn't forthcoming in the end) and just had a bit of time to do some shopping at the station before heading back to Chesterfield on the train.