I visited my besties AA and Chi in London for the first 2 weeks in May. Gelle also flew in from Sydney, so it became our first complete reunion in 7 years! We were so excited to be united again in the airport with their spouses and our baby godson Matteo.
After they fetched us from the airport, we drove towards Acton Town and had dinner at a restaurant where we had some yummy Persian food before heading to Chi’s house, where we were staying for the duration of our vacation.
The Ted Lasso Day
The next day, we excitedly headed to Richmond, so we could check out where our favourite TV show Ted Lasso was filmed. It was a surreal experience to walk through the same alley where Ted and Rebecca and the others walked, and to sit on the same bench near the phone booth where Ted and Beard always chatted.
After that, we had dinner at the nearby Peggy Jean, which was a very cute boat restaurant on the river. Unfortunately we had a bad experience when we discovered that the chicken was not cooked well and had a raw center, which could have caused salmonella! We returned it and had it refunded because Chi had already lost her appetite. The rest of the food was not that delicious, either, so for the rest of the trip we would refer to Peggy Jean negatively.
Shopping @ Bicester
We were supposed to be doing something else on this day, but we decided to swap it out for a trip to Bicester, an outlet store village. There were so many shops!
At the end of the day, our shopping damages included a Mulberry bag, an All Saints leather jacket, a Longchamp leather backpack, a Samsonite luggage, and some Tods baseball caps, at really good discounted prices.
We are not Giving Away our Shot at Hamilton
I am a huge fan of musicals and so was determined to watch one in London. I picked Hamilton even though I had already seen a version of it on Disney plus. The live experience is just different.
It was in its own theatre at Victoria Palace. We headed there a bit early so we could grab dinner at the nearby Pret a Manger before heading in.
I was supposed to go with Chi and Punch, but since they caught a bad strain of cough which Chi says hit her a lot worse than the two times she had Covid before, she decided to give their tickets to Gelle and Joey, who are also huge musical fans. They had both seen Hamilton live before, but they had been toying with the idea of watching it again because they loved it that much, so this was a very welcome gift, especially since these tickets had better seats – 3 rows from the stage!
We were so close that I was able to see the actors’ facial expressions and appreciate not just their vocal but also acting talent. I was most impressed by the actor who played A dot Ham, but I got a crush on the actor who played A dot Burr. At one point, he even looked right at me… but also at Joey, so no, it wasn’t a romantic moment LOL.
Gelle and I had a funny moment while we were queuing in the toilet. Some lady was trying to cut the queue, but we didn’t let her. When she left, we jokingly sang, to the tune of one of the Hamilton songs: 🎶 We are not giving away our… spot! We are not giving away our… spot! 🎶
We then ended up buying merch – a Hamilton tote bag. We laughed about it because this was the second “remembrance” tote bag we had bought this trip, the first one being a Coronation-themed tote from Fortnum & Mason.
Oh by the way this was actually on our 5th day in London because I thought it fit this blog post… thematically? In the sense that it’s about getting to do something media-related? I don’t know how Bicester ties, OK, just go with it!
And that’s it for part 1! A few more parts to follow coz this is the year of my revenge travel, so stay tuned!
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