The grumpy mood quickly returned when we got to Paddington though. There was an enormous queue for taxis so we decided to go for the Tube. BIG mistake. HUGE mistake. We didn't have enough change to pay for tickets in coins, so we had to wait in the truly enormous queue for the ticket machine which took cards and folding money, only for it to break down when we were next but one in line. So...off we trudged to the back of the next enormous queue to stand for 10 minutes. I got really, really narky when the first ticket machine suddenly sprang back to life and there was a mad dash to get back in line. We stayed put rather than risk being trampled to death in the scrum! All this hanging around (and the fact that the train was late getting into London) meant that the 11am flight we had booked on the London Eye was looking rather precarious - given that we also had to dump our suitcase somewhere beforehand! Thankfully there are stairs down to the Tube at Paddington, so I didn't have to suffer the panic attacks that escalators of that size bring on, and Stephen was spared having to knock me unconscious!! That spared a couple of minutes at least!
We dumped our suitcase at Charing Cross station and trotted on down to the London Eye. We got there just after 11 and joined the queue and were "flying" by 11:15. It was a wonderful experience. London looks rather fabulous when you're in a perspex bubble circling by the Thames!!
After our flight we retrieved our suitcase (and came face to face with Steven - the winner of Masterchef - pushing his bike out of the back of the station!) and hot-footed it up to the Strand Palace for a quick freshen up before we headed across the road to The Banquette at the Savoy. Its a Gordon Ramsay restaurant and Marcus Wareing is the executive chef (not that either of them were likely to be making my carbonara personally!), but its not as expensive as his other restaurants...apart from the wine which was extortionate!! It was a very nice ambiance - which was changed slightly when a pensioners outing arrived and asked if they could be fitted in for a quick lunch before the matinee of Fiddler on the Roof....
Both the tables of 4 either side of us were filled with chattering ladies (most of whom I would guess were over 70, but aiming for the look of Joan Collins in Dynasty, but with more make up, and bigger gold earrings!). The ringleader was sitting next to Stephen on his left, and her sister was sitting on the table to his right. I could deal with the "Mary, have salad and french fries"..."Mary, I TOLD you to have the salad and french fries - it'll be quicker", but I started to lose the ability to keep a straight face when Sister No. 1 said "Excuse me, can you pass Mary the butter" and thrust the butter dish at Stephen.... Mary looked a bit abashed and said something about being a bit rude and interrupting our lunch, but Sister No.1 looked puzzled and said "But I said excuse me"!!! It truly could only happen to us!!
We also had tickets to Chicago (the musical, not the city!) which was great. We were in the 4th row, so Stephen had a fantastic view of all the lithe bodies of the female cast (these girls must never eat and spend every waking moment exercising!). I thought at one point he was going to flood the theatre he was drooling so much! Here's an interesting little fact-ette for you...one of the cast members (Mary Sunshine) used to work on site at Malvern. I'd like to know how he (yes, he!) went from doing research to starring in a West End musical!!
Then this morning, it was up early (again!) and off to the American Embassy for our visa interview. We had been well warned that it takes simply hours to go through the process, but in the end it only took about 1 1/2 hours! Record time according to most of the people we've spoken to! The interview itself only took about 2 minutes. We get the passports (with visas inserted) back around Wednesday, and then....we're off!! How exciting!
We had a lovely lunch at a pavement cafe in Covent Garden. We sitting there munching away when Stephen said "look, there's Julie Goodyear" whilst nodding over my shoulder. I turned and looked expecting to see a matronly woman dressing in leopard skin...Nope, nothing...so after breaking my neck both ways he pointed out exactly who he was looking at - and it turned out to be Jilly Goolden!! Not much difference there really!!
I don't use public transport very often, and I'm understanding why now! The train journey back was "interesting". First of all we had to stop for a good while whilst they fixed the communications system. Then someone kept pulling the emergency cord in the disabled loo, which was another delay. Then a rather drunk youth came staggering through first class and started unloading the buffet trolley into a carrier bag...he was hotly pursued by the attendant and the conductor who, once they discovered he didn't have a ticket (and especially not one for first!), nor the money to pay for one and seemed to be on the train solely for the free booze, tried to get him put off the train at the next station. Which was another delay...which meant that they terminated the train at Worcester rather than Malvern...which meant that the moany old git sitting behind us had yet another go at the conductor! Honestly, I had had enough by this point....the difficulty in getting a taxi once we finally got the Malvern was just the icing on the cake!!
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