Justin BBar

Before I get your hopes up this blog actually has nothing to do with Justin Bieber, sorry! The restaurant we ate at before seeing Wicked was called BBar. My Dad had gone to lastminute.com where you can get a meal and then see a musical for a really cheap price. We could have either gone to ASK restaurant or the BBar, we felt like being fancy so we chose the BBar. Just the location sounded fancy: Buckingham Palace Road, we were practically dining with the Queen! It’s actually a cocktail bar and restaurant but we were going for the food rather than the drinks; we didn’t want to be drunk for the musical!

The décor wasn’t really how I imagined it would be; I pictured sleek, shiny, black and white wallpaper with chrome and glass furnishings.  In reality it had an animal safari theme but it was still very sophisticated. There were many of those odd animal sculptures dotted around the place made of bamboo and wood, probably from Ikea. The menus had animal photos on the back, and the chairs and wallpaper were all animal print. The chairs were actually wicker armchairs with big squishy cushions, although their size meant it was quite hard to get close to the table. 

One of the conditions of the dinner and a show deal was that there was a set meal. There were only three choices for each course, and you could only have two courses. My Dad was the only one of us to pick a starter. One starter choice was Thai Fishcakes, quite the swanky starter, better than cheesy garlic bread at least! And they didn't have just any old burger; they had a beef burger in a toasted bun with lettuce and tomato relish - it's like an M&S advert! But I didn't have that (though I usually would have, only I had a burger the day before) I had the Ravioli instead. It was so tasty, a nice change from my usual studenty beans on toast. The dessert, oh God, the chocolate brownie with ice cream was the best I have ever had! I could have eaten at least five more of those! Yummy! Just thinking about it now makes my stomach rumble. Once we were full we were ready to see Wicked, and I couldn't wait!

London, Baby!

It sounds like a cliché, but when I arrived in London I felt like I was in a movie, as if there was going to be a montage of me seeing all the sights with an uplifting soundtrack. Sounds pretty lame, really! Everything was just so much bigger and faster than it is in Devon. The buildings towered over me and the traffic never seemed to stop even though there were red lights everywhere. I saw a bus nearly rear end a taxi that swerved in front of it. I was so enthralled by all these things that I didn’t realise that everyone had walked off without me. I almost got lost in the crowds of people; I think I would have bawled like a baby if I had.

It was only 5 in the afternoon, which of course meant that it was pitch black already, but it also meant that all the Christmas lights looked extra festive. I guess London wasn’t as scary as I thought, though I was in a posh area. Wicked didn’t start for another two hours so we went for a walk to Buckingham Palace, as you do. On my few trips to London I have never seen the Palace before; I’ve only really been to the art galleries for school trips and the Millennium Dome when I was a lot younger.

The best thing about going to London this late in the day was that all the other tourists were gone, so in front of the Palace was empty. Nick and I had our photo taken by the gates of the Palace like the real tourists we are. As we walked around the Palace I wondered how many rooms it had, and how many of those were bedrooms. I wondered what the Queen’s bedroom looked like. Does she have a swimming pool? Then, as we walked the streets of London I wondered if the Queen ever just fancies taking a walk, or popping to the shop for some milk. I don’t think I could handle being royalty!