I've found a wireless connection, so I've put a few more photos into the blog on Chester Zoo. I hope to get a few photos in this one as well.
On Saturday we didn't wake up very early, since we weren't in bed until the early hours. When we did wake up, I had to borrow an iron and ironing board before I was able to dress myself, my party clothes having become more than a little creased in my suitcase during the journey down. It was a lovely morning though, and the gardens outside our apartment looked beautiful - the rhododendrons are all in bloom, this is the best time for the garden here, which is full of them.
We set off in plenty of time for our friends' party, but reckoned without the Queen's visit to Epsom for the Derby, so soon found ourselves in traffic which did not move at all. I had completely forgotten it was Derby Day, and that the Queen was to be there, but apparently thousands of other people had remembered, and had all decided to go too. Fortunately, we were able to find back roads which took us by round about ways, but we managed to avoid Epsom and get to the party more or less on time.
After a very enjoyable lunch and afternoon of celebrations, we set off to drive to Croydon, from which we intended to catch a train to London, where we had booked for the theatre. However, the station car park was so stupidly expensive that we drove away to look for somewhere cheaper. It seems we were not alone in that - the station car park, which always used to be full in the evenings, was almost completely empty. Clearly, most people think it's too expensive to be of use if you want to go up to London for the evening.
We arrived at London Bridge in time to walk along the Thames before it was time to go to the theatre. We wanted to see the Avenue Of Sail, all the boats which had come for the Jubilee Thames Pageant and were too big to get upriver beyond Tower Bridge. There were some boats already decorated for the pageant with flags and bunting.
The crowds were already enormous, so the walkway along the Thames was very crowded and it was impossible to walk fast. We didn't have time to go down river from Tower Bridge to get a closeup of the sailing boats, but I did manage to get a view down river from the bridge, though I had to wait my turn to get to the railing.
St Katherine's Dock was also very crowded, and full of boats; I never saw so much bunting in my life, all of the boats were decorated with flags and bunting and the crowds were very jolly.
By 7 we were at the theatre to collect the tickets, and had a very enjoyable evening at Noises Off. It's about a company of actors rehearsing, and then touring round a series of provincial theatres with a farce supposedly called Nothing On, and we witness the production first from the front, and then from backstage. At first, it seems unlikely that there will actually be a performance, with one actor unable to synchronise lines and actions, another anxiously seeking motivation for every action, a hopeless drunk and a leading lady whose contact lenses constantly fall out so that the whole cast have to crawl on the floor looking for them. In the second act, we see the production from backstage, when it degenerates into a chaos of mislaid and mistimed props, missed cues and acts of revenge between actors until, in spite of Herculean efforts on the parts of the actors, it eventually collapses into chaos. I can't imagine how the cast achieved such technical brilliance; it is so fast, it's hard to take it all in, heaven knows how the actors managed to time it all so perfectly.
Although it wasn't a late finish, it took us a long time to get back to Oxted. We seemed to have get a very slow train from London Bridge, and then we had a thirty minute drive. Travelling up from Oxted might be better next time.
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