Wilfred Heads Home

Hello!  It is me!  Wilfred!  And can you even believe that my great London adventure with my two dads has come to an end?  For the last six months, we have been living life in the UK, mostly in the great city of London.  Though six months seems like a long time, it is amazing how fast 26 weekends go when there is always exploring and something new and interesting to do. 

This week, I will start where I left off --  in the West End of London -- and Dad and Poppy's promise to take me to my first ever West End show. 



Me with Poppy outside the London Palladium

We took the Piccadilly tube line from Gloucester Road to Piccadilly and transferred on to the Bakerloo to Oxford Circus.  Then, it was only a hop down Argyle to the London Palladium and Andrew Lloyd Webber's new musical of "The Wizard of Oz".

A smash West End or Broadway musical is a big show with lots of great unforgettable songs (usually connected by a few so-so, kind of forgettable ones, says Dad).  That is why the Wizard of Oz was a sure bet as a full out musical, because it started as a famous movie that already had a lot of great unforgettable songs (all Lord Webber had to do, Dad said, was add the so-so ones).  It also has a tornado, flying monkeys, a wicked old witch, a little girl with a big voice and a real live dog on stage.  Boy, was I excited!

The London Palladium is maybe the most famous theatre in London.  For a hundred years, some of the best known performers in the world have played there.  It has 2286 seats and ours was in the very middle of the front row of the balcony and I was all set with a booster, so I could see over the rail.  And was it ever A-mazing!



The lights dim in the Palladium

From the moment the lights went down and the orchestra began, I did not take my eyes off the stage for one second!  You should have seen the TORNADO!  It almost missed Auntie Em's farm, but then it CAME BACK!  Poor Dorothy and Toto (actually played by four real-live Westies and a few stuffed ones, according to Poppy).  The house whirled around on a tilting, revolving stage that lifted up while wind howled and fences flew apart and cows blew by (sometimes it was hard to tell what was real and what was projected on a see-through screen that in the theatre is called, a scrim).  There was lightning and crashing noise, and the orchestra played like CRAZY!!
 
The show had lots of other surprises -- the Wicked Witch entered through the ceiling, thirty feet above and dangled right in front of me, and monkeys flew out over the audience -- and when the lights came up, I could not EVEN believe it!  I said, "But Dad, doesn't Dorothy ever get home!?"  And he said it was not over.  In grown-up shows, they take a break in the middle, so that ladies can line up for the bathroom, and in British theatres, you can buy ice cream to take back to your seat for the second half.  (Note to self: chocolate ice cream - hard to eat in dark with little plastic spoon and new shirt...).

All I can say is, if you are a kid, for a show that has no train, The Wizard of Oz is about as good as it could get.

This last London week has mostly been about closing up our life here and checking the final few "to do" things off our lists. 

One of the things people always think of when they think about England is having tea.   They think of what is sometimes called, "afternoon tea" -- which is what Dad and Poppy had in the Palm Court of the Langham Hotel (supposedly where some Duchess invented it 150 years ago, and they have tea sommeliers, and blah, blah, blah.)  That is where you spend all afternoon eating little fussy sandwiches, scones with jam and clotted cream and all kinds of CAKES and DESSERT! 

The Palm Court at the Langham Hotel

Bijou tea for two

Sounds like something I'd like to do, but Dad says it is one of those traditions like drinking beer in the sun at a ball game -- it only seems like a good idea at the time...

Actually, to most English people nowadays, fancy afternoon tea is pretty much a treat for tourists.  Lots of Londoners spend their tea breaks at Starbucks drinking lattes, and when they say they are going home to tea  -- they mean home for supper.  At Ravenstone Preparatory, if you stay after school for "tea", it means that you stay and have a big snack in the dining hall (what the English call the dining "hole") before the homework club (for kids whose parents pick them up later) or one of the other after school clubs - like choir or karate or ballet.  I got to stay for tea this week so I could have some extra play time with my friends.  We played games and ate cheese in a tortilla wrap...



Me in the dining hole with Riley, Thomas and Vladi

I am going to miss my Ravenstone pals.  This week, the kids in Form Two presented a play about saying, good bye.  I am going back to Canada, Mir Ali is going back to Kirachi, Bella is going to an all-girl school -- there are lots of changes for us, so Miss Saunders had us say what we would miss about our friends we are leaving behind and how we might stay in touch.  Afterward, the headmistress, Mrs. Heath, said we did an excellent job, and that for the first time at a Ravenstone assembly, she had a tear in her eye.


Mrs. Heath even got a little bit choky

Tomorrow, Daddy and Poppy are going along as adult helpers on our class trip to Kew gardens.  That will be my last thing I do at Ravenstone -- except for our final assembly when I am going to get a certificate for having 20 stickers for good behaviour!

For our last night in London, my family is planning to head down to Trafalgar Square -- maybe on the Number Nine bus!  -- to take part in the July 1st, Canada Day celebrations... listen to Blue Rodeo play and maybe have some poutine.

We are coming home, Canada.  It is time.  But it has been so great being here and doing everything we have done.  Can you even believe it?

For me and Poppy and Dad, the UK has been the best time EVER.  But like Dorothy says, there is no place like home.  C U  soon, Canada.

Bye, for now, Wilfie

     

Wilfred and the West End

Hello!  It's me!  Wilfred!  I am still here in London with my two dads and, sad news, we have  less than two weeks left of our six months here in England. 

There are a lot of things to think about when you move from one country to another.  For the last few weeks, Dad has been keeping the flat extra tidy as the rental agents bring people through, Poppy has been busy making sure our utility bills and everything get settled, and I have begun saying good-bye to my friends at Ravenstone. 

I think I'm ready to go home to Canada.  I miss my friends at Jackman and our house and my stuff.  But I feel sorry saying good bye to good friends like Bella and Mia and Mir Ali.  Maybe Mir Ali will come to Canada some day.  Maybe I will go to Kirachi.


Me with my friend, Mir Ali

Dad and Poppy and I still find new and fun things to do in London.  Daddy and Poppy both really like going to the theatre. Dad sees a show about every other week, and Poppy goes even more.  Poppy seems to see a different play every week!  I like theatre, too, but mostly if it is a play directed by Poppy AND if there is a train in it.

Poppy says London is where English theatre was pretty much invented and that it still has some of the best in the world.  There is this part of London, where the big shows are, that the city calls "Theatreland", but people around the world call it "the West End".

It is a bit confusing that the West End is really right in the middle of London.  Hundreds of years ago, it was outside the city when the old city was smaller and had a wall around it.    The olden part of London that used to be inside the wall is still what Londoners call "the City" and the West End is the part between the City and Westminster.... which in a long ago time used to be its own little town... 

Anyway, today, Theatreland goes from the Strand up to Oxford Street, and from Regent Street over to Kingsway.  There are famous streets there that are lined with theatres, like Shaftsbury and Drury Lane, but the centre of Theatreland is Leicester Square.

Heart of Theatreland, site of the half price ticket booth

To get to Theatreland from South Kensington, you could take the tube to Leicester Square or Piccadilly or Charing Cross... or you can do what I like to do, take a number nine double-decker BUS!  Number nine is my favorite route -- especially if you can get an old fashioned bus and sit upstairs in the front seat!  It goes along Hyde Park, past St. James's and along Piccadilly, past Fortnam and Mason and around Piccadilly Circus and goes to Trafalgar Square and then on to Tower Hill and Aldwych.


Best bus EVER

Last Friday, I had a very good day at Ravenstone, so Poppy and Daddy took me on the number nine to Trafalgar Square and back as a treat.  While we were in Trafalgar Square, we saw a big stage being set-up for something called, "West End Live!"   There was a lady really singing, doing a sound check.  I said, "Hey! I know that song!  It is, Defying Gravity, from the show Wicked," which is probably my most favorite song EVER!   There were only about twenty or so people there listening, so we got our own private concert!  Can you even believe it?!

Rachel Tucker, from 2011 cast of Wicked, gave me a private concert... sort of.

It looked like "West End Live!" was getting ready for a big crowd.  The stage covered most of the bottom of Nelson's monument and there were two huge jumbo screens on either side and about a hundred PORT-A-POTTIES!!  Poppy said that we should come back the next day to check it out for sure.

The next day, we took the tube to Embankment because of closures due to planned engineering work on the Underground.  We could hear music from the speakers a block away and joined the crowds moving toward Trafalgar.  There was a sea of people --  about 10,000 -- packing in around the stage.  Before we even got there, Dad and Poppy recognized the music from a play called "Chicago".  


Chicago in London

Dad lifted me up and I could see two ladies singing really loud... and there were a bunch of dancers in kind of black underweary things...    I am not sure what that show is about...

We were only there five minutes, when it started to spit rain.  Dad said, oh-oh, maybe first we ought to find lunch... and cover...
 

Is it me?  Or is it getting dark...?

 

No, it is definitely getting darker...

They announced the "Jersey Boys" and just as the boys came on to sing, KA-BOOM!  It poured rain LIKE CRAZY!  

Head for cover at St. Martin!

We took cover under the porch of a church called St. Martin in the fields (I guess this used to be a field a long time ago).  It was raining so hard and the wind was so strong that it came down side ways.  Dad and Poppy put their coats around me and we huddled against the wall and we still got soaked!
 

Troopers on stage and off

But the Jersey Boys KEPT ON SINGING.  Of course, most of the Londoners just opened up their umbrellas...

Londoners aren't scared off by rain

The storm blew through quickly though and soon the sun came out.   People shook themselves off and waded back toward the Trafalgar stage...  Dad lifted me over the deep puddles.  And the show just kept on going.


Sing along if you know the words...

Besides West End musicals, they also had booths for London attractions.  I like music, but after a while, I want to do something, so Dad and Poppy took turns taking me into the Science Museum tent and the Royal Palaces tent and the National Gallery tent, while they listened to the shows.

In the National Gallery tent, kids could make paper towers and buildings to be part of a medieval castle.  I told Dad I wanted to make the CN Tower.  Dad said that wasn't really medieval, but the lady handing out the craft supplies said that this was art and I could make whatever I wanted.  She said, "Are you from Toronto, then?"  And I said, "Yes, and if you've been following my blog, you will know I am going home soon."  She looked a bit confused, so Dad explained as best as he could and thanked her for the art supplies....



May not be medieval, but hey -- it's art

Made the crown... borrowed the cloak...

Anyway, there was dress up and face painting and science experiments and the world's smallest car and, of course, lots of musical theatre. 

A lot of the big theatres have shows in them that are already playing in theatres around the world.  But not all of them. And not all plays in the West End are musicals.  Most of the shows that Daddy and Poppy go to are serious and don't have any music in them at all.  But sometimes shows are just fun, and that is okay, too.  Dad said that lately, to make sure shows are popular in the West End, sometimes they have big stars from movies and tv.  I didn't really know what he meant by "big star" until one came onstage.

We had so much fun that we ended up spending the whole afternoon there.  At the end, Dad asked me if I would like to go to a West End show.  Dad said, if I was their kid, I needed to go to at least one and he said he had just the play in mind for my first time to the West End.  I asked if there was a train in it.  Dad said, no, but there would be a tornado on stage and flying monkeys.

Next Saturday, Daddy and Poppy and I will be in the front row of the balcony at the London Palladium for Andrew Lloyd Webber's new production of the "Wizard of Oz".  Come back next week and I will give you my review.


Well, that is all for now.  Next week will be my last blog for my London adventure.  Hope you come back here to read it. 

Talk to you then,  Wilfie