The road less travelled...

Very, very, very long day in fact. I just got back to my hotel room (it's 10.41pm) in time to see Andy Murray win what must have been one heck of a game because he was only just coming onto court when I headed out to the theatre. (Hey, you knew I couldn't resist a West End show!) And yes, it was Avenue Q again, which was great, but very different from the Melbourne production. I'll do a proper review of that soon.

So, today.

I began at Westminster - no, I actually began at breakfast. For some reason that I really can't understand, I was sitting at a table next to the heater - which was on. Yup, start of a 'heat wave' and the heater is on. Still, perhaps they thought I needed to acclimatise. So I began the day on a rather warm note...

My first stop was the Abbey. I went there in 1997, but I really wanted to see it again. Mostly to visit Poet's Corner, but also because I had very fond memories of it last time. I did the whole tour again and was reminded why I loved it so much. It's such an incredible building. They're doing various restoration works (I suspect such things are constantly ongoing, but it was far more visible today) and it made me remember why I want to get into museums to work.

My second stop was the Cabinet War Rooms and Churchill Museum. This was another revisit, but I was also thinking about possible future employment. I took the chance to buy a couple of books I've thought about for the past few months because they're about $20-$30 cheaper than in Oz.

Lunch was a rather expensive event (not surprising, I suppose, considering where I was) but rather nice. Roast chicken and, more importantly, a cold drink and a place to sit down.

After lunch I went for a stroll and ended up at Covent Garden. I bought a gorgeous picture and a present for my step-mum, so that's one name crossed off the list. (Heidi, what was the DVD you wanted again?) I headed off after that to several bookshops near Tottenham Court Road. I was actually very restrained and only bought two books, so I rather impressed myself there. ;-)

After that I strolled up to Pollock's Toy Museum. This was a beautiful and very interesting collection of toys from the past century and a variety of countries. I took lots of photos because it's useful for some work I and others are doing. Pics coming soon.

My last stop on my shopping tour was the Daunt bookshop where I found a lovely book about Grimm's fairytales converted into short plays.

Oh, and I bought my theatre ticket.

I was going to do my review of Avenue Q, but as it's 11.30pm and I'm starting to wilt, I think it can wait until tomorrow.

Nighty night all!