Luckily, yesterday was beautiful, the sun shone, the sky was blue(ish) and although it was cold it wasn't freezing, I even managed to get away with wearing just one pair of socks under my boots instead of the usual three.
The show started at 3oclock in the afternoon so Mum and I caught the 12.24 train from home into Finsbury Park, hoping on the Piccadilly line, enjoying the swift trip down the line to south Kensington and then walking the short trip to the Royal Albert in the sunshine arriving there in time to have a lovely glass of wine and a slice of cake before the performance began......only joking!!
We got on the train going to Finsbury Park and found two seats, got ourselves settled and then realised the reason these two seats were empty was because they were beside the loo where someone must have had a bowel problem because the stench coming form under the loo door was putrid, A few stops down the line and Mum managed to spot a couple of empty seats in the next carriage, so we grabbed them quick. The rest of the journey to Finsbury Park was much more pleasant. Once we got off at FP we needed to get the tube, now, anyone that knows me will know that I am one for needing to know exactly where I am going, so I had looked up the route, checked and double checked it, I even wrote it all down clearly on a sheet of paper so Mum would be able to follow my awful writing clearly, but no, my directions failed at the first hurdle and the tube we needed wasn't where my sheet of paper said it was, so we had to rely on the good old fashioned common sense and read the signs, which put us safely in the right direction. Once we were safely seated on the tube I began counting down the stops to South Kensington (the amount of stops was also something I had also written down wrongly on my sheet) and as we approached the stop I thought should have been our stop I felt a wave of panic as I realised the words being spoken over the loud speaker did not match the words on my sheet. I screwed up the sheet and chucked it in my bag. Two stops later and the words matched so we got off and followed the crowd, only to find the crowd had just switched platforms and were waiting for another train! Undefeated we once again looked at the signs and found the 'way out'.
As I had screwed up my sheet, I decided the best way forward would be to use the sat nav app thingy on my phone to get us to the Royal Albert, so my phone tells me to turn right and off we went, I remembered writing on my sheet that the walk from the tube to the hall should take about eight minutes. Twenty minutes later and I decided that the app on my phone was indeed shit and we were completely lost.
Mum took charge and grabbed my cane steering us across the road and into a florist to ask for directions, the florist who was really lovely took us back out onto the street and pointed to some traffic lights a couple of feet away, told us to turn left and follow the road around the bend a little way and this will bring us back to the tube station where we just need to follow the signs for the Royal Albert Hall. How the hell had we walked so far and yet been so close? Anyway after many swear words, we finally arrived at the hall with fifteen minutes to spare before the performance started.
Honestly, we managed to find Stella McCartney, but find the Royal Albert..nope, no where to be seen!
I love this building, and I hope its sight will always remain in my memory, its so beautiful and awesome. From the moment we stepped through the doors we were treated with respect and care.
We were taken in the lift by a member of staff to our box and seated without any problems. Two gentlemen who were sat in front of us moved to a different box which left us to jump into the front seats and obtain a perfect view of the stage below.
So, Cirque Du Soleil are like acrobats, dressed as different insects and they give the most amazing show ever. I was quite literally sat on the edge of my seat as these humans were being tossed around in the air like flakes of paper. I cant remember the last time I went though so many different emotions in such a short time, horror, relief, amazement, love and pure admiration for the trust and devotion these people have for each other. At times they were hanging or being swung by a foot or a hand, often defying the laws of gravity and balance. Definitely something we shouldn't try at home.
On the stage throughout the performance there was a love story being played out between a fly and a ladybird, this bringing all the laughs and coo's which was sometimes a relief as it gave a chance for your heart to stop beating through your mouth and start beating normally before the next act came on. At no point during the show did their performance slip and they kept producing all the gasps and breath holding right to the very end, where some men dressed a lot like greenfly climbed to the top of a climbing wall, which was nearly the height of the hall, and leapt off the wall onto massive trampolines below and bounced back up on to the wall landing on their feet, and one point there was six greenfly all bouncing and jumping at the same time, incredible timing and bravery.
The whole hall fell silent as an insect rode a unicycle along a tightrope and a group of ants used each other as flying trapeze.
As we neared the end of the performance, I began to worry about the journey home and how the hell we were going to get back to the tube. So, Mum and I slowly gathered all our stuff and organised and prepared ourselves for London on a Friday evening at 5oclock.
On goes my coat, and I put my hand in my coat pocket for my train ticket and its not there, we searched through my bag, but no I had lost my bloody train ticket.
Gutted at the thought of having to buy another ticket we made our way out of the hall and onto the street, in the darkness I realised I had no idea which direction the tube station was, so this time instead of following the crowd, we asked for directions. A lovely man talked us through the eight minute walk and luckily we were at the tube in no time at all. All the time I kept checking for my ticket but it didn't show up. As we approached the gates at the tube station, I say approached, anyone who tries to get home from London on a Friday evening will tell you the public turn into animals and its each for their own, people push, shove and will jump over you if necessary. At the disabled gate I almost cried to the staff member that I had lost my ticket. He informed me that they would have to keep me underground then...to which I stupidly replied...but I'm hungry...so he let me through and told me not to worry about my lost ticket. The tube was rammed and my cane certainly did nothing to get me a seat, and the old familiar panic began to rise as the carriage got busier and hotter, Mum had got moved a little further down the isle and I knew I needed a focus before all hell broke loose and I had a full on panic attack on the packed train, Mum could see me changing my breathing to try and calm myself and began trying to calm me, but it wasn't working, after a few minutes I noticed that the two people in front of me where, quite frankly, talking a load of bollocks to each other so I listened in, this distracted me long enough for us to reach the kings cross stop and the train almost emptied. From then on British rail staff were fab, they let me though all the barriers and helped us find the platform for the quickest train home.
Despite my usual disasters Mum and I had a fantastic time, The show was truly amazing and I feel so lucky, not only to have won the tickets but also to have had our own box to observe it from.
Today I am exhausted and have spent most of the day curled up on the sofa writing to you!
Speak again soon x
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