So, armed with my cane, my little blue pouch containing my train ticket, the theatre tickets and the two Nana's we caught the train towards London, the train was on time and we got seated on the very last carriage so that my daughter who was joining us a couple of stops down would know where we were sitting. I noticed that the train was a little busy for a Tuesday afternoon but happily enjoyed the journey to Finsbury park totally unaware of the mayhem at Kings Cross. The tube was also busier than usual, but we were so occupied chatting about where we were going and the route we were going to take that it didn't really matter.
Arriving at South Kensington we came out of the tube station wondered about the square checking out the restaurants for later. Mum had already decided that we should walk along the under-pass as it was safer for me and brought us out very close to the Royal Albert Hall, so, we couldn't find a restaurant that looked like it might accommodate us and returned to the tube station and walked along the under-pass peeping into the Museums as we passed. The sun was still shining when we came out at the end of the tunnel and we all made our way to the Hall. As usual the building stands proud in amongst other buildings and with the suns rays bouncing off it, it looked just magnificent.
Royal Albert Hall staff were waiting to receive their guests and I am happy to say they have never failed in their impeccable service, bag check was a breeze and then it all turned crazy, beyond the doors were crammed full of people, all ages of people, but mostly people over the age of 65 and I am sad to say you will have found more manners if you were attending a concert full of teenagers. Every single person seemed to feel that it was their very own god given right to push, shove and mutter rude comments under their breath, they all seemed to think they should be first, so this led to queue jumping, which led to up-roar. I have never felt quite so vulnerable and when my daughter and I got separated from the Nana's while trying to maintain our place in the queue for the loo's I started to become really anxious, the noise level was ridiculous and when we finally reached got our turn to use the Loo, my daughter and I went into the disabled Loo's together, this causing up-roar behind us as my daughter was NOT disabled. As soon as the toilet door was shut the noise was cut off, and I don't mind telling you, I sat there wondering how long I could make my wee last so that I didn't have to go back into the crowd.
When we had finished our business, we entered back into the bad tempered crowd and found the Nana's waiting at the entrance to the café. On our tickets it said that doors opened at 2.15, but the staff, very wisely, opened the door 15 minutes early and a very tall male member of staff who had a very loud and authoritative voice silenced everyone and barked orders, where upon the grumpy oldies turned into sweet butter wouldn't melt oldies and did as they were told saying 'Thank You dears' as they passed members of staff, honestly you wouldn't have seen a faster transformation if you had sprinkled fairy dust all over them, from that moment on the atmosphere totally changed and the only other moment we had was when two very large oldies thought they could fit themselves into a already packed lift, leaving me squashed at the back with my cheek pushed against the mirror which they put in these things to make the lift seem bigger, actually the mirror was cold which was quite pleasant on my face really.
Guided to our seats by a very lovely young man, we got comfortable and watched from the box, a steam of people taking their seats and the Orchestra tuning their instruments and preparing themselves for the performance.
The performance, Aptly named, Friendship Matinee (shame some of the people at the entrance hadn't taken notice of the title) Symphonic Rock, by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra was amazing.
The presenter was Ken Bruce, and his easy to listen to voice and his witty jokes kept the audience informed of what to expect, he introduced the Orchestra, the conductor David Firman and Capital Voices who were the vocalists. I swear, when they played Adele's 'someone like you' tears were pouring down my face, a truly emotional and exhilarating performance. As the Orchestra played Bon Jovi's 'Livin on a prayer' I was singing my heart out not giving a poop that I am tone deaf and cant sing a note, it just didn't matter, Michael Jackson's 'Thriller' had my daughter and I dancing in our seats, you just couldn't keep still, in just over an hour we had listened to some fantastic sounds coming from the group of people below us with their instruments. Capital Voices sort of sang at the chorus of some of the songs and it wasn't until the last song when they totally let loose and belted out the words to Queens 'Bohemian Rhapsody' that you realised how bloody amazing they were and I found myself crying again at their beautiful voices.
Exiting the Royal Albert was a completely different experience to entering it, everyone was sort of pleasantly stunned, almost as if they were all starving at the beginning and then after a massive feed they were all satisfied and left with their belly's contently full.
We walked along in the sunshine back towards the tube station but were drawn into the Science Museum, a perfect time to go into these places is an hour or so before they shut, we wondered around with only a few other customers, had a drink and a piece of cake in the café....
We had to leave as the museum was shutting, but we WILL be back as it was really very interesting and the lemon drizzle cake was fab!
Carrying on towards the tube station I remembered a little Restaurant that we went to years ago so we took the Nana's to tea at Pierino Italian Restaurant, the food was just as good as I remembered it and the Lasagne was apparently nearly as good as mine!
Sitting around our table we thought for the first time about what time our train home was, so My daughter checks her app only to find a red screen flashing up, this is when we discovered that Kings cross was at a standstill and had been for hours with no trains going out of London. At 8 O'clock we figured that the rush would have died down and surely there would be a train going somewhere near home...ohhhh how wrong we were, the tube at South Kensington was fairly quiet this was because the whole world and their mum was standing at Kings Cross watching the boards carefully, waiting for the slight change that would mean there was a train out, Honestly it was hilarious, the whole station was silent with hundreds of people with their eyes focused on the flickering screens which all said either delayed or cancelled. The second a train and platform was announced it was like a stampede in the direction of the platform, my daughter charging off in front, me with my cane tripping everyone up (not on purpose, honestly) and the Nana's lagging behind still chattering about artefacts in the science museum, the Daughter yelling...'Bloody hurry up Nana's, we need to get to the platform'.....by the time we had got up the escalators and onto the platform there were people squeezing themselves onto the train, there was literally no chance what so ever of boarding that train, this happened for the next three trains and we had successfully managed to work off our pasta dinner by doing three complete circuits of Kings Cross station. A hour and a half later, Mum notices that the train standing on platform 11 which was for Ely stops at Hitchin, Hitchin was close enough so another scene from Benny Hill was formed as we all chased my daughter through the crowds to platform 11, my 17 year old daughter yelling, 'Bloody Hell Nana's, Just get on the bloody train' as one Nana began to fret that we might get a fine for travelling on a train that wasn't going to Peterborough, To which the daughter mumbled something about smashing someones face in if they dared to suggest that we couldn't travel on this train to Hitchin. As it was, the rail staff didn't give a flying fudge cake, so long as people were moving out of kings cross and making their way home, they were happy. I actually found it very amusing, but I did feel for the commuters who had been at work all day only to find they couldn't get home, let alone get a seat on a train. We travelled from Kings Cross to Hitchin standing up but I didn't care, we were going home. When I finally got into bed I couldn't sleep and was Ironing at 3.30am this morning....so My friends, this is why I have spent the day in my PJ's xx
Ps) The lady in the ticket booth was right, I didn't loose my ticket all the while I was using the little blue pouch!
No comments:
Post a Comment