Day 4, Part 3: Tuesday, November 6, 2001

We went to Leicester Square. There were a lot of nice shops. Leicester Square is where the premiere of "Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone" took place. There are three or four movie theatres on the Square, and several stage theatres are within walking distance. We bought tickets to the play "Noises Off." We didn't know much about it, and we didn't know anyone who had seen it. All we knew was that it was a comedy, and it seemed to be pretty successful. The lady told us that we would be three rows from the stage. We didn't know if that was good or bad.

Then we went to Covent Gardens. It was at this time that we began to look for a new backpack. The one we used at the start of the trip had begun to fall apart. It was a bargain that ended up not to be such a bargain. Covent Gardens is a very nice area to shop in. It is close to what think of as a mall. We didn't find a backpack.

Then we took the Underground to Picadilly Square. We had to walk around and look in shops until we could walk over to the theatre and get seated for "Noises Off." Picadilly Square had even more shops, and they seemed to have more expensive things. We ate at a pizza place. There was a television on which was tuned to the British version of "Weakest Link." It must have been a repeat from quite a while ago, because the contestants held up cards to indicate who they thought was the weakest link. Later in the week we saw another episode where they were able to press vote for the weakest link like they do here in the US.

We made our way to the theatre to see if they were letting people in. They were letting people in. We were pretty early, so we sat and looked at the playbill we were given about the play. We found out that our seats were actually the second row from the stage. We had to look up to see the curtain. We felt like typical tourists, like they must have seen us coming. The theatre was pretty empty, so we weren't sure if we would be one of the few to see the play. But it filled up very rapidly. There must have been 300-400 people -- maybe more. If I remember right, the play was written by one of the writers for "Monty Python" -- someone who never made it on camera, I guess. The play was divided into three acts: Act 1, Act 1, and Act 1. The first Act 1 was the dress rehearsal before opening night. They were still making a lot of mistakes, and it was very humorous. The second Act 1 was several months later. The scenery had been turned around, so we could see the back of the scenery. The jealousy and in-fighting made it very funny. The third Act 1 was the last performance before the play closed. The scenery had been turned around again. None of the actors seemed to care, so the mistakes that happened were horrendous -- and very funny. Overall, the play was very enjoyable. And our seats were really quite good.

During one of the breaks between acts, people came down to the front to sell ice cream. This was something I had never seen in any play in the US. In the US, people will go out to the lobby to buy a drink or something. It also seemed to be odd that it was ice cream, since it was very chilly outside. This was something we noticed throughout our trip. The first day -- when we were waiting for our turn to get on The Eye, the wind was blowing, and it felt very cold. But parents were buying their kids ice cream cones. When the temperature gets down to the 40s or below, I'm not in the mood for ice cream -- especially when walking into a wind.