Just got back from town safely thankfully but it has been a difficult day around town 😦
West end today 😦
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-32150554
Fires underground threatened the West End, with several theatres having to cancel their shows tonight. I actually walked straight into it as i head to Southbank past the Strand around 1pm.
While i was obliviously enjoying Man and Superman at the National with Ralph Fiennes and pondering all manner of philosophical questions the whole area was evacuated and closed off by police and we were safely directed out after the the play had finished.
The Royal Opera House, close to Holborn, bravely soldiered on, but even they were impacted by power outages (http://www.roh.org.uk/news/holborn-fire-update-rise-and-fall-of-the-city-of-mahagonny-to-go-ahead-on-1-april-2015).
Firefighers from the London fire brigade have been hard at work all day and by the evening things were under control.
Thank you to all of them and the police for keeping us safe today. It was a stark reminder of how fragile this historic and so vivid part of London can be.
Hopefully things will be almost back to normal tomorrow and the shows will be back in the theatres.
Strong reminder today of how much i love this city and its artistic heart especially, thankfully saved to enjoy another day.
Sorry for keeping updating this but i just feel like saying these things tonight. Just met a few dear friends and will meet them again in the next few very precious and few days off work and i’m just glad they are around. It’s been a weird few days, yesterday terrible storm, stress at work but at the same time we went and enjoyed amazing theatre. I’m still stunned in just two days i’ve seen Sweeney Todd and Man and Superman, Emma Thompson and RF live on stage. Got unceremoniously dumped by work colleagues but got my hair cut instead of work lunch. Puzzled about life and love and religion and morals and such, laughed at it all… and then the city nearly goes up in flames around me… I have wonderfully fresh fish cooked by a lovely Italian cook with friends and i get an amazing chocolate bunny with a fluffy marshmallow tale for Easter .. and i find out a really nice person i used to chat about opera with on twitter has had a brain haemorrhage and i don’t know if i’ll ever talk to her again… And we remembered friends we knew and lost…
We talked a lot about theatre tonight and Oliviers ans stuff as well, my two friends will go see the red carpet, there may be a live coverage in Covent Garden.. which is almost a second home and which almost went up in flames today…
We talked music and we talked a lot about Hamlet and about horrific pies which were funny last night in Sweeney Todd… and i realised i won’t be able to tell my twitter friend how great Bryn Terfel was as the barber…
Got on the bus in rain and got back home with London seeming normal, but somehow tonight feels anything but… i feel grateful for many many things and sad about many too.
Opera is Magic 