Caron in London: Wicked

Three years ago, there was a tv show called I'd do Anything, one of these reality talent shows which picked a Nancy for the new Oliver musical in London's West End. One week, contestant Samantha Barks sang Defying Gravity from Wicked and went to a masterclass with one of the stars of the original Broadway production, Idina Menzel. That song has now become one of my favourite of all time, and I have become increasingly obsessed with the musical which, as the composer says tells "the untold story of the witches of Oz".

In it we find that the good witch is maybe not quite as good and the wicked witch is not really terribly wicked at all. The music, which I quickly acquired, is dramatic, emotional and beautiful. I could never tire of listening to it. I'm not alone either, given that a couple of days after our visit, Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie took their kids to see the show.

Anna shares my Wicked obsession and the main reason for our recent trip to London was to see the West End production.  It was the first London show for either of us. We went along with the Divine Ms Duffett and her daughter. We met at Victoria on a boiling hot evening and went for a quick bite to eat at Pizza Express. Pink Dog would have been proud.  Like true bloggers, we sat there at the dinner table with our iPads while our daughters raised eyebrows at us. At least they realised that their mum wasn't the only one.

Bob would rather be boiled in oil than watch a musical, or at least this musical, so he was given free rein to explore London for the evening. I even lent him my iPhone, which I never usually let out of my sight, as his phone was broken. He ended up drinking wine and reading his book in Victoria Station, across the road from the theatre.

I am clearly not very good at reading a theatre map because I was surprised at how good our seats were:

We couldn't quite see the whites of the actors' eyes, but it wasn't far off.

Above our heads was this beastie:

When you look forward to something as much as we looked forward to this, it can be disappointing. Not a bit of it. Elphaba, who becomes the green Wicked Witch of the West, was played by Rachel Tucker, who, ironically lost out to Samantha Barks in the semi final of I'd do Anything. Her performance was absolutely stunning. She totally captured the essence of that unsure, idealistic girl who heads off to Shiz university and finds herself sharing with the unbearably vacuous, spoilt Galinda.

Elphaba and Galinda eventually become the unlikeliest of friends. Elphaba instinctively fights for the rights of their teacher Professor Dillemond as there are moves afoot to prevent animals teaching. There's a powerful human rights message.

Elphaba thinks the Wizard can not only sort out this injustice, but help her out personally as she's always been self conscious about being green.

When she's sorely disappointed, she takes off, for the western sky, dramatically rising from the stage, brandishing her broom, to fight the wizard.

Oz's Daily Mail equivalent, headed up by the Wizard's spin doctor Madame Morrible (who reminded me of Melanie Phillips) soon has her trashed and demonised as events are wilfully misinterpreted and myths spread about her wickedness. Galinda, now known as Glinda, chose to stay, but secretly continues her friendship with Elphaba.

Tucker's portrayal showed how her character grew in confidence and courage, seeing her destiny as an outcast and taking it. The most heartbreaking line in the whole play is "I don't want it.....I can't want it any more" in Defying Gravity and she captured the last vestige of inner conflict with great sensitivity. She made the audience warm to her and her searing performance of "No Good Deed" captured her heartbreak at that point in the show. Her supreme acting skills were always her key strength in the tv show, and these were very much in evidence, but her singing voice blew us away.

Glinda was played by the stand-in Chloe Taylor as regular cast member Louise Dearman was absent. Her voice isn't quite as strong as Tucker's, but she made up for it in having exactly the right amount of vanity and sass. Having seen bits of Dearman's portrayal on You Tube, I think that Taylor captured the essence of the character much better. Her comic timing,  in Popular especially, was brilliant.

Taylor and Tucker work well together on stage, whether their characters loved or loathed each other. Another highlight of the show was "What is this feeling?" when they sing about their "unadulterated loathing" of each other in the early days.

Honourable mentions also go to Fiyero, played by Mark Evans. His character comes a long way from vacuous himbo to freedom fighter. Ben Stott as Boq, forced to serve Elphaba's sister while being in love with Glinda also captured his character's sadness very well.

The costumes indicate that Oz really is like nowhere on earth. Strange colour clashes and styles jar a little bit. Glinda's girly ballgowns look a little out of place but contrast well with Elphaba's stark outfits. And as for footwear. Oh dear. This show needs Carrie Bradshaw from Sex and the City and fast. The only decent pair of shoes in the entire thing is conjured up by Elphaba!

This show has everything - a love story, a bit of drama and politics - let's be honest, Elphaba is a Lib Dem - and the thing I like most is that it has strong, female characters who take control of their own destinies. In their own way, they stand up for what they believe to be right.

More than anything else, looking over at Anna and seeing her totally spellbound face made all the stress of being in a  superheated London and the trials of the Dodgy Lodge, totally worth while. She said that the day, which began with Doctor Who and ended with Wicked, was the "best ever."

Caron in London: Buckingham Palace

So, after we'd checked into the Dodgy Lodge we headed off for our tour of the State Rooms at Buckingham Palace. Yes, I know, I'm a republican, but these are the rooms in which our head of state conducts her official functions and I wanted to take the opportunity to look round them. I also wanted to see Kate's wedding dress and cake. And when I say I, I mean that Bob and Anna made this trip under sufferance.

We'd booked for the 4pm tour - and I'd strongly recommend that time of day. The last entry is 4.15 so there aren't so many people behind you and you have more  time to make your way round.

The two photos above show, firstly, the rear view of the Palace, taken from the gardens after the tour, and the   more familiar view of the front of the palace taken before we went in.

Here's the wedding cake outside:

And looking through the famous gates;

I'd booked tickets online the week before we went, and we were told to present ourselves to pick them up 45 minutes before we were due to go in. We expected to have to queue for ages, but the process was actually quite efficient so we were able to go and sit on the grass across the road and take in the view for a while.

At 4pm, we presented ourselves as instructed at the visitors' entrance at the side.  We joined a group of people seated on wooden benches in a canvas covered holding area. We then had to go through airport style security. We saw one person having to completely dismantle their baby's pushchair.

After that we picked up our free audio guides which were easy to use with optional extra sections in addition to the standard commentary before finally stepping in to the actual palace. We were marshalled along a wide corridor and then turned off onto a narrower one with windows looking on to the quadrangle which led to a viewing platform in front of the Grand Entrance, through which all important visitors traverse on their way to meet the Monarch. So we walked in the footsteps of Barack Obama.

I found the commentary on the building of the Palace, or rather the transformation of a fairly standard London mansion into the opulent headquarters of Royal Family.inc. I had a bit of a wry smile to myself as I listened to tales of politicians' disquiet at the cost of the renovations which eventually led to the sacking of the chief architect, John Nash who went massively over budget. For some reason the words "trams" and "Holyrood" kept going round my head.  Mind you, this guy had spent the modern day equivalent of £211,000 on a banister for the Grand Staircase. Some might say that was taking the proverbial.

There was such a feeling of wealth and glamour and luxury and opulence about the place. I don't think there was a point in the whole tour where I couldn't see any gold. It was everywhere. There was a gold barometer the size of a grandfather clock, a gold piano - which I'd love to see Elton John playing at, for some reason, gold banisters, frames. And to go along with the gold were huge, intricate, sparkly chandeliers. There were big mirrors everywhere, spotlessly clean. How I wanted to add some fingerprints as I wandered from room to room with wide eyed, child-like amazement. The intricacy and beauty of the handwork in the ceilings blew me away. It's amazing to think of such detailed work being achieved without the help of modern technology.

There was the Throne Room where the photos were taken after all the Royal Weddings I can remember. They had life size photos from William and Kate's wedding in April.

As if there hadn't been enough wealth on display, what with all the crystal and gold and paintings and all, they'd made a special exhibition of the Royal Faberge collection. Peter Carl Faberge was a renowned Russian  jeweller and goldsmith famous for his jewel encrusted Easter eggs. The Royals have a huge collection of his stuff which must be worth millions. The pictures online really don't do the pieces justice although you get some idea of the gorgeous craftsmanship. For example, this one looks almost a bit bland in the photos, but when you see it in the flesh it's incredibly beautiful and twinkly. My favourite piece was the Basket of Flowers egg. The detail and the colours make the flowers so lifelike.

The highlight for me was always going to be Kate's wedding dress, which was on show in the ballroom, where they hold the State banquets. That room was actually smaller than I thought it was going to be. However, I am completely and totally with the Queen, who described the way the dress was displayed as horrible and creepy. It was maybe a little distasteful to have a headless figure in a palace where so many of their foreign cousins had lost theirs. I understand why the veil was suspended above, because the lace work was made to match the lace work on the dress, but it did look a bit weird without a person inside. For me, though, the biggest disappointment is that the mannequin was the same colour as the dress so the intricate lace work on the arms, shoulders and bodice just couldn't be seen. Why couldn't they have used something flesh coloured. Bob was unimpressed at the way the cabinet containing Kate's shoes, earrings and bouquet was powered - from above. He said that it looked tacky and he was surprised that they hadn't used the technology available to hide the wiring. He was also unimpressed that in most rooms there were loads of very comfortable looking chairs, but they were fenced off and there was nowhere to sit.

Many of the sites were so familiar - the Music Room where Charles and Diana posed for photos during their engagement, the white drawing room, which was used for the photocall after Prince William's christening in 1982. One surprising fact is that that room connects with the Queen's private apartments by way of a secret doorway behind a mirror.

As we left the Palace through the Bow Room, I thought of Spidey taking the same route when she went to the  Garden Party there recently. She had one over on us because the residents were actually in the day she visited and she met one of them.

The visit wasn't quite over. It was so hot and we were thirsty, so we were delighted to see the Garden Cafe where we had some ice cream and drinks.

I took a bit of a fancy to this urn:

The tented areas you can see are the toilets - although you can't call them that there, the signs say "lavatories" and the shop.  The exit is after a long walk through the beautiful gardens and past the lake. If it wasn't for the constant rumble of traffic, I'd have found it hard to believe I was in Central London. It struck me that I understood why they might appreciate the tranquility of Balmoral. I've visited there and as castles go, it's pretty impressive, but it really is a cottage in comparison to the Palace. Anyway these photos speak for themselves.

And look at the heron!

I thoroughly enjoyed every minute of my time there - and if you get your ticket validated with your signature, it's valid for re-entry for a year - you just have to book your time slot. The Palace is only open for 10 weeks a year, but my ticket will still be valid when it opens next year so I'm planning on going back.

Caron in London: Things you don't expect to find in your hotel room

If you've been following me on Twitter, you'll know that  we went to London this week. It was a fantastic, if at times stressful few days. Even being used to the Festival crowds in Edinburgh doesn't quite cut it when you get to the busy-ness of London. And while hot sunny weather is fabulous if you're sitting out in the garden with a Gin and Tonic in hand, walking round a  city becomes a sticky, oppressive nightmare.

Part of the reason we'd dithered for so long about whether to go to London was the expense. Even with travelling by train with a Family railcard and staying in a Travelodge rather than anywhere remotely pleasant, we could have had a week in Mallorca for the price of 48 hours in London. And you wonder why tourism struggles in this country.

We knew the Travelodge, the Royal Scot at Kings Cross, the cheapest we could find at £90 a night would be hot and basic. We expected that it might be clean and functional. Well, that glass was a bit too full.

Look what we found in our wardrobe - someone else's dirty socks.

And then when I went to put our clothes in the drawer:

A pretty poor show.

We were on the fourth floor but saw a great deal of the stairs as only one of the three lifts was working and going on that felt a bit like taking your life in your hands. There was the time the doors wouldn't open at a particular floor - although thankfully that panic was over within a minute or so. Then there was the blood curdling scraping noise as it went down on the last morning, There was just no way I was carrying our heavy bag down 8 flights of stairs.

They also need to think that if there are three people staying in the room, then we need three lots of towels. They got that wrong both days.

We certainly won't be staying there again, and the experience has put us off Travelodge, which we'd used a lot up until now.

That is, pretty much, the moaning over. Now to write about the many pleasant parts of our trip.