Celebrating a birthday

London was looking lovely in the Spring sunshine yesterday.  Edward joined us there to celebrate M-i-l Bettine’s 89th birthday with a gentle day including lunch, a matinee and supper.

Tempting though it was to dive into the National Gallery for a quick shufty, or to take a short look in one or two shops, with the exception of a short detour to buy turkish delight in Fortnum and Mason, we kept right on focus and kept an even pace on through Trafalgar Square towards the Strand.  Lunch was calling!

We first saw someone performing this trick in Frankfurt a couple of years ago (scroll to the bottom of this post to see the German version)  Clever, yes.

So clever that another chap was performing exactly the same illusion about six feet away as well.

And another!  A few steps further along the pavement was a third version.  Maybe it’s not quite so difficult or entertaining after all?

Believe it or not, there was a fourth “floating man”.  What had seemed to us to be such an original and eyecatching act when we first saw it became silly and rather pointless when performed by so many in such a limited space.  No-one really paid much attention to any of the four of them, as you can see.

We moved right along.

We’d not been to The Savoy before and couldn’t resist taking a picture of these glorious orchids, so beautifully arranged in the lobby.  Lunch was delicious and perfect for the Birthday Girl, who loves to eat fish of any kind.  It was great to be able to step outside and straight into the theatre afterwards too, because we had tickets for Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, just next door.

We weren’t totally captivated by the show, but it fitted the bill and was a colourful and amusing diversion for the afternoon.  We hadn’t realised it had opened so recently and have enjoyed reading the reviews here and here, agreeing with most of what has been written about it.  The main thing was, Bettine enjoyed it.  That was all we hoped for.

Rather than drive straight home after the show, we enjoyed a stroll back through Leicester Square and Regent Street, dropping into our favourite Sartoria for drinks and a light supper with one last surprise – Tra came and joined us which rounded off a lovely day perfectly. 

There can be few better ways to spend the day than getting dressed up, going out on the town and coming home feeling “comfortably stuffed”.  I hope I’m still doing that when I’m 89!