Lex and Robyn - Life as it happens

16th July LONDON - PYTHON!!!!

Robyn writes: There are times when you have a muscial moment which you think is a thing to remember all of your life - I had two of them today! Gazing up into the vaulted ceiling of Westminster Abbey with "Zadok the Priest", the Coronation anthem playing on my audio tour was one, and standing up in the O2 singing along to "Always look on the bright side of life" with the five remaining Pythons was another. Amazing!

We took a while to get going in the morning - this is certainly the noisiest place we've stayed, and as we had to have the windows open, it sounded a bit like the buses and cars and sirens were in the room with us! This is a very busy little road we are on and several buses seem to turn right at our corner. Despite this we managed to sleep in until about seven.

We finally managed to get organised enough to get out the door by about ten - Cait and Mikeal to the Dr Who shop in Barking Road, Upton, and Lex and I on a bus to North Greenwich (the O2) and then onto a ferry (sort of like a bigger CityCat) up the river to Embankment. This cost us about six pounds each and was a great ride - we spent a lot of it outside and enjoyed the fresh air and a cuppa while we watched the views.

Seen from the ferry: Tower Bridge

The Tower

Cleopatra's Needle

Boudicca and the Houses of Parliament

When we got to the city, Lex headed off to the National Art Gallery while I walked along the river (it was another lovely warm day - about 27 degrees) for a fourth attempt to see Westminster Abbey - this time, the queue was only about 15 minutes long so I finally got back in to see the Abbey properly (when we saw it in 2006, we only had a short time so missed some things.) This time I had as long as I liked to roam with the audio tour (and the wonderful voice of Jeremy Irons breathing in my ear to tell me all about it) and to see all of the tombs I missed last time. The Abbey is truly amazing - dating back to the 1200s and crammed full of the tombs of the great and good and full of so much history (eg the Coronation Chair). I had a most enjoyable time with Jeremy and a host of American tourists and paid visits to some of my favourite queens such as Elizabeth of York, Elizabeth 1 and Mary, Queen of Scots.

After a lovely long time in the Abbey, I grabbed an iced chocolate and headed for the trains, thinking it would take me a long time to get back to Greenwich. Glen Wilson was coming to stay to go to Python with us, and I'd told him I'd be home by 3. In the end it was amazingly quick on the overland trains, which took me home in less than 20 minutes. I popped up to Sainsbury's for a pizza to cook for lunch and by the time I got back, Glen was waiting. Lex arrived home shortly after, having had a great time at the National Art and Portrait Galleries. Cait and Mikeal had done the Doctor Who shop (not very impressed by it) and then gone to Oxford Street, where they had bought a gravy boat made in England by Liberty. We haven't been told the actual price but I understand it goes straight to the "Family Heirloom" classification and will NOT be put in the dishwasher!

Arriving at the O2

Lex and Glen found the poster for Lee Evans

Mikeal and Cait went souvenir shopping!

We had our photos taken on arrival in the Sky Lounge

We busily got all five of us through the shower and ready for the Monty Python show, which started at 7.30. We set off to the bus stop around the corner at a bit after 5, secure in the knowledge that the bus we wanted comes every 12 minutes. Well, no, it didn't! Finally we carefully crossed the road to the other side, to try and catch one from there....then the 129 we'd been waiting on for half an hour finally came on our previous side of the road. So we ran back across and managed to catch it, and got to the O2 by about 6. I collected our tickets while Cait and Mikeal happily shopped at the souvenir stand (they both have new Python t-shirts) and then we headed inside to the Sky Backstage Lounge which Glen had got us tickets for. We had a relaxing drink or two there and Glen and Mikeal had some ridiculously overpriced snack food and then it was time to go inside.

the team arrives (with Bruce the kangaroo)

"Now, when I was young..."

Graham Chapman made several appearances

He's a lumberjack and he's okay

"Hello, Bruces!"

"A crunch frog chocolate?!"

The judges sketch

"Albatross!!"

"Nudge, nudge, wink, wink!"

The Universe song

There was a special dance for the silly walks

The argument sketch

"Do you want Spam with that?"

The concert started just a bit late (all of these people streaming in at the last minute) but finally the wait was over and the orchestra began playing the Python classics, then they burst out of a telephone booth ( a nod to Dr Who - it was titled "Retardis"!) and the show began. We really enjoyed it - they are, of course, much older (as are we all...) but you could see Michael Palin and Eric Idle especially were really having a ball. John Cleese not so much - he missed several lines but didn't really care! They included Graham Chapman several times on the big screens, which was nice. They did most of the really classic sketches (though Cleese doesn't do the silly walks sketch any more!)and the songs that we all grew up with. The singalong to the Philosophers song was a highlight, as was the encore of Always look on the bright side of life. The audience had a ball and it was really worth seeing. We had great seats but the big screens were still really handy to see closeups. It also went much later than we'd expected (assisted by a long interval) and it was 10.30 before it finished. We then took ages to get out of the stadium as there was only one door open and we had to walk for what seemed like miles to get there, but we finally got out and to the Tex-Mex restaurant we'd noticed previously, Chiquitos. Glen, who'd been stuck up in the top of the theatre, finally made it there and we ordered our meals, and finally got fed around 11.30. A very late night! The food was good but I think we were all too tired to care! We caught a bus home and got home just after midnight, fell into bed and an exhausted sleep. A big, big day!