Having Some Fun, Finally

J has been crazy busy at work lately, so we haven't really had much time to spend together and enjoy all the things that London offers during the holiday season.

We managed to squeeze in a ballet, Sleeping Beauty, with one of his work colleagues.

It was truly the best ballet I've ever seen. The choreographer, Matthew Bourne, is pretty well-reknowned and for good cause. It was a modern take on the traditional fairy tale, and I was more than a bit surprised when fairy-vampires and hoodlums in hoodies made an appearance, but it was a fabulous update. The dancers were amazing, and I definitely want to see the choreographer's other production, Swan Lake.

Things at work finally slowed down for J during the weekend, and he decided to humour me in getting up early on Sunday morning to head to Greenwich Park for a 10k Santa Run. It wasn't that cold, but the the wind was pretty strong. I was already dressed pretty warmly (3 pairs of gloves), but I thought that putting on the Santa outfit would be additional protection from the wind.

Unfortunately, it was a bit too big.

I met up with my cousin for a quick meet and greet before we were off.

I don't know what was up with the course since it was pretty disorganised, but it was either too short or I run much faster when I'm surrounded by twenty thousand Santas.

In any case, J was near frozen while waiting for me so we made a quick getaway so I could shower before we hit up Apollo Theatre to watch Twelfth Night, my all-time favourite Shakespeare play.

It was so well-done and hilarious! J and I both agreed that it was the best play we had ever seen, and we were near about rolling on the floor during the whole thing. I would label it a definite don't-miss. Mark Rylance, the guy who played Olivia, was amazing, and I'm a big, big fan. We're already planning on buying tickets to see Richard III to watch him again.

We had some time to kill before our dinner reservations so we wandered around Regent's Street and Carnaby to check out their Xmas decorations.

We ended the night with a veritable feast of Korean food at Asadal and rehashed the Santa run with  my cousin and her boyfriend. A perfect end to a perfect day!

P.S. Excuse the British spelling - it's spellcheck, not me.
P.P.S. And yes, I did cut my hair again. I'm easing J onto the whole short hair thing. ;)

Ballerinas at the O2

Being J's wife is really starting to pay off - we got tickets to watch Romeo & Juliet being performed by the Royal Ballet Company at the O2 arena this past Saturday!

I've heard a lot about the O2 arena, but this was our first time visiting. The arena is right by the prime meridian, so there are lines on the ground indicating mini time zones, which J thought was pretty cool. The entrance to the arena is quite nice with a standing waterfall feature made of marble and greenery, and there are also sidewalk fountains that look like fun on a hot day. It was windy and raining, so I gave the fountains a wide berth, and we quickly made our way into the arena.

The O2 Arena from afar

Lucky us, we had suite tickets so we got to bypass all of queues for the regular folks, and we faced some stiff security to get to our box. Once we got to our suite, a very nice bartender came by to take our drink orders and we settled into our very comfortable seats to enjoy the show. The arena is huge - it's more suitable for a major sporting event, and I couldn't imagine that many people wanted to watch a ballet based on one of Shakespeare's classics, but it did manage to fill up quite a bit!

One of J's colleagues showed up with his wife, so it ended up being a double date. It was nice for J since he ended up not being the only one to nod off several times during the first half of the show. Watching the two of them was like watching a pair of bobble-head dolls as they struggled to stay awake during all the dancing and pirouetting. I didn't know who to watch - the ballerinas or J and his colleague jerking awake every few minutes.

The second half of the show definitely picked up the pace, and J managed to stay awake to enjoy the rest of the ballet. I actually enjoyed it much more than I thought I would. The production and the costumes were really well done, but I wasn't such a big fan of the musical score. I think we also enjoyed it more because we knew the story and could follow along (we did struggle to remember some bits of it but we managed). All in all, a great Saturday afternoon!