London Surprise

I mentioned on Sunday that Brit Boy had planned a surprise trip to London for us on Monday and that I had no idea what we were heading there to do. Well, it turned out REALLY great and I was totally surprised! :-)

Back in August, I posted about us intending to go and see the musical, Sister Act, starring Whoopi Goldberg. And we ended up not going because her mother suffered a stroke and she had to head back home to the United States to be with her. I was disappointed at the time, but I totally understood her going home to be with her mother. That was definitely what was more important. In the end, her mother passed away so I was so glad she got to go home to be with her family.

I put it aside and figured that I’d get the chance to see Whoopi perform eventually onstage one day. I’ve admired her work for a long time and I will never forget her role in my favorite movie ever, The Color Purple. Therefore, I was very keen to see her perform live eventually.

So unbeknownst to me, Brit Boy was sent an email from the place where we bought the first tickets and they let him know that Ms. Goldberg was going to return to her role to complete her run. He decided to surprise me. He let me know that we were going somewhere on October 25th, but he wouldn’t tell me where. And I’m usually one who likes to know things, but something within me was saying…’no, let it be a surprise and enjoy how cool that feels’. So I didn’t dig. And I know you might not believe this, but I didn’t hear a thing about her returning for these special performances…not a thing! :-) I am amazed by that, since I’m frequently online and that’s how I found out about her performing originally. There was no coverage that I saw anywhere, so I’ve come around to the belief that it was meant to be that way :-)

I’ve been having some problems with things here lately, so maybe it was a beautiful bit of a bright spot that was sent to me :-) That’s the only way I can explain it. It was meant to be this way. And just to clarify, my problems have nothing to do with me and Brit Boy, we’re great and that was made even stronger by him putting in the beautiful effort to surprise me like this. He knows that I needed something fun like...this....



So we traveled to London and went along our way on the train and then the tube. Finally we exited at street level and we walked up to the London Palladium and Brit Boy looked at me expectantly. I was like…’Yeah, this is where Sister Act is playing.’ And my eyes were just looking around taking in all of the sights…and no I’m not dense…LOL…just not myself these days, I’ll say ;-) And then he points to this sign in the picture below…forgive the blurry photo. I took it on my cell phone and I’m not really used to it.



Then it finally registered that we were gonna finally see Whoopi perform in Sister Act. And a big smile spread across my face. It had never entered my mind that she would come back to perform since I knew she was back doing her day job again. But apparently she decided to come back and finish her run for these special performances and we saw her on her last day!

Let me tell you, I love Brit Boy, but at that moment I realized that I REALLY married my best friend :-) Even when you don’t know that they’re watching, a best friend sees you and what you need and he saw and I thanked him profusely :-) I take care of him and he takes care of me…and that really touched me.

I’ll rewind and say that we had lunch before the show and it was delicious. Now back to me standing there in front of the Palladium ;-) So we went inside and it was the first time that we’d been to the Palladium.

The show was wonderful! The staging was amazing and the stage was continually shifting so the performers really had to be on top of things. Even if Whoopi hadn’t been performing, it would’ve been a great show. So having her there just made it even more thrilling for me. The singing was out of this world and the young lady who does the role of Deloris that Whoopi did in the film, was amazing! Her name is Patina Miller and she didn’t just sing…that girl can SANG as we’d say back home ;-) Hearing all of that uplifting singing did so much for me inside…it’s what I’ve needed.

Whoopi Goldberg’s comedic timing was so fun to witness in person. And at the end when she and Ms. Miller shared a moment onstage together, you could feel the passing of the torch, from one Deloris to another :-) It was a wonderful experience! I was thrilled to be there!

We had a bit of time to kill after the show, so we walked around the corner and walked down Carnaby Street.





I snapped a few photos, but they all turned out rather blurry. As I mentioned before, I took them with my cell phone and not my regular camera and it was getting dark. At one point I almost dropped my cell phone while taking pictures, so I’m no cell phone photographer…LOL. Anyway, I hope you enjoy a blurry look at the area around the theatre ;-)







Then we headed back to Paddington Station. It was really a wonderful day! I can’t recall ever being surprised like that, so it was really fun and I came away inspired. Mondays are usually drab days, but this was the best one I’ve ever had. Those Monday blues just flew away….