45 Days in London: Day 29

Happy Birthday, London Style

What better place to celebrate a birthday than London! Happy Birthday, Jeff! First activity...shopping! We took the tube to Covent Garden and just made our way down Charing Cross Road popping in and out of shops until we'd had our fill and shot our wad. Jeff found some great shirts. And Jeremiah bought a traditional British wool tie for 3 pounds (90% off!).

Bad news: But we had our first bad food in London tonight. We were in a hurry and grabbed something nearby and affordable. But it was very disappointing. Corner Cafe in Leicester Square. Not recommended.

The other celebratory must-do item on our birthday agenda was a play in the West End. We queued up for a sold-out production of Skylight (starring Carey Mulligan and Bill Nighy). We stood in line for two and a half hours, and then they offered us a pair of premium seats at a discounted price and we took the plunge. It was an amazing production. The set design was brilliant--an apartment interior, with views of other tenements outside, and an open top revealing the night sky. And in the second act it snowed. The performances were also brilliant. Of course. The story was about a relationship between two very different people, the love and the conflict. It brought to mind similar relationships and conflicts—political, social and societal.

We met some lovely people in the queue. An author of history books who's also very interested in family history. And a couple who ended up sitting next to us, who are both actors. It was a wonderful, memorable evening.