We went for a walk around Acton in the morning, to get more orientated and to do some geocaching. We wanted to check out the area around Raewyn's BnB (she was visiting friends in the North of England) as well as the shops. We managed to find 4 caches, 2 parks, the swimming pool, schools and lots of various shops. We walked down a number of nice streets and even saw the RFU Wasps team practice although from quite a distance and through locked gates. We had a light early lunch at Morrison’s café before taking a couple of hours break at Margaret’s. She was also on her lunch break.

At 2pm we trained to Knightsbridge and popped up from the underground outside Harrods . We had intended going there for afternoon tea but Irene also ended up doing some shopping here. John and Irene had cream teas while I again had one of their nice juices with a rather rich piece of mousse cake. Of course, we were not rushed in any way so it was a surprise to realise we had been there for over an hour. John was even able to use the very posh loos and not pay as the usual toilets were closed.

We had thought of going to a museum next but time was now tight and it was getting cool. We walked up Knightsbridge to Hyde Park, window-shopping on the way, then took the tube to Piccadilly Circus. We picked up our theatre tickets – row L in the grand circle hence cheap – then spent some time finding the theatre.

We found a 150 year old pub for tea. It advertised that it had served Thespians and Theatregoers all that time, and was build on the site of a previous pub that had done the same. We also found a place that did cheap haircuts but all the chairs were taken or we might have got John inside .

We were pleasantly surprised by our seats. They were about 4 rows from the back but in the middle and we could comfortably see all the stage. There was a sort of barrier across the theatre 4 rows in front of us but it didn’t affect our view at all. A couple arrived and sat next to us and we started talking as there was still nearly half an hour to go. She was in London for a nursing exam and worked on an army base in Düsseldorf where her husband was based. He had been back from Afghanistan since July and was an army engineer with 26 years service. He knew about NZ because he had a rnate in the NZ forces and had also considered switching to the Australian forces. She had booked online and told me the row in front of us cost an extra 20 pound. These seats and the row in front of them were never filled which meant we had even better views.

For the first 10 minutes I wondered if all the good comments I had heard were right. However, these proved to be scene setting scenes and the rest of the show was wonderful. We did sometimes miss some of the little comic asides as we were a bit far away to hear these clearly but the show filled the stage and we had great views of all of it. The songs were chosen to weave into the story and there were even some video shots of the original group. We were all tapping and clapping along to tunes like 'Walk Like a Man’.

It was also a buzz to go outside to a street full of people. Some were lining up to go into bars, there were a lot of people offering cart rides and of course a heap like us heading for the tube. We had a short walk to the nearest stop and a direct trip to Acton, getting us home by 11pm