Peter Pan and St. Martin

The next day I moved flats. The first flat we'd been given was very run down and had a lingering odor of curry. Now, I love curry but this was kind of a rancid, bad oil smell with curry overtones. I prevailed upon the management to move us, so I spent the morning waiting to see and approve the new flat, then packing up our things, moving them & unpacking again.

That night it was off to the panto, "Peter Pan" at the Palladium. Now, if you're unfamiliar with it, panto is a particularly British thing that happens at Christmas. Basically a traditional story is told with some new twists. The female lead (the dame) is played by a man, some male roles are played by women, and there's a lot of audience participation. But this is the Palladium and nothing about this panto is normal.  The featured actor is a wonderful comedian (and supreme drag performer) Julian Clary. Sadly, no recording is allowed. Of course, I snuck in one photo before the start.

It was, as always, an over-the-top hoot.

As we left, I noticed that across the street from the theatre is Liberty of London, which I will visit some day. Everything around it is relatively modern, but the Liberty building is Tudor style (not sure if it's authentic or faux, but it's quite wonderful.)

On the way home we walked down Carnaby Street. Not as impressive as it was last year when it was decorated as the solar system, but still festive.

There was a lovely window dedicated to David Attenborough.

We caught the train at Piccadilly Circus with its marvelous light displays.

The next night I walked by Sloane Square, lights aglow,

to catch the tube to Embankment. I walked up the too-crowded street

to Leicester Square and around the absurdly crowded Christmas market which featured lots of junk food and the usual stalls of Christmas hats, ornaments, wreaths and cheap jewelry. Walking around it is like being a human bumper car, getting jostled about like mad.

Once out of the crowd I walked across the street to St. Martin's-in-the-Field church to meet Bruce for the Christmas Celebration by Candlelight concert.

Last year we went to the short afternoon family Christmas carol service which was great fun. This year we splashed out for the longer concert featuring the St. Martin's Chamber Choir and St. Martin's Brass, a wonderful brass quintet. It was quite a long concert with an intermission, during which we were encouraged to go into the crypt downstairs to purchase mulled wine and mince pies. The choir was very good, there were readings by choir members - some good, some a bit shaky - a couple of features by the brass quintet and a lot of sing-alongs. I always feel a bit on the back foot because the melodies for English carols are different than the American versions. I usually catch up by the last verse, and nobody cares how badly you sing anyway. Several of the musical arrangements were outstanding and some of the carols were set to new melodies, performed by the choir. At one point in the concert the leader of the brass quintet asked us to help out. There were several parts of the medley they would be performing where they needed help with the jingle bells. She said that if we had an iPhone we could download an app called Jingle+. When downloaded you can shake your phone and it rings like jingle bells. For those who didn't want to go to the trouble of the download, she asked us to shake our keys instead when she gave the cue. It was great fun and got everyone into the spirit.

Again, photos and recordings were forbidden during the concert but I sneaked this photo in beforehand. Such a beautiful church and such a lovely concert.