Monday, June 09, 2014

FUNDON day 3

Post concert, Pooey and I decided to have a relaxing day. Therefore we decided to go to Oxford St. and start buying all the various things I had on my 'to buy' list. First stop - John Lewis!
While we were there, we saw signs saying that their rooftop garden was open! Both of us had the same reaction - John Lewis has a rooftop garden?!

It sure does! A little bit like the garden on top of Galeries Lafayette in Paris, it's on the top floor (accessible by staircase) running along the Oxford St. side. I'd say the view from Lafayette is better though.

It's also smaller than the Lafayette garden, but this one actually is a bit more of a garden, with planters full of herbs and flowers along the Oxford St. side, and a small greenhouse with other plants.

Okay, the grass is fake but it was pretty good fake grass - comfortable enough to walk in barefoot and lie in.

But it also had little gardeny shelters like this gazebo. John Lewis - 1, Galeries Lafayette - 0

Anyway, we were here to try and get something from Habadashery. It's John Lewis' 150th anniversary and some of the mannequins on display were dressed in designs made from classic JL fabric. Not for the first time have I wished I was a better seamstress!

Like, I would totally rock this design. It did made me think about buying one of their smaller sewing machines...then sanity prevailed.

Sanity also prevailed when we were in the toy section and I wanted to buy myself some life-sized and life-life plush dogs! The English bulldog was particularly cool!

After spending the day knocking items off the list of shops to hit and things to buy, we headed to Victoria to see show number 2 on our musicals lists - Wicked!
To mine and Pooey's surprise, I had never watched this. I don't know why. I mean, I was in Melbourne when it opened there and it has played continuously in London since I moved to Germany. It's probably because tickets have always been somewhat expensive due to its enduring popularity. 

And I can see how it is popular - the songs are catchy and the sets and costumes have a lot of whizz-bang going on. Katie said her sisters saw it twice in the space of one week when they were in NYC. To that I say, it was good...but I'm not sure if it was that good.

With that comment, Pooey said to me that she knew people who didn't enjoy the musical. She said she enjoyed it due to it's comic and 'Disney'-like production. I said that while it looks like Disney, the story itself isn't - while you know who you're supposed to be cheering for and who are meant to be the villains, the musical ultimately shows that what is 'good' and what is 'wicked' is largely a matter of perception in that the good people's actions can be seen as driven by selfishness or that they do what is considered bad in an attempt to achieve good aims.

So my summary for the day:

  • Go visit the John Leiwis rooftop while you can. I'm not sure if it will stay open during the winter.
  • Go see Wicked.
  • Go eat the readymade salads from Marks and Spencers. Time was tight to get from Oxford St to Victoria so we decided to get some salads and eat them on the way. I had a tangy quinoa and bean salad with coriander. As I said to Pooey, I could have eaten that everyday.

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