More Terrifying Than Teenagers?

Today was the monthly AWC theater day, so I met up with several other women at the TKTS booth in Leicester Square this morning.  They were only offering discounted matinee tickets for four shows this afternoon, so it was a bit easier to reach a consensus.  Despite being one of the longest-running shows in the West End, I've never seen The Mousetrap, and since I'm a big Agatha Christie fan, I would have liked to see that, but everyone else wanted to either see Jersey Boys or The Woman in Black.  I'd heard good things about Jersey Boys, but since I saw a musical last time, I was more in the mood for a play, so I joined the Woman in Black group.

After a somewhat disappointing lunch at Garfunkel's, we headed to the Fortune Theatre, stopping for a quick gelato fix on the way.  Our seats were pretty good, location-wise -- in the middle of the front row of the mezzanine -- but we were surrounded by two busloads of teenage girls.  This did not bode well.  The Woman in Black bills itself as "the most terrifying live theatre experience in the world."  Combine this with several dozen excitable teenage girls, and you have a two-hour screamfest.  I was so distracted by the back-of-the-seat-kicking, screaming, hyperventilating hordes surrounding me that I found the show to be more annoying than terrifying.  Of course, that might have been a good thing, as I'm generally not a big fan of scary stuff, and I was expecting it to be more of a drama than a house of horrors.  We regretted not going to see Jersey Boys with the others.  Or maybe I should have just gone to The Mousetrap by myself...

Afterwards, I walked to Waterloo, took the train back to Wimbledon, and hopped on a bus up to Wimbledon Village to redeem a Groupon for a mani/pedi and facial at the Ruby May salon.  It's extremely rare that I pamper myself with beauty treatments, but since it was close by and a good deal, I thought it was worth the splurge.  Lying on a massage table in a quiet room with low lighting and soft music while someone did my nails and massaged my head was just what I needed after my unexpectedly stressful West End experience.  Even better, the woman who worked on me was very friendly and chatty -- which she herself admitted is rare among Londoners.  I have another Groupon for that salon that I am looking forward to using.

(Sorry, I had to bring flip-flops with me to wear home from the salon, so I didn't have room in my purse for my camera today... )  

By the time I got home it was 8 pm.  Josh had emailed me to let me know that he was taking an earlier train back from Brussels, so he showed up about 20 minutes later.  I'm glad he's home, because even though I wasn't particularly freaked out by the play, I still would not have enjoyed being alone in the house tonight.

Now I'm just waiting to hear back from an old high school classmate who happens to be in London this week.  We're supposed to meet up tomorrow.  This should be interesting.  Stay tuned...