Going Off Alarming

“No, I am sorry but I do not want to stay a Saturday night”
“But, sir, it makes the trip £150 cheaper if you do”
“I realise you are doing your job, but please don’t ask me again, I do not want to stay a Saturday night”

You get the idea.

I *have* to go to a wedding in New York at the end of June. Yep, on the face of it this is all very glam and exciting. However, when you scrape the surface you realise that with two pre school children and plans to move house, spending £1500 on going to a wedding that does not need to be 4000 miles away is not the fun idea it should be.

I shall refrain from blogging about the wedding as it could easily get me in to trouble should someone stumble upon it. But suffice to say the idea of getting married in New York was a great one when it was just an idea but poorly thought out now it has turned into reality.

It is my best and oldest friend. Known since primary school and we have been through the lot together. He is marrying a great girl, mother of his fantastic one year old – to whom I am proud god parent. I will be his best man and had he got married n the moon, I would still have gone. And probably with less issues than I have with NY.

The problems started the moment he asked me last summer. The first decision was how many of us were going to go? 1, 2 or all 4? A quick decision was that Pixie and Dixie would not appreciate the delights of that great city so they are going to stay at home. But what about the GLW?

First it was – “Yes, we can spend some time together”
Then it was – “don’t want to leave the kids”
Followed by “I really want to go”
Then “can we afford both?”
Etc etc etc, and so this continued.

All the while we were waiting on the happy couple to get their finger out and actually book something. They did book the actual wedding and some other bits and bobs, like a restaurant and cars, but the small matter of flights and accommodation were a bit behind. They did promise that they would try for a package that we could buy into that never materialised and finally after much procrastination and decisions on Hotels, they announced “This is where we are going, sort yourselves out” Ok, maybe not as harsh as that, but in effect that’s how it was.

Originally this was because the airlines do not release flight until 300 days or so prior to departure. Fair enough. But then it dragged on to the end of Jan and only this week did we finally get a confirmed flight and hotel for them.

I was not going to book anything before they did. That would leave me open to all manner of possibilities.

So last night, the GLW and I had a long conversation about whether she would go or not. The old indecision came back again before finally getting the courage to leave the kids behind.

So on to the web to book.

Now, they get married on a Friday. So my plan was, so as not to take the proverbial out of the in laws looking after my children – to go on the Wednesday and fly back Saturday night for Sunday morning.

And then the trouble started.

If I flew Wed to Sun it was approx £400 with the big carriers. To move to a Sat night was £950!! And the cheekiest bit of all was the outbound changed as well as the inbound price!!

I “webbed” all the usual suspects and they all have the same thing: Premium for NOT staying on a Saturday. Dial a flight could do same hotel and flights £150 cheaper if I came back a day later…..how does that work????

Airmiles point blank refused.

To cut a very long story short, we settled on a decent deal with Expedia for BA and the Novotel for about £610 each. Which was £550 if I stayed another night.

I want to get back to see Pixie and Dixie. Pixie is 4 now and such great fun. Dixie is almost 2 and she is the one I am most worried about. Pixie we can talk to and she will understand. Plus, Grandma is great fun! Dixie will be a bit lost and wonder where we are I think.

Maybe I am being silly. I am sure she will be fine but the guilt won’t go – and it certainly would not allow me to save money and have a longer holiday to boot.

Dan

As part of the GLW's Christmas present i bought tickets last summer for Dirty Dancing at the Aldwych Theatre (How about that for planning ahead?) I wrapped them up in a huge box with bricks in it so she would not have a scooby doo what was inside.

It is her most favourite film of all time ever, so it was an easy pressie to buy....plus I got to go to!

I love the theatre, we usually go once a year or so and I must admit we do pick out the more popular and commercial ones. Previous trips have been to see Joseph & Chitty Chitty bang Bang amongst others. You get the idea. Theatre snob I am not...or am i? As last night, I think perhaps I was - I noticed different things and many of them annoyed the beejeepers out of me.

It all actually started last summer when I bought the tickets. £60 each is a bit steep really, and when the theatres compain that they are half empty, it is hardly surprising. However, DD is full up until the summer now, so people are shelling out. But it does rather leave a sour taste when the credit card bill comes in. Yet people are paying £75 for the Spice Girls so I suppose in that context £60 is a bargain!

Anyhoos, we get there just before 7 and we are forced to queue in the rain. When eventually we are herded in there are no bars open and not even the doors to the bars are open so we have everyone packed in to the foyer like sardines and people from the back pushing through thinking we are just standing there for the hell of it.

The merchandise stall is there and plenty of people looking but not buying. On closer inspection I am not surprised. The price of the tee shirts, vests and assorted tat was outrageous. But again, I would not mind but the quality was appalling. I would not fancy the vest lasting more than 3 washes.

Finally the doors open to huge relief and I go and get a beer. £3.60 for a very small bottle (275ml, not even standard 330ml)of Carlsberg is hardly value. I don't mind a premium, but again it rather annoys me that you have this rampant profiteering.

So on to the theatre itself and how these things have not been knocked down and rebuilt is beyond me. Savagely cramped (and I am only 5'7) and not steep enough so you have to bob in opposite direction to the person in front, who is having to do exactly the same thing. The air conditioning was hardly sophisticated. Melting at one point and freezing the next. The decor is run down and the accoustics not that great. I am all for tradition, but really they all need massive investement to bring them into this century.

I noticed - naturally - that we had more of a cinema audience than a theatre one. Plenty of crisp bags and sweet wrapper rustling and a few shouts from the 80% female audience when Johnny took of his top (yes, I was a bit jealous I suppose) but the problem was someone always tried to be funny and that caused some ripples of laughter and it did seem to put off the actors...maybe that snobbish streak is coming through eh?

At half time, the queue for the womens toilets was immense. Stretching virtually the whole way around. I just find it baffling that in this day and age, these theatres have not sorted this perennial problem out. Made worse by the demographic last night of course. Some women not brave enough to go in the mens, missed the re start.

Anyway, what about the show itself?  Two words:

ABSOLUTELY MAGNIFICENT

Dan