Dancing our way through Saturday, 31 October

Justice at the Old Bailey

We started the morning doing all of those ordinary tasks which seem to follow you no matter where in the world you are. For us it was laundry day. After that we caught our trusty No. 15 bus up through the West End. Traffic was absolutely at a stand-still. We literally inched along less than half a bus length at a time and often spent three or four changes of traffic lights standing still.

We finally reached Regent Street and it all became clear to us. Sunday is the famous London to Brighton Veteran Car race. And these were real veterans; many of them pre-dating the 20th Century. There they were all lined up taking up one-half of the street and forcing the other side (the side we were on) into two way traffic. Now, even at the best of times Regent Street is not a wide road and when you have two double-deck busses coming at each other, and the road is only half its normal width, you would be hard put to squeeze a playing card between the two busses.

After all the delays we reached St Paul where admission is now twelve pounds. We do understand that there is a need for income for upkeep, but we feel uncomfortable with turning one of the world's most famous and important churches into a money-making attraction.

As we walked back to Covent Garden, we made a bit of a sideways excursion to the Old Bailey. For those of you who may not know it, all of the old Central Criminal Court records can now be found on the Internet at http://www.oldbaileyonline.org. So, if you want a bit of spice and mayhem, that's something worth dipping into. We regularly have the Central Criminal Court mentioned in the documents that Virginia is transcribing so it was great fun to see the place where so many of our Convicts were sentenced. It was also interesting to see that over the doors were the words, "Defend the Children of the Poor & Punish the Wrongdoer."



We continued our walk to the Royal Opera House at Covent Garden for the matinee of Sleeping Beauty. Inside the main auditorium is exactly what you would expect; huge, tiered up to six levels, and magnificently opulent with the motif of ruby red curtains and hangings and gold trappings. Although prime seats can cost well over 100 pounds, if you wanted to see the Opera House interior and a ballet, and if you are prepared to have poorer seats, you can get in for as little as 6 pounds; a price I seriously doubt you could find in Australia where going to a film will cost at least that much.



The Ballet was first rate, with the understudy (who is from the Kirov) dancing the lead role. Btu, as Virginia commented, "as good as they are, they are certainly no better than the Australian Ballet."

Travelling back to our hotel at half past four in the afternoon, when it was already dark, we noticed that although some of the shops have their Christmas lights on, the main "street" displays were not yet alight for the season. However shop windows are already dressed for Christmas and Hamley's, the major toy shop on Regent Street is a particular delight. Some of the windows are still carrying their Halloween motifs since tonight is all "tricking and treating." This seems very popular but we are sure is being driven not by children, but by shops and merchandising.

Dinner at a very pleasant Italian restaurant finshed another great day in London. We leave on Monday which means we only have tomorrow to finish our explorations. I am off to the Victoria and Albert and Virginia is planning a major expedition to Harrods.

London seems very affordable this year. The Australian dollar is great value, buying around 55 British Pence. That, combined with the fact that the UK is still in recession and prices are not rising, means that you can do very well indeed. Our dinner, for example, cost use around 22 pounds or about $40 for the two of us and that included wine.

Over an Entrance to the Old Bailey