Well I was going to blog about Pippin

Living in London is fun until it's not.

I had tickets to see a small production of Pippin, which is one of my most favourite musicals. I knew this was going to be a highly moving experience, and I wanted to share my thoughts with you all...but instead, I got home grumpy and sick of London. So let me tell you the story.

The trip in was fairly uneventful. The theatre was in Charing Cross, which was near a direct train line from my station (a rare treat). This means no changing lines at a station. This may not sound like a big deal but trust me, sometimes it is. You may get lucky and have a chance where it's just a short hop over to the next line, but often you must travel down a labyrinth of stairs and escalators, and tight corridors with too many turns that convince me the city planner was not of sound mind when designing it. In fact, I went to 'be more chill' (see a previous blog). I went to take the stairs to exit, and I saw this:

But tonight, there was no labyrinth and I got to the theatre early, so I had some time to kill. I walked around, experiencing the buzz of the city. There was anticipation in the air as people were starting their night out in one of the world's most exciting cities. I hurried back to the theatre at the perfect time as the door was going to open, only to find that it was shut. I took a seat and did some important work while I waited - watched Steve Harvey's family feud highlights. After watching many videos, including 'the dumbest answers ever given', a large crowd had gathered. In fact, the show was supposed to start. An announcement was heard - 'Due to an issue, there is a delay in opening the doors; we will be with you shortly'. I pressed play on 'Times that Steve was sure the answer was not up there'. More time passed, and the next thing I heard was someone asking, 'so what is the problem?'

We were informed that a cast member was sick (they assured us not Covid), and they needed to cancel the show.

'Wonderful'

'Top 6 answers on the board'

Shut up Steve.

Disappointed, I decided not to go straight home but go for a bit of a walk. To experience the city. That was fun for about 20 minutes until it became sad. I didn't really know where I was walking, and some parts of the city are sadder than others. So I decided to go home...well, I tried to.

Seeing I had wandered 20 minutes from the station I came to, I just went to the closest station. This is one of London's coolest features. I found the platform for the line and jumped on and was reunited with the Smith family trying to win fast money. Well, I should have been paying attention because 30 minutes later, when I should have been close to home, I looked up and realised I was further away from home. I jumped off, so confused as to what had gone wrong. I looked around for a train towards Wimbledon until I heard an announcement 'for trains going to Wimbledon, head to Earls Court on this platform'. So I went there and after a painful 10 min wait, I jumped on.  There was only one problem; it wasn't going to Earls Court.

I realised I was on the wrong line (Circle, not District, is you really are interested), so I jumped off at a familiar station where I knew I could usually get a train home, or at least to Earls Court. But a train never came. I looked around, trying to work out what was happening and saw signs 'For trains to Wimbledon, catch a train to Earl's Court'. Then I looked at all the trains. 'THERE WERE NONE TO FLIPPING EARLS COURT'. And then I finally worked out what was happening. The announcement and signs were a part of planned track work (why they start Friday night, I don't know, again, the city planner must still be not of sound mind)...but what was not planned was that the whole of the district line plus 2 other lines were completely down. That is the reason I ended up on the wrong train because there were no district line trains. This is also the reason I couldn't get to Earls Court. LONDON, YOU ARE STARTING TO GET ON MY NERVES.

By now 9:30 pm, I have seen no show, and I am still a long way from home. I ended up finding a bus that took an hour to drop me off about 1 mile from my house and then rented an uber bike to help me ride the rest of the way home.

Finally, for the part you have all been waiting for. I link this story into a learning moment filled with wisdom and humour leaving us all with a sense of fulfilment. But unfortunately, one of the writers is sick so we will be cancelling tonight's performance.

But I can suggest some great Family Feud videos.