okaybee

I’ve completely lost count of how many times over the years I have gone to London.

It’s past a joke at this point. But here we are. This was a different type of trip as, despite the sheer number of times that I have been to London, I’ve never been to a West End show! I find I’m always rushing around and don’t prepare enough for my trips in advance. It’s such a shame as I adore going to shows and musicals.

A few months ago, my friend Laura and I went for dinner, had a few too many glasses of wine and next thing I knew we were booking flights for a girls weekend to London to see Kinky Boots. Laura, her mom, my mom, my sisters and me. A gaggle of women basically.

My mom and youngest sister saw Kinky Boots in New York last March and basically hadn’t stopped talking about it since. Lucy had taken to just blaring the soundtrack at every given opportunity (that and Hamilton), and so we thought if they liked it so much then we were bound to like it too.

We flew out of Dublin at 7.30 on the Saturday morning. The one good thing about dragging your ass out of bed at an ungodly hour, is that you get to see the sunrise as you take off. This one was something special! I’m not exaggerating when I say these photos are unfiltered. Insane!

We landed and dropped our bags off at the hotel before heading for some breakfast. It was weird to see the Christmas decorations still up everywhere! I don’t know about you, but I feel like Christmas was months ago. We stopped off in Covent Garden Grind, one of a chain of Grind locations. I always enjoy breakfast there and it’s a bit of a go-to for me when I’m over in London with work.

Afterwards we wandered around the shops for a bit, getting lost in the sales and buying the odd item. At this point we were all fading fast. I feel like it takes me the month of January to get my body clock back to normal after Christmas, and I guess the others were feeling the same. I was 3 coffees deep and couldn’t keep my eyes open. We headed back to the hotel for a nap before getting ready for dinner and the show.

My plan had been to bring everyone to Dishoom for dinner that night, my favourite place for Indian food when I’m in London. However I didn’t get my act together and book a table for us far enough in advance. You can only book tables for 6 or more people, and we were exactly 6. Next thing I know we’re wandering around Covent Garden looking for somewhere to eat. Everywhere had a 2 hour wait! Because of the show we really couldn’t wait that long, so we ended up in a fairly average Italian restaurant instead. Lesson learned.

The Kinky Boots show is in Adelphi Theatre, which is very close to Covent Garden. I really didn’t know much about the show before going to see it. I guess every time Lucy started talking about it, I just drowned her out! I loved it! It was a brilliant production, the dancing was incredible, the acting was amazing, the singing was outstanding. By the end of the show we were nearly standing on our seats, singing, applauding, dancing. It was such a joyous, wonderful show. If you get the chance to go, just go!

Afterwards we were hyper. Dancing in the street hyper. We basically wanted to dance around the place and talk non stop about the show. We headed back to our hotel for a few drinks, and chatted about the show for hours. Once we had the few drinks we basically decided that we needed to do this trip yearly. It’s good for the soul!

The next morning, I had booked us in for brunch in Duck & Waffle. We didn’t have a late flight out, so we really just had time for brunch, a quick wander around and then straight to the airport. Duck & Waffle was such a lovely treat. It basically felt like sightseeing because we were looking over all of London. It’s not cheap, but if you want to have a treat, or celebrate a special occasion, it’s a great option. We were all about the mimosas this trip, which I wasn’t mad about at all. I had the Duck Benedict with waffle, it was sooo good, but I think next time I’d go for the Confit Duck with Waffle, that looked so good.

It was a flying trip, as is my usual! But such a lovely way to start the year. The six of us have never gone on a trip together, but I can tell this won’t be the last one. My tummy actually hurt from laughing so much!

I’m definitely ready to book my next trip. If you have any recommendations in Europe – that are different to the usual – let me know in the comments down below!