Matilda and the Ivy

On Sunday morning we had breakfast again at Pret a Manger in Paternoster Square - I love their pains aux raisins and the attractive location. The bells of St Paul’s were pealing mightily. It was only a short walk from there to the Guildhall art gallery where we were meeting Cat. She had told us of an exhibition there of paintings of the architecture of London. What a find! It’s a lovely wee art gallery and the exhibition was fantastic; such a variety of paintings of London from all different eras. We all loved it. There was also a Roman amphitheatre in the basement of the building which we could walk around, and a nice wee collection of 19th century paintings.
We spent so long there that we only just had time for a quick snack before going to see the musical “Matilda” at the Cambridge Theatre. This being a Sunday matinee there were plenty of children there, and we found ourselves sitting beside a friendly Finnish family comprising of a Mum, Dad and two young daughters. The musical was good and the child actors were amazing; they danced and sang tirelessly throughout. My one wee criticism would be that it was hard to make out Tim Minchin’s lyrics during all the action that was going on; due to their youth the children’s diction was understandably not as clear as that of the adults in the production. The music was lively but I didn’t find it to be particularly memorable, not compared to “Wicked” for example, from which I can still remember various songs. It was a good show though, and full of life. Afterwards it was time to go to our old favourite the Ivy for dinner - it was very handy for the theatre. The food was excellent and it was great to chat with Cat, we had a lovely evening.