Moonwalkers and Brontës

We set off from Ally and Cat’s flat this morning to the Lightroom at King’s Cross, stopping for coffee and a croissant on the way, and feeling like Londoners as we sat outside a café on this fine May morning. We have been to the Lightroom before to see the David Hockney film, so we knew the routine, and were in good time for the show to start at 10 a.m. It was narrated by Tom Hanks, whom we heard talking about this on “The Rest is History” podcast last week. It is about the Apollo programme and the twelve astronauts who have landed on the moon from 1969 until the early 70s. It was fascinating and the photos and film from that era have been cleaned up and sharpened, and looked fantastic. It was an excellent show. Then we decided, since it was a lovely morning, to walk the hour to the National Theatre. On the way, we stopped for another coffee at my favourite coffee spot in all of London; Caffe Tropea in Russell Square. It was delightful as usual; I chose a table in the dappled shade of a tree and it felt great to sit there enjoying the atmosphere. Onwards to the National Theatre where we saw Underdog: The Other Other Brontë, which I booked mainly because I like the actress Emma Whelan. She has been in Upstart Crow, Killing Eve and even Game of Thrones. She was indeed brilliant and so was the play. Inevitably the ending was sad, however it also made me think about the Brontës in a whole new way; I thought that I knew the story of the Brontës pretty well but I now realise that there is a lot that I don’t know. It was an interesting and excellent experience. 

We did a wee grocery shopping at Canary Wharf and went back to Ally and Cat’s flat where we made dinner of cooked meat, fish, salad, dips and pitta bread which Cat grilled. And then we looked at some of Ally and Cat’s Grenada holiday photos before watching this week’s episode of Race Across the World which we all thoroughly enjoyed.