Last Saturday Nick and I had a Grand Day Out. We went on a bus trip to London.

Gerry’s bus drops us off in the centre of London.
If you discount any trips to London for work or exams, the number of visits I have made for pleasure barely reaches double figures. At the age of 60 this was probably only my 11th visit to our capital city.
The reason for this is simple. It is only 148 miles from home to the city centre but getting there takes hours and is very expensive. Just hopping on a train and going up to London for a day’s shopping is not an option for me living out in the sticks in Derbyshire so my last few visits have been on our friend Gerry’s bus. Trips to London is what he does for a living and he does it very well.
We dropped Lulu off at my dad’s for the day and picked the bus up just around the corner. We made ourselves comfortable, coffee was served on the bus and it dropped us off in Grosvenor Square just after 12 o’clock.
We then walked to Regent Street, glad to be able to stretch our legs and we arrived at our lunch destination bang on time for our reservation at 12.30.
We saw this restaurant, The Living Room, which is just off Regent Street, on Masterchef earlier in the year. Some of the competitors were given the task of cooking for lunch in the restaurant and we liked the look of the place so we booked it.
Looking forward to a good lunch.
We were not disappointed. We treated ourselves to a glass of our favourite champagne (Castellane Rosé), a bottle of nice Chablis and a slap-up lunch.

We both had the scallops for starters and a fish main course. The pudding menu was too tempting to resist so we both indulged. Nick won. He had black forest trifle and I had a salted caramel chocolate tart, mainly because it’s something we don’t cook at home and haven’t seen yet at the restaurants we usually go to in Derbyshire. Salted chocolate desserts seem to be fashionable just now and I have to say it was not my favourite pudding – but it was nice and I ate every crumb !! (It also had a slightly unfortunate appearance which I immediately spotted as a dog owner but I won’t go into detail !!…….)
This is the only “little girls room” I have ever come across with carpet on the walls !!
After lunch we hopped in a taxi in Regent Street and headed off to our next destination, the main event of the day and something we had planned as a special treat months ago.
Vincent and Flavia performing in Midnight Tango at the Aldwych Theatre.
We arrived at exactly the right time, as people were piling in and taking their seats. Within minutes the curtain went up and the music started.
The show was superb. We enjoyed every minute and were completely enthralled. When Nick and I were taking ballroom dancing lessons many years ago, the tango was our favourite dance. We were pretty rubbish at it but we did get our bronze medals for latin and ballroom so we have been enthusiasts ever since – watching rather than dancing these days.
The Aldwych is one of those beautiful intimate theatres full of Victorian charm and grandeur. We had wonderful seats in the dress circle that Gerry had got for us so we were not “up in the Gods” and craning our necks to see the show but we were definitely in heaven.
We emerged from the theatre into daylight and a very pleasant 17°C with time to take in some sights before we had to get back on the bus……….