Overnight in London

David's mom arrived safely from California the day before yesterday for her first visit to our new home here in England.

We let no moss grow under her and promptly took her into London on the train yesterday. We ate lunch with David at his office downtown and got a tour. That afternoon we went to see Dancing in the Streets at the Playhouse Theatre. It was more of a concert than a play, which we hadn't understood. It was well-done for a series of Motown songs, like Baby Love, My Girl, Shop Around, Please Mr Postman, Stop In the Name of Love, You Can’t Hurry Love, etc. Songs by the Four Tops, the Temptations, Marvin Gaye, the Supremes, etc. The singers all dressed up in various wigs and outfits just like the original performers. However, we left at the intermission because it was too loud and not interesting enough for the kids, despite the talented voices and band and the funny choreographed dancing in place in front of the microphones just like it was back then in the 60s and 70s.

The 2nd show, in the evening, was fabulous to the last encore: Jump, at the Peacock Theatre. We all loved it. Incredible acrobatics, gymnastics, leaps, jumps, flips and some Tae Kwon Do, along with very funny gags and story. I laughed out loud quite a number of times, as well as clapping my hands sore. The ads describe it as

"a high-octane display of the ancient Korean fighting art of Tae-kwon-do, including jaw-dropping flips, dazzling acrobatics, sword fights… crossed with a sitcom.

The show centres on a typical, but spectacularly agile, Korean family - from the draconian grandfather and drunken uncle to karate-chopping mother. Each is a martial arts hotshot, all possessing championship level Tae-kwon-do and gymnastic skills, who enjoy nothing more than challenging each other to martial arts showdowns."

That's about right. I couldn't get over the amazing mesh of skills these performers had to have: serious discipline in martial arts, deep focus in running up walls and flipping over backwards, comedic ham attitudes, mind-blowing flexibility and split-second acting timing. Highly recommended (although a few off-color wordless jokes sprinkled here and there and some flirty posturing; I was impressed with the modest clothing on the women, though, compared to many shows).

Today before riding the train home again we managed to stop by:

- the Tate Modern, where Jason and David and Reine got to go down some multi-story artsy slides (Emily didn't want to and I was resting my upset stomach, which went away while we waited and watched the various expressions of elation and perplexity on the faces of the sliders arriving at the bottom, having executed five floors worth of corkscrew turns on their backs)

- the Milennium Footbridge, which took us across to St. Paul's Cathedral (designed by Sir Christopher Wren in the 1600s), where they were holding a service, so we just quietly listened for a few minutes looking at the beautiful ceiling

- St. Martin's in the Fields, which is currently under construction; we stood just outside the entrance near the columns and joined a red-robed choir in singing "When I Survey the Wondrous Cross" - beautiful, and so appropriate for Good Friday

- The National Portrait Gallery (including statues and paintings of Victoria and Albert, and various meetings for abolishing slavery in England)

- Lunch at the Spaghetti House

- Trafalgar Square (with Lord Nelson's Column finally released from its green scaffolding) and the National Gallery (Leonardo, Michelangelo, Monet, Manet, Pissarro, Van Gogh, Gauguin, Seurat, and the like). The kids nearly died from overexposure to all the culture and art they were forced to walk through all day.

Lunch was the only thing we had to pay for - all these places have no charge for admission! I think that's cool.

Good Friday is most excellent for several reasons of greatly varying significance:

* David had the day off work this year

* David proposed to me on Good Friday in 1992

* It's the day commemorating the achievement of the eternal freedom of our souls through Jesus' sacrifice in our stead