Park life
After a well-deserved sleep and an exciting trip to the mall to buy Miss H a new rucksack, we put together yet another epic picnic for our evening’s entertainment, recommended to me by the two Welsh girls I’d met on the walking tour. We had olives, sundries tomatoes and feta stuffed peppers, plus some pumpkin and Harissa hummus, crisps and a baguette. And of course some maltesers and popcorn.
After meeting Sarah we walked to Oxford Street and hopped on the bus to the Millennium Park. Or at least we thought we did. The very helpful bus driver told us we needed to get off after two stops, but a friendly passenger said actually four would be better so we could ‘just’ walk down the road towards the park.
So, off we got and headed into the park – the very, very large park. Google Maps suggested it would take us 40 minutes to walk to the Ampitheatre, but we shrugged that off and headed across the park, ignoring the hundreds of bats circling overheard. Past a few lakes, under some trees full of very angry birds for about 20 minutes, we cursed the lack of signposts, especially when we realised that we were going the wrong way (of course!
We changed direction, back under the shrieking birds and onto the right path (marked by a statue of Charles Dickens). Suddenly we were surrounded by tiny parrots who started to follow us (or the bags of food) and got quite aggressive as we tried to run away!
Luckily we suddenly heard cheering and saw our destination. Inside we went, past some lovely ladies handing out free fake Baileys and set up camp on the grass in front of the screen, ready for the Moonlight Cinema.
The time of my life
Now I don’t go to the cinema very often, but I have to admit some of the trailers looked pretty good, especially The Book Thief with Geoffrey Rush – all of us decided to download the Kindle book later.
Shortly after the trailers, the film began and everyone was singing along to Be My Baby. The atmosphere was fantastic – mostly girls, but a few couples and some larger groups.
The first time Patrick Swayze appeared, a huge cheer went up from the crowd. This happened almost every time he appeared on screen, as well as during some classic moments: “I carried a watermelon”, “Nobody puts Baby in the corner” and of course when they did the lift. There were also high pitched screams whenever and Swayze had no shirt on. I have to agree – it’s not a bad sight.
As the film ended everyone clapped and cheered. Voices hoarse from singing and shouting we walked five minutes to the bus stop. A stop that of course we could’ve got off at from the bus we were on earlier…
My Stage is the World 
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