I had the time of my LIFE !!!!!!!!!!!!

I had to use that post title - cause last night we saw Dirty Dancing!!!! And now I cannot stop singing that song........... And I NEVER felt this was before.... and I swear.... it's the TRUTH... and I owe it all to you...... (ok I will stop now)

But first - some weekend pics

Helen and I ready for some Saturday shopping (check out all the boxes ready for shipping in the back - eeeeeeeeeek!)

Helen with the exotic eggs display at Whole Foods

Me with our fabulous salads at Whole Foods.... Yummmmm

Helen, Me and Murray - at Gaucho's for her birthday dinner

The birthday girl

What our living room looked like yesterday (with one random packer guy)

All of our clothing vacuum packed up ready for boxing and shipping (we're hoping this will mean nothing will get damp or mold - fingers crossed)!

A guy in the bike race Murray did on Sunday - how cute is this dog!
He even had a little seat belt on to keep him safe
And a hot corvette down at the Putney riverside

SO the packing / shipping is done! We had it all ready to go, so the shipping guys just had to box it all up (we were not allowed to pack it ourselves due to insurance reasons). When I came home last night it felt like a different flat - so empty! I think this is actually the first time it has really hit me - we really ARE leaving London - wow! But I'm so glad we shipped now! We have kept enough clothing, footwear, etc to last us the next 3 months - and now I feel like we can focus on our other tasks - it's nice to have that big shipping worry behind us. Our stuff should arrive in Australia 8-12 weeks from now and they will store it until we're there in October to arrange delivery to our garage. However, no rest for the weary, now we just need to start hacking away at the rest of our trip 'to do' list - there is still a LOT to do!

Last night Helen and I went with Heather and Andrea and had a great girl's night out. We started with some of the best Mexican food you'll find in London at Cafe Pacifico in Covent Garden. I had a yummy chimichanga - nice! Then we walked down to the theatre (and I DID manage to keep it a secret from Helen which was fun)! She was excited when she saw what we were going to see (and I was SO excited too)!

SO..... my show review of Dirty Dancing in the West End

The Audience: surprisingly mostly locals - I suppose because it's quite a new show (less than a year i think) the tickets are still quite hard to get - so not too many tourists there. However, the crowd did get quite rowdy which was strange in a theatre! Everyone whistled and clapped when the first song started up, when Johnny stripped down to his boxers, when the final dance commenced, etc. Kinda fun I guess! Although I did end up shushing the child behind us who was old enough to know better than talking during the show - or at least her Mother should have told her to be quiet. I don't pay to go to the theatre to listen to a child asking her Mom 'oh is that real water, oh but they aren't getting wet.' As far as I am concerned - if they cannot sit quietly for an hour - please just bring them to a matinee! They got the point after I finally turned around with my finger over my mouth and shushed them - so rude! And please - someone help me - let's start a petition to ban the selling of sweets in wrappers at theatres. Oh my gosh - if you are

going to eat a candy that is really loud to unwrap - please do it before the show starts!

The set: Wow - cool set! The stage was smaller than what I expected - but it was also very very clever. They had all sorts of things that popped up and down, and cool screens they projected on (they did the water scene really well actually - I was super impressed).

The cast:

Baby - was great! I was surprised to find out at intermission that she is actually the understudy! She had the look (cute & small, big nose, curly hair - which was probably a wig but looked great). Her accent was spot on, and I liked her acting and dancing! She played it just like Jennifer Gray!

Johnny - the biggest disappointment of the show really! Don't get me wrong - he is an AMAZING dancer!! Great body, kinda freaky hair (kinda looked like a poofy wig or something...), but his accent - oh my goodness. I actually think I gasped after he said his first line. I was trying to portray what I thought his accent sounded like to a work colleague this morning - and you know what - it sounds like if I tried to talk like Barry White. Very deep - fakey sounding. I had heard that his accent wasn't good and that he slipped a lot into his native accent - Australian. But I must say I think I only heard that once or twice! However, it just sounded too put on - like he was trying to hard to sound like Patrick Swayze. I think - maybe - being American I may be a bit more sensitive to the accents? I dunno - but it was bad - however he more than made up for it by dancing like a star! (I did put my head in my hands when he said 'No one puts baby in a corner' though - oh dear it sounded silly)

Vivian - oh dear. I think 'she' was actually a man. Stunning woman - but really big & tall and her voice was SO low it was frightening. I didn't like how she made a parody of the character in the movie - she way overplayed it.

Lisa (baby's sister) - I must say it really bothered me that she was a blonde in the stage show (she has dark black hair in the movie). It made it confusing cause from a distance it was hard to distinguish her from some of the rest of the cast. I liked her though - her hula song was great!

Penny - WOW great WOW. Amazing freakin body - wow. She was a fantastic dancer, looked JUST like Penny from the movie (tall & super skinny). Her dancing was great - accent was ok - and I liked her long (you could tell it was her own - not a wig) blonde hair. Fabulous darling!

The parents - they were ok. I didn't really like the Mom's accent (sounded awfully fake east coast - she over did it) but she was really beautiful and played the role well. And the Dad was very handsome & did a good job.

The story: Well they only added one scene to the first acting (a campfire scene). It seemed REALLY out of place and weird - and I didn't like the song - and why the picture of Martin Luther King? Huh? I didn't like that at ALL - should be cut from the show if you ask me! The second half - they added a few funny things as well..... But the biggest issue - they CHANGED the story ??? I didn't like the change they made (won't totally give it away in case anyone's going to see the show). But I don't understand why it was necessary? Like we were saying afterwards, the show was nearly 3 hours long - they totally could have cut all those weird little additions and just followed the whole story from the movie! And also - surely 99% of the audience was like me - who has seen the movie hundreds of times..... it really was not necessary to explain every little thing.

The music: I liked what they did with the music. Some of the music was just the orchestra - with dancers and no singing. Some of the music was the orchestra along with two live singers who you could see on stage (that was unusual - but I liked it)! The male had a very strong voice (Helen and I agreed he could totally be an Elvis impersonator)! And thankfully for some of the songs they just played the soundtrack. When the pounding bass for Hungry Eyes came on I think nearly everyone in the theatre cheered a little bit!

Overall: LOVED IT! It was a fun experience. I loved the dancing, loved that they followed most of the movie and I LOVE the music - I would definitely recommend it! And it was great to see it with three good friends:)