Back down to London

Sophie and Mike were off to see The Impractical Jokers at the O2 today so Keith and I had planned on going to see the film "Passengers" and then having a meal afterwards. I'd booked parking with Just Park again, this time at a private address a short walk from the venue.

We had a very relaxed morning with a leisurely breakfast before we all got ready to leave at 2pm. The weather was grey and a bit misty and I hoped that we wouldn't see any fog like we did last time. It looks very much like I hadn't been done for speeding on the last trip which was a relief. I really didn't fancy a £100 fine and three points on my licence!

We had a great journey down to London and arrived on the Greenwich Peninsula a few minutes before our parking time. We had to call Andrew, who owned the space, and he would arrive to give us a fob to get into the covered parking space and a permit to display in the car.

We had tried to put the address into Gladys but as the apartments were so new, she couldn't find them. We knew the vague area the address was in so we headed for that but then got a bit lost. The streets were extremely narrow with parking bays on each side and there were numerous dead ends as construction was still going on. We called Andrew and asked if he could direct us to his address but he very kindly came down and met us when we pulled up by the river. We were only around the corner so he walked back and we followed slowly.

The idea was to let us into the parking under the apartments and then direct us to his space. However, the fob he had wouldn't open the gates...The poor man looked a bit embarrassed and after trying and trying he went to get his spare fob. I parked a bit further up the street and watched another man having difficulty with the gates as well.

Andrew re-appeared and said he'd asked the concierge to open the gates for us. He then showed us into our space and we all walked back down to the main foyer where we spoke to the concierge. He was leaving at 7pm and we just hoped that by the time we left the O2 later in the evening the problem would be sorted. I didn't fancy spending a night in London!

We had a short walk to the O2 and by now it had begun to drizzle and was misty again. The walk by the Thames was a quiet one with hardly anyone about and the apartments on our left were still in the process of being built. I did wonder what it would be like to live so near to so much going on and all the excellent transport links this area of London has. Living in the country as we do, we have to drive everywhere. We have no choice!

The O2 was beginning to fill up with people and we accompanied Sophie and Mike to Las Iguanas where they were going to have something to eat. We had a drink with them, which filled in the time nicely before our film started at 6pm, and watched them eat hot chicken wings and nachos to start, followed by beefburgers.

Keith and I hadn't eaten since our late breakfast so we bought some popcorn (too much in hindsight!) and a bottle of water to take into the film. I really enjoyed Passengers and could quite easily sit through it again. The film was about a spaceship travelling for 120 years to a distant planet that was being inhabited by humans who had left Earth. There were 5000 passengers on the ship and around 200 crew and Chris Pratt played a passenger who was woken in error 90 years too early.

I loved the visual effects and the storyline and as we were so near to the screen I really felt like I was there with them! Keith wasn't so sure about the film but I enjoyed it very much. I think seeing it at the cinema made it more real, somehow.

When we came out we had planned on eating at The Slug and Lettuce but we stood at the bar for a while and were ignored by the bartenders so we left and went to a Chinese buffet restaurant instead. I think this was a bit of a mistake as the place was shabby, noisy and packed. I have to admit that I wasn't really that hungry as I'd scoffed a load of popcorn and managed just three small plates of food. Keith ate a bit more than me but I'm not sure we really got value for money!

After we'd eaten it was almost 10pm so we went to the main entrance to wait for the kids who eventually emerged at about 10.30pm. The trickle of people coming out early turned to an almighty flood and we had difficulty spotting them in the crowd! The'd both enjoyed the show and had found it very funny.

We walked back to the apartment block and managed to get into the building easily as a resident was going in at the same time. We also managed to open the gates to get out and Keith and Mike went back inside the foyer to return the permit and fobs.

We then headed back towards the main road and became stuck in terrible traffic as there was a constant stream of cars coming from the O2 car parks. Getting onto the roundabout was extremely difficult and I had to literally push my way on, but once back onto the A102 we made good progress. Thankfully, there were no lane closures or variable speed limits! We made it home by 1am and headed straight for bed!