Danny DeVito and the Dachshund

My last two trips over the pond were great.  Thanks to the suggestion by my friend and co-worker Miss Flatlander (you can read her wonderful travel blog here) I learned that Danny DeVito was headlining in the Neil Simon play, "The Sunshine Boys" and that it was closing a few days later.  I decided to take a chance and see if I could score a last minute ticket.

My first stop was to St. Paul's for Evensong.  Probably couldn't hurt to score a few points of favor with the Big Guy in trying to get a ticket for the show (I'm just kidding of course... I already get extra points because I am a Presbyterian.... duh!).  They had a visiting choir from Redding, and it was a male and female choir so it was a nice change to hear female voices included in the choral evensong.

I then made my way over to the Savoy Theatre, located next to the posh and swanky Savoy Hotel.

The nice chap at the box office had seats available in all price ranges so I chose the cheapest section in the back for £20.  But he was nice enough to upgrade me to the 10th row on the Orchestra level so I would have a great view of the stage.

The play was really good and very funny.  I knew that Danny DeVito was short, but I had no idea he was THAT short!  I also sat a few rows back from the British actor Bill Nighy (he played the washed out rock star in Love Actually).

The following trip to London, I had made plans to meet up with my friends Amanda and Aaron for dinner.  I kind of accidentally got on the slow train to Redhill and started to get a little nervous when after the usual 30 minutes on the train, I still wasn't there!  I wasn't recognizing any of the stops, but was relieved when we finally made it to Redhill.

They had gone the day before to see the Men's Road Race Cycling competition for the Olympics at Box Hill near the town of Dorking.  They suggested a pub that was right at the bottom of Box Hill so I could see the venue.  

We passed the Dorking Chicken statue, which in the theme of the games, is now sporting the  gold, perhaps it came in first in Poultry?

The Olympic Rings at the top of Box Hill show the path the cyclists had to take to reach the top.  They had to ride up and down the hill 9 times.  All in all, the total route was like 150 miles.

While Amanda and Aaron are great people (along with their little daughter Samantha), I simply love getting to see Wolfie, their dachshund.  He's always standoffish at first, but then he warms up to me.  He's a good boy!  He's going thru a barking phase right now, so he'll soon be sporting a bark collar with that emits a citronella puff of air every time he barks.  We'll have to see how that works.