Yesterday at around 11.15 am I received an email notifying me of a competition win. It was to see Greek singing legend Nana Mouskouri at The Royal Albert Hall – THAT EVENING! Thankfully, as we only live 30 miles from London we had the funds and the time to get there. I called the phone number in the email to claim my prize and all was good.
We set off just after 1.30pm. First a bus ride to town to get the coach to London Victoria station. Once we got on the 757 coach to London, things went a bit pear-shaped. Just before the coach got to the airport, it started to overheat. The driver called it in and we were told we’d have to get the next bus. He did flag another driver down though, and we were bused the short distance to the airport’s bus terminal, saving us a walk there. The 757 bus stand was HEAVING with people, but we managed to get on fairly quickly and nab a seat. Phew!
By the time we got into London, it was a CRAWL! Peaktime traffic and we started to panic a little. Once at Victoria we needed to get a red bus to the Albert Hall so were worried traffic would still cause us delays. We made it in good time in the end and arrived at the Hall around 5.50pm. Time enough to get a bite to eat (we had these lovely – but expensive! – 3 cheese and caramelised onion paninis and shared a diet coke – not much change from £15 for that!) before making our way in.
Oh, wow!!! What a venue the Albert Hall is! It was the first time there for both Em and I (hence part of the reason we entered a comp for the Nana Mouskouri tickets – it meant getting in the Albert Hall!) that we’d been. It is architecturally beautiful. We had A-MA-ZING seats! Just right of centre stage and a few rows up the stalls that were off the floor. But OUCH! The seats! Comfy on the bum – but our backs!!! F**king OUCH! Painful back support. That was disappointing.
I didn’t realise until after the concert that Nana is very soon to be 80 years old! She was wonderful. She was joined on stage through the show by her daughter Lenou who performed some songs on her own, including one that. I think, was called “My Heart Goes Out To You” – I cried! I’m fighting back tears just typing about it, remembering it!
There was a fantastic medley encore that really got the crowd going. Lots of hand-clapping, dancing, swaying, shawl/scarf waving! And lots of Grecians in the crowd giving it a festival atmosphere. I never expected to enjoy it SO much! I mean, it’s not my type of music – but it was lovely and Em and I really enjoyed it.
Who’s the in the left-hand corner?
Our view of the stage.
The Royal Albert Hall.
