Okay I’ve not written much lately on here because I have completely lacked inspiration. My old posts seemed to be about travelling abroad, something I’ve not done much of lately or K-Pop, something I’m not overly invested in anymore. I also used to write book reviews but again, I don’t really do that anymore. I’m going to try to get back into this because I do love my little blog and I thought what better thing to return with than my recent extremely busy weekend?
Earlier this year I managed to secure myself a ticket to see TWICE on Friday 8th September in the O2 pre-sale. I was really pleased because although I literally mentioned earlier than I’m not as into K-Pop anymore I was always more of a girl group girlie and I was so annoyed that boy groups kept announcing Europe concerts but girl groups didn’t really – I’d seen Dreamcatcher which was awesome and I saw f(x) and IOI at K-Con Paris and EXID at that Korean London event but that was it, nothing major like the BTS concerts I went to.
I’d also unfortunately missed out on the Black Pink tickets, I tried for HOURS to get anything, just a SCRAP but they all sold out. So I was really pleased with the O2 pre-sale because I literally went in, picked my ticket and checked out within ten minutes. And I absolutely love TWICE, they’re one of my favourite girl groups, I do still keep up with their releases so I was looking forward to seeing them!
Because I’d had to take the day off work I thought it’d make sense to also watch a West End matinee during the daytime – everyone knows I’m a big theatre fan so how could I not? But when I had a look I was really surprised to see pretty much only one show has a Friday matinee and that was ‘The Book of Mormon’. Now don’t get me wrong, I love ‘The Book of Mormon’ but I’d only seen it in May with my best friend Jess so it felt a bit soon to be watching it again and I was surprised there weren’t many shows with a Friday matinee – it’s the start of the weekend, I thought it’d make sense to have one because people probably often travel to London for long weekends?
So I decided not to bother – until the night before I was due to travel when I checked the site, found a reasonably priced ticket for ‘The Book of Mormon’ and decided to book it. I couldn’t go to London and not see a West End show, I just couldn’t do it!
Since it was September I was hoping for the weather to start cooling down as we transition into Autumn but no, the UK had a sudden heatwave that was unbearable in London. I wore my cutest summer dress and was still sweating. I got to London at about 12PM and set off for Leicester Square to store my suitcase whilst I watched the show.
When I used to store my case I did it inside London Euston and found the prices to be stupid but when me and Jess went to London earlier this year she showed me that loads of places offer bag storage for much more reasonable rates. For £6 I stored my suitcase in a shop literally a minute’s walk from the theatre – it wasn’t the most secure because I took the suitcase into the basement myself and did think anyone could just help themselves but it was cheaper than storing it in Euston and would be easier after the show too!
After a quick lunch in Maccies I headed to the Prince of Wales Theatre for the 2:30PM showing of ‘The Book of Mormon’. My ticket had been about £37 and to be fair the theatre is so good I feel like you wouldn’t get a bad view anywhere. I was in row C of the Circle two seats away from the aisle and I felt like I had a decent view.
This is one of those shows that I think I like more now because Jess ended up getting really into the soundtrack so we went to see it together and her enjoyment rubbed off on me. I had enjoyed seeing it on tour but I didn’t love it, now I think it’s making its way up to one of my favourite shows. Not top five but definitely top ten. The cast were incredible and I really enjoyed the performance – it was interesting getting to see it so soon after seeing it in May to see the differences. For example when we last saw it Jed Berry was on as Elder McKinley and this time he was in the show but not as Elder McKinley.
I had imagined the show would finish at about 4:20/4:30PM and that I’d have plenty of time to head to my hotel as I was imagining that TWICE wouldn’t go on stage until like 9PM but luckily I’d googled and it advised me that TWICE had gone on at 7:45PM the previous night and then the show didn’t finish until 5PM. My hotel was 40 minutes away from the theatre and a further 40 minutes to the O2 for the concert. Rushing around combined with the heat was not fun but soon I checked into my hotel.
I’d stayed there a few years ago when I went to RTX and it hadn’t changed much although last time I’d had a double room whereas this time I had a single room on the ground floor – any other time of year that would be fine but I didn’t feel comfortable keeping the window open and there was no fan or air conditioning so the room was extremely warm. I tried to cool down then got myself ready before setting off to the O2.
I got there quicker than I thought I would and made my way into the arena. There was a queue for merchandise outside and I figured there would probably be more for sale inside and I was worried there’d be a long queue for security. There wasn’t and I headed up the escalators and to the merch stand only to discover the light sticks were completely sold out – they’d been the only thing I wanted so I was really miffed.
When I’d bought my ticket I didn’t want to spend a stupid amount because I have a trip to America coming up that I really need to save for so I decided my budget was £80 – the cheapest tickets were just over £70 so I bought one of those. This put me literally in the very back row at the very back of the O2. But to be honest I was just grateful to be inside, it was funny being at the VERY back though, I’ve been far but never that far!
The girl next to me turned to me and apologised in advance for her screaming, I reassured her it was a concert and I was totally expecting screaming. When the lights went down I did think ‘oh god’ when she started doing that obnoxious scream you hear in TikTok videos but to be fair she only did this at the very start and then a couple of times during the show, other than that she was clearly just excited and she was a good vibe.
TWICE were absolutely amazing, the set list was as follows:
– Set Me Free (English ver.)
– I Can’t Stop Me
– Go Hard
– More & More
– Moonlight Sunrise
– Brave
– Try (Dahyun solo – ColbieCaillat cover)
– Done for Me (Tzuyu solo – Charlie Puth cover)
– New Rules (Sana solo – DuaLipa cover)
– Move (Momo solo – Beyoncé cover)
– 7 Rings (Mina solo – Ariana Grande cover)
– Feel Special
– Cry For Me
– FANCY
– The Feels
– My Guitar (Chaeyoung solo)
– Killin’ Me Good (Jihyo solo)
– Can’t Stop the Feeling (Jeongyeon solo – Justin Timberlake cover)
– POP! (Nayeon solo)
– Queen of Hearts
– Yes or Yes/What is Love/Cheer Up/Likey/Knock Knock/Scientist/Heart Shaker
– Alcohol-Free
– Dance the Night Away
– Talk that Talk
– When We Were Kids
– Crazy Stupid Love
– TT
– Hare Hare
– Espresso
The show actually began at 7:30 so I was glad I got there early and they performed until 10PM! You really do get your money’s worth at K-Pop concerts to be fair like look at how long that set list is! I’m so glad I saw that tweet beforehand about everyone barking at Dahyun otherwise that would’ve really thrown me off. I had such a good time, my favourite songs to see live were ‘The Feels’, ‘POP!’ and ‘Dance the Night Away’. It was also so cool that they had a live band so it sounded even more amazing.
Leaving the concert was a bit of a nightmare as it was so humid and there was a crowd getting into the station but to be fair once I was on the tube it wasn’t that busy and I didn’t have to change – so it was a long journey back but not a difficult one! I was hungry by that point as I’d hastily scoffed a sausage roll on the way to the concert but unfortunately all of the food places nearby were closing except for a food shop with fatphobic aisles – I bought two chocolate milks and a packet of cookies and had to call it a day.
I showered and got into bed where I promptly laid awake all night because it was too hot to function. I’m also used to sleeping in a double bed and in the heat this bed felt even tinier than usual – I do sleep in a single bed when I look after my brother and find that okay so maybe this one was just tiny! Eventually my alarm went off and I quickly packed up to head back home.
I had to head home earlier than usual because I’d bought theatre tickets with my good friend Becca. I made it home by about 1PM and I had big plans but I ended up napping on the sofa because I was so tired from the broken night’s sleep the night before. I don’t know how anyone can enjoy the heat, I was lying there just absolutely baking and nothing I did could cool me down.
I met Becca on the train and we headed to Wolverhampton. After grabbing dinner we went to the Wolverhampton Grand for the 7:30PM performance of ‘The Woman in Black’, a show I’d seen four times previously but Becca hadn’t seen. It’s just begun its UK tour and considering the show is now closed in the West End I would take the opportunity to see it if you can!
This is one of my absolute favourite plays, I love horror theatre and I just love the way ‘The Woman in Black’ is done. There are only three actors (including the Woman in Black herself) and it’s done in quite a simple but effective way. Becca, in typical fashion, guessed the plot twist during the interval. I’m still really annoyed I never got to experience that properly. Before I became a horror fan a girl I followed on Tumblr went to see the stage show and she was talking about it on her asks and revealed the plot twist so I never got to experience it properly. That’s why I’m always excited to see it with other people and how they react. I really enjoyed the show again and I’m so glad we went to see it.
We headed home, on the train Jess sent me a video of lightning she could see from her bedroom window which did send me into panic mode as I hate thunder storms and I had to walk home once off the train! However I didn’t see any and made it back in one piece.
Once home instead of going straight to bed like I should’ve done I decided I needed some ‘me time’ and stayed up until past midnight before heading to bed. This was a mistake because I had to be up early again the next day to head back to London.
I met Jess at the train station because she was running late as usual and we set off for London Euston, it felt like it didn’t take long until we were there. We decided to head to Camden Market because there was a shop we wanted to visit and we figured there’d be plenty of places to get some food. We headed up the stairs into the food market and were instantly enticed by the first Thai stall who offered us a free sample. We ordered a chicken chow mein each and a side of spring rolls to share which was absolutely lovely but way too much in the end!
We had a look around some of the stalls and then headed to the Bandai Namco shop to look at the gacha machines – we got some tokens and had a look around and to be honest I was really disappointed. In Japan we’d found loads of interesting gacha machines that were reasonably priced, these were quite expensive and they were mostly just tat. We put in two tokens for an Animal Crossing bauble thing each, I’m not even really sure what it was and Jess pointed out afterwards we’d basically spent £4 each on it which was a lot for what it was and Jess wasn’t even happy with the one she got. I had one token left but none of the machines accepted one token so now I have a souvenir token. It was a bit of a let-down but it killed a bit of time before the show.
Me and Jess managed to get tickets to see ‘Death Note’ on its final day in London (although there are rumours it’s going to stick around which I hope are true!). I got really into the ‘Death Note’ anime as a late teen, it was probably the first anime (other than ‘K-On’) that really sucked me in. I’d seen photos and videos of the stage show from Japan and had always hoped it would make its way over to the UK one day. We had tried for tickets at the Palladium but weren’t lucky enough to get some so I was thrilled when we got some for the Lyric Theatre.
Our tickets were in the front row of the top circle, I will say that the view was okay but the seats were so uncomfortable. I figured I was too fat for them but even Jess said she found them tight – luckily the seats next to us remained empty but because of the arm rest we weren’t able to spread out and I did find it quite uncomfortable, especially given how hot it was.
That didn’t change the fact that I absolutely loved the performance. The plot is simplified compared to the anime which makes sense because we would literally be there all day if they included everything from the anime. I was a bit disappointed in the ending because it felt a bit sudden but I think given they couldn’t go into the actual ending from the anime it was the best way to end the stage production. It was also quite satisfying (spoiler alert) to see Light do everything perfectly and still lose in the end.
My favourite songs were ‘Where is the Justice’ and ‘They’re Only Human’ with my favourite character being Ryuk, he was portrayed perfectly. Everything about the show was amazing, I’m so glad that we managed to get tickets for it.
After that it was so hot that we decided to get an earlier train home rather than hanging round in London. It was cooler back home, not cold but definitely not as hot as it had been in London. After such a busy weekend I should have had an early night but instead me and Jess went and picked up some dessert then she came back to mine to do YouTube quizzes until past 11PM and then by the time I’d showered and got ready for bed it was past midnight. I didn’t even bother setting my alarm for 6:30AM, just set it for 7AM and skipped breakfast.
So there we have it, that was my busy weekend! Did anyone else do anything nice over the hot weekend or have you seen the shows I went to see? Let me know!
Hozzie Writes 