Boooo Hissss

A couple of days in London to start the trip. Pretty jet lagged after arriving at 5.30am so spend a fair bit of day 1 sleeping. Day 2 we head to West Ham's ground to sort out re-prints of this seasons membership cards and to check out the club shop. Then it's off to Stratford Westfield (largest centre in Europe) for Santa's grotto and a bit of a wander. It's packed to the rafters with shoppers (what economic slowdown?). Catch the tube to Farringdon to meet Risky for a pub meal and to collect some tickets we had mailed to his local address. He tells us Weatherspoons pubs are great value and we prove his theory correct at the Sir John Oldcastle .  After leaving we have a close call. 200m down the road Carole realises Ben's bob hat got left in the pub and when I head back to get it, I discover she also left her small shoulder bag hanging on the (now occupied) chair with her purse and phone inside! Lucky.

Saturday we head into Ilford for a look around and Carole comments that its much better than Westfield. Salvation Army band playing carols, street markets. 2nd trip to the club shop to use Risky's season ticket to get a discount on a few things and then we head into Hackney for a pantomime. We're onto a good thing with Weatherspoons and there's one right across from the theatre so we have a cheap feed and a couple of pints at Baxter's Court. Then it's into the Hackney Empire for Dick Whittington & his Cat. Little Miss Organised (Carole) has pre booked front row seats and as we sit down an usher informs us to be careful as there will be performers running up and down our aisle! For those who don't know about pantomimes, they encourage vocal audience participation in the form of cheering the good guys and boo'ing the villains, in this case a Rastafarian rat! We all get right into it with Ben drawing the attention of the rat who points to him and says "watch it kid!" which sends Ben into fits. The whole thing is excellent entertainment. And it's not confined to families as we see several groups of 20 something's drinking ale from the bar and getting into it (in the right spirit).