Royal Weddings and Royal Ballet Performances

Hello lovlies,

I hope you’re all doing well. It’s been quite a while since I last posted, life has been so hectic; a new job starting soon and a few trips away here and there have definitely kept me occupied! Regardless, I digress! I wanted to share with you a ‘Weekend in my life’ kind of post, like a vlog but without the video format, does that even make sense…?

On the 19th of May (the royal wedding weekend between Prince Harry and Meghan Markle) my mother, our friend, my god daughter and I, ventured into London to see Swan Lake at the Royal Opera house. Coming from a dance background, training, being a member of dance troupes and competing in competitions, any excuse or opportunity to go along to a dance or musical theatre performance and I’m there.

Going to the ballet is something I find so precious, regardless of the company that is performing or the performance itself. There’s nothing I enjoy more than being able to fully relax and immerse myself in a beautiful performance, hence I was looking forward to going for quite some time. My mother and I try and go to a ballet performance at least once a year, it’s something I treasure and the performance of Swan Lake was no exception. The Royal Ballet did not disappoint, their performance was a new and refreshing take on Tchaikovsky’s.

My only criticism (and it is me being rather pedantic…) is that I found the first act rather long and would much preferred if the second and third acts were longer, as part of me felt quite sad that there wasn’t as much of a build up to the final ending (and most powerful) scene. Regardless, that’s not to say that I didn’t enjoy the performance, in fact, it brought back many memories, especially with the ‘Neapolitan dance’. I remember having to recreate this dance (complete with tambourine) for one of my ballet exams in my late teens)

After the performance, we collectively decided to have a little wander around Covent Garden, after all, the weather was beautiful and it was the royal wedding day! There was such a lovely atmosphere within the streets, everyone seemed so joyous and it was great to see the shop skylines adorned with Union Jack flags and flowers, how charming. I have to say Covent Garden, although perhaps quite touristy at times, can be rather quaint and a nice place if you fancy rambling in and out of street performers and finding a nice little cafe to rest and relax with friends.

During our ramblings, we stumbled across Patisserie Valerie, they were selling royal wedding inspired cupcakes based on Harry and Meghan’s choice of a contemporary elderflower and lemon cake for their special day. Of course, I crumbled and purchased one, I regret nothing, it was so light, refreshing and definitely curbed my sweet tooth and ended the day on a lovely note.