good day

And this is the second half. It's much nicer.

After the stress and emotions of Friday, I had a very much needed day out in London with one of my best friends yesterday. I've been meaning to see "Wicked" for years now and finally got round to seeing it - and my goodness, it was worth the wait.



Fantastic songs, great acting, and the two main leads had phenomenal voices. Just magical and wonderful and all the things you want when you escape to the theatre. I stood and applauded with all my might at the end.

We headed to Westfield Shopping Centre in Stratford to do something else I've been meaning to do for ages - have a meal at Wahaca, a Mexican cantina style restaurant co-founded by MasterChef winner Thomasina Meyers. I love a good Mexican meal (my only remotely authentic experience of it has always been in San Diego) which is very hard to come by in England. Wahaca's food surpassed expectations. We went for a sharing selection and for £19.95 (for both of us), we were amazed at the amount of food we got. All of it was fresh, bursting with flavour, and cooked beautifully. We had black bean tostadas, pork tacos, chicken tacos, broad bean and feta quesadillas, fried tortillas filled with new potatoes, and coleslaw. Devouring my meal with dripping hands, I "mmmmmed" my way through the whole thing. Not a pretty sight, but I couldn't care less. I also had a classic margarita made with the smoothest tequila I've ever tasted. For dessert, we both had a hotcake (a thin pancake) topped with ice cream, dolce de leche sauce, and a peanut praline. If no one was watching, we would have licked our plates clean.



At the end of the meal, I was surprised to see a book of matches - I didn't think they gave those out anymore. I opened the book to find sticks of chilli seeds:



Very clever and such a great idea. Service was friendly, efficient, and attentive. All totalled, our bill came to £43. A bargain for the quantity and quality of the food we ate, especially for London.

I didn't realise that Westfield was right next to the Olympic Park, so it was a delight to see it as we rounded a corner to get to the restaurant. I never got a chance to see any of the events, so being this close to the park was fantastic. To top it off, we kept passing by Paralympic athletes and officials from all over the world. Such a brilliant experience. It was an amazing, much needed day.

Just one question, though: why are our mascots so angry?