Cirque du Soleil

Last night, John and I went to the Royal Albert Hall to see the show 'Alegria' by the Cirque du Soleil, which was one of the Christmas presents I'd arranged for John. The night didn't start well when we arrived at Shoeburyness station to find that no trains were running from there and we had to get to Southend Central. It turns out that engineering work was being carried out. Getting to the other station wasn't easy with one road being closed off and then having to find our way through the one way system. Once there, we found we'd missed the train and had to wait 25 minutes for the next one, and we began to worry that we wouldn't make it to the show on time. We pulled into Fenchurch St and I was busting to go to the loo but instead of going into the station as I wanted, John urged me down the stairs and out towards Tower Hill underground, saying there was a loo there. I said there wasn't but do men listen? We ended up going all the way back to Fenchurch St! We eventually got onto the tube and after a 10 minute walk from South Kensington, arrived at the venue with 10 minutes to spare. We were rewarded with smashing seats right at the top of the theatre in the front row which allowed us to lean forward over the edge and it was a brilliant view.We'd already seen La Nouba in Florida a few years earlier which was a mix of acrobats & clowns and this show was the same concept. Acts included high trapeze, a man balancing on one hand in all sorts of positions, a girl spinning hoops all over her body in different positions, acrobats doing somersaults on a bendy piece of wood about 4 inches wide, acrobats performing routines on a giant cross shaped trampoline which was built into the floor, and 2 young Chinese girls contorting their bodies into unbelievable positions - I had to look away quite a few times because it made me feel quite nauseous. In between most acts, you have the clowns which are vastly different to clowns you see in English circuses and are very funny indeed without the need for lots of props. You had to be there but the part with the very large paper plane was hilarious.Couldn't believe the huge markup on the prices of drinks inside the hall - a small can of Schweppes lemonade (like the ones you get on planes) and a can of Carling lager came to a whopping £4.30!!!! I think that's out of order and the law should change so that places like that can't charge extortionate amounts for food & drink.We didn't get home until 12:15 and poor John had to be up for work at 5:15 - I wonder how knackered he's feeling at this moment.