Jason Robert Brown LIVE in Concert!

11:50 PM

A couple months ago Taylor found an advert in TIME OUT magazine (they get handed out every Tuesday morning outside Underground stations and busy streets) for a Jason Robert Brown LIVE CONCERT!

The odds are really quite small that Taylor should have been reading that magazine that week with this advert. Jason Robert Brown is his favourite composer! Meant to be :)

Taylor has been teaching me about the greatness of Jason Robert Brown (JRB) for a few years now so it was exciting to get to see him live!

The show was on a week night so Taylor and I met at Southbank straight from work. The blessing of living in the beautiful city never escapes me!

The Royal Festival Hall. 
JRB brought his NYC drummer along but the rest of the ensemble, plus all the singers, were from this side of the pond. Excellent talent and definitely found some people who would make a show worth seeing if we heard they will be in it.

We thought we were going crazy when 7:30 came and went and no concert started. We had been rushing from work and kept checking the ticket to make sure it was supposed to start at half past. We must have missed the memo that it was fine to arrive 20-25 minutes late. Weirdest.


A very cool hall!

The concert was spectacular. JRB had selected a few songs from his shows: Bridges of Madison County, Songs For a New World, Honeymoon in Vegas, The Last Five Years, 13, Parade, and even the opening number to a new, in-the-works show. 

If JRB wasn't directing the orchestra ensemble, he was at the piano showing off his insane skills. If he wasn't just playing, he was singing and playing! 

The show stopper ended up being the amazing Cynthia Erivo singing 'I Can Do Better Than That' from The Last Five Years. Even the outstanding performance of 'Things Are Moving Too Fast' by Oliver Thompson didn't have the standing ovation that Cynthia's performance did.

We are looking forward to seeing Cynthia Erivo in the St James Theatre production of Songs For a New World that starts July 22!


We grabbed a treat outside of the theatre. First time at Snog (haha it means 'make out' in British slang) It was a great frozen yogurt! I had mango flavour with fresh mango (YUM!) and Taylor got the regular/plain with Oreos. Loved it!

The only poster that we found nearby with JRB's name on it! Taylor was one happy camper. I love that he loves musical theatre. What a guy.

Cambridge

1:42 PM


We visited University of Cambridge, one of the oldest universities in the world and leading academic centre. We visited on a lovely day. A bank holiday weekend, just two days off from when David Beckham and his son visited (darn). I love this city!

This moment is where Cambridge really won me over. More about the punting on River Cam later in this post.

We got the train from King's Cross Station (Not Platform 9 3/4, unfortunately, but pretty close)
The train takes about an hour from London to Cambridge and tickets were inexpensive.

Seeing stations like this reminds me of my time in Argentina as an LDS missionary. (Retiro, anyone? BS AS North missionaries will know what I mean)

It was a beautiful but cloudy day to start out.
Walking from the station to the centre of town, the first noticeable college we came across was Downing College. (Sound familiar?) Downing was founded in 1800 by Sir George Downing third baronet, grandson of the first baronet Downing, who served both Cromwell and Charles II and built No. 10 Downing Street, the London home of the Prime Minister.

Beautiful neo-classical buildings and spacious gardens.

I mean, look at this spot. I would totally study here. If students are even allowed on the grass...it looks too perfect for regular use.

The Market Square, an open air market with fruits and vegetables, clothing, books, cd's, jewelry, bags, garden plants, second-hand bikes and more

We went over to St Mary's Cathedral to get a view from the top. 

We saw the bell room on the way up the spiral stairs. Now that I look at this picture again, it could be a really scary room.....

We were standing right by the bells when the hour struck. It was LOUD.

All the students studying at Cambridge are required to live within 3 miles of campus. There is housing above all the shops. A student is not allowed to have a car unless they can prove they have a spot to park so there are loads of bicycles and bike racks.

The Market Square from St Mary's
There is a designated corner (on the top right in this photo) where buskers sit and play. You can see the small crowd gathered around listening/watching this very cool busker who was mixing covers live. He would record his own background on a loop, dropping his beat and then playing along on his violin. Amazing talent.

King's College (founded in 1441) and College Chapel

The College Chapel (planned by King Henry VI) and Clare College

I thought this braille map of Cambridge was pretty cool! It was the meeting point for our punting tour.

A punt is a flat-bottomed boat with a square-cut bow, designed for use in small rivers or other shallow water. The punter propels the punt by pushing against the river bed with a long pole.

Selfie with our punter-guide!
I pondered reserving a self-punting tour where Taylor and I would get the experience of pushing ourselves along the River Cam ourselves. After watching common folk struggle, squeal and teeter dangerously, I was glad we got to relax and enjoy the ride. There was one girl who I thought would lose her balance and go in the river. But she recovered and everyone in the vicinity was kinda disappointed. haha we are horrible people, I know.

The Back Lawn at King's College dates back to 1772. It was kept nice by grazing sheep back in the days before mechanical lawnmowers.


Our punter told us that rooms in this house are reserved for the top 10 students in the college. These rooms are massive, like 2-3 times the size of our London flat. Cushy...

I thought one of the most interesting stories of the tour had to do with these tiny, bricked up old windows. I could use a lot of words to explain but I won't. Check out this link to a letter requesting exemption from the Window Tax, or sometimes referred to as the Light and Air tax.
SHORT VERSION: It was a tax levied from 1696 to 1851 in lieu of an intrusive income tax. It was targeted to tax the affluent (more windows=more income) but people resorted to bricking up their windows in order to avoid paying 4-8 shillings (present £24.79-49.57) ((USD 38.63-77.25)) Full stop

Mathematical Bridge (real name is Queen's Bridge). Connects two parts of Queen's College. There are so many falsehoods are told about this bridge, like that Sir Isaac Newton built it. Or that it is not bolted down (aka could be lifted right off the bank). Or no nails were used to keep it together. Built in 1749, it would be a miraculous miracle if Sir Isaac Newton had any hand in it as he died in 1727. And OF COURSE there are nails keeping it together and it is perfectly safe and fixed to the bank on both sides.

King's College bridge

The most charming little building which may be used for nothing other than decor. I love it.

Clare College Bridge


Garret Hostel Bridge

Kitchen Bridge...right before the really big one...

Bridge of Sighs (this bridge is in the recent film The Theory of Everything, the story of Cambridge alumnus Stephen Hawking)

First building in Cambridge to have been design entirely on a computer. I don't fancy it but there's a fact for you. You can decide if it's cool or fun.

The punter told us that there was a river marketplace to which this door belonged. I can't find anything to corroborate his story but it's a pretty neat idea. I wonder what's back there now!

Bridge of Sighs
(There is a 'Bridge of Sighs' in Venice and Oxford as well)

One of the best prank stories we heard on our tour has to do with this black door right about the water line. First year students were given orientation and maps for emergency exits. On their first night, the seniors would stage a fire (drill) or some sort of emergency and the map given to the new students would lead them down through the building, right out this door and into the river as the seniors watched from the bridge. Kind of awesome.

St John's College Bridge. The notches in the stone are markers for the two highest river levels. Once on 3 August 1879 and a few inches higher, the flood of 14 March 1947.

Library designed by Sir Christopher Wren (even though he studied at 'the other place')
Revising* in this library would be a dream (*british speak for 'studying')

St John's College student housing...whaaat?
The building was designed to be perfectly symmetrical. In fact, there is not even a clock on the main tower, where there usually might have been, in order to preserve that symmetry.
It looks like a castle on the outside so we wanted to go in sooooo badly. However, not only must you pay a visitor's fee to get onto the grounds of MOST of the colleges, only students are allowed into many of these places as well. Makes sense. I can appreciate the hoards of people that would be disrupting the students lives that wouldn't happen at Weber State, know what I mean?

Great Gate at Trinity College

Hardy's Sweet Shop. More varieties of candy in one place than I've ever seen in my life. Even have American sweets and treats like the crazy flavours of PopTarts!

Christs College

Overall a lovely day and a charming town. So glad we went and I compared it to Oxford, which we visited just two days later! Check out that post when it's up :)



bridesmaids

Valerie and Eston 2015

9:30 PM



I adore this girl. From the first time I met her, we clicked. We were assigned to be companions while serving LDS missions in Argentina. I hadn't spoken English for nearly 9 months (other than emails home to my family, which were awkwardly half Spanish, half English anyway) and Valerie was still working on her Spanish. It was an awkward and hilarious time. So many experiences that bonded us like no other 5 weeks in anyone's life could have. Without going into Too Much Information, she took care of me when I was crazy sick, we survived several days without electricity to heat our apartment or water in dead of winter, weird food and broken toilets. Extreme bonding time.
So when she not-so-slyly told me that she was getting married in March, I HAD to be there!

President and Sister Gulbrandsen are some of my most favourite people on the planet. Steff flew in for the day and it was lovely to see her. We were all companions at some point. Love these people.

I mean, we're really cute. haha

Some of the friends that just hung around the temple for a while. Mostly because of our insane love for Val Pal. (Jess, Katherine, the beautiful bride, me and Steffannie)


Oh yeah! Eston was there, too.... haha

All photo credit goes to Mikki Platt, wedding photographer extraordinaire, who also did our wedding pictures. I will forever be obsessed with our photos and Valerie's are just as amazing! Mikki has photographed cousins and friends since our wedding and she's not only a talent behind the camera but the sweetest person ever!

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