As many of the regular readers of my blog will know, there is nothing we love more as a family than a night out together, mostly at the theatre, though a trip to the cinema comes in a close second, especially when there’s a meal out involved too. We may be *only* 4 weeks into our COVID-19 lockdown, but there is already a small number of shows that have been missed: “A Christmas Carol” and “Macbeth” to help with G’s GCSE English Literature revision as well as the Christmas present we’d all been very much looking forward to, “Pentatonix” at the Apollo Eventim Hammersmith at the start of April.
The entertainment industry as a whole is making a huge effort to continue doing what they do best and are giving the general public the unprecedented opportunity to access a huge number of plays, musicals and even mini concerts through various social media platforms and I thought I’d share some of my favourite ones with you:
Gary Barlow’s #thecroonersessions: I have absolutely loved these sessions on Facebook, which see him performing some big hits with some big name stars and I would, without a doubt, recommend them to anyone looking for some great music to listen to. I’d be hard-pressed to pick a favourite, but his sessions with Ronan Keating, Alfie Boe and Matthew Morrison are definitely in my top ten.
The Shows Must Go On!: Thanks to Andrew Lloyd Webber’s new YouTube channel, we’ve been able to spend Saturday nights at the theatre to enjoy a musical. It kicked off with “Joseph and His Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat”, which had us all singing along without worry about what the people in neighbouring seats might think. M dressed up for the occasion in his best suit jacket with pyjama trousers and we even squeezed in an interval ice-cream halfway through the show. Unfortunately we just missed out on seeing the arena tour recording of “Jesus Christ Superstar” last weekend, but are definitely looking forward to “The Phantom of the Opera” this Saturday night. These shows are available on YouTube from 7pm on Friday evening for 48 hours and are announced weekly.
Disney+ Channel: Like thousands of others across the UK, and probably the world, we have signed up for a year’s subscription to the Disney+ channel, which has given us access to all things Disney as well as some unexpected extras such as the National Geographic channel. We have designated a “Disney” day each weekend, where a selection of Disney films are chosen to be watched, or in many cases, re-watched. So far we’ve enjoyed all 3 “High School Musical” films, the “Pirates of the Caribbean” saga and some more traditional animated films including “Moana”, “Hercules” and “The Little Mermaid”. It has also allowed both children to revisit some of their favourite Marvel movies over lunch after a morning of school work is completed.
Virtual Quiz Nights: this is not something we normally do, but what started as a fun way for G and I to spend some time with our heads together on a Friday evening has now morphed into a riotous event for the whole family. We kicked off with the “Friends” quiz a couple of weeks ago, 
were infinitely more successful at the Disney quiz in the second week and are now reading up in preparation for tomorrow’s “Harry Potter” quiz, a topic that I’m hoping my daughter will excel in as it’s definitely not part of my wheelhouse. It’s been fascinating to see who knows the most about the different quiz rounds – who could have imagined that M would have a seemingly faultless knowledge about what years Disney films were released as he managed an almost perfect score.
What have been your alternatives to nights out whilst in quarantine? Have you become an avid watcher of the wonderful productions of the National Theatre, or have you found something else to do? Please share!
Much to our surprise, the children had very different ideas about the shows they wanted to see and so I was set the challenge of trying to get tickets for G and Mike to see “Phantom of the Opera” on the same night that M and I headed to “School of Rock”. Fortunately, I was successful and with our theatre trips confirmed for the Thursday evening, we decided to make a short break of it and visit a handful of sights we haven’t been to before.
In no time at all, we had reached London and then it was a case of trekking across the city until we reached our first destination of the day, Tower Bridge. Thanks to M’s hard work researching and planning our routes and timings before we arrived, we decided to get off the underground at Monument and then walk along the river path to the Tower of London, where we ate our picnic lunch before climbing the stairs to explore the history of Tower Bridge itself.
The climb to the top of one of the towers was interspersed with facts about the construction of the bridge itself 125 years ago and, having reached the top, were then able to walk across the walkways linking the 2 iconic towers at either side, including a stretch of glass walkway that looks down onto the road and river below. This is not our first glass walkway – we’ve ventured onto the one at the CN Tower in Toronto too – and M was quite happy to wander across, jump onto and sit down on it. G, however, was lot more 
reluctant, but with a little gentle persuasion and a lot of hand-holding from me, she tentatively stepped onto the odd corner here and there, though she pointblank refused to do much more than that. Walkways conquered, we then headed on to the pump house to understand how the original mechanisms to raise the drawbridge worked before stopping for a vegan ice-cream treat from the ice-cream van cannily parked in the square beneath the bridge.
Once we had finished our meal at the nearby Pizza Express, Mike and G disappeared in one direction, whilst M and I went off in another in search of our respective theatres. It was a wonderful evening and both children absolutely loved their musicals of choice. I would highly recommend a trip to see “School of Rock” as would M, whilst Mike and G raved about “Phantom of the Opera”.
7 years to diagnosis 