22

Numerology gives great importance to the number 22.  It is a great number and is considered to be very special.  Children enjoy numberology because it's fun.  You give each letter of your name a number and then add them up in any way you want to get the result you like best.  People even change their names to get the best number.  I'm not sure who gave numbers their defining characteristics, or why they decided not to add 22 together to make it just another 4 but I like the number 22.  It has a lovely roundness to it; a great symmetry.

22 A great number for an anniversary

Twenty two years ago the Long Suffering Husband and I got married.  22 also feels like a great number for an anniversiry.  Two people together for twenty two years and if you turn one of the two's backwards you get a heart.

Numerologists define the great 22 as the Master Builder and the most important of all numbers.  It is confident, ambitious and can turn even the wildest dreams into reality.

Last week the Long Suffering Husband said, "Let's go and see Singing in the Rain for our anniversary," I said that I'd rather see Book of Mormon and he said, "We could see both."  A huge ambitious plan, far too extravagent to ever become reality.  We looked at ticket prices on the internet and balked and Book of Mormon was sold out until September. But the number 22 is ambitious and can build just about anything it dreams of, so I dreamt of seeing both and having 2 great meals (after all if you keep the theme going surely you are going to give it more power.)

We got up early and were in London before 10am.  The West End was amazingly busy for that time of the morning; a sea of yellow and red, lederhosen and harsh accents. We started at the Prince of Wales theatre box office to ask if they had any tickets for a BofM show today.  They told us about their lottery at 5pm for the evening show and so we decided to go and see if we could get Singing in the Rain tickets.  If you ask at the box office for Day tickets they give you the best seats at a tiny price.  We got front row tickets for £20.  We were warned that we would get wet but as we had our waterproofs, being prepared for the wonderful British weather we decided it would be fine. The LSH checked when the show ended and it looked unlikely that we would get back to the Prince of Wales theatre to enter the lottery but the number 22 has great power and we decided to keep the faith.

Lederhosen

We had brunch at Bills in St Martin's Court.  The first of what was going to be 2 great meals. We were feeling very positive about our grand plan.  We had tickets for Singing in the Rain and had found a great place for breakfast.  We knew it was a great place because at 11am it was buzzing.  We didn't have a reservation (who reserves a table for 11am brunch?) we waited on the stairs taking in the atmosphere and then had a brilliant breakfast.

Bill's breakfast

The weather was on our side and Covent Garden was full of street performers warning against a degree in drama.  We walked and talked and watched people in Lederhoden get a bit wobbly on their feet and kick football's around in Central London side streets.

'Drama isn't a proper degree'

Otto from Norway becoming star of the show

Our seats for Singing in the Rain were fantastic.  We saw everything.  To be honest, the LSH didn't see everything because we had a perfect view up most of the dancers' skirts and he felt it would be inappropirate to look.  We also got absolutely soaked.  During the Singing in the Rain number he took great delight at kicking great sprays of water all over us.  This turned me into a minor celebrity in the ladies toilets in the interval, as I stood in the queue ringing out my hair and cardigan sleeves.  It was really funny though and a nice wake up because although it was a fantastic show, sitting in a warm dark room filled with familiar songs with a fully belly is a recipe for a little snooze.

The show finished at 5 past five and so we thought the chance of entering the Book of Mormon lottery was unlikely but 22 has great plans, is ambitious and never gives up. They hadn't even started when we got there. We put our name and address on a form stating theat we'd like 2 tickets and waited in the crowd to see if our ticket was pulled out.

The Book of Mormon Lottery

The man next to me said that you have to keep trying that your chance of winning goes up each time you enter.  He looked at me pityingly when I said that statistically your chance of winning was the same each time and that looking around I thought we had about a 1 in 5 chance to win one of the 21 tickets. He thought I was being overly ambitious but 22 is idealistic.  The pulling of the tickets was great theatre.  It was very exciting, we cheered and groaned each winner and then after 12 tickets had gone my name was called.  22 can manifest dreams. We paid £40 for two front row seats, normally selling for £158 each.

For our second meal of the day we chose simple and quick Prezzo and it was perfect and delicious.

We could see right into the pit and I could follow the score from my seat. We both really enjoyed this show. We also said that we didn't know if we could recommend it to anyone.  There is so much in this show that could offend someone.  Personally, I was a little upset by the fact that the producers seem to think there is a shortage of white females who can sing dance and act.  I know it was meant to be funny for the mothers to be played by men but I don't think they would have got away with 'blacking-up' actors to play the Ugandan cast and I found the mother's hairy feet to be highly offensive. Having said that, though, it really was a brilliant show and I would go again, although I probably won't be teaching Hasa Diga Eebowai when we do African songs again at school, even though it's a great, great song.

Thank you 22.  The LSH and I had a great day celebrating our anniversary with your audacity to dream big.