Day 10: The Tiger, The Eye, & The Social Butterfly

The Corinthia is a wonderful, stylish hotel with all the mod cons and then some, and it really can’t be beat for geographical convenience, right on the river at the Millennium Bridge, next to the Embankment Tube station. It’s also right down the street from the Strand and the Vaudeville Theatre, where we were set to go see Mikey’s first West End play, “The Tiger Who Came To Tea.”

It was the last day of Kids’ Week in the West End, which for 14 years has been dedicated to making theater more family-friendly, offering free or discounted tickets for children, special workshops, and other events. This particular play was the only one in the Under 5 set that fit in our schedule.

The play is based on a famous book by Judith Kerr, which I hadn’t read, and I considered whether we should get it for Mikey before the play. Instead, we decided to prompt discussions with Mikey about what he thought the tiger was like – nice or scary or somewhere in between? We all decided that we sure hoped he wouldn’t turn out to be very scary. Ian and I hoped the same for the audience of Under 5s.

Everyone’s first play in London should be in the precipitous nose-bleed section, in a chair perched on an incline that challenged your balance, and Mikey’s seat certainly qualified. For a pound, we rented a pair of binoculars, but I don’t think Mikey ever agreed to look in the end with the smaller lenses.

Mikey squirmed a bit from lap to chair to lap, but when the play began, he was absolutely mesmerized for 55 minutes. He shouted “tick tock” with all the other kids when the cast signaled they were changing the clock, he laughed when the silly daddy tried to put his shoes in the toaster, and he and every other child in the audience flew into the air with fear and excitement when the tiger made his appearance.

If you haven’t read “The Tiger Who Came To Tea,” forgive this spoiler, but, basically, the tiger eats everything. The little girl and her family still hope that he’ll come back, and buy a big tin of Tiger Food if he does, but Mikey decided that “The tiger wasn’t nice.”

“Why not?”

“He didn’t share,” Mikey explained. But he still loved the play, and wanted to go back. Over the next couple of days in London, he continued to ask where the tiger was now.

We met up with our pal Teresa who was in London, working on a movie. It had begun to rain lightly, so we borrowed an umbrella from the front desk and headed across Millennium Bridge towards the London Eye, which Mikey called the Big Wheel.
Another activity perfectly suited for a toddler, letting him run from one end of the glass box and shout out, “Hi Big Ben! Hi boat!”

Back down in the rain, we caught a taxicab to the home of our friends Peter and Gary, in Islington near Sadler’s Wells, the dance theater. Mikey fell asleep in the cab, and we laid him down on the sofa in their living room, giving the four of us an opportunity to catch up. When Gary served the traditional Sunday roast with all the fixings including Yorkshire pudding, Mikey woke up and joined us. He ate everything, and when the time came for dessert, Gary offered him the choice between two of his favorite things: “Ice cream or pie?”

“I would liiiiike,” he considered the options, and then perhaps his mind went back to Madame A. at the Hotel Crillon. “I would liiiike the … boiled egg, please!”

Gary accommodated our eccentric child, so Mikey had a boiled egg while the rest of us had sweets.

That night we met up Teresa again, and had another friend to introduce Mikey to, Bettina, at the bar at the Corinthia. Mikey was at his flirtiest best while we drank and chatted, and the staff insisted on bringing him some chocolate cream lollipops to spoil him a little more.

Because clearly, that’s what he needed.