Monty Python!

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We'd built the entire trip around out opening night tickets to Monty Python Live at the O2 Arena. To be a little more precise, we'd built the whole trip around tickets to the only night of Monty Python Live before additional dates were announced. Today was the day - we were off to the show.

The day didn't begin at all well as the fire alarm in the Travelodge Crystal Palace at 0530. We wearily made our way down the fire escape from the seventh floor, arriving at ground level a minute before the fire brigade showed up. They cleared the building and confirmed that there was no fire. We had only just made it back to our room when the alarm went off again... and stayed on... until 0600 when we'd had enough.

We figured with no chance of sleep we may as well get some breakfast so we walked the kilometre or so to the nearest McDonalds. Bacon and egg muffins were the order of the day but the excruciating loud crappy music was not... it seemed everywhere we went there was the noise of a strangled cat.

By 0700 we were back at the hotel and the alarm was still going off. I texted Paul and he offered to pick us up. We packed our bags and checked out. The bloke at reception was extremely apologetic and immediately refunded our room rate for the night.

Paul and Jen had an appointment planned for the morning so Jo and I stayed at their place while they went out. Paul had eight bottles of whiskey for me that I had used his address for the courier so our bags needed repacking.

Paul then drove us out to Stratford, a new area built mainly for the 2012 Olympics. We had coffees and walked around the mall for a while before taking a look at the outside of the Olympic Stadium and the swimming complex.

Lunch was at an excellent Mexican place that I wish I could remember the name of. It was pretty much a tapas setup and each dish was excellent. I washed it down with a beer and left contented.

We had always planned on changing hotels, even before the alarm saga so JO and I caught the train to Bethnal Green and checked in to the Travelodge. We turned around quickly and, finally without our heavy bags, got on the train to the O2 Arena just before our off-peak Underground tickets were due to become invalid for the afternoon rush.

The O2 is quite a sight to behold, looking like no more than a large circus tent from the outside, the inside has dozens of bars, cafes, shops and a cinema complex. Our first stop was just outside at the merch tent where both Jo and I bought more merch than any person could ever need. The second shop was the indoor merch tent... where both Jo and I bought more merch than any person could ever need.

With arms full of shirts, hoodies, books and posters we must have looked pretty ridiculous wandering the concourse looking for a beer but we were more than happy with the money well spent.

We settled on a small pop-up bar area with around ten picnic tables set up and a beer cart serving the drinks. It was still an hour or so until Paul was due to meet us there so we had a couple of drinks while Jo read the programme - giggling like a mad woman as she did.

At 1915 we headed to the entrance to the main arena and we were seated just in time for the show. We were way up in the nose-bleed seats but we were there... at the opening night of Monty Python!

For the next two hours the remaining members of Monty Python went through all the classic sketches with the odd new, modern line thrown in to keep the audience on their feet. From the dead parrot "pining for the Fjords" through "I like Chinese",the cheese sketch (with John Cleese cracking up laughing as Michael Palin had to remind him of his lines) and "Luxury". We laughed from start to finish, even the interval contained a giggle as the "MerchOMeter" on the big screens kept count of the money being handed over at the merch tents. The star of the show was unquestionably Eric Idle who was born for the stage and looked like he'd never left it. Stephen Fry made a guest appearance on what was probably the only flat point of the night in a new piece on blackmail.

The closing number was "Always look on the bright side of life" and it was followed by a long standing ovation. As the group left the stage, two words came up on the big screens... "Piss Off". What an incredible night - well worth the god-knows-how-many thousands of dollars the whole thing had cost us.

We said bye to Paul and caught the train back to our hotel. We again had to be up early to catch our flight to Berlin.

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