Whenever I fly into Europe and beyond, I always end up flying into either London, Paris, or Frankfurt as those are the cheapest airfares from Vancouver.

On this trip I flew into Paris and was now returning from London.

Due to my work schedule, my trips always start on a Monday and end on a Wednesday.

Normally at the end of my trip I just fly from wherever I was into London, spend a night, and then fly back home the next day.

This time around, though, I purposely flew into London a day earlier allowing me a full day here today.

The reason for this was two-fold.

One, the flight from Luxor to London was a cheap EasyJet flight and it doesn’t run every day and, two, Cyndi Lauper was playing in concert tonight!

I mean, how perfect was that?

Almost serendipitous, if I do say so myself.

Aside from the concert, though, I had some other cool stuff planned for the day and, well, it pretty much all revolved around food.

An English Breakfast

I have an app called Find Me GF on my phone that lists off restaurants that fellow celiacs like myself have visited and reviewed.

Not surprisingly the places on the list were few and far between during my time in Jordan and Egypt.

However, now that I was back in a major city like London, the list was plentiful.

So, for breakfast this morning, I headed to a place about 8km outside of central London called Sam’s Cafe.

Yup, I took the tube for almost an hour to get some breakfast.

Hey, sometimes it’s about the journey and, well, there was a nice big reward at the end of this one for me.

A gluten free full English breakfast.

Eggs, toast, bacon, sausage, tomatoes, and beans.

Mmmmmm…

I love me a good English breakfast!

After breakfast I just walked around the Camden area and into Soho.

I had plenty of time and I was in no hurry to get anywhere else today.

My original plan was to just stay out all day going from place to place but I realized that I would need to stop by the hostel at some point this afternoon.

For one, I had to charge my phone back up to 100% cause I knew I’d be draining the battery later with all the photos and videos I’d be taking.

But also, I realized I wouldn’t be able to keep my daypack with me as they wouldn’t allow it into the arena later for the concert.

So, I headed back to the hostel but I wasn’t there for long before I headed back out again.

Afternoon Tea

Now, you may have surmised, I am not a sophisticated man.

Sure, I’ve seen a play or two, gone to the opera, and even seen the ballet, but my sophistication level is not that high up.

As such, I’ve never done afternoon high tea before.

You know, where you eat the little sandwiches and pastries and drink tea with your pinky out.

Yeah, I’ve never done that before.

Until this afternoon…

Of course, this being London and all, it wasn’t hard to find a place to have high tea.

Even with my stupid gluten allergy, I was able to find a handful of hotels that offered gluten free options.

Well, hell, sign me up!

Here I am in London about to do high tea with the other aristocrats!

I prebooked my table a couple of months ago for the Mad Hatters Afternoon Tea at the Sanderson Hotel.

I arrived at 4pm, was shown to my table and ordered the gluten free option for £65 ($130).

Along with the automatic 13.5% gratuity, the meal worked out to about $150.

Yeah, it was a pricy affair but I when else am I going to have a chance to have high tea in London?

Keeping with the Alice in Wonderland theme, I was started off with a chilled blue drink, a blend of white and green teas, that turned purple when I added a lemon slice to it.

Ooooo… magic!

There was a pretty big selection of teas on their menu including some specialty house made blends.

You were welcome to try as many teas as you liked as they were all included in the cost.

Now, in my normal life, I’m not really a tea drinker.

I just never really took to it and, yes, I realize the irony of me sitting there having afternoon tea.

Anyway, I tried a couple of their specialty teas and, you know what, I may be a tea convert after all this.

The first tea I had was the Queen of Hearts which was a blend of black tea with rose metals and a hint of vanilla and chocolate.

I followed it up with the Cheshire Cat, a blend of marmalade orange oolong infused tea with chocolate and orange.

To add sugar to your tea, you open up the little box on your table and take cubes out with tongs while I little ballerina twirls around to music.

Oh my God, it was so cute.

And then, it was time for the tower of sandwiches and pastries…

The scones were served warm in a cloth cover.

Now, my past experience with gluten free pastries like biscuits and scones has not been very favorable.

They’re usually really dry and actually very hard to eat.

These, though, were proof that a nice, moist, gluten free scone can be made.

They were melt in your mouth, and honestly, if I was just served a plate of scones today, I would have been happy.

The plate on the bottom tier of the tower had a quartet of sandwiches.   Two were on bread and the other two in buckwheat tartlets.

The two sandwiches were a roast chicken with rosemary mayo and scamorza cheese and a tzatziki and dill blend with lemon.

To complete the bottom plate were the two buckwheat tartlets – prawn with horseradish and a truffle with parmesan custard.

On the middle tier was the highlight for me with the selection of desserts.

There was a carrot cake with orange buttercream and cinnamon, a dark chocolate bar with madagascan vanilla cream, and a passion fruit coconut cheesecake in the shape of a heart.

Oh, and a little potion of peach bubble tea with a tag labeled “Drink Me” attached to it.

Yeah, that tag was definitely going straight into my souvenir pouch.

At the very top of the tower was a big cup of pink cotton candy and possibly the best dessert I’ve ever eaten.

It was a little cocoa sphere with a pistachio cream inside.

Oh my God, I tried a little nibble near the beginning of my meal and I left the rest for last because I wanted that to be the last taste in my mouth as I left.

I left the tea room almost an hour and a half after I arrived with a full tummy.

You think just a few little sandwiches and some pastries wouldn’t fill you up but, man, I was bursting at the seams.

What I’m trying to say was that it was a great meal.

And I was content.

Would it have been better to share the experience and the food with someone?

Of course.   But that’s just part of the perils of traveling solo.

Anyway, thankfully the Underground station I needed to get to was a good 15 minute walk away so I was able to work off some of those calories.

Next stop, the O2 Arena.

Cyndi Lauper!

By now it was rush hour and I guess the line I was going on, the Jubilee, is one of their busier lines because we were packed in there like sardines.

After a half hour I had arrived at the O2.

It was never made clear when the concert would begin.

I knew the doors opened at 6:30, there was some undisclosed opening act, and that Cyndi Lauper had taken to the stage around 8:30 or 9:00 on other shows.

So, me being me, and not wanting to miss anything, I showed up just as people were lining up to go inside the arena.

Most of the crowd were what you’re expect for a 80s pop superstar, a mix of 50-60 something year olds but there were also quite a few younger people as well.

I’d say the mix was probably 80% female and I saw quite a few of them dressed up in 80s attire or bright colored wigs.

It was Cyndi Lauper’s farewell tour and, at age 71, this was probably not hyperbole.

The arena had free wifi which was nice and also phone charger rentals for £11 ($22) which seemed a tad bit pricy.

I looked at my phone and saw that I was still at a semi-respectable 67%.

I was in my seat by 6:45 and fully expecting some opening act to begin soon.

It wasn’t until just after 8:00 that a DJ came on the stage and started playing some music.

Apparently this was the opening act.

Her name was Tracy Young and apparently she’s some well known record producer but I had never heard of her.

And she proceeded to play 30 minutes of techno music with the heaviest bass you could imagine.

To a crowd of 50 and 60 years olds here to listen to 80s pop nostalgia.

Hmm, interesting choice for an opening act.   That’s all I’m saying…

It seemed like no one was really into it and I kind of felt bad for her as she kept trying to hype us all up and we just kind of sat there.

And then, at 9pm, the lights dimmed down and the first chords of She Bop blared over the speakers.

Cyndi Lauper had arrived!

She played all her classic hits plus a couple of songs I hadn’t heard but the highlight for me where her interludes between songs.

She would just kind of stand on stage and tell stories from her past and at times ramble.

You know, like any 71 year old would do.

It honestly was the best part especially as she talked in her unique Long Island voice.

I filmed a few of these 5+ minute monologues and then got it transcribed online.

Here’s an example of one of them:

So, yeah, it’s pretty right.

As I said before, if I’m going out, I was going out big.

Oh my gosh.

I can’t really hear you. I know you’re saying something.

I love you too. I don’t know.

Anyway, yeah, so I just wanna say hey, and, you know, we played that and I wanted to tell you who I thought I was but that was just in case you walked into the wrong place.

See, they never play hockey here, so it wasn’t a hockey game.   Yeah.   I know.   We didn’t do hockey anymore no.

It’s cold, they hit each other.   You guys never play games like that.   Nobody ever hits each other except for, you know, soccer and rugby.

Football.

Anyway, so I just wanna say that I love you, and I wanted to do this kind of thing my whole life.

And, finally, at this point and, you know, look, I tried to tour, but I got so busy.   I got busy with Kinky Boots and then I started with Working Girl, the musical, which will be coming to the West End.

Not this year.   Not next year, but maybe the year after because this year it goes to La Jolla out of town Broadway, which is in California. and then it goes to Broadway, and then, you know, then they deal with it coming over here.

But, yeah, I’ve been working on it for, like, ten years.

So yeah and then, well, it was like, you know, I did the documentary because, you know, everybody is doing documentaries and that’s what I was told.

You know, why don’t you do a documentary?

No. I’m not dead yet.   That’s not bad.   You can correct them if they’re wrong.

I was like, okay, and then we did that, and then we did the album.

And then when we finished that, you know, the accompanying thing, you know, let the canary sing, which is and to make a long story short, I got in a lawsuit with my old manager.

He didn’t want me to sing anymore and by the time we got done with the whole lawsuit, the judge said, let the canary sing.

I knew it wasn’t gonna stop me from singing.

I started singing at two.   The lady upstairs, I held on to her pointers.   She told me some silly song, Bella Bella.

I did it.   They aborted.   I’ve been singing ever since. Okay?

So, anyway, yeah.

I veered off there, pal.   Sorry, sorry, folks.

Okay, anyway, this, this next song, I just wanna say I know there’s a lot of goonies out there now.

That’s right.   No, I was sitting at a Tonys lunch.   I don’t always go to those things because they think I’m a ruffian.

And, you know, so but I was doing a luncheon for them and the guy next to me, very famous actor, I don’t wanna drop names, so I won’t, but he leaned over and said, you’re on the Goonie and I said, okay, wow, you guys are everywhere, and you’re here too.

And the thing is, always remember, Goonies never say die.   Okay?   Okay.

And, and I just wanna thank all the wonderful wrestlers that were in my videos, Captain Lou Albano, Freddie Blassie, Rowdy Roddy Piper, Wendy Richter, the fabulous Moolah.   You may not know these people and some of you may.

And, hey, I was a wrestling manager and I learned a few moves so don’t try anything, okay?

And I got to play with my mother twice and anyway, this is for all you Goonies out there who never say die.

Wow, did you actually read all that?

Anyway, like I said, it was the best part.

She was just being Cyndi and she was recounting stories from her past.

At 10:30 the concert came to a close but, of course, when it comes to concerts, the close is never the true close.

I mean, she hadn’t even performed 2 of her biggest hits so you knew there was an encore coming.

And then, after performing True Colors, she closed out the night with Girls Just Wanna Have Fun.

With a special guest – Boy George.

Wow, now this really was a 80s nostalgia night!

By the way, that 67% battery had reached the danger zone of 23% by concert’s end.

Yeah, I may have filmed alot of videos…

After the concert, I joined the heard of cattle being led to the Underground.

Thankfully I only had to go one stop on the crowded train before I transferred onto an empty car on another line.

By 11:45 I was back at the hostel and by 1:00 I was asleep.

And, that is how you end a trip!

Tomorrow I’ll be flying home as my Jordan/Egypt 2025 trip officially comes to a close.

Of course, there’ll be one more blog tomorrow chronicling my journey back to Vancouver.

See you tomorrow…