The Cursed Child at the Palace Theatre!

Happy Saturday! You made it to the weekend! Great work! How are you doing? Are you taking time to check-in with yourself and give yourself the care, love, and attention you need? If not, it’s perfectly okay to set aside time for yourself to do whatever you want/need to do during ‘me time.’ Maybe it’s yoga, meditation, running, reading, tending to a pallet garden you built, dancing your silly little heart out to some Hall and Oates, sewing some pillowcases for your home decor, making a dress to match your homemade mask, or even playing animal crossing. Whatever you want to do during your assigned ‘me time,’ make sure you’re doing it and giving yourself a break. If you’ve been protesting and helping support the Black Lives Matter movement, you might also need to set aside some you time. It’s ok to do so. It’s important to rest and recharge so you can start each day strong.

If you didn’t get a chance to read yesterday’s blog post - “that wanker Van Morrison” - you can click here right now to catch up! Also, if you didn’t get the chance to cast your free daily vote for me to be the next #MaximCoverGirl, you can click here to vote or click here to read about why it’s important to me (and then vote!). You can vote once every twenty-four hours for free, and I’d be so grateful for your support! I'm still in the running and in the top 10 of my group! Voting for round 3 ends this coming Thursday night June 18th, so I’d love your support to make it through to round 4! Thank you for everything so far!! If you’re all caught up on the London travels thus far and Maxim Cover Girl voting, well then buckle in, kiddos! We’re continuing our virtual tour of Londontown with a very special, dare I say magical day.

If you read my previous post on my date nights for one and my post a few days ago on seeing Wicked at the Apollo Victoria Theatre in London, you’ve been able to see that my date nights for one have a great range in their types of activities. I also took myself to the Omniplex in Rathmines quite often while living in Dublin since movies were only 6 euros on Tuesdays. But I digress. My trip to London was, essentially, one huge date night for one with some ‘catching up with friends’ sprinkled in! After a date night for one consisting of blues music and Van Morrison, I woke up the next morning excited catch up with a wonderful woman I was a bridesmaid with at my friend Sarah’s wedding a few years back!

I met up with Katie at the Ham Yard Hotel, and since I got there a bit early, immediately ordered a coffee, knowing I’d need it with a long day ahead! When Katie and I were seated, we chatted over brunch about how much fun we had at Sarah’s wedding in Houston, our experiences moving to London and Dublin from the US, and the differences we’d noticed in our living situations compared to the US. It was so great to see her and her friendly, familiar face after adjusting to a new home and a new country. We caught up for nearly two hours but had to part ways as I was now late! I hurried onward to one of the most ultimate and memorable date nights for one I’ve ever had (and to which I nearly missed the beginning of) — Harry Potter and the Cursed Child: Parts 1 and 2 at the Palace Theatre in London's West End!

It’s hard to find anyone my age who isn’t a fan of the Harry Potter series since we all grew up with Harry (I'm legitimately listening to the soundtrack while I write this post). Being able to see The Cursed Child on stage in London was an experience I’ll never forget. Plot holes and character development issues aside, it was incredible to see how magic could really occur on a stage. We’re all incredibly spoiled by the movies and how the films are able to create magical worlds that feel a part of our own, but the stage production found an incredible way to create magic in the finite world right in front of those of us in the audience. I don’t want to go into too much detail because I think it’s incredibly important to keep the magic alive for people who haven’t yet seen the stage production. If you have seen the show, though, please please please reach out and talk to me about it. My best friend from high school has seen it, and I loved being able to talk to her about the show and how it created its real life, on-stage magic.

The staged production is presented in two parts, and as I had booked my tickets in advance, I was able to get tickets for back-to-back showings, seeing both parts 1 and 2 on that Saturday following brunch with Katie. Given that there was a break between both shows, I found my way to a local pizza spot for some delicious olives as an appetizer, a pretty decent pizza (not the greatest, so I wouldn't have visited that spot again unfortunately, but great in a pinch between shows), and a glass of red wine. It was the ultimate date night for one that I won’t soon forget, especially because my Harry Potter house was so heavily featured in the show (Slytherin forever)! Big thanks to the Sorting Hat and to every Harry Potter quiz I've ever taken for consistently assigning me to Slytherin. Do you know what house you'd be sorted into? I'd love to know, especially if there are any fellow Slytherins out there!

Have you seen Harry Potter and the Cursed Child? I’d seriously love to know if you have as I’d love to chat with you about it and how much I just love and adore Scorpius Malfoy. He was easily the best character in the show in my humble opinion. Please indulge me if you've seen Harry Potter and the Cursed Child! Subscribe in the e-mail submission box below and reach out, follow me on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter, and reach out to me on the “contact” page. I’m so happy you're here and that I’ve been getting a lot of really great, fun-to-read stories, questions, and feedback from a community all over the globe from all different chapters of my life (and from people I don’t know *yet*)! The other stories of people’s travels that I’ve gotten to read via e-mail, text, tweet, DM, etc. recently bring me such smiles, and I am so grateful for all of it! I hope I get to hear all about the crazy stories you’ve been thinking about as we’ve been on this virtual journey together! I couldn’t do this without you! So THANK YOU! From the bottom of my heart, truly, thank you.

And please, I know the world is in a strange place right now, but I would really appreciate your daily vote for me to be Maxim Cover Girl 2020. Click here to vote! Voting for round three ends this coming Thursday June 18th, and I would really appreciate your help and support as I continue to try and become the next #MaximCoverGirl by moving ahead into round 4! Thank you for your support!

Sincerely,

Johny

P.S. - If you want to catch up from the beginning on this series of adventures, here's a cheat sheet to the posts (in order in which they were published):

1. Won't you join me?

2. grateful for starbucks and sandymount strand

3. Once Upon a December in the National Gallery

4. plant a smooch for that gift of gab

5. may the 4th be with you: Dingle style

6. cinco de mayo: the best Mexican food in Dublin

7. pizza in roma

8. mussolini’s window and the philosophers’ metro stop

9. father to a murdered son, husband to a murdered wife

10. it's the vatican, not the vatican't

11. spoiler alert: i did not lose my hand

12. more pizza and gelato and Neptune, oh my