Sunday, July 24, 2005

Glimpses of London

After today's rehearsals, I met up with JY and SH for dinner at the Mac Donald's restaurant in Clementi central.

It is nice to catch up with friends. Thankful I was not too tired at the start of our meet-up. Please pardon me, yours truly tend to get awfully unfocused when I am too tired.

JY shared about her recent work assignments. Over dinner, we also spoke about London. SH had been in London in late June and early July before the bombing incidents had occurred. She shared about her trip. It is nice to hear about London from SH, she has the skill of describing the details in interesting ways. It seemed that JY had been there before, because she seemed about to relate to the various places that were spoke about.

SH's sharing made me more keen on the British Museum. She also spoke about being able to see a good aerial view of London from the top of St. Paul's Cathedral. I figured after her sharing that three to four days in London will never be enough to satisfy my interest in the culture of London. Anyway, I shall make the best out of my time there.

JY had to leave early for she had an assignment to do in the night. SH shared with me the video clips that she has taken of London using her brother's video camera. As she showed me, she gave me vivid accounts of what makes London so interesting. After her accounts, I wish to visit the Westminister Abbey. Thanking SH for her sharings. I wish I could assimilate more. A pity that by 8.30 p.m., my body clock told me I was just too tired from the day to assimilate more information about London effectively.

During the meet-up, I have also checked with JY and SH if they happen to know anything about how to make bookings for to watch The Phantom of the Opera in London. SH told me that tickets to performances could be brought at Leicester. However, she had tried to buy tickets for The Phantom of the Opera when she was in London, but it was sold out for that night. When I tried to buy tickets this morning via the online source that Emrah had kindly gave me, I realised that I have to state my mailing address for the tickets to be posted to me. For some reasons, the system will not accept mailing addresses of hostels, hotels, P.O. Boxes etc. If I were to state my mailing address in Singapore, I fear that I would not get the tickets (one ticket actually) before I leave for Aberdeen on 1 Aug 2005, and that would mean missing the performance anyway.

Pardon me, I had all along thought that I could order the tickets and then collect them at the door. I was wrong. I did not see such an option when I was trying to order the tickets online. It was probably my fault that I had only tried to order the tickets after my hotel booking in London was confirmed. That had stalled time. Now, I am a little lost if I should persist on getting the ticket for The Phantom of the Opera or if I should just try my luck when I get there in London and simply get the ticket from the ticketing counter? If I can't watch The Phantom of the Opera, I could watch the next best one. (Though I have no idea what that would be.) I shall take some time to gather more information about this ticketing issue.

Meantime, I am looking forward to go to London.

4 comments:

Emrah said...

Hi Pei Yun! Assuming it would cost too much for you to make an international call, I just made a phone call with a Ticketmaster staff [or a guy from the theatre counter desk, dunno...], explaining your situation that you would have already arrived London before your tickets arrive your postal address in Singapore blah blah blah...

What he told me is that under these circumstances, you should be able to request your tickets once you arrive Her Majesty's Theatre [he is aware that there is no option for this on their website]. Meanwhile, to do this, you must have the print of your reservation's confirmation page with you; and the credit card itself that you use for the reservation. A sort of ID card [e.g. driving licence - if you have none, you'll have your passport anyway] would also be helpful to prove that the name on the card is yours. But, anyway, I don't think that they would ask for ID. Britons do not use IDs at all.

I hope this solves your problem. In any case, I leave the phone numbers below if you'd like to ask further questions.
Phone: 0870 534 4444 [for UK, the one I called]
Outside the UK: +44 (0) 161 385 1138 [I think that should work for you]

If you are planning to see the performance by early August, hurry up!!! If you can't find tickets for that, then try Les Miserables. If that one is sold out too, give Women in White a try.

Good luck!

Emrah said...

Also... If you give up the idea of purchasing tickets in advance, you may try to find last-minute tickets. However, it is not guaranteed that you would definitely find. Risky at all... But, I always see a frew guys trying to sell their spare tickets. And you know, The Phantom in London has never has an empty seat for 18 years.

There is also a ticket office in Leicester Square, where you can find tickets for every performance. So, instead of going from one theatre to another, you may go there [everyone can show whereabouts it is] and look for options. However, you should leave a few days to purchase it. Last minute seats may not have good viewing position.

I still recommend online reservation. But, these are other options you can keep in mind.

All the best...

oceanskies79 said...

Thanks Emrah. I'll strongly consider reserving online, and then request for the tickets once I have arrived at Her Majesty's Theatre. I intend to catch THe Phantom of the Opera on 15 Aug 2005. But I would be in Scotland by 2 Aug 2005.

Emrah said...

Hey, are you sure that there is no option for box office ticket collection? I just tried to make reservation from Ticketmaster and saw that option. ASo, while making your reservation, you can click on this.

And below is the Q&A about this:

Question
I have chosen to collect my tickets from the box office, how do I do this?

Answer
The tickets will need to be collected by the credit/debit card holder. Box office times vary from event to event but on the whole they will be available within the hour before the start of the event. You will need to quote the reference number and take the credit/debit card used to make the booking as identification.

If you have booked tickets on behalf of someone else but selected box office collection then only the card holder can collect.This is part of the credit card merchant agreement in place to protect both Ticketmaster and the card holder from potential credit card fraud. Also for reasons of security to ensure the correct person is attending.

This information is available to you via our internet site upon selecting your preferred method of delivery. When selecting collection, the hyperlink next to it stating "for further information on collection click here" would have clarified this policy to you.

By continuing past this point, you are agreeing to this policy and Ticketmaster's terms and conditions

So... GOOD LUCK!