"Let's get thrilled."

I've decided that for a blog called "Sparkles & Sarcasm," there hasn't been much sarcasm... or sparkles. So here you go.

And believe me, I'll incorporate the sarcasm in later. You'll know it when you read it.

We had another traditional English breakfast this morning. It was just as delicious as yesterday. I don't think I'll ever get tired of drinking from fancy tea cups. I believe I'm going to have to get a cute English tea set for myself. Then we said goodbye to Stratford. It was a little weird because I have no idea if and when I'll ever go back there. We made a couple stops on our way back to London. First, we stopped by Anne Hathaway's house. Nope, not the one you thought of first. Shakespeare's wife was the first Anne Hathaway and the house she grew up in is open to the public.

 The inside of Anne Hathaway's house

And then we went to Mary Arden's Farm (Shakespeare's mom's farm). There was a lot more to do here and I enjoyed myself quite a bit.

Me and Mr. Goat

 In front of the farm house

 The Arden farm is a Tudor farm. Thus Tudor rose.

 They had Tudor games at the farm! And I kicked this guy's trash with all my Vegas gaming experience.

This Shakespearean duck said "To quack or not to quack..." Giggle.

And then we went to some palace. To be honest, I was a bit tuckered out by the time we got there so I didn't explore very much. 

BUT I did try a Scottish egg. It's a hard boiled egg surrounded by sausage and then fried. Very healthy. It was ok but I was feeling adventurous and wanted to try something new.

 Crazy eyes

Then we took the next couple hours to drive back to London. It really felt like coming home. We were so glad to be back that we went to our favorite Italian restaurant. Then we decided to see Thriller Live because the theatre was right around the corner and the tickets were fairly cheap. Frankly, this show was the single most spectacular example of what is right with live theatre and the world in general.

I will do my best to put this wonder into words. It was not at all hilarious. It was incredibly moving and touching and the actors were some of the most talented to ever grace the stage. The casting director was successful in finding a single person who was able to impersonate Michael Jackson and he definitely did not cast six different people to do it. And one of those Michael Jackson impersonators (had there been six and there definitely weren't) was definitely not a woman. There was not a yellow stage light that rendered us completely blind by shining in our eyes for about seven minutes. The men's pants were not at all too tight. I certainly did not cry from laughter when the cheesy slideshow of MLK, JFK, Nelson Mandela, and Obama flashed across the screen. The "Dirty Diana" dancers' Trojan helmets made total sense. The singers did not completely destroy some of the most classic songs ever. There was definitely no lip syncing. And the bows and encore(S) did not take more than twenty minutes. Seriously. Twenty minutes.

I have seen all four of these shows. And it makes complete sense that Thriller Live is next to Curious Incident (one of my favorite shows I've ever seen), The Audience (starring Helen Mirren), and Les Miserables (the longest running musical of all time). 

What Thriller Live did was remind me how incredibly talented Michael Jackson was. We've been blasting the real recordings ever since we got home and we have some wonderful memories from sitting in that audience tonight.