Carys and Gary

We had a lovely day mooching along Oxford Street. We had planned to go to the Cabinet War Rooms but neither of us felt like a museum so we just wandered a bit more.

We had tea at Cafe Rouge, she had a burger that seems to have shrunk in size since last year and I had a delicious vegetarian pancake dish.

We met another TA from school for her first visit to the Opera House. I was slightly worried that she wouldn't enjoy it as we were so far back but thankfully she loved it and wants to go again.

I had promised Carys she could wait for Gary at the Stage Door, so we did, for the best part of an hour. It was well worth the wait though as she got a huge number of autographs and photos with James Hay, Beatriz Stix-Brunell and Alexander Campbell and Francesca Hayward. There were only four of us left by the time Gary came out. He came through the doors, looked surprised, opened his arms as if to say 'Wow you're still here' and said "Carys" and she just ran and gave him a huge hug, which whether he was expecting it or not he reciprocated. He then had a long chat with her, signed her program, suggested a photo, gave me a hug and introduced Carys to his partner Tim as 'this is the little girl who made that lovely star for our Christmas tree.' He totally made Carys's night and was so apologetic to have kept us waiting he even DM'd me the next day to apologize saying had he known we were waiting he would have come down earlier. Such a genuinely lovely man.