At the end of my week of holiday, I managed to get back to Billericay, after driving in the snow for a good hour. This was in preparation for the follow days activity... Mum had decided to spend money on tickets to see the Strictly Come Dancing Tour, little did we know, or I forgot that level four means we're 'up in the gods' (which has become a phrase to use when talking about high seats in concert halls), which means and you'll see by the photos below that you're so far away from the action that it becomes hard to be involved in whats happening.
But before we got to The O2 there was some travelling to be done... so from Billericay to London, the main attraction at the moment is the 2012 venue. This is what it currently looks like.
You can just see the white zigzag of the stadium structure. It's going to be an interesting three and a half years, until the whole of East London is taken over but tourists and athletes. Then after that... who knows, we get a different report every week about what the legacy of the games is going to leave behind, what the stadium and surrounding villages and buildings are going to be used for. This week there's talk of it being a school and sports academy (I think with talk of the school actually being in the middle of the stadium... but I wasn't listening properly). The local football clubs won't spend any money to buy it, because it's being purpose built for the athletics. Some less local purpose built venues are up in arms because the planning committee have said that they would spend £42 million on a new shooting range (is that the right name?) overlooking a place that is already available (but at a cost of £30 million). It's a strange thing to be going though, especially with a recession.
And if you want to know what 'up in the gods' looks like while you're in the O2 here's a picture for you...
There's not much to be seen, but I can assure you that there are four judges, one couple and a presenter as well as a band down there!
It's crazy! Fortunately, my cousin and nan were found tickets so that they could be closer to the action. However, we tried to join them at half time and the woman on the information desk was the least helpful person I've met in a long time. So here goes my mini rant...
Your tickets get scanned as you go into the venue, so that the O2 know who have turned up and who haven't. Therefore, by the half time whistle, you'd think that they would know who's arrived and who hasn't... and therefore can give some unsuspecting people a chance to sit somewhere different... but the policy states that the tickets had already been purchased, so there was no chance for my mum and I to join the others on the same level. If you haven't turned up by half time, it's very likely that you're not going to turn up at all, so why not, knowing that we'd already been split up, let us sit ner each other?
I resigned a little too quickly from that fight, but went away really angry, knowing that I had a good point under my belt if I'd have stayed a little longer.
We missed out on the atmosphere, being too high up and far away. It just doesn't carry well when you can't actually see the faces of the people who are dancing, but still it was enjoyable, though I would push to get level one seats every time I go to the O2 now. Even if the website says sold out!
No comments:
Post a Comment