high tea and high wires

Today Jess treated me to the most indulgent high tea at the Langham Hotel in Marylebone as a belated celebration of my birthday (among other things). It was such an excellent pick: refined, luxurious, but unpretentious. Everything was delicious but the standouts were the deviled quail egg, a maple pecan choux, strawberry jam on scones, and a chocolate mousse.

After only a few hours back at home we ventured out for our second sister-date of the day: Cirque Corteo. Yes I saw it last night but also Jess and I saw this same tour of it in San Francisco in August of 2023, and for a lot of people seeing the same show twice in 17 months would be a bit much, but for both of us as big circus fans it was a treat.

We really do watch Cirque shows the same way, whispering comments about technique and rigging and what’s actually impressive versus flashy. We agreed that the chandelier aerial act at the beginning was stunning but not so technically complicated. We aren’t too smug to be in total awe though.

It made such a difference being in such better seats tonight than last night. Watching from only 11 rows back meant I could see everything down to the expressions of the performers, noticing things I missed last night. And it was also fun to clock the differences: last night during an aerial act someone missed a catch and landed in the net, which didn’t happen tonight. And last night’s perfect juggler dropped two pins tonight.

Probably our favorite part was when the flying balloon lady went directly over us and was caught/pushed by a guy sitting just three seats over. We really had an amazing time and seeing Cirque twice renewed my adoration of top-tier circus and made me wish I were closer to my own backyard trapeze. I said that to Jess and then realized that after seeing it with her last time I’d literally gone home, rigged up my trapeze, and played around on it on a warm SF summer evening. I was even wearing the same eye glitter, go figure.