The O2 | William Hook

Several months ago, I got a text from O2′s “Priority tickets” service for events at The O2 (because I’m an O2 customer, I get access to tickets 48 hours before anywhere else), asking if I’d like to buy tickets to see the Stereophonics, live, on the 20th December. As I am a fan (not a big fan, but I do like them) of the Stereophonics, I decided why not. So, myself and dad went along to see them on Saturday the 20th.

Both my parents and myself caught a train down to London on the 20th, at about 7:30am, and did a bit of Christmas shopping on Saturday in London. Then, myself and dad made our way down to The O2 via the tube, and had dinner at Pizza Express. Then, we went inside the arena. Up until then, I had never been inside The O2, so it was all new to me – we had a bit of a walk around, and looked at all the shops, then made our way up to the seats we had booked (much to some people’s disappointment ). First of all, The Courteeners played for about an hour, and then the Stereophonics came on and pretty much made me deaf for ~2 hours. However, overall, it was a very good gig and I enjoyed it a lot. I’m not going into detail because 1) I hate reviewing stuff, and 2) I suck at it.

Anyway, on Sunday, we did a bit more Christmas shopping around London, then dad and myself went to The O2 again, because dad had managed to lose his scarf the previous night. However, when we got there and asked the several places we had been if they had seen it, they hadn’t, so, no luck there. On the way out, instead of going back into London on the underground, which is boring, I suggested that we go back to London on one of the Thames Clippers that left from the O2 itself, and went all the way up to Waterloo – right below the London Eye, in fact. That took up about an hour, and was actually a very good journey (if a little cold). You get to see all the touristy parts of London, including the city, Tower Bridge, the Tower of London, and so on. I highly recommend it if you have the chance to do so.

At about 4pm or so, we arrived at the London Eye, and hopped onto that (for free, too, which is awesome – unlimited entry is included in the “Merlin” card I have which I can use for Alton Towers, Thorpe Park, and so on). I enjoyed that, as it was the first time I’ve been on the Eye when it’s getting dark, and it’s superb to see London all lit up. Again, if you get the chance to go on the Eye in the evening, do it! Finally, dad and I got off the Eye, and I noticed an arcade just next to the Aquarium, which had dodgems inside, so we went and had a ride on those. Finally, we got a bus back to the hotel and went to a nice little place for dinner at the start of Kensington High Street, which had very nice food. Can’t remember the name of it though.

On Monday, I didn’t really do much – dad had to do some work, and mum had caught the flu, so I didn’t do much at all until we came home on the train, at 8pm. However, I did enjoy the weekend, and the Stereophonics were great.