Aliens Love Underpants Review

All of our favourite books seem to turning into stage shows at the moment! After seeing ‘What the Ladybird Heard’ at the Civic Theatre recently, T and I were thrilled to be invited along to see the latest book turned show ‘Aliens Love Underpants’. As it was a weekend show D decided that he would come with us and a lack of childcare also lead to L coming along for her first theatre visit!

The show is currently being shown at the Leicester Square Theatre and with an afternoon showing we decided to make a day of it in London, going for a walk through Hyde Park before heading for some lunch in Leicester Square. I sometimes forget how close we are to London in Chelmsford and we didn’t have any problems with the buggy on the train. The tube is a different matter and people aren’t always so forgiving to nervous mums trying to get their buggies onto the escalators!

As with all stage shows for children the audience were involved right from the start. The cast appeared in ‘I LOVE Pants’ t-shirts and asked the children about their favourite pants. I thought it was lovely that children were then mentioned specifically by the cast on stage as they started the show - it really helped to get all the children involved and the children who were mentioned had beaming smiles. This was followed by questions from the cast about the various colours, patterns and shapes of pants. The audience loved shouting out their answers and it was a great start to the show.

As an adult watching these shows, I am always intrigued as to how they will use the book to fill the 55 minutes running time of the show. The show’s director and writers had obviously been very keen to stay as close to the book as possible and they did use whole sections of the book as dialogue. I don’t want to give away too much detail as I don’t want to spoil the show if you haven’t seen it yet!

The aliens are puppets and L absolutely loved it whenever they came on stage and, even at just 20 months, she was cheering and clapping every time she saw them. They were exactly the same as in the book so those who knew the book well were able to make this connection. The part of the show on the spaceship was another highlight, especially when the main character was able to press a button and translate from ‘Alien’ into ‘English’!

There were lots of references in the show that were clearly aimed at entertaining the adults as well as the children. An older character mentions CD’s to the bemusement of the younger characters and the Pants Hall of Fame section was also excellent - I was trying to guess them before the aliens explained who they had belonged too and felt quietly happy when I realised I’d guessed them all correctly!

‘Alien’s Love Underpants’ is definitely a show aimed at all ages and I would highly recommend it. I had been worried that L would be too young to enjoy the show, but whilst she didn’t sit their mesmerised for the whole show there were certainly large chunks of it that she really did enjoy. D also enjoyed it and it was his first experience of children’s theatre. I’m just hoping that there is a ‘Pirates Love Underpants’ in the pipeline!

‘Aliens Love Underpants’ is showing at the Leicester Square Theatre until 31st August. See here for more details.

A Massage At Greenwoods Hotel and Spa

Last week I was invited along to the newly refurbished Greenwoods Hotel and Spa for a massage. Greenwoods has been under new management since early this year and there has been a lot of work done to upgrade and improve the facilities there. Their Facebook page is constantly being updated to show what is being achieved and giving details of upcoming events.

The hotel and spa are set in a 17th Century, Grade II listed manor house surrounded by extensive landscaped gardens. Greenwoods Spa offers guests an impressive range of more than 50 of the latest beauty treatments and techniques, inspired by leading names such as Jessica and Voya. The facilities are just as impressive; Jacuzzi, cleansing saunas, steam rooms, an invigorating Monsoon shower and an enticing, deep blue 20 metre lap indoor pool are all available to complement any treatments that you have. There is more than enough here to keep you busy during a spa day!

Indoor Pool at Greenwoods Hotel and Spa

I arrived in plenty of time for my massage and was greeted in the hotel reception before being given directions down to the spa. On arrival at the spa I was taken through to a waiting area, offered a drink and asked to fill in a questionnaire to determine whether I had any medical conditions that might affect my treatment.

Whilst I was waiting for my therapist I also had a look through the visitors book to see comments from previous guests and I was extremely impressed - everybody had been really pleased with their treatments; ranging from manicures and pedicures through to full spa day experiences. More impressive still was that there was not one negative comment in a book spanning the five months since the newly refurbished spa has been open.

Treatment Room

Every member of staff I came into contact with was very friendly and welcoming, and my therapist was no exception. She went through my health and medical questionaire very thoroughly and made me feel at ease by explaining what I would need to do at each stage in my treatment. I’d not have a massage prior to this for a very long time but did remember feeling quite awkward about when to undress, when to get under the towel and when to turn over so I was very relieved that time was taken to ensure that I felt comfortable.

I had the La Touche Verte full body massage; a 50 minute ‘Greenwoods Spa’s own specialised full body massage incorporating Swedish, Thai and Aromatherapy techniques’ and promising to be a ‘truly relaxing experience’. To be completely honest (and I can’t imagine that I am alone in this!) it did take me a while to achieve the ‘truly relaxing’ part of this massage. With so many things going on in my life and constantly being able to check emails, facebook, twitter etc I find it very difficult to ‘switch off’ and during the first 15 minutes of the massage my head was still swirling with ‘I need to pick up the dry cleaning!’ and ‘What am I going to cook for dinner tonight?’

But I then tried really hard to clear my head and just enjoy the massage. And I really did -  at one point I was so relaxed I was almost asleep! The essentials oils used were lovely and really added to the whole experience. It was also clear that the therapist was experienced as she concentrated on the areas of my body where I get tense even though I had not mentioned these to her previously. At the end of the massage she also spoke to me about problem areas that I have and I was amazed that she was able to tell this just from the massage.

I hadn’t expected to feel so light afterwards either; it was as if a weight had been lifted off my shoulders. I would certainly recommend a treatment at Greenwoods Hotel and Spa and will be adding some treatments to my birthday wish list!

More information about Greenwoods Hotel and Spa can be found here.

Have you been to Greenwoods Hotel and Spa recently? Let me know what you thought!