Class with Royal Ballet

So I wasn't sure if I was going to make it do class with Royal Ballet today as I hadn't heard back from the company about what time class was, but I contacted someone I knew in the company and he told me that there was an early class at 9 30, which would be very full as they had a stage call of Romeo and Juliet afterwards and then there was a 10 30 class. So I decided that the 10 30 option sounded a lot better because I could sleep lin onger :)
So I turned up at stage door at 10 and they had a pass for me,so obviously had not forgotten i was doing class and then Julia came to meet me who showed where to get ready and then to the studios.
The facilities here are great..mot of the studios are all on top level with a great view over Covent Garden and London skyline. I had class in the Ashton studio and the teacher was Loipa Araujo from Cuba. Julia had told me that she was teaching and so therefore it would be a hard class. And she wasn't wrong. Anyway I will come back to that..
The most exciting part of this class is that I took class with Tamara Rojo, Carlos Acosta, Alina Cojocaru, Marianela Nunez, Thiago Soares, Edward Watson, Leanne Benjamin and I'm sure there were other principals but they were the only ones I knew. It was amazing! I was stuck trying to decide whether to do the exercise or just watch.

So yes it was a hard class but a really enjoyable one. I worked up a sweat in barre..it was a very dynamic barre with lots of fast tendus and footwork. There was lots of turns in the centre  including turns in second en pointe finishing in arabesque and some great petit allegro and grand allegro exercises. I have to admit I was a bit scared to do some exercises..A. In case I fell over in front of so many amazing dancers and B. In case I stood in the way of someone but they were all fine and pretty much did their own thing but even they were making comments about how hard the class was. :)
Class was an hour and a quarter and yet again, on the way out, I got lost but ended up in the lift with Alina and she helped me out :)
After class I went to a cafe called Milkbar which is owned by nzers :) and of course my soy flat white was amazing. I then had a look around shops in Covent Garden, stopping off at The royal opera house shop where I bought a DVD of tamara rojo and Carlos Acosta doing Romeo and Juliet, which i am seeing tomorrow night and a dvd of three works by Wayne MacGregor on the Royal Ballet and a Royal Ballet tshirt for Melly :) 
Later in the afternoon I tried another cafe, Sensory Lab which is one that I frequent ALOT in Melbourne and they have now opened a replica of the cafe here in Marylebone. You can tell I have missed the good Melbourne coffee...thats my only complaint about the other European cities I have visited.. The bad coffee. It was amazing as expected and woke me up enough to go shopping on Oxford St. I could of bought so much but I am seriously doubting I can fit anything more in my suitcase, especially after buying that Sylvie Guillem book, which i found out weighs 5kgs!! 
Tonight is the only day in London that I don't have a show to see so I'm making the most of the night free and getting an early night.