London Still Rocks!

Just starting  three days of  Meetup . Tonight, back with   Up in the Cheap Seats  (UITCS) for the opening night of  Body and Soul  at  Sadler's Wells  (SW), eating at  The Wilmington  beforehand as usual. I could walk from work, which seemed the uncomplicated option - it was a nice evening for it anyway, and as Google Maps said, "almost flat". Arrived at the pub 20 minutes early - stood at the entrance to the dining room, caught the attention of a waiter, and waited while he went back and forth to a table who, as he explained, were paying - they must have been splitting the bill, he was over and back so many times. He finally sat me at the table I was standing beside, and gave me a menu - I was intrigued by the desserts, thought I might have time for one, unusually for here. It was 15 minutes before he came to take my order - they don't have a huge range of dishes here that I like, so I had the steak, as usual - they have a variet...

Tonight, second film in a row , finally headed to see  No Other Choice , a dark comedy about a middle-aged  Korean  man who, finding himself unexpectedly unemployed and with a family to support, and faced with competing with younger, brighter applicants in the jobs market,  decides that the only reasonable course of action is to eliminate them.. Handiest close showing to me was in the  Curzon Bloomsbury  - I booked it with the last of my year's free tickets. Always good to use a free ticket for something that's not a documentary, and so is priced higher.. A nice late start again.. but the last blog post was such a mammoth undertaking that I wasn't finished it by the time I left! This evening, Buses Due was triumphant again in its prediction of when the #188 would arrive! Mercifully, because Google Maps said I'd just missed it.. Was adding to it as I went in on the #188 - so it helped, although vexingly, when we had to stop for a change of drivers. And t...

Last Monday,  Up in the Cheap Seats  (UITCS) was off to another spooky thing -  It Walks Around the House at Night  has an actor playing the ghost that inhabits a remote manor house, scaring visitors.. only to discover that he's not the only one there! Mwah-hah-haa.. Showing at  Southwark Playhouse  ( SP ).  My sometime dinner companion suggested we eat afterwards, it being over early - as I suggested, we could try the   Mercato , although it was closed   last time   we tried to do that, despite the website saying it'd be open much later! So I left later - has been a feature all this week, and is very handy for organising myself! Arrived right after our organiser, and managed to give her a jump scare as we approached the box office. :-) We got a table in the bar, and the others arrived in due course. The Barbie doll on the bar is now wearing a paper boat as a hat.. I fully meant to get a picture, but was a bit rushed, trying to navigate...

Today was when they celebrated  St. Patrick's Day  in London - I decided to take myself along to the  festival . A  Meetup  group called  Explorers  was going, but I don't know anyone in it well, so I did my own thing - besides, 210 people signed up! It must've been like a small army.. Naturally, with no specific time to be there, I wasn't up early. I'd expected the buses to be curtailed, so got one to Waterloo and walked from there. By 'eck, it was windy - but sunny, at that point. Saw a sign (the small white one, in the photo) on the bridge that read: "Anti-graffiti paint has been applied to this asset.". And immediately afterwards: Guess they missed a spot! ;-) The parade was finished by now, of course. Lots and lots of Irish paraphernalia to be seen, on sale and being worn: I made my way over, arriving at about 2.30, and found an entrance.. and a really long queue. 11 minutes, to be precise - as we got closer, we could hear the strains of Whisk...

This evening, was absolutely delighted to be seeing the medieval music group  Rune  again. They're now artists in residence at the medieval church of  St. Bartholomew the Great , and I'm on their mailing list - they've announced a programme of four concerts there for the year, but only the first two were available to book, last I looked. This one was Soave Dolce Melodia: Music of the Trecento (14th Century  Italian ). And wow, did I have trouble finding the ticket last night, particularly stressful as booking was now closed - duly found, which saved me some stress today. I emailed the  Old Red Cow  for a dinner booking beforehand - and they confirmed the same night! Maybe they're speeding up. When they sent me a reminder for the concert, they pointed out that the concert started at 6, with doors open from 5. Crap, I thought - perhaps I should have booked for food earlier! I headed in a little early, picking the bus combination that'd get me there quickest -...