Mile End Walk, Musical: The Little Big Things, & Film: Saw X

On Wednesday, I booked with Barrie again, for his Mile End walk - with TAC, to save a few quid. He does require a top-up, if booked that way, but I had the cash. Got there in plenty of time, happily. Saw someone from Laurence's walks on this one as well - but he completely blanked me, so that was that.

We started with the name - apparently, the area is a mile from where the old Roman wall was. In a bit, our first stop was also to be our longest; we were in Tower Hamlets Cemetery, one of the "magnificent seven" London cemeteries. And no sooner had we gone in, and Barrie started to talk, than the caretaker - or whatever - nipped keenly out of his lodge to give his tuppence worth! My goodness, he had a lot to say, too - was yelling it after us as we departed. But it was very interesting, can't deny. Seems the cemetery is now primarily a nature reserve. Still, it did delay us a bit.

Around the back, we passed some expensive apartment blocks - as he remarked, it made it a bit better when they were in preserved old buildings! as they are here.

You'll always come across blue plaques in London - and we heard an interesting tale about Dr. Barnardo, of the children's homes:

And who knew the area had so much to do with the Lansburys! (as in the late Angela Lansbury). Her stepmother, Minnie Lansbury, was a suffragette and alderwoman for the area, to whom a memorial has been raised:

And she was also close to Angela's grandfather, who was a politician too!

We passed where Barrie had gone to school - now also a block of expensive flats. He had some great pictures from back in the day..

Later, there was a fetching mural depicting East End sights:

After a pub stop for those who needed to use the loo - during which I took the opportunity to call my mother back - we stopped at the site of quite a notorious nightclub! (by the look of the pictures):

We subsequently came to what is known as the "banana bridge" - because it's yellow - which was London's original garden bridge, linking the ends of Mile End Park, separated by a busy road!

The walk finished in Queen Mary University, which has a lot of interesting historical features - such as the chapel:

The main building is a gorgeous old structure:

The clocktower is the only surviving original feature, after a fire:

And, as he pointed out, the "People's Palace" has a real Russian feel to it!

There was a statue to Clement Attlee, who was born locally:

And the walk finished at a surprising find, in the middle of campus - the former site of a Sephardi Jewish cemetery! Distinguishable by the lack of showy headstones, this, however, contains no bodies - controversially, and apparently in contravention of Jewish law, the remains were moved, and now lie with no memorials at all.

And so we started, and finished, with a cemetery. Truly, I didn't think there was so much in Mile End!

I could have murdered a meal, right then - but I had to rush back: had a job interview within the next couple of hours. Which was a bit gruelling, but worked out well! Anyway, when it was finished, I headed to the Dean Swift for dinner. I was tired of tapas, so had the steak sandwich - which was very tasty (once I removed the little bits of chilli), but completely filling - I was absolutely stuffed by the time I'd eaten that, and the accompanying chips. Lovely to be back here again though - it's been a while. Afterwards, it ran far too late to finish the blog, what with everything that's coming up.. read on..

On Thursday, back with Up in the Cheap Seats, for The Little Big Things, at Soho Place. Booked with SFF. Looking for somewhere to eat beforehand, I noticed a Nando's, five minutes' walk away - excellent, I went there. And was excellently fed. Having time to kill, I decided on a dessert for once, complete with another wine - the dessert, of course, would have to be their delectable (and very rich) choc-a-lot cake. Which I paid £1.80 extra to have a scoop of vanilla ice cream with (to be fair, it was great).

I had some trouble getting my second order, though - they're lightning-fast with the main course, but dessert..? After 15 minutes of waiting, a guy came along to clear my table. I asked whether he could chase up my order, while he was at it - fair play, after five minutes, he returned with it, and I was still in time. Honestly though, if they don't want to serve dessert, they shouldn't advertise it..

And so to the theatre, where I met the others in the bar, and had a celebratory wine. On account of having just heard that my interview on Wednesday was successful, and I had another with the same company on Friday! We'd all booked in the Second Circle, but most had been upgraded to the Stalls - when we checked, however, those of us in the front row of the Second Circle hadn't.. so we made the sensible decision to take the lift.

Notes about the above photo: firstly, those in the upper levels are not allowed to leave anything - anything at all - on the railings; the woman beside me was made to remove her coat from the railing. Secondly - those panels that are suspended above the stage are raised and lowered at different points, and show different displays, depending on the scene. And thirdly, that stage represents a dynamic canvas - it's not too much of a spoiler to say that the protagonist of this play suffers a terrible accident, and afterwards becomes an artist; this stage is reminiscent of his brush-strokes.

Well, it's a really sad story - but you don't need to worry too much about that as an audience member, because the pathos is never really felt: not for more than a few seconds at a time, at least. He's 17 when this happens, and everyone is just so damn perky around him - which is great for him, but did mean that, personally, I couldn't feel very much empathy for the entire thing. And it's nice that they used another actor with a physical impairment. Mind you, the actor playing the guy who had the accident is, apparently, considerably less disabled than the person he portrays.. which makes it easier on the audience, of course, considering the extent of the real-life person's injuries.

It's apparently based on his autobiography - some of his actual artwork, painted by mouth, is shown: and I have to say, I liked that very much. And it's great that he has such a positive story to tell. But for me, as I say, although the songs are good, and beautifully performed, I just couldn't feel anything much. Too bright and chirpy for me. Others in the group definitely didn't feel the same, and it is a good show - just lacking, for me. Runs till the 25th of next month, if you're interested.

On the walk back to catch a bus, passed that terrific installation again:

When I got home, again, didn't have time to blog - not and be up for that interview on Friday. Which, I thought, went about the same as the previous one, but with a different person - hey, remains to be seen..

Then I was back to Ireland for the weekend. Grabbed a bite at Panopolis, in Liverpool Street Station, and ended up eating it on the train, when the platform was announced moments later - and when I got to the airport, was still peckish, and went to Pret! Well, Ryanair was delayed, as usual.. anyway, both were delicious. That night, I was simply too tired to blog..

On Saturday, went to see Saw X, which started with an incredibly high rating for a horror film, but fell.. still a very high rating, at time of writing. Daytime showings too.. and it's a good franchise, basically. Tobin Bell reprises his role as John Kramer - or "Jigsaw" - the brilliant mastermind of the traps in which the films' victims find themselves. Now, he's been killed off already in the franchise - this is a flashback, to when he'd been diagnosed with cancer, and found what he thought was a miracle treatment, only to discover that those offering the treatment were fraudsters.

Well - it has one inconsistency that isn't resolved by the end - namely, the location of the clinic he's taken to is kept secret from him, so, when he wants to return there afterwards, how does he find it..? Other inconsistencies are, in fact, resolved in the concluding act - which includes that fantastic "endgame" music that tells you that he's won again, in some clever (and probably unexpected) fashion. The conclusion of this film is, indeed, both unexpected, and quite clever. Liked it.

The traps are also decently icky - honestly, he has an incredible number of uses for the human body! I did watch a portion of the film through my fingers. The only thing that seriously annoyed me was his sidekick, Amanda.. I can't remember what she was like before, but Jesu, she's annoying! Always mouthing off, volatile, erratic - why he has her as an assistant in this is beyond me. Other than that, I did like it.. Shopping afterwards, I passed an incredible queue for the recently opened Nando's.. they aren't overloaded with decent eateries in the Crescent.

Was still too tired to blog last night though, and too busy to do so before now..

Tomorrow, thinking film again, back in London - had to redo the film list, which keeps being updated! Top of the list was Chithha, an Indian film about a guy raising his niece, who then goes missing; there's some suggestion that someone was suspicious of his relationship with her. Does look good, but unfortunately, the closest it's showing is in the Cineworld Ilford, which would take an hour to get to from where I live now. Combine that with the late hour it'd finish, and I'd probably fall foul of my mother, whom I always call at night.

So instead, I'm thinking of A Little Life - showing in the Everyman Borough Yards, which is now walking distance from me. This is one of those films of a play, which I hear is somewhat harrowing - certainly, the screening is 3h 40 m long! But it starts early enough, and as I say, is much closer to me. Plus, it's right beside Borough Market, so I shouldn't be short of places to eat..!

On Tuesday - I have something very, very interesting planned. It starts that night with a flight back to Shannon, and a stay in the airport hotel..

That's so I can get preclearance, for my flight from there on Wednesday - to Las Vegas. I just got the list of films due to be shown on the flight, but it's subject to, well, them not being shown! Specifically, the films I want to see - not in order - are:

• No Hard Feelings, a romcom with Jennifer Lawrence, in which she's tasked with bringing an introverted teen out of his shell
• Book Club: The Next Chapter, a comedy with Diane Keaton, Jane Fonda, Candice Bergen, Mary Steenburgen, Andy Garcia, Don Johnson, and Craig T. Nelson, which follows the ladies' adventures on a trip to Italy
• Past Lives - the highest-rated - a Korean romance
• BlackBerry, the story of the world's first smartphone
• Insidious: The Red Door, starring - and directed by - Patrick Wilson: the latest in the franchise
• Being Mary Tyler Moore - a documentary

Of course, on a flight, I have full freedom to stop watching any of them I don't think much of!

I'm staying in the Hilton Vacation Club Polo Towers. Got a good deal on flights and accommodation with Expedia. I'm not booking restaurants in advance though - I couldn't be bothered eating terribly posh, and it'll be as hot as anything we've had in London this year - I'll see how I feel.

On Thursday.. my first of four U2 concerts, which are of course the reason for my being there. And wow, the reviews of the first are terrific.. this new venue features groundbreaking visuals, it seems - and some audience members had to leave, after they got dizzy. Haptic seats, too - this is going to be some experience. Now, over the weekend, I decided to check the tickets - and lo, none were displaying in my account! Cue a panicked email to Ticketmaster (TM). 

Following which, oddly, the tickets suddenly all displayed! Relief.. I was still worried about having to have the tickets scanned going in, because TM doesn't let you screenshot them, so it depends on having an internet connection at the right moment - and you know what that's like. But they did say to store them in Google Wallet - which I'd never used - I got interested when I read something about not having to depend on an internet connection! So I installed it - and saved all my tickets to it! And I checked - sure enough, you can still access them without an internet connection. Well, fantastic.. interestingly, I accidentally saved two of them to each of my Google accounts! (I have had two since I lost my phone, and had to create a second instance.)

PS I emailed TM to say don't bother, I dunno why, but it's all working now. TM subsequently responded to say they can't answer questions about events in the States, I'd have to get onto their American branch! Two observations - they were happy enough to sell me the tickets, but not to respond to questions about them? And they obviously didn't read the content of the email, where I said all was now well.. typical customer service, eh?

Right, well, U2 aren't playing on Friday. I was browsing what was on, and came across a circus called Absinthe, at Caesar's Palace - sounds good, but tickets are a bit expensive. So I thought I'd try the last-minute approach, see whether I can get a ticket at a discount. I dunno though, it being Friday..

Saturday and next Sunday are also U2 days - at some stage, I must also check out the Zoo Station experience at the adjacent Venetian..

On the ninth, headed to a Motown tribute show, All Motown, at the Alexis Park Resort Hotel (trying to stay pretty close to my hotel). Got my ticket from TicketKite.

Have to be up bright and early on the 10th - I'm headed on a tour of the Grand Canyon, with Christianson Tours. They'll pick me up, a few minutes walk from my hotel.

The 11th, my fourth and last (for this year) U2 concert. Then I fly back on the 12th, arriving the morning of the 13th, for another weekend in Ireland before flying back to London on the 15th. Uhh.. it's exhausting just thinking about it..

Still have to break the news to my mother. She won't be affected in terms of seeing me - it's all carefully scheduled so she doesn't miss time with me - but the phone times will necessarily be affected. She doesn't like me travelling so far, y'see..