Christmas Social & The Satanic Christmas Market

On Saturday, I met James at The Anchor - Martin was to join us later.. and Ivan was going to try to come, after his rehearsal. He didn't make it in the end, of course - well, I did manage to get them all in the same room once; I live in hope!

Overnight rain had cleared - but the effects were still there, and it was windy as hell!

I had some fun struggling against the wind on my walk to the pub - made it just after the booked time, and a member of the bar staff showed me to my table - which was just as well, considering it was occupied! They were nice enough about moving. It was a snug little table, hardly enough room to move - there was a handy bag hook though, and we were nicely positioned beside a scale model of the Globe!

James' train was delayed. When he arrived, we ordered - my wine, and our food, arrived in good order. He had steak - I mulled it over, but decided I'd prefer chicken kiyev. And then, staring at our food, we realised we had no cutlery..! As he remarked, the waiter had looked tired - and no wonder, the place was rammed. Well, he volunteered to go in search of some - he was gone for ages, and I figured I could manage my chicken escalopes and fries with my hands! So I ate away merrily - he eventually found someone to give him some. And lunch was lovely. We also had a great chat, as ever..

Our peaceful afternoon was spoiled when another "reserved" sign was plonked on the table - we had a deadline of 6.30. We traipsed around the pub, but, big as it was, there wasn't a free table anywhere - not for three (Martin was coming at around 6, roughly). Well, we tried and tried to book somewhere else - figured a restaurant would do as well, and even had trouble with that. Until Bill's obliged.

Not too bad - it's a short enough walk. However, my opinion was coloured by that other time I was there, and the appalling service. Well, I remembered getting good service on the LHS, and bad service on the right - this time, we were in the middle! Happy to report that the service was good on this occasion. We had more drink, I ordered a brownie, and Martin had a proper meal when he arrived. So, the evening was saved - there wasn't a lot I could do, I hadn't known exactly when he'd be coming, or when I'd need to book another table at the pub, so I couldn't book anything. Goes to show though, you do need to book - especially at this time of year! Terrific to see them both anyway - roll on the next time.

I was too tired to blog afterwards, though - plus I had to be up early. Yesterday, I was back with The London Horror Film Group - for the Satanic Christmas Market! Yay, always wanted to go to this - and we were off to the Fox on the Green afterwards.

They'd said to bring cash - actually, everyone seemed to have card readers, so I needn't have. It was a nuisance to get cash, too - although I found an ATM quickly enough, every single one had a beggar sitting nearby. Of course, the one at mine engaged me in conversation. No, I didn't have change - unless he wanted pennies! And I wasn't giving him a tenner, which was the least denomination the machine gave me. Ah well.. and it made me late to join the queue, which by the time I did stretched right around the corner, past the station, and I joined it at the adjacent Natwest!

Nearly an hour, that queue took - in pouring rain. As someone remarked, you could kind of tell what it was for - there were a lot of Goths, lots with unusual colours of hair and makeup, lots of black clothes, lots of silver jewellery. Some scarifying t-shirts or hoodies. Wow, this is popular.. there was, finally, a bag check at the door, we paid our £3 entrance fee, and got our hands stamped, with a black spider-type motif, and we were in. (A teacher in the group later remarked that she hoped it'd wash off before her class next day!) Oh, what a lovely blast of heat was at the entrance too - and it was quite warm inside. I grabbed a glass of wine, and checked out the food options - they gave out buzzers to tell you when it was ready. I ordered the regular chips, which came with a scrummy lime and jalapeno aioli, and were absolutely delicious! Tempted others in the group, too.. we were sat in an area of the bar where they sell hot sauces, but I wasn't tempted:

Suitably fortified, I moseyed off around the eclectic exhibits:

Sadly, I didn't see anything to tempt me. A lot of the stuff just didn't interest me, and some was very expensive - as someone remarked, is the point of a flea market not to be cheap? There was sterling silver jewellery - out of the range of what I was prepared to pay, but one of the group bought some lovely things. Look closely at the above photo of the stand of crocheted goods - the large backpack is £200, and that's a "special offer" for the day! Distinctive, sure, but.. also, I'm not really into heavy metal, so didn't fancy the stuff related to that. Or, indeed, the ouija boards and accessories, although again, someone bought a cool plectrum for use on a ouija board. Some people got tarot readings, but again, I wasn't tempted, although they were impressed. Actually, mainly I wanted another portion of the delicious chips - so I went and did that, and after some others joined me, we headed off to Fox on the Green, a few minutes' walk away, where we'd booked tables.

The reserved tables were under the large-screen tv - which was showing the football. Happily, for much of the afternoon, the sound was off.. even before it was turned on, though, we ran into problems. First, it took me ages to get onto WiFi - but that's because I was trying to authenticate with Facebook, which has been giving me problems. They have the Mixr app, which I was supposed to get a free drink for installing. Didn't happen. I was supposed to get points for linking my bank card - I tried it, but that didn't happen either. So I gave up on the whole thing, and bought my drinks without aid of the app.

Ah, but that was just the start.. after an interminable queue at the bar, I managed to get my drink order in. For which he actually asked for the table number.. and of the two group members in front of me, ordering food, one order went in, and was served without problem - the other, a member of bar staff came to the table, and apologised, saying the order hadn't gone in, and they could make it now! but it'd be a while. It then arrived, about a minute later.. Finally, later in the evening, an unsolicited burger and fries arrived!

Never fear, it found takers.. None of this phased the small dog that accompanied us though - there had been a lot of dogs at the market, all getting loads of attention, and our little friend was as happy as any:

When the sound was turned up for the football, a couple of us did a quick scout for an alternative pub, but it wasn't really an option - anywhere decent was packed. We did move to an upstairs table after a bit, where it was decently quiet, and conversation, again, was excellent! Lovely to see the group again - and this was my last meeting with them before Christmas. Last night, again, too tired to blog - in fact, I fell asleep as soon as I got home, and completely slept through the time I was supposed to call my mother! I was awakened after midnight by her ringing me, irate that I'd missed the call..

These two days, I'm back with Up in the Cheap Seats (UITCS) again - tonight, it's for Infinite Life, at the Dorfman Theatre. I'm eating beforehand at Black & Blue, which I know to be good, and one of the group is joining me.

Tomorrow, it's for Two Strangers (Carry a Cake Across New York) at the Kiln.

On Wednesday, I have the Christmas party with my new company - now, there's timing! It's at Haché, and I've already put in my food order!

On Thursday, got another CT ticket - this time, for the Backyard Comedy Club. Always good. Then I'm back to Ireland for the weekend again.

Next Monday, making my annual pilgrimage to Winter Wonderland - as usual, seeing the Ice Palace (Norse mythology this year, it seems!) and Cirque Berserk. My goodness though, my bank isn't a fan - this booking caused problems with online payments with my card.. now sorted.

On the 19th, I was heading to a free carol concert at St. Stephen Walbrook. As advertised by Cultureseekers - who apparently have 74 signed up, as of my last peek. So I figured they shouldn't miss me.. but then UITCS suddenly (and quite belatedly, for them) advertised an outing to see Old Friends by Stephen Sondheim, at the Gielgud. And I figured - hey, this concert was free, and I'm going to a carol concert the following night anyway.. I'd like to see the musical. So I booked - UITCS helpfully let me know that ShowFilmFirst (SFF) has cheap tickets.

On the 20th, at another carol concert - this with Buddies on a Budget. And my last Meetup of the year! This is at the Actor's Church - St. Paul's, Covent Garden. Tickets from SFF again.

On the 21st, back with CT to Backyard Comedy - then back to Ireland for Christmas on the 22nd. Happy Christmas to all, and a Happy New Year!

I fly back to London on the 2nd, and on the 3rd, well, there isn't a lot advertised on Meetup - at the moment, I'm thinking of heading to the Winter Light Festival at the Southbank Centre that day.

And on the 4th, I'm off to see The Time Traveller's Wife, at the Apollo. Handily enough, Seatplan was one of the sites with the cheapest tickets to this - and I was eligible for a Seatplan voucher. So I used it, and got my ticket for £5. Let's just hope, from that high up, I can see something..!