Musical: Two Strangers (Carry a Cake Across New York) & Work Christmas Party

Last Tuesday, second night in a row, I was with Up in the Cheap Seats (UITCS) - this time, for Two Strangers (Carry a Cake Across New York) at the Kiln. Saw there's a Nando's nearby, and I hadn't been for ages - so I went there first. Tube was required, this far out - and indeed, bus to get to the Tube. And wouldn't you know it, I recognised that posh couple who'd got off the bus with me one night, there waiting for the bus again! Fancy that. Happily, I actually got a seat on the Tube - and despite some iffy reviews of this Nando's, both service and food were excellent. Great start to the evening.. apart from the fact that I couldn't link my Nando's card to the app, because there was a problem with logging in with Facebook. And although I could log in another way, it didn't log my card details.. and when I tried to add them, it told me that card was linked to another account! (Yeah, mine, when I log in with FB.) At least they have glasses of Sauvignon Blanc back on the menu..

The group convened in the theatre bar, a hop, skip and jump from Nando's:

(Poster on the wall is from The Wife of Willesden, which I saw here before.) Chat was good - and I met someone from London Social Detours, to whom I recommended this group! Well, nice to know I can be of help to folks - and it was very nice to see her again.

In due course, we went in - I was upstairs, with a view that was ok, if you leaned - even when I did, about a third of the stage was obscured. But it didn't much impede my experience:

Yes, the stage is full of suitcases, piled high - and that comprises the entire extent of props for the show. Kind of.. but you haven't seen what they do with them!

Hands down, this is the best thing I've seen since the Abba tribute concert, nearly a month ago. The basic story is of a young Englishman coming to New York for the wedding of the father he's never met! Delegated to meet him is the bride's sister - who's about his age. Their main pre-wedding task is to collect the cake, and deliver it to the bride. 

A treat for fans of musicals, the singing is amazing, with just these two singers on stage throughout, but absolutely blowing the roof off! Terrific soundtrack too, with a pretty upbeat theme - although not entirely shiny happy. But the two hit it off, and have a magical night on the town, over the course of the show - hey, there's even snow! I absolutely loved it.. this has to be the equal, at least, of any of the West End shows, and beats most. A terrific night out - run extended till the 20th of next month: limited availability. Highly recommended!

Last night, I had the Christmas party with my new company - now, there's timing! It was at Haché, and I put in my food order weeks ago, when HR invited me! So I spent yesterday in the office, and had to be up early - so couldn't stay up late blogging the night before, and didn't have a chance to do it yesterday. The dinner was preceded by a speech from the CEO, annual colleague-nominated awards, and a "team-building" exercise, where we broke into teams of five, and "packaged" an egg, with straws and tape, so that it'd survive being dropped from a height. Honestly, we have some great "package" builders - I don't think a single egg broke.

A longish walk, en masse, then to the restaurant - where we queued to drop as much as possible in the cloakroom. Some sensible folks just dropped their stuff at the back of the room - if I'd known that in time, I'd have left mine there too! It was certainly a relief to get shot of the laptop - I didn't work from the office today, so needed to bring it with me - and it's a dead weight.

They'd had prosecco in the office, which I had a glass of, as they didn't have regular wine. I had another at the pre-meal reception at the restaurant - my goodness, they must have spent a fortune! We were given placecards with our names - and a weird little code, which we later discovered related to what we'd ordered! So, I had a chicken starter, followed by a medium steak, followed by a cookie - c-sm-c. Easy when you know how..

We could sit where we liked, just popping our placecards down where we wanted to sit. And as the waiters passed, they peered professionally at the placecards, knowing instantly where to drop the food. The chicken starter was battered chicken pieces with a dip - kind of chicken nugget style. The steak was a little well-done on the edge, but perfect in the middle - and so tender, I didn't even need a steak knife! Served with a small portion of sautée potatoes, it was gorgeous. And the "cookie" for dessert - which arrived while I was in the toilet - turned out to be a kind of rich, slightly minty, molten brownie, swimming in chocolate sauce. Mmm - very moreish. Drinks were on the company tab, so I went a bit mad on the wine..

And after dinner, we had a table quiz! in which I acquitted myself decently - although our table did come last. Well, two left early.. and after that, drinks and networking. And they're a lovely bunch! I walked back to the bus with some of them - roll on the next social event; it was great to get to know some more of them. Too tired to blog last night, though.

For tonight, got another CT ticket - this time, for the Backyard Comedy Club. Always good.

Tomorrow, I'm back to Ireland for the weekend again. And yes, the film of choice is still Napoleon - same time, same place. I just hope I manage to get to it this time - I'm not booking it, just in case..

On 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. Tickets through See Tickets, who just re-sent them to me, conveniently.

On Tuesday, 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 Wednesday, 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.

Next Thursday, 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..!