Storytelling: Folk Horror Night

Tonight - whee, more storytelling! This one was Folk Horror Night, and took place in Folklore Hoxton, tickets through Dice - run by the Crick Crack Club, performed by Laura Sampson and Daniel Morden. Sold out days in advance. Short of non-vegetarian options, I booked for The Blues Kitchen Shoreditch beforehand.

Wow, it turned colder today.. I wrapped up well, and made it on the dot for my dinner reservation. And was then kept waiting a considerable time - I seemed to have hit a blackspot of people arriving, or ringing, one of the staff engaged in what sounded like an involved telephone conversation. To be fair, it wasn't long till I was seated - and service thereafter was pretty great. Dinner was terrific - two gorgeous, succulent chicken dinners in a row, what can I say? Chips, as ever, were a little too salty, but the gravy was nicer than usual - darker. I managed a second glass of wine, and was still out of there in plenty of time to walk up to Folklore.

Now, Google Maps wasn't terrific on this occasion - yes, it got me to outside it, but not to the entrance: and remember, I'd never been here before. It had me going down the alleyway - a short one, and it didn't take me long to realise there wasn't anything down there. In some confusion, I walked back to the main road.. where I saw these most interesting doors:

They looked the part, for sure - and indeed, when I peered overhead, I could just make out "Folklore", in faint lettering.. I pushed the door in, and there was a dark and mysterious bar, where I got a drink, and after getting my name checked off and a hand stamp, took a seat inside. Near the back, but happily I had a good sightline to the stage:

Sarah Liisa Wilkinson was MC-ing. Daniel Morden started proceedings by explaining to us how popular ghost and horror stories are.. as he said, Hallowe'en is the most popular time for storytelling. And they both had a quantity of tales of death for us this evening. I have to say, it wasn't terribly scary.. but the one that stuck most with me was one of Laura Sampson's, from the Siberian Steppes. About the importance of fire in the yurts the people live in, and how it must be kept burning all winter.. and one young mother freaked when a spark caught on her baby, and stamped out the fire. Whereupon she realised what she had done, and went to her neighbours, to light a tinder from their fires.. except that everywhere she went, the fires went out too! Realising that she had angered the fire god, the elder of the village made her see that she had to make a sacrifice to it..

At the interval, going for another drink, I finally had a chance to take in my surroundings:

What an amazing place.. can't believe I never heard of it before. And what a great pair of performers to introduce us to it..

No sign of the #47 on the way home, so I caught others, and had a slightly longer walk.

Tomorrow, I've booked - because it was also selling out, and now, finally, has - for Intercepted, an interesting-sounding documentary, showing at Curzon Bloomsbury only, as far as I know, about phone calls home from Russian soldiers in the Ukraine, and intercepted by Ukrainian security forces. And then I'm back to Ireland for the weekend. Where, sorry to say, I don't think there's a single cinema option for me..

On Monday, I'm thinking of film again - and what's coming up is To a Land Unknown, a drama about emigration, which I meant to see previously but never got around to. Showing in the Garden Cinema.

On Tuesday, I'm headed - for the first time in years - to join Kensington Classical Music Meetup at a concert called Nordic Journey, at the Leighton House Museum - tickets only available by contacting the organiser directly, as advertised on the Meetup event page. 

Next Wednesday, we have another work social! Back to Fairgame, which was such a hit last time - and I see this one is sold out.

And on the 6th - I'm accompanying my sometime Meetup companion.. to Switzerland! She's a big fan of Jakub Józef Orlinski, who's appearing in Agrippina at the Zurich Opera House on the 9th - and as she's never been to Switzerland before, and I'm dying to see it again, we're taking a few days there. We're flying Swissair from London City, conveniently (well, she's coming back on Easyjet), which I booked with Booking.com - and we're staying in the Aldstadt Hotel, booked through Vio. Ooh, the sheer luxury of having the means to travel in Switzerland without having to stay in a hostel!

We'll do a bit of sightseeing too, of course - but the only thing we've actually booked is a tour, with Viator, to Interlaken and Grindelwald, on the 8th. Because I can't imagine going to Switzerland without seeing them again..

We fly back to London on the 10th. Of course, this is dependant on my boss approving my holiday request.. which I only just finally got around to putting in..! Three days (Thursday, Friday, Monday) - he surely couldn't object!