London Still Rocks!

Yesterday, back with  Up in the Cheap Seats  for  (This is Not a) Happy Room , at  The King's Head, Islington . After a hectic day at work in the office, I discovered it was only half an hour by bus up there - lovely. Now, my go-to eatery in Islington is The Bull , which I've never needed a reservation for.. so I headed up there. I got a table down the back - there was plenty of space. On checking, I was astonished to find that it was nearly a year since I was last there - and therefore, nearly a year since I was last in Islington! I decided on the chicken schnitzel. Now, I have to give kudos to the chips that came with it.. they were spectacular, the equal of any I've had. Triple-cooked, obviously. The chicken, unfortunately, wasn't quite as good as I remember - I might go for the fish next time, which is truly memorable. A hop, skip and jump from there to the theatre, where I found my group sitting in the (upstairs) bar - downstairs, beside the theatre, wasn't o...

Tonight, more  storytelling  - this time, back at  Folklore Hoxton , tickets through  Dice  again. Sold out though. And again, I booked to eat at the  Blues Kitchen Shoreditch . Wow, what a day at work! They're desperate to get a release out, desperate for the documentation, and although I got it out in good time, they came back with a load of changes - not all of which I had time to do before I left for the day. 6.30am I started work today - yes, I am sleep-deprived; even though I'm in the office tomorrow, and have to get up earlier than usual, I'm still looking forward to more sleep than last night! and will be seeing to that as soon as I'm done writing this. Even at that, I caught a bus in good time - and brilliant sunshine, although it's still not that warm - and arrived 10 minutes early for my reservation. Even though my bus stopped short, and TFL insisted that the stop I was now at was closed, even as I was getting on another bus there! No problem...

Tonight, back at last with  Over 40 Living the Life , for dinner at the  Greenwich Yacht Club . They've had a few of these lately, but they've always clashed with something. So, I headed out - it always takes too long to go by bus, so Tube it is. And then bus, to hasten the arrival time - it's only one stop from the station , and pretty much any bus will do. I basically remembered the last bit, which I had to walk - tell you though, it was unnerving, crossing the bridge for the first time in ages ! It wasn't hard to spot them - I got my drink sorted, and then we ordered.. there seems to have been a run on fish (which yes, I know is good), but happily, I wanted a burger anyway. Interestingly, a few people at the table just had soup - but they don't provide spoons in the trays of cutlery and condiments that are considerately left out.. they had to be reminded that soup isn't eaten with a fork.. Anyway, I found the burger lovely, and the presalted chips lovely. Ex...

Tonight, I was at first thinking of heading to  The Alto Knights , a new  Robert de Niro  gangster film, yet again based on real-life events. Also stars  Debra Messing . The  Curzon Aldgate  is the closest to me, and I could eat at  Cote St. Katharine Docks . But wouldn't you know it, its rating has now plummeted.. sure enough, I wasn't much impressed by the trailer. So I went to  Santosh  instead, which is an  Indian  film about a woman who inherits her husband's job as a police officer when he is killed on duty. Looked quite good, and is showing at the  Curzon Bloomsbury . I made it just in time for the 6pm showing. It wasn't selling heavily, so I didn't book - bought my ticket when I got there, and the lady at the counter was perplexed when she couldn't get a member's discount for me! I assured her that it was the same on the app, and this was probably an exempted screening, having a Q+A afterwards. No matter. I took my purc...

Yesterday , my now-monthly walk with  Laurence Summers  and the  45+ Not Grumpies ! This one was  Secrets, Sophistication & Scandal . The expected rain never materialised, and lo, I made it in time - always handy to meet somewhere visible, like a Pret . We left a little earlier than usual, since people had shown up promptly, and off we set. Massive roadworks on  Piccadilly had meant a bus wasn't practical - so I was on the Tube  - but it did make crossing roads easier, with all the traffic blocked off.. Now, I've been around a number of these haunts before, but Laurence, I have to say, is great at coming up with new info. Anyway, here's White's , the oldest gentlemen's club in London (membership not currently open): And we might not be shopping in the Piccadilly Arcade , but these places are always nice to window shop: We met Beau Brummel , the original Dedicated Follower of Fashion: and came to Fortnum & Mason : Wouldn't you know it, we passe...

Tonight was film again - and again I was tempted by   Movie Roadhouse London   (MRL), who were going to  La Infiltrada (Undercover) , another fact-based film about a  Spanish police officer  who worked undercover in  ETA  for eight years. Only showing in the  Ciné Lumiere  (ironically), and we were meeting in the cafe there beforehand. I know this cafe. I know how bad the service is - so I decided to find somewhere else to eat. Happily, the area isn't short of them, and I decided on Hoop & Toy , just around the corner from the station - a Greene King pub, so good food is pretty much guaranteed. It being Friday night, I anticipated it to be busy, and booked a table. This far away, it had to be Tube - I found it a bit easier to squeeze on the Jubilee Line , interestingly, by standing by one of the single, end doors, rather than the more popular central, double doors! And, as usual, got a seat no problem on the Circle Line . Arrived a lit...

Well, I was in the office today - and had an interesting bus journey in. Our bus driver seemed a bit off - at several stops, he had to be asked to open the central doors for people to get off. Several times, on occasion. Then there was some altercation with a very mouthy cyclist - I didn't see what initially happened, but the cyclist was really annoyed, and started swerving dangerously in front of our bus, impeding its progress. It went on for so long that several people decamped to another bus - again, having to ask the driver specifically to open the door. Well, at least we went on a stop longer than usual - I know that, this month, because of roadworks, the bus is stopping short, but they usually stop at Holborn - he went on to the next stop , which saved me quite a bit of walking. Having said that, it'd have been nice if he'd let us off at the stop - I was preparing to get off there when off he took again, stopping behind other buses, and making us get off in the road...

Tonight, I was back with  Movie Roadhouse London  (MRL) for  Last Breath , starring  Woody Harrelson  in the true story of the rescue of a deep-sea diver, Chris Lemons . We were heading to  the  Odeon Luxe West End . So I booked  Bella Italia on Cranbourn Street  again for beforehand. As I planned my journey, I noticed the TFL warning about a route change for this month - ahah, so the #188 is terminating, temporarily, at Holborn because of roadworks! Well, now I know. And so, when Google Maps - which, despite advertising TFL's warnings, obviously doesn't take them into account - suggested a number of route options involving the #188.. I made sure to choose one that involved changing to another bus. Which went just fine, and I made my booking with 10 minutes to spare. A huge welcome from the staff, and I was seated upstairs - handy, as I remarked, considering that's where the ladies' is, and I needed it! The waiter pre-empted my wine order...