Walk: Elgar & Freud

Tonight, back with London Literary Walks, for a walk about Elgar and Freud. Meeting in The North Star, Finchley Road. Where I saw they do food, but I couldn't book - so I decided just to go and take my chances.

Tube, this far away.. and it was packed - I didn't get a seat for the whole trip. Our organiser had given us directions from the station - "up the hill, on the left". Well, it wasn't really much of a hill - not in comparison with some around this area - but I guessed the right direction, and with all the pedestrian crossings going in my favour as I approached, it hardly took me any time at all to get to the pub! I'd planned to get there for 6pm - it was actually 6.15 when I arrived. Easy enough to get a table at that time, mind.

I needed to eat, but didn't really fancy the mains - instead, I had crispy chicken strips with honey and mustard sauce (they come with a wide choice of sauces, it was difficult to pick), and some garlic bread. Service was really slow - when the organiser arrived, he mentioned he'd seen a sign on the window warning of lack of staff. I brought my drink back to the table, but by the time he arrived, I was still waiting for my food, 20 minutes or so after arrival.. and these only small plates.

It came in the end, and the chicken was good. The sauce looked insipid, but was actually really good too! The garlic bread was less successful - tasted ok, but the bread was the wrong sort, falling apart as I tried to eat it. Still, I was glad of it - I was hungry. I'd finished and gone for another drink by the time anyone else arrived - in the end, it was only the new person that didn't show, and we didn't hang around for too long to wait.

As I say, it's a hilly area, and we started with a steep climb up the laneway near the pub, at the top coming to a school that Helena Bonham Carter attended. Which is opposite probably the ugliest church I've ever seen.. from the outside, at least. But we were on a mission - and tucked into a corner, we found Freud:

Funnily enough, I suppose you could say, he's right around the corner from the Tavistock Clinic, whose closure was ordered after a controversy over the appropriateness of its gender reassignment treatments for children and young adults. Of course, he did also live nearby..

Elgar's house isn't there any more, so we didn't climb the hill to see where it had been. Mind you, speaking of music, we did have an interesting chat outside the house where Cecil Sharp lived - an unfamiliar name, he spent his life collecting English folk songs! I have a lot of time for people who preserve historical traditions like that..

We did eventually come to Freud's house - now the Freud Museum, it's an attractive building. With a much-decorated bin:

And a guard cat:

The Freudian cat was greatly interested in, well, anyone passing.. unlike Schrodinger's Cat, which is both there and not there, this cat was a constant presence..

We came to the house of the Webbs, social reformers, and indeed founders of the LSE, but also Soviet sympathisers, and deniers of the darker side of the regime. And so, as advertised, on our walk we did come across "inflated reputations" and "gods with feet of clay"..

As we made our way back, I was glad to be headed downhill - I see someone came up with an innovative seating solution for the slope!

Glad to be back with the group again. It's an awkward day though, Wednesday.. so much is always happening.. stopped off in Tesco on the way home, to pick up some chocolate, and have already eaten it all! Well, it never lasts long.

Tomorrow, heading with TAC again, for Ruthless at Arches Lane Theatre.

On Friday, The Hideout is headed to see Clown in a Cornfield, in the Vue West End. However, I found what I think is a better horror film, also showing in Leicester Square, but in the Cineworld - Detective Kien: The Headless Horror is a Vietnamese film, set in the late 19th Century. Sadly, it starts about the time the others are meeting for a social, or I'd join them. Anyway, I am, of course, heading to Bella Italia Cranbourn Street beforehand, as usual.

On Saturday, I'm with London Classical Music & Theatre Group for Baroque Classics by Candlelight at St. Martin in the Fields. Tickets cheaper with resellers, mind - I'm with TAC again. Eating at Bella Italia Irving Street, this time!

Sunday, I'm also planning film - heading to the Cine Lumiere. The film I'm interested in is Au Revoir les Enfants, about a couple of schoolboy friends in an exclusive Catholic French boarding school, around the time of the outbreak of the Second World War. The secret that one of them carries, however, is that he's actually Jewish.. Now, only thing is, it's on quite early, and I just might not feel like getting up for it, being so far away. So I haven't booked - it isn't selling out yet anyway. Next on the list is in the same place that evening - The Marching Band, again French, but contemporary, is a comedy I've been meaning to see for a while. So - we'll see. I've booked for dinner in the Zetland Arms, a pub just over from the French Institute, where the cinema is - for a time that should suit me for either film, being in between! In the upstairs room, which I thought might be quieter.

On Monday and Tuesday, I'm with Up in the Cheap Seats (UITCS) - Monday for Stereophonic, in the Duke of York's Theatre. Supposed to be the most Tony-nominated play of all time, this is set around the music industry. Got a cheaper ticket with CT. I'm eating in Cote St. Martin's Lane beforehand.

On Tuesday, heading with them to the National Theatre for London Road. Eating at The Archduke - and hoping for better service than last time!

Next Wednesday sees me back, at last, for storytelling at Torriano! Hosted, as ever, by Nell Phoenix, this one is The Shahnameh - Persian.

And on the 12th, back with UITCS, again at Sadler's Wells, for Matthew Bourne's The Midnight Bell. Love Matthew Bourne! Tried to book at The Wilmington as usual, but couldn't get a booking.. we shall see. Then I'm back to Ireland - for the last time this month - for my mother's Month's Mind. Now, I only just booked my flights - quite last minute - and while the return flight was quite expensive, I was pleasantly surprised at the low cost of the outbound one! Can it really be because it's on Friday the 13th..?! ;-)