Musical: Precipice

Tonight, I booked with yet another new Meetup walking group - Walks and Tours - for a Xmas Lights walk around Mayfair. Meeting in the Mercato Mayfair. And as it's a Thursday, I'd be lugging my laptop, ouch!

But just the other day, Up in the Cheap Seats advertised a trip to see Precipice, a climate change drama, at the New Diorama. Sounded interesting - and crucially, this meant less carrying of the laptop! So I switched, and did that instead.

It was under half an hour's walk from the office - so I trudged up there, my shoulders in agony. What a good thing I didn't go on the walk! not least because it rained all evening. En route, I passed the place around here I lived for a year, aww!

Terrific location, and ensuite - pity about them constantly setting off fire alarms though, so we ended up stood on the steps in the wee hours, waiting for the fire brigade! On one occasion, I remember someone did it because she had forgotten her keys, and honestly didn't understand why they fined her for setting off the alarm!

Well, on I walked, to The Greene Man for food - which, to my dismay, was heaving! Not a seat to be had on ground level, so down I schlepped, since they advertised downstairs seating. It was heaving downstairs too - but hallelujah, they were shunning a raised part with a few tables in it, and there was space there! Grateful to collapse on the sofa and dump my bag, I spotted the indistinct number on the table, and ordered food and drink on the app.

Oh dear, it took a while to come though - when she came, after 15 minutes, with the cutlery, I mentioned the wine I'd also ordered: to which she responded with a gesture, evidently meant to represent the long list of drink orders she had to fill! She soon came back with my pie - this is a Greene King pub, and I love their pies - and reassured me that the wine shouldn't be long. In the end, it was another five minutes.

The wine was lovely, the pie was lovely. Unfortunately, the mash that came with it was tasteless, and soon cold - I left most of it, and the peas. I ate most of the pie, except about half the ring of crust around the middle, which was too tough. Not the most successful meal I've had here - I've definitely had better. Can put it down to how busy they were, perhaps!

And thus I headed back off out to the theatre, in the rain. It was heavier now, and I fairly dripped when I got inside - to the box office first, as always here, and got my ticket, then joined the others for a chat before we went in. One decided he wanted to sit in the front row - so we did.

The setting is the living area of a dingy-looking flat, apparently on one of the upper floors of a tower block. Great views, apparently. And the story shifts from something around the present day, and the young couple who've just moved in there, to four hundred years later, the kids in somewhat different, eclectic clothing, gathering to celebrate something called "founder's day" and remember their predecessors, who came there after the collapse of society that resulted from, by the sound of it, a plague resulting from antibiotic-resistant bacteria, compounded with flooding. 

Ah, lovely. We get snippets from the present-day story that indicate that the bloke works for Big Pharma, and that his company is guilty of accidentally releasing tons of antibiotics into the Thames, allowing for a strain of resistant bacteria to form. Oops. And in the futuristic story, they're reading nostalgic books about those days, and the decadent people that lived then.

And yes, they keep breaking into music! We agreed, talking about it outside at the interval and afterwards, that not all their musical abilities were equivalent.. there was one standout performer (Max Alexander-Taylor, who plays "Biscuits"), but not so much the others. Still - we stuck with it, it was interesting to speculate where the futuristic story might go. Mind you, it was rather a relief to get out of that dingy environment.. Anyway, if you fancy giving it a shot, it runs to the 13th of next month.

I got buses home. Interestingly, one of the group who took the Tube noted afterwards that it had been flooded.. as he remarked to us, "It's started!" ;-)

Tomorrow, I was supposed to be on another Meetup, back with The Hideout for Keeper, directed by Osgood Perkins - details TBA, but it was to be somewhere around Leicester Square. Except the organiser cancelled last night due to personal issues.. tarnation! 

So I said I'd still go to a film.. the one I was planning to go to this coming Monday. What's coming up is Palestine 36, a recreation of the events of 1936 in that part of the world, with Palestinian villages revolting against British colonial rule - all while the British are planning their typical pursuit of redrawing maps. They also face the problem of increased Jewish immigration to the region. Jeremy Irons plays the British High Commissioner. Now, when I looked up where was showing it, Flicks informed me that the closest location to me is somewhere called Curzon Sea Containers.. I'd never heard of it, but it transpires that there's a Sea Containers hotel, with a Curzon as part of it! The cinema only seems to be open Friday evenings, Saturdays, and Sundays. Well done Flicks! Anyway, I've booked that, but the hotel restaurant seemed a bit gourmet for my liking, so I'm eating in The Archduke afterwards. From that point of view, again, it's a pity the Leicester Square event was cancelled - I had a voucher for Bella Italia, which I could have used there, and which will now expire unused.. ironically, considering the Cranbourn Street branch is actually my favourite restaurant. 

Saturday is another ex-colleagues meeting - or probably just another meeting with James! We haven't seen Ivan since June, and Martin since last Christmas.. Probably in The Phoenix again.

On Sunday, back with Mandy and London Herstory Walks (LHW) for Rebel Women of the South Bank.

On Monday, still going to a film - now it's Train Dreams, what looks like a beautiful film about a logger and railroad worker in the United States in the early 20th century. And this one is in the more familiar surrounds of the Curzon Bloomsbury.

On Tuesday, heading with Paul and Tim's Greater London Talks and Walks, for Tim's Walk: London by Gaslight. Meeting in the Pret near Green Park Station.

On Wednesday, back with storytelling in Folklore! This time it's Nell Phoenix for the Crick Crack Club, performing The Girl Who Married a Dog, tickets with Dice as usual. Eating at The Blues Kitchen Shoreditch beforehand - and wow, it's a couple of months since I was last up that way!

Next Thursday, back with Mandy and her new Meetup group (ahem) Rat-Arsed Tours! This is her Knightsbridge & Belgravia Crimbo Walk - and gee, she has a lot to live up to after the last one of these! Also advertised with LHW. Meeting in The Plumbers Arms. And just like last time, I'll be getting a workout with my laptop on my back..

And on the 21st, I've lucked out getting cheap tickets with CT to a concert of Spanish classical guitar music at Pixaudio! Regular tickets with Eventbrite. Ah, I adore this music.. eating in The North Pole beforehand.