London Still Rocks!

Yesterday saw my last  Meetup  of the year, with  London Museums from A-Z  (LoMAZ) doing their 2025 Xmas Pub Crawl! Not listed as an official Meetup event, it was advertised on their  WhatsApp  chat for people who have already attended a LoMAZ event - so restricted to people who've both attended an event and signed up for the WhatsApp group, and people they choose to invite. Now,  Helen  was also coming to town that day.. and when they amended their plans to include a pre-crawl lunch, she said she'd join us! So, we started at  Nando's London Bridge . She got there before I did - and when I got there, there were also a couple of the group outside. I hung around with her inside the door until our Master of Ceremonies - dressed festively in a Santa hat and jacket, stormed into the place (I told her she couldn't miss him, he was a big, boisterous hug of a person..) Well, sure enough, in he breezed.. and I think he had spoken to the place bef...

Tonight was the  Crick Crack Club's Christmas Carols show , at  Hoxton Hall , starring  Ben Haggarty ,  Tim Ralphs , and  Steph Brittain , with  Sheema Mukherjee  on music. Booked the nearby  Breeze Bistro  for beforehand, and never did get confirmation.. so I gave up, and booked  The Blues Kitchen  again. Left all my work to today - and still got it done early! so said I'd leave early, only to find a backed-up line of traffic and no #47 coming, as promised by Google Maps . Not within the next half hour. Well, the next option was to take a different bus from London Bridge , and hopefully take the #381 as far as there. One was due - however, when it finally showed, it had changed its destination, and wasn't going anywhere near as far. Which was when a few of us decided to walk. Unfortunately, the unexpected exercise proved too much for my weakened chest, and when I was nearly there, I dissolved into a violent coughing fit - actuall...

Today, I was supposed to be in the office - but when I woke, I could tell this would be one of those days that I'd spend a lot of time coughing.. so I made the executive decision to work from home, on this, my last work week of the year. (My boss said that was prudent.) This evening, something I waited a long time to hear about.. some time ago, I was at an amazing  mediaeval music concert  by  Rune  at the church of  St. Bartholomew the Great  - at which they advertised a mediaeval carol concert in the same venue. Well, it finally came onto the church diary, and happened this evening - twice in fact, at 6pm and 9pm, free, no tickets required. They're also livestreamed on their   YouTube site , and kept there for two months. The church opened an hour beforehand - and they recommended getting there early. I decided to head to the later one, and was thinking of eating in  The Old Red Cow  beforehand -  emailed for a booking, only for them t...

Last night , back with  Up in the Cheap Seats  (UITCS), and again at  Southwark Playhouse  - the Elephant venue this time - for  Ride the Cyclone , the story of six teenagers killed in a freak rollercoaster accident, and suspended in limbo, who are given one final chance to prove why they deserve to return to life. My last time with the group this year. Headed out in time to eat - and in a wonderful coincidence, the bus happened right along. I checked, and The Rockingham Arms is one of the closest places to eat - not quite as close as the Toulouse Lautrec , but doesn't require booking, nor confiscate your deposit if you're more than 15 minutes late. Plus it's cheaper, and less fussy. So I took myself off there - it was busy, but I found a table near the window and had ordered in about a minute, was served in five. And the chicken katsu is crispy here.. the sauce was a little congealed, but that's forgivable. I was a bit early, so had a second drink - I knew th...