Social, Sachertorte, the Wallace Collection, Interview with Michael Palin, & Concert: Mahler & Sibelius
Last Saturday.. well, someone from LoMAZ suggested creating an event to eat sachertorte. The Lanesborough Hotel is hosting a temporary pop-up, giving you the chance to eat sachertorte and apfelstrudel prepared to the original recipe of the Hotel Sacher in Vienna. However, wouldn't you know it, that was the only day this month that suited James to meet! The group was headed to a ceilidh that evening, but I said I'd skip it and hang out with James and Mark and Martin, if it suited.. ah, the difficulties of scheduling!
But then, when I asked about timings, the organiser said he'd completely forgotten about it - and was it Saturday or Sunday? Well, I didn't have anything for Sunday, so asked for that, and he was fine with it.. but a couple of others weren't. Unfortunately, I was outvoted.. and then someone else couldn't do Saturday, so it ended up as Sunday after all, phew! Sorted.
Martin, unfortunately, had a family thing crop up - and Mark arrived so late, we wondered whether he was coming at all! But James and I spent most of the day at The Phoenix, where we had our usual.. ah me, there's a reason I always have the steak there: and to be fair, as I remarked to James, it'd been a while since I last had steak.. three weeks, in fact! Gorgeous - although sadly, they've stopped serving onion rings with it! And of course, Mark arrived just as we'd given up on him. Hey-ho, we did have a good day.. Too tired to blog that night, of course.
And Sunday, I had to be out earlier than I normally would, for the long-awaited sachertorte.. and it would be the day of the London Marathon.. I awoke to the cheers of the crowd:
Too far to take the bus anyway - which was just as well, considering the marathon closed the roads around me! As it was, with the crowds on the main road, I had to walk around the back. Got a packed Tube from a packed station, arrived in decent time to walk down to where we were to meet. Arrived about on time.. but it was as well the organiser, about that time, posted a picture of where we were to meet, because could I distinguish it from all the other memorials around there..!
Met two of them there, and when our final member arrived, we schlepped across the road to the hotel.. which, as I remarked on the way in, had the nice whiff of luxury about it. We found the room (The Withdrawing Room) where we were to go - if you weren't sure, it's got a Hotel Sacher trolley outside, with lots of goodies from there!
Inside, we were offered our choice of seat - so we grabbed a table with a sofa, which the ladies nabbed. It's an elegantly appointed space:
A fire was burning in the grate - not necessary with the warm weather, but as we said, it added to the ambience. We had to ask for the sachertorte menu specially - and discovered that it comes with a number of options: on its own, or with a hot beverage, champagne, or both! The gents had the triple deal of cake, a hot beverage, and champagne - one had tea, one coffee. The other lady had a latte with her cake - me, I don't drink tea or coffee, so had a glass of wine with my cake.
I, of course, do love my chocolate cake.. I'm not generally a fan of fruit with cake, but the apricot with this isn't overpowering, and does lend a lighter texture to the cake than it might otherwise have. We were all fans.. and I do declare, the wine, which I have had before, tasted nicer out of crystal. So I had another. The teapot came with a padded covering for the handle, for goodness' sake.. and we had a really lovely, relaxed afternoon there chatting. Budget about £50 for this excursion, which lasts to the end of next month - indeed, I'm thinking of heading there again with Mark and Martin (James isn't available). Our organiser ended up buying a cake to share among his work colleagues.. at these prices, I hope they appreciated it..
And our organiser had another idea for us to round off the afternoon - he suggested we go to the Wallace Collection! We bussed it there, it's about a mile away.. and though I've seen it a few times already, you know, it's always good!
Some pieces, I'd never noticed before:
And we performed a chandelier comparison with the Lanesborough!
And as our organiser (who obviously had a particular interest) pointed out to us, the collector obviously had something of an interest in Napoleon!
I've always liked the precision of this painting - apparently, one painter who was shown it was most taken with the brushwork on the bricks bordering the river:
Personally, I've always loved the expression on the face of this eavesdropping housewife:
A decorative ewer:
I've always loved this portrait of Queen Victoria - pictured here at her coronation, at the age of 18:
This astronomical clock was telling the wrong time - as one of the group pointed out, who'd be bothered to get a stepladder to change it?!
And much attention was paid to this portrait of Louis XIV with his son, grandson, and great-grandson (who eventually inherited from him, his father and grandfather having died):
This clock prompted some discussion about how much bling the average home could get away with:
And before we left, we had a look at some ornate Indian daggers:
What an excellent idea, to round off a lovely afternoon! Honestly, a very enjoyable, very entertaining - and very well-planned - day out! Many thanks to our imaginative organiser.
On my way home from the station, I pass two Wetherspoons - the first is The Sun Wharf, so I decided to pop in there for dinner. It was packed with people unwinding after the marathon - and their friends and family unwinding with them - but I got a seat, got fed, and got wine - not out of crystal, sadly:
I was too tired to blog again that night, and too busy with work to catch up on it yesterday.
Last night, I was headed to an interview with Michael Palin at the Gillian Lynne Theatre, dinner beforehand in the Prince of Wales. And my sometime companion came too. The evening got off to a late start, with an accident involving a bus somewhere near me, and all the buses diverted. I ended up having to walk a substantial part of the route, and finally arrived at the pub 15 minutes late - happily, it wasn't busy, and he showed me right to my table. When I'd said I'd be late, my companion had taken herself off to Caffe Nero - she arrived shortly after I messaged to say I was there.
Well, they've completely changed the menu since I was last here, months ago! They now have chicken katsu, so I had that - my companion had a combination of small plates. Unfortunately, they were out of most of what she wanted - she ended up with the halloumi, the calamari, and the buffalo chicken wings.
Wow, that katsu sauce is rich and gorgeous - I have a new favourite, here! (It was a little difficult to order though, with the server thinking, when I said "katsu curry", what I'd said was "katsu burger"..) Mind you, the chicken is in short supply. And they have that rice I don't like - next time I'll have all chips instead of half n half. As for my companion, she liked everything except the halloumi, which she described as too salty, and hardly touched.
A short walk to the theatre, where we joined the queue to get in - I'd warned her about the exorbitant wine here, but we didn't arrive in time to go to the bar anyway! We were sat near each other in the Circle:
The show was about 90 minutes straight through, and the interviewer has apparently known him since his days in Monty Python. And here's the thing - I know a bit about Monty Python, but not a helluva lot, and unfortunately that's what took up most of the interview. We got a bit about his early life, which was interesting, and a tiny amount about his travel documentaries, which was what I think we both really wanted to hear.. but that was that. Hey-ho, it was good to see him live.. Now, my blogging was delayed again, this time partly by booking ahead, partly by work today..
This evening, I was thinking of film - and what was coming up was The Blue Trail (O Último Azul), a Brazilian film set in a dystopian future where the elderly are shipped off to a colony.. except for a rebellious old woman who's decided she's got too much left to do to be bothered with that!
But then my companion of yesterday came up with a suggestion for a concert by the Odyssey Festival Orchestra, playing Mahler and Sibelius at Cadogan Hall. And I love Sibelius. So I booked Cote Sloane Square to eat in beforehand.
That far out, it was Tube.. which was crowded enough that I had to wait for a second train. One misfortunate bloke was travelling with, I guess, his wife, a toddler, and a fold-up pushchair - he decided to let them on and take a later train, which I guess was fair enough. Thing was, he took one look at the second train and didn't get on that either. I'm guessing he was a tourist - honestly, if you're waiting for an uncrowded Tube around rush hour, you will be waiting..
I got to the restaurant first and got a table - the wine, conveniently, had just arrived when my companion did, and we had a lovely meal. Handily, when we got the bill, it transpired that I'd been charged as per the set menu, even though I hadn't specified it - I'd happened to have a main and dessert that were on it! I wish they'd do that everywhere..
And so just up the road to the hall, where she visited the ladies', I got a drink, and we met at our seats in the Rear Stalls:
One thing that was cool about the concert - and is apparently a feature of this orchestra - is that, before each composer's piece, they have someone one dressed up and acting as the composer, telling the audience about the piece! Now, that's something I'd never seen, and I really enjoyed it. The music.. was sublime. The Mahler was actually really soothing - quite modern-sounding, reminiscent of nature, birdsong - very relaxing. And then, after the interval, we had Sibelius.. as the person portraying him said beforehand, his music was inspired by goblins and trolls.. and goodness me, didn't it sound it! Great, crashing melodies, huge sounds.. reminiscent of the mountains of the north, and the high waves of the seas that surround them. Awesome, and I'm very glad I went.
Next, no fewer than five spooky meetings in a row! Tomorrow, back with Up in the Cheap Seats for The Authenticator, which is described as a Gothic psychological thriller. Love anything that describes itself as "psychological". Showing in the Dorfman - and all seats left at the cheapest price were described as "severely restricted"! so I went for the next price bracket up, which was just "restricted". Eating in The Archduke beforehand - wow, it's months since I was last there!
On Thursday, delighted to be back with Spooky Isles! Well, when I say "back".. once upon a time, I knew them as "Spooky London", when they were a great Meetup group, we'd meet in pubs with a spooky history and conversation was fascinating. Sadly, it died a death over the pandemic.. but was resurrected (appropriately, I guess) as Spooky Isles on Facebook! This is their first face-to-face event since, a social evening in honour of Walpurgis Night and Beltane, featuring a talk by a paranormal researcher, and is happening in my old stomping ground of the King & Queen - I used to live right next door! Tickets from Eventbrite.
On Friday, the first of two films in a row, back with The Hideout for Deep Water, a thriller about a plane that crashes in shark-infested waters - Ben Kingsley is one of the pilots. Details TBA.
And on Saturday, thinking of Rose of Nevada - I saw the trailer and thought it was interesting. A fishing boat reappears after being missing for 30 years.. two men join the crew, and after one voyage, find themselves transported back in time and mistaken for the original crew.. Closest showing to me is in the Barbican.
And on Sunday.. mwah-hah-haa, 'tis the long-awaited launch of Dracula Interactive! It's a LoMAZ event, but to be fair, they didn't come up with it - it developed during the pandemic, based on the fact that the novel, Dracula, is written as a diary. Anyway, a website was set up whereby you could have the section of the novel corresponding to a particular day emailed to you on that day! So.. LoMAZ has decided to read along. Oh, but that ain't the half of it.. we're meeting in our regular haunt of the Union Jack, and dressing up (preferably vampirically) is encouraged. Plus, apart from hopefully deciding the ongoing schedule of readings that day.. we also have a couple of tie-in travel events.. because the action moves to Whitby in August, and to Transylvania in November! And I had so many ideas for the trips.. I was asked to be a co-host. This is going to be a record-breaking Meetup - and with a terrific bunch of people. Ooh, looking forward to it..
The next two days are looking like film. On Monday, thinking of Coup '53, a documentary about the Western coup in Iran in 1953 - and of course, showing in the Curzon Bloomsbury.
And next Tuesday, well, there's a new Irish horror film, Hokum, that I might check out - it's certainly highly rated! The Hideout is actually going to it on Sunday evening. Closest evening showing to me is in Peckhamplex.
On the 6th.. well, it happened before and it's happened again. There's a Meetup group called LGBTQ Culture Lovers - and they're off to a performance of Brahms Symphony No. 1 at St. John's Waterloo. I don't swing that way, but nothing to stop me going on my own! It's called a "rush hour" concert, and certainly it's on early - so I'm eating afterwards in The Archduke.
On the 7th, back with London Social & Cultural Meetups for a talk at the LSE about Trump's Foreign Policy in Historical Perspective. Couldn't miss that..
On the 8th, I've booked with TAC for an improv show called Fabled: The Improvised Fantasy Adventure, showing in The Free Association Theatre.
And on the 9th, back with Laurence Summers and the 45+ Not Grumpies for a reprise of his walk through the Old Jewish Neighbourhood. Yes, I've done it before - but I'm sure I don't remember half of it, and it's been years.. I do remember it being good, though. Also delighted to see that prepayment is no longer required for attendees, whatever setting was changed!
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