July's Science Fiction Meetup

This weekend, I'm finally back with Meetup - yesterday, it was third time lucky for the London Sci-Fi / Fantasy Meetup Group, who had their social cancelled twice by the Mad Hatter for the World Cup! Yes, they still had it there..

It's not too far from me, but a little far to walk.. my road is still ripped up so they can fix a burst water main, and sadly is going to stay like that for another week or so.. so I walked to further down, where I could catch a bus. Everyone else evidently had the same idea.. nobody at the intervening stops, but when I got to the stop I needed, there was a huge crowd. A bad sign, if so many people had gathered.. they must have been waiting a while. I tried to check the bus status on Buses Due.. they were "experiencing issues", as happens so often. So I gave up on the bus, and checked the Tube - would you believe, it was experiencing severe delays because of yet another points failure! Again, that's happening a lot these days - must be the heat. I gave up and walked.

And it was a long, hot walk, mostly in blazing sun, so I couldn't even see my phone screen to figure out which way to go. In particular, it was a nightmare heading through Borough, with so many criss-crossing streets.. so I arrived later than I'd have liked - at Nando's, five minutes walk from where I was headed. I could have eaten at the pub, but figured it was handier to eat on the way, as I had time. I didn't remember having been there before until I saw the rattan egg-shaped cocoons around some tables. I guess you have to request one of those if you want one - I was led to a regular table. Which was fine, and I was quickly fed. Oh Lordy though, they went heavy on the sauce - I do like that sauce, but my chicken was drenched in it! which made the taste way too strong. Perhaps in future here, I'll ask for it without sauce - sauces are freely available where you collect cutlery and napkins, and I can DIY it.

Made my way down to the pub afterwards, entering straight by the bar entrance to the side (it's also a hotel):

One great thing about this group is they have a greeter at the entrance! which is a lovely way to make people feel welcome quickly. And I was soon in the thick of it, speaking to some people I hadn't met before, some I had, and some.. I wasn't sure about! 😉 but again, was made to feel very welcome. And ooh, I managed to spend pretty much the entire evening talking about horror.. isn't it great that I move in circles where that's popular! The table quiz that happened later was again, sadly, not my forte.. never mind, we did have someone on the team who knew something..

I did manage to get a bus (most of the way) home. Absolutely exhausted, and too tired to blog last night. And today, back with Rewind Tours of London, for a Walking Westminster Tour - I'll have to leave for that soon.

Tomorrow is looking like another film, and what's coming up is Vie Privée (A Private Life), in which Jodie Foster, in a bilingual performance, plays an American psychiatrist living in France and investigating the death of one of her patients, whom she believes was murdered. Showing in the Curzon Bloomsbury.

On Tuesday, I'm back with CT for Ludwig: Unfinished Business, a comedy about Beethoven, showing in the Playground Theatre and performed by an actual pianist. Another Fringe preview.

Next, thinking of two more days of film. On Wednesday, I'm doing something rather related to London Museums A-Z (LoMAZ)'s ongoing Dracula events - they're showing the original Nosferatu in Wilton's Music Hall, with live music, and another of the group is also going. (And you heard it here first, LoMAZ is ending its hiatus next month!) I'm eating in Cote St. Katharine Docks beforehand.

And on Thursday, I was thinking of Life Support, a documentary about the medics operating in Gaza. Evening showing is in the Rio Dalston. But now I see there's a comedy showing in Riverside Studios, called The Big Dog, about a married stockbroker whose savings are cleared out by a dominatrix. Might have a look at that instead.

Finally, I end the month on Friday with CT, heading to a concert called Sirens, with an all-female group singing classic numbers in the Emerald Theatre. Eating in L' Ulivo beforehand.