Last night was with CT, at a concert called Sirens, with an all-female group singing classic numbers in the Emerald Theatre. Booked to eat in L' Ulivo beforehand.
Well, those road works outside my estate are ongoing, and TFL is adamant that the #188, which I would use, isn't running past my house. Which is rubbish, because traffic is now flowing in that direction, and indeed I caught that bus on Thursday, outside my house, to go to work! Buses Due was down - has been for weeks now, and I do wonder whether it'll ever work again. Still, I let myself be persuaded by TFL, and walked on to where I was supposed to be able to catch it.. only to see it sail past me before I got there. Lovely. So I had to catch another bus, and change, and then the second bus didn't come and I had to walk the last bit.. So I was a few minutes late to the restaurant.
Not a problem, and I was seated a bit more centrally than usual - which might be why it was a bit easier to get service. I had wine - don't really fancy the starters (just as well, because it's a bit pricey), and with the chicken having been tough the last time, I thought I'd splurge on steak. Unfortunately, the waiter had left when I realised I hadn't ordered a sauce to go with it - so when I caught someone else's eye, I asked for peppercorn sauce. Must have been 10 full minutes after the steak arrived that the sauce did - I suppose they made it from scratch. Oddly, it was served in a large bowl, with a spoon, rather than in a ramekin.. seems as though, if I had remembered it at the same time, it'd have been poured over the steak, rather than coming on the side.
It was absolutely full of peppercorns.. now, I don't like eating those whole, the flavour is too intense, and they were so difficult to avoid! Anyway, the rest of the sauce was deliciously creamy, and I spooned it extensively over both steak and fries. The steak, apart from that, was utterly tasteless, and had a chewy consistency - not really nice at all. Perhaps I'll try the pasta, if I'm back. The fries were nice. I had a second glass of wine, and might have gone for dessert, except it was running a bit late.
The theatre had emailed the tickets that afternoon, so I was in no rush, and got there in plenty of time. I was directed to the sofa at the end of a row, but ended up swapping with a group, one of whom was forced to sit on a chair, which was much higher than the seats around him. I figured he'd be less conspicuous if they were sitting more to the rear - and hey, that gave me a better view too!
I was in time to go to the bar, where I asked for Sauvignon Blanc - and the nice man was good enough to ask me whether I wanted a bottle! How very obliging - but I decided to pace myself.Just before the start of the show, the various members of the group came around to chat to audience members about why they were there.. what we said was used as an intro. The outfits were black and sexy.. and their repertoire was, as you'd expect, varied. I mean, I would have expected RESPECT, Man! I Feel Like a Woman!, and Girls Just Wanna Have Fun.. less expected, but none the less welcome, were You Oughta Know (wow, it's years since I even thought about Alanis Morissette!) and EMO like Bring Me to Life, which started the show. We had Sweet Child o' Mine and I Want to Break Free. And I was frequently to be found singing along - although I resisted the temptation to dance at the end! Not my thing.A fantastic show, great fun - runs to the 9th. Highly recommended.Would you believe, I got caught up doing other stuff all day today, so hadn't time to blog before I left. This evening, I headed to the Prince Charles (PCC), who were showing Blackberry - a fictionalised account of the development.. of the Blackberry, the first phone with internet capability. I never did get to see it, and it looked fun. It was mostly booked out already, so I booked. Also booked to eat in Bella Italia beforehand, of course - always great to have an excuse!
Today, I didn't trust TFL.. and sure enough, saw the bus at the stop. Just in time for me to miss it. Had a tense wait for the next, with Buses Due out of operation - was just going to try another app when the bus rounded the corner, hallelujah. Got to the restaurant slightly early, and wow, actually met a staff member who didn't recognise me! He was perfectly friendly - but it's just so rare to meet someone there I don't know. I overheard the manager explaining to him who I was, when he arrived..
With no regular offers on email at the moment, I tried the app, where they have a perk for first use of free gelato. I had booked early enough that I had time for that - and all the food was delicious. Next time I eat there, I get a 25% food discount - and after that, a 50% food discount that lasts all the way through September.. as long as I eat there twice more by the end of the month..
And so to the cinema, where I got a drink, then with the upstairs screen not open yet, I took it down to the bar, and ran to the loo before heading back upstairs.
Well, the film is great fun. You know, tech companies haven't changed that much - they're still informal, have techies who dress down every day and have social events. The workers are well-paid, and prepared to put in the long hours. The problem with the company that becomes Blackberry is that the CEO is much more of an engineer than a businessman. They get massively ripped off on one deal, and then when they pitch to a larger corporation, they are so unprofessional that they are laughed out of the building.
However, they do attract the attention of someone who decides to invest, as long as he's made CEO - they agree on him being joint CEO. And he's a ballsy salesman.. leaving the techies to do their thing. And they do have a unique product.. but, as history shows, six months is a long time in tech, and the film's tone darkens as they eventually find themselves utterly superseded - by Apple, and the idea of a large-screened phone, instead of one that looks like a miniature computer, with a permanent keyboard. As the closing screen tells us, at their height, Blackberry owned 45% of the global cellphone business - and that percentage fell to 0%.
Essentially, it's the story of the eternal, and ongoing, fight between fun people who love to bury themselves in tech, and those who live a flashier life as wicked, corporate salespeople. But of course, those same corporate types are the ones who make the deals, and found the companies, that allow the techies to do fun jobs for great money. The conflict continues, in a business where the next big thing could literally bankrupt you, unless you're ahead of the curve.
It's a pacy and tense film, the characters well-drawn. Never gets boring, as we are drawn into the characters' personalities as much as their business dealings. Highly recommended, if you have an interest in tech.
On Tuesday, back with Up in the Cheap Seats for Allegra, starring Maureen Lipman, at the Harold Pinter - got a cheap ticket with Seatplan, and completely forgot I'd earned a voucher I could've used! I managed a seat at the edge of the Dress Circle, which is at ground level. Eating beforehand at Bella Italia again, yay!
On Thursday, decided on film again, and what was coming up was The Sacrifice, a film about a family who've just discovered there's to be a nuclear war. Closest evening showing is in the Curzon Soho. But looking just now at a more complete listing, I see the PCC is showing Contes d' Été (A Summer's Tale), a wee story of a young lad juggling several simultaneous relationships. Looks decent, and is mostly sold out again, so I've booked. Eating at Bella Italia afterwards, because it's an early film - which means I'll have the three meals required to qualify for lots of half-price dinners, yay!
And woohoo, Friday sees the kickoff of LoMAZ's Dracula trips! The book goes to Whitby next month - and so do we! Now, we were having dreadful trouble trying to figure out how to get there, with complicated travel routes - until I was at one of Laurence Summers' walks, we were having lunch afterwards, and talking travel, and I mentioned this trip to Whitby. "Whitby!", exclaims the woman sitting opposite me, "I love Whitby!" She's always there, it seems.. to which, of course, my response was - "How?!"
So, she always gets the fast train to York and an Uber from there - says it's the quickest, and cheapest, among any of the alternatives. So.. we're all getting the fast train to York! on Friday. I booked with Uber, which got me the best deal - and points - and I had credit with them. Most of us are heading in the morning - I'm taking the day off - and then some are heading straight to Whitby by Uber, some by connecting trains, and some of us are staying in York for lunch and a wander around - it's a beautiful city. (And we're a flexible group.) We're then carpooling Ubers to Whitby, and have made a provisional booking at The Fat Badger in Whitby for dinner that night. We're trying to confirm numbers just now. We all booked our own accommodation - I'm in The Captain's Lodge, and it seems a few more of the group are next door.
Next Saturday looks jam-packed - not least because there's a regatta in town! A number of us have booked to go to the famous abbey that day, where there are two showings of a Dracula play.. and one of the organisers, Shelley, has put together a Bram Stoker walk. She's compiled a shortlist of places to eat that night. Meantime, there are a few Goth fans in the group, who are likely to hit the apparently numerous Goth shops in the town - as told to me by someone on another of those walks!
Now, I was on yet another walk when the guide said to me that the Dracula Experience in Whitby is great fun.. Well, I'll try and squeeze it in on the 9th, although I'm guessing we'll be having lunch, and then we're heading back home in the late afternoon - watch this space. Altogether though, expecting a great trip!
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