Film: The End of Oak Street

Yesterday, second Meetup in a run of three, second of two with The Hideout, the group was off to see The End of Oak Street, where Anne Hathaway and Ewan McGregor find themselves and their family transported to another dimension, at the Vue Leicester Square, meeting in Victory House beforehand as usual. I finished the last post in Bella Italia Cranbourn Street, eating a delicious dinner! (I also see I included many typos in my haste, apologies.)

Made my way around the corner to Victory House afterwards, only to discover that their bar was closed! Well, I hung out with the few who'd come by that stage until the organiser messaged to say that, because of the bar closure, we were going to meet in the cinema bar instead. And so we made our way up there - and for once, the bar was staffed and I could get wine! It was a large group - we gathered in the central part of the bar, but the sofas were soon full, and people had to pull up chairs. We had a good chat before going in, though.

Now, it's not a major spoiler - because it appears in the poster (why do they have to do that?) - but this new dimension has dinosaurs in it. So it's basically suburbia vs the dinosaurs. Suburbia doesn't fare too well. I really enjoyed the film, thought it was well done, and they have an impressive array of dinosaurs, all of which will happily take a chunk out of you - not just the usual suspects. That's essentially all I have to say about it.. I did like it more than most of the group, as I discovered during the ratings, but that might have been because they were expecting more actual horror.. We had terrible trouble escaping the cinema though - what with renovations, we discovered the only way out was by lift! and also that the ground floor is actually "1" in the lift..

And so to the W Hotel, where I don't think anyone had food - we were sat around the firepit this time, and had a lovely evening chatting. Oh, and I was prompted to pop my upcoming London Museum A-Z (LoMAZ) Dracula events on The Hideout's WhatsApp.. I certainly hadn't done that for the Bram Stoker Festival trip, tsk..

All that lovely wine put me sound asleep on the bus home.. with no helpful messages to rouse me, I woke in Canary Wharf and had to make my way from there.. so I skipped blogging when I finally made it!

Today, off with Museum, Art and Culture Socials for a tour of the Crypt Museum at All Hallows by the Tower. Might've been a thing for our Dracula events, but it's apparently tiny and the museum put a strict limit on numbers, so it booked up quickly. The WhatsApp group was entertainingly named Tomb with a View.. we're meeting in Costa Coffee Tower Vaults, and will head to the pub afterwards.

Tomorrow, I'm off to a free traditional Indian Carnatic Music Performance at the London College of Contemporary Music. Tickets from Eventbrite.. 

On Tuesday, back with The Hideout for The Texas Chainsaw Massacre at the Prince Charles. I see Connor from LoMAZ is coming, his first Hideout event, which is cool..

On Wednesday, I'm off to a film called Love Me Tender at the Arzner - my first time there. It specialises in gay film, and this is a French film about a gay, divorced woman, fighting with her ex-husband for custody of their son. It was booking out, so I booked. 

Then it's a run of four more Meetups. On Thursday, finally back with Up in the Cheap Seats for Jeeves Takes Charge, at the Charing Cross Theatre. 

On Friday, back with The Hideout for Insidious: Out of the Further. Love this series.. and lo, this'll mean I'll have been to four Hideout events in a row.

The weekend, as so often, belongs to LoMAZ. On Saturday, I'm on a daytrip with them to Cardiff.. haven't been there since a U2 concert, decades ago!

Next Sunday, we're going to a Mozart prom..

And then I'm racing across town to co-host a Dracula event at the British Museum- we're viewing Room 47, which has exhibits relating to the 1800s.

Finally, on the 24th, I'm at Southwark Cathedral Summer Organ Festival.