London Still Rocks!

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! T he 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 thi...

T wo  Meetup  days in a row now. Tonight, I headed to  A Good House , at the  Royal Court , with   Up in the Cheap Seats   (UITCS) - eating in  Cote Sloane Square  beforehand. Whose service speed had improved, the last couple of times I was there - I thought it'd be interesting to see whether they could keep the side up. Handily, I could get a bus there from work within about half an hour - I was in the office today - and it dropped me right around the corner from the restaurant, hurray! Also hurray for the lovely blast of hot air as you go in - I complimented the lady on the desk for that. I was slightly early for my booking, but was immediately shown to a table at the back. Had the same as  Wednesday of last week  in  Cote St. Katharine Docks  - the Prix Fixe menu,   with the pumpkin soup and steak frites, and a carafe of the Vielles Vignes Sauvignon Blanc, which I love. I skipped ordering dessert, which I knew I wouldn'...

Tonight, back in London, TAC offered free tickets to a Baroque/classical  mandolin concert  at  Cadogan Hall ! They asked for a donation to a cancer hospital of at least what you would have paid - said the concert was in aid of that - mind you, they didn't say which hospital! Seeing a  GOSH  appeal during the ads before the film   last Sunday , I assumed it was them. I booked for  Cote Sloane Square  beforehand - they, at least, fixed their service issues! Unlike the one at  Hay's Galleria .. The Tube was pretty uncrowded, and I made it just in time. Was seated immediately - and yes, they could teach their colleagues at Hay's Galleria a thing or two. Service was what you might call spontaneous - they anticipated my needs, rather than leave me begging for attention. The food arrived quickly - I'd ordered a baguette, but my main arrived so fast I ended up finishing the baguette afterwards. I skipped dessert, which I didn't really have time for...

Tonight, I was back with CT again for  Vox Anima  at  Cadogan Hall  - time to try out  Cote Sloane Square  for the first time in  ages ! Not to mention Cadogan Hall, which I haven't been to in even longer - over  a year and a half , in fact! Work delayed me - as well as my pesky ex-flatmates. You see, the council has finally - more than a year after I moved out - decided we're due a refund of council tax. They want us to fill out a form with our new contact details, and - typically annoyingly - the details of ONE bank account to pay the money into. For goodness' sake, even though they've only just accepted that we were an HMO (house of multiple occupancy), so have nothing to do with each other, they still want us to nominate one person to handle the distribution of the refund. Anyway, predictably, my argumentative ex-flatmate is adamant that the refund isn't enough, and she's going to challenge it. This is the same person who (a) refused to pay i...

Last night , back at last with  Buddies on Budget (BoB) in London , who were headed to the  Belgravia Lights Switch On ! V Christmassy.. and the one day this week it wasn't supposed to rain. So far. We were meeting at Sloane Square - so that'd be Tube . From the other side of the river , though - now, I could have walked it, but cut it a bit fine, and didn't want to have to rush, so I grabbed a bus - which arrived just as I got there! Made the Tube in good time as well - and just as well I wasn't delayed, because Mandy (brandishing a fetching telescopic pole with a little flag on top) left pretty much on the dot. Fair enough, for a free event, if you haven't heard from them - people do have a terrible habit of deciding not to come without letting others know. Just as well, also, she had the pole - lighting isn't great around there, and I didn't see the group at first. Ran into another of Laurence 's group there again as well! Crikey, small city.. And ...