London Still Rocks!

Tonight , yet more storytelling from the Crick Crack Club (CCC)! This one was Downright Rude! with TUUP (wow, it's ages since I'd seen him), Sarah Liisa Wilkinson , and Nell Phoenix , in Folklore . (How they'd all fit in there, I didn't know - it's tiny!) Booked to eat beforehand in The Blues Kitchen Shoreditch . You know, it wasn't forecast to rain.. well it did, as I went for the bus . Typical. And the bus was doing its magical disappearing act, now on the board, now not.. it did come in reasonable time, and deposited me near the Blues Kitchen at about the right time. More rain, of course. I was immediately seated.. and lo! They've changed the menu! Sadness and grief.. Gone is the delectable fried chicken - in its place, a "half roast chicken", a number of things I wouldn't be bothered with, or a couple of steaks - a 200g fillet, or, for £5 more, a 400g sirloin. I had the fillet - 200g is fine for me. With fries. Meh, the steak isn...

Tonight, back with the  Crick Crack Club  at  Folklore , where  Nell Phoenix  delivered a show called  Uncanny , a set of apparently true scary stories. Tickets from  Dice , as ever, and I was eating beforehand in  The Blues Kitchen Shoreditch , as usual. This strike  promised to be over by evening. Well now, I guess nobody told the bus passengers that, because the buses were rammed. Crazy busy, I was lucky to get on, glad to get off. Plus they were all delayed. Happily, today's was a short journey - at that, I couldn't get a bus quite close enough, and had to walk the last bit. I was five minutes late, but hey, they were practically empty! I got a table without issue, was served at lightning speed - and oh, it was good. Had one glass of wine, and when I was finished all that, it was late enough that by the time I got to the venue, the doors would be open, so off I went. Pity really - Wednesday is cocktail night, they're all on sale.. Got mys...

Tonight , yet more storytelling - I was back at  Folklore Hoxton  for  A Dance with the Minotaur's Sister , told by  Steph Brittain  and presented by the  Crick Crack Club  ( CCC ) , tickets with  Dice , as usual - completely sold out, as they tend to. And wouldn't you know it, I've been so busy, it completely slipped my mind to book the  Blues Kitchen  for beforehand! Got it done in time, phew. Well, I headed out when Google Maps told me to - to discover that the bus was delayed. Never mind, it still got me there within five minutes of my booking.. and service, while slightly slow, wasn't disruptively so. Happy to say the chicken is as moreish as ever - and wow, the chips are a lot less salty, mercifully! Someone must have had a word.. I see the cocktails were reduced to £6 today - but I didn't fancy them with my meal, and hadn't time afterwards. Pity - I do like their ginger margarita. The bar at Folklore was unusually non-busy - I o...

Tonight, back with storytelling in  Folklore ! This time it was  Nell Phoenix  for the  Crick Crack Club  (CCC), performing  The Girl Who Married a Dog , tickets with  Dice  as usual. Eating at  The Blues Kitchen Shoreditch  beforehand - and wow, it's a couple of months since I was  last  up that way! It's a bitter, bitter cold snap in London right now - good timing for me to order thermal, fleece-lined gloves! I picked them up today - unfortunately, I didn't have gloves to wear en-route - and by the time I got home again, I had pins and needles in my frozen fingers. But hey, I got to wear them as I headed out again - and yes, I can testify they are wonderfully cosy! Not magnificent when using the phone though - I find I can swipe, but I can't pinch, and of course fingerprint recognition is a dead loss.. still, they'll come in very useful. For preventing my hands from seizing up in the cold. I wondered why Google Maps suggeste...

Tonight, storytelling was back, whee! The show I went to was  Hot Crones & Other Revelations , at  Folklore Hoxton , courtesy of the  Crick Crack Club . Tickets from  Dice , as usual. And I booked at  The Blues Kitchen  beforehand. Rain was promised. It was misting as I waited for the bus - I managed a seat upstairs. And it really started lashing during the journey! Happily, it pretty much rained itself out by the time I got off again - and I just made the bar in time for my booking. Well, it seems they've started remembering me here, too - she knew what I wanted to drink! And it came quickly. Unfortunately, that seems to have backfired - at least, I'm assuming that's the reason the table beside me, whose occupants were seated after me, had their order taken before mine. The Maitre d' seems to have noticed my irate look, because after he passed, my server came and asked whether I wanted food! Eh, yes, that's why I have a menu in front of me.. When I sa...

Last night , storytelling from the  Crick Crack Club  again! This time at  Folklore Hoxton  - and it was  Maui Trickster . Ate at  The Blues Kitchen  beforehand, and my companion from the  Swiss  trip said she'd join me. I couldn't remember how I'd booked my tickets - so the reminder email that Dice sent that afternoon was much appreciated!  I was at the office, unable to check my phone regularly - so it was long before I left that she started out, and I didn't get the message until I left that she expected to get there.. 10 minutes from when I got the message! Well, I wasn't going to make it for that - she'd mistaken the time. I couldn't respond immediately, rushing for the next bus - but when I was on the bus, I let her know I expected to be about half an hour. And downloaded my ticket while I was at it - you can't screenshot from the app, but it seems stable enough once the code is activated. And I cancelled my restaurant booking. B...

On Wednesday, I went to The Hideout 's  Cherry Blossom April Social ! In conjunction with  Movie Roadhouse London   (MRL) , of course - the name, mind you, conjures up summery-er weather than we have now. In the  BFI  as usual - the  lounge  though, this time. I booked to eat in  The Archduke  beforehand. I was signed up for it with MRL as well.. aren't I the busy one?! Managed to get away roughly in time - the social was an early start, so dinner was early too. I made it about five minutes late, which wasn't a problem - was shown upstairs, as usual, and asked what the soup of the day was. Didn't notice I was actually sitting under a large sign that told me precisely that, oops. So, it was mushroom, and I had that - hot enough to scald, it was so comforting on a cold day! Accompanied by warm toast and butter - and I had the roast chicken to follow. Yum.. and that was all I had time for, trotting over to the BFI afterwards. Where we had the wh...

Tonight, more  storytelling  - this time, back at  Folklore Hoxton , tickets through  Dice  again. Sold out though. And again, I booked to eat at the  Blues Kitchen Shoreditch . Wow, what a day at work! They're desperate to get a release out, desperate for the documentation, and although I got it out in good time, they came back with a load of changes - not all of which I had time to do before I left for the day. 6.30am I started work today - yes, I am sleep-deprived; even though I'm in the office tomorrow, and have to get up earlier than usual, I'm still looking forward to more sleep than last night! and will be seeing to that as soon as I'm done writing this. Even at that, I caught a bus in good time - and brilliant sunshine, although it's still not that warm - and arrived 10 minutes early for my reservation. Even though my bus stopped short, and TFL insisted that the stop I was now at was closed, even as I was getting on another bus there! No problem...