London Still Rocks!

Right! Firstly, I forgot to mention the film I saw on tv over the weekend - which, as I watched, I remembered I'd seen before. But I didn't remember a thing about it in advance, and it certainly merited a re-watch. The Cellar , a Shudder co-production, is an Irish horror film, released a few years ago now, about a woman whose daughter goes missing after they move into a big old remote house, and who is very suspicious about strange things related to the house - particularly centred on the cellar, of course. Now, its rating isn't great, and true, the first part of the film is woefully amateurish, from a horror perspective - jump scares, predictable.. BUT. It's based on a rather excellent short film on YouTube , called The Ten Steps , written and directed by the same writer/director of the longer film, Brendan Muldowney . The premise is fantastically simple - a young girl, terrified of the cellar, is forced to face her fear when the power goes when her parents are out, a...

Rumours of my death are much exaggerated.. no, I'm still here, I just literally have been too busy! Apologies for the delay, please do read on.. Last Wednesday night, back with the much-neglected  London Literary Walks  - this one was The Modernist Walk , and we were meeting in  The Garden Gate, Hampstead . You can eat there, but I couldn't book for just one person, so had to take pot luck. Mercifully, it rained that morning - stopped later, but it really cooled the city down.. he picked a good day for a walk! Unfortunately, that far out, bus would take too long - so I got the Northern Line all the way to Belsize Park and walked from there. I was a bit late leaving, so would have liked a bus to the station - but the traffic problems persisted, so I assumed my buses would never reach me, and I ended up walking. Sure enough, not a bus passed me on the way. And so I was a little later than intended, arriving at Belsize Park, where I set out on the last leg.. with the sun ...

Tonight, back with  London Literary Walks , for a walk about  Elgar and Freud . Meeting in  The North Star, Finchley Road . Where I saw they do food, but I couldn't book - so I decided just to go and take my chances. Tube , this far away.. and it was packed - I didn't get a seat for the whole trip. Our organiser had given us directions from the station - "up the hill, on the left". Well, it wasn't really much of a hill - not in comparison with some around this area - but I guessed the right direction, and with all the pedestrian crossings going in my favour as I approached, it hardly took me any time at all to get to the pub! I'd planned to get there for 6pm - it was actually 6.15 when I arrived. Easy enough to get a table at that time, mind. I needed to eat, but didn't really fancy the mains - instead, I had crispy chicken strips with honey and mustard sauce (they come with a wide choice of sauces, it was difficult to pick), and some garlic bread. Servic...

Tonight, back with  London Literary Walks  (LLW) for the  101 Dalmatians walk ! We were meeting in  The Globe  - I booked to eat there beforehand. Tube again.. which would take about half an hour, so no major rush. Just as well, considering I was on the same train as a small army of French -sounding schoolkids, all in florescent green baseball caps! Mercifully, they got on the other end of the train.. I'd booked for 6pm, arrived shortly after - the pub was bedlam. Staff were friendly, but I honestly couldn't hear much of what they were saying - the upshot was, I'd be eating in the upstairs dining room (currently roped off), which I'd have to myself, having the earliest booking! So, one of the four staff members took me up, complete with drink, which I figured I might as well get straight away. I had to go back down to order food, which I did pretty quickly - it's Greene King , and I love their steak n ale pie. Unfortunately, I was kept waiting quite a while - t...