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...

Tonight - my first  Meetup  of the year - I was back with the  Horror Book Club  - and yay, I got the book finished   on Monday ! It was  The House on the Borderland , which is absolutely weird, and an early example of cosmic horror - had something of a profound influence on  Lovecraft .. and  Terry Pratchett , it seems! Well, it'd be interesting to hear what people had to say about that - they were meeting in the  Prince of Wales , as usual. Not as cold as previously, with last night's rain - and I'd just missed my bus , darnit! Happily, Buses Due assured me there'd be another along - and lo, there it was, fully five minutes before the estimate! And would you believe it.. it said it wasn't terminating at Aldwych , it was going all the way to Tottenham Court Road ! The very evening I didn't need to go past Aldwych.. Well, I got there about on time, ordered my usual downstairs - garlic bread, onion rings, Karaage sticky chicken. Someone, see...

Tonight, I was tempted back to the  Horror Book Club , who were reviewing  Out There Screaming , an anthology, edited by  Jordan Peele , of short horror stories by black authors. Handily, of the specific stories they intended to review, two were on the free  Amazon  sample! and I liked enough of it to sign up. In the  Prince of Wales  again -  Tube strike  permitting.. Yesterday, I finally finished the stories we'd be reviewing.  On account of that same Tube strike, work designated tomorrow a WFH day, so I went in today. Still pertains, despite the strike being postponed, although people can go in if they want - for me though, today suited nicely, what with what I was going to today being closer to the office than what I plan to go to tomorrow. Wednesdays are usually busiest in the office, but this week, I think people were staying away in general - there was plenty of space! and knowing that I could eat at the pub, I stayed nice and lat...

On Wednesday, I headed back to Ireland for a long weekend, it being my mother's birthday on Thursday. Things didn't quite go to plan, of course. Work flooded in last thing on Wednesday evening.. I knew it wouldn't take long to finish, so finished it. Now, my flight was earlier than usual, with winter schedules. Which meant I missed the bus I was going to get. I got the next one. Which meant I missed the train I was going to get. I got the next one - by the skin of my teeth, having grabbed a sandwich en route. And then.. a points failure right outside Stansted delayed us. We were off that train like greyhounds from a trap. It was very tight for me to make the security gate on time - but I did, panting so hard with relief that a staff member came over to ask whether I was all right. Well, I thought I was.. but it takes so long to get through Stansted, even if you don't stop, even if you're not dawdling - that it took me 20 minutes to get through security, through t...

Tonight, back with CT - to learn to sing showtunes with  Ensemble  at the  Prince of Wales Drury Lane ! Eating there beforehand. Think the throat is OK after last night .. Well, the throat is OK - but wow, I've been tired! The heat hasn't helped - it really does seem to have remembered, suddenly, that it's summer, and with in-between temperatures, it's hard to know how warmly to dress. I had to go for a nap in the afternoon. Then the bus was delayed - and stifling - and again, it didn't help that it was really crowded. Or that, as a result, I had to sit upstairs - where it was even hotter. It finished early.. but actually, that turned out to be a boon, as it transpired that I was just as close to where I needed to be, without the extra bus journey - and the breeze when I got off was a real relief! The coat was hardly necessary, all day. Sadly, I had to evict a couple from my table - which was right under the TV. So I was in proximity to the football , if not actual...