Tonight, we were to have our monthly team outing - just the two of us. But yesterday, my boss suggested that we postpone it until our new starter arrives, next week. TBD when she can manage it, as she's supposed to be keen on going out, too. Instead, for tonight, I booked with London Speaks Sessions and LDN Talks @ Night for Space & Time: What Is a Supermassive Black Hole? And it being a Funzing event (like all of theirs), I scoured my old Funzing discount codes, and discovered that Funzing_Fb20 seems to be working again - for all of them I've recently booked! So, a 20% discount - better than any recently offered on their Facebook page. They do have a monthly talks offer now, but I simply don't go to enough to make it worthwhile. Funnily enough, the Meetup groups seemed to disagree with Funzing on where it was on - Funzing said it was BBB, while Meetup thought it was in Rich Mix. I decided to trust Funzing. Same street, at least.
Only two stops, and I was on foot again. (That's how close my destination was.) The name isn't too prominent on BBB (Beach Blanket Babylon) - but otherwise it's hard to miss, comprising a dramatic, black entrance with steps up to the door, flanked by what look like statues of Bast. The bar was deserted - I quickly caught the attention of one of the staff and asked him for the Funzing talk. He pointed to a door at the back (see?!). "Up or down?" sez I. "Up," sez he, "first floor."
There was a lady at the top of the stairs with a long list of names - I called mine to her, and she'd found it by the time I reached her. She whispered that they'd started, but I could go in - pity the door was right beside the presentation area! Never mind, I slipped in and took one of the very few remaining seats. The place smelled of fresh paint - it's all wood decor upstairs, likely newly painted in white, with wooden rafters and thick doors. The toilets, which I visited at the break, are the same. Lack of toilet paper, though - and the ladies in the group claimed it as their own, stopping a guy going in, even though there was nothing to indicate he couldn't. Get with the times, girls..
I hadn't missed much of the talk - when I arrived, she was still talking about the origins of the theory of black holes. Her accent confused me at first - given her French-sounding name, yet she sounded like a native English speaker. Of course, she turned out to be Québecoise, duh!
She was just on the point of telling us how the late Stephen Hawking had a bet that black holes didn't exist. As she said, this was a win-win situation - either he proved that his life's work was justified, or he won the bet! As the talk progressed, she stressed that only very recently has evidence begun to gather in favour of the existence of black holes - indeed, the second half of her talk was concerned exclusively with the extraordinary feats of engineering required to measure their effects. Specifically, she explained to us how black holes colliding produces gravitational "ripples" that can be picked up by detectors on Earth.. it's all done by measuring the time taken for lasers to "bounce" down tunnels. If "ripples" are picked up, they cause spacetime to - distort - and the lasers' travel distance/time is altered. Consider, if you will, the difficulty involved in detecting a change in distance of the order of 1/10,000 of the width of a proton..
The graphics she used were stunning, but as she pointed out, mostly marketing: although she did show us some actual footage, adjusted, as she said, to compensate for the distortion of the Earth's atmosphere, motors moving individual mirrors just to ensure a sharp image. How awesome it is to look at what could be an actual black hole, matter spiralling around it.
She encouraged plenty of questions, and the audience turned out to be reasonably knowledgeable. Predictably, I suppose. Topics covered included how close you could get to one to observe it safely, and why they are depicted with matter around the edge. For the whole night, she teetered between keeping it simple enough for a reasonably non-technical audience, and going into the more sophisticated mathematics of it - after all, this is the hardest maths you'll ever come across.
Why do they do it, you might ask? Gee, I remember going to lectures about black holes in my student days - it was a fantastic way to spend an hour or so. Despite all the complicated formulae, you don't have to go very far into it before you start to discuss phenomenal concepts, and on a ridiculous scale. It's just damn cool to spend your time discussing this stuff. Ridiculously small ripples in spacetime - ridiculously large masses, and distances. As for supermassive black holes? She pointed out that there are small ones, and huge ones - nothing in between. Asked about it later, she described one theory, that all the really big ones - such as the ones at the centre of the vast majority of galaxies - were formed when the universe was young, and that there simply isn't enough concentrated matter now, what with the universe expanding, to form anything but small ones.
An absolutely fascinating evening.. The only question that really stumped her was when someone asked what gravity is, since we'd been talking about it all evening. Her only answer was that that lay more in the realm of philosophy. The only thing to spoil the evening, for me, was the constant backdrop of music from the bar downstairs, which someone remarked at on the way out. Typical Funzing - they seem determined to hold talks in venues that are too noisy!
I walked back, sedately. Tomorrow, back with Up in the Cheap Seats (UITCS) at last for Love Lies Bleeding, at the Print Room at the Coronet. Got my ticket from London Theatre Direct.
On Thursday, I'm going to try the Seven Deadly Sins Pub Naughty History Tour. Walking in London, so Funzing, again. Then I'm back to Ireland again for the weekend.
On Monday, News of the Strange, from the Crick Crack Club, at Soho Theatre. The club does have a Meetup group, but it seems to have gone dormant, and is no longer advertising upcoming events. Not that that stops the organiser from attending - I'm sure I saw her at a recent event! I've actually asked whether they're now defunct - we'll see whether I ever get a response. None yet.
Next Tuesday, back with UITCS for Pinter at the Pinter - Pinter plays at the Pinter Theatre. Two long ones on this occasion - this is Programme Four: Moonlight & Night School.
On the 21st, back at last with The London Jazz Meetup, who are off to the London Jazz Festival for a concert by the Faraj Suleiman Quartet at King's Place. UK premiere, apparently!
On the 22nd, with UITCS at the Garrick for Don Quixote. The only cheap tickets left for this were terrible, so I went a bit upmarket. A bit - I'm still behind a pillar!
On the 23rd, I'm on a Paranormal Activity Tour - ooh! Now, for this one, we get ghost-hunting equipment, which could make it interesting - I don't fancy the dowsing rods, myself, but we'll see. Walking in London, again. Discounted, again. And this was after my loyalty discount - so I got it at better than half price! which is good, considering the price.
On the 24th, I'm off on my own to see A Small Place, at the Gate.
On the 25th, back at last to Winter Wonderland! That evening, I'm off to Cirque Berserk - an annual tradition for me. The latest show is the cheapest, so that's the one I booked.
On the 26th, I'm back with UITCS for Programme Three of Pinter at the Pinter - Landscape / A Kind of Alaska / Monologue.
On the 27th, I'm going to see Company, by Sondheim, at the Gielgud. No tickets available for the upper levels on the official site - they must all have been bought up by resellers! Cheapest I found was with OfficialLondonTheatre, run by See Tickets.
On the 28th, I'm with Walking in London again for the Haunted London Pub Tour.
On the 29th, I'm back with UITCS at the National for Hadestown. Then back to Ireland again for the weekend.
On the 3rd, I'm back to the National for I'm Not Running.
On the 5th, LDN Talks @ Night and London Speaks Sessions (both Funzing) advertised a "Winterville" talk on The Science of Santa, where we get the scientific explanation of how he does it. Taking place at The Windmill. However, seems they meant the day before, when of course I'm busy. So instead I'm going to True West, with Kit Harington, at the Vaudeville. Cheapest tickets from the venue.
On the 6th, Hazel of Walks, Talks and Treasure Hunts, London Guided Walks (and, indeed, Walking in London) has a Christmas Carol Tour. Now, the last two events I booked with her turned out to be no-shows.. the first might not have been her fault, as she was advertising someone else's event, but the second, she just missed the ball on and left three of us standing on a street corner. Whether this event happens is anyone's guess! Now, it's technically more expensive if you book on Funzing - but if you have my discount ;-) it comes down to the same price she charges on her own site, without the booking fee! So I did it that way. But then Henning, with the London European Club, advertised a Happy Xmaths evening at Imperial College, the same night! Festive fun for maths geeks. Plus it's free - you just have to register with Eventbrite. I thought it'd be great to get back with this group. And since I booked the walk with Funzing, I've cancelled and will get a full refund. And I feel no sadness at missing an evening with Hazel, after what's been happening. But gee, this evening is proving to be one of the more popular- now a colleague has booked it for his leaving do. So I'm now going to that instead. Nibbles arranged at The Enterprise.
On the 7th, back with UITCS at the Royal Court, for The Cane. Got the very last ticket, phew!
On the 8th, with them again at the Orange Tree Theatre for The Double Dealer.
On the 9th, the Crick Crack Club is back at the British Museum for I Know Not, an afternoon of Sufi legend.
On the 10th, I'm off to the Bridge Theatre for A Very, Very, Very Dark Matter, by Martin McDonagh. Starring Jim Broadbent, this is a dark take on Hans Christian Anderson!
On the 11th, I'm going with North London Friends to The Convert, at the Young Vic. Discounted top-price seats, it seems!
The 12th is our office Christmas party, but Let's Do This has now advertised a Christmas dinner- which sounds a more attractive prospect. So I'm doing that instead.
On the 13th of next month, I'm thrilled to be going to Matthew Bourne's Swan Lake, at Sadler's Wells, with UITCS. He's a fantastic choreographer, but I've never before gotten around to seeing this all-male version. Then I'm back to Ireland for the weekend again.
And on the 17th of next month, the Crick Crack Club is performing Gilgamesh, at Soho Theatre. With Ben Haggerty in the spotlight, this will be a treat!
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