On Saturday, I got an email from the Top Secret Comedy Club - advertising limited, £8 tickets for a David McSavage show yesterday afternoon. Woo, I love that guy! So I booked - jeez, hadn't been there since the heady days of the Man with the Hat..
For brunch yesterday, I fancied something different. Now, Liverpool Street Station is pretty bereft of eateries these days - but I had noticed something called Eataly, just to the side of the entrance. You couldn't miss it, in fact, bedecked in Christmas finery as it is! Well, Italian, I supposed - so I said that'd surely be OK, and I'd try it.
OMG I had no idea what I was to encounter! Firstly, it's massive - spread over two floors, and extending at least the width of two buildings, it has food markets (Italian, of course) both upstairs and down - and the pick n mix downstairs is truly like Santa's Grotto. I wandered through the whole place, mouth agape. You can actually buy takeaway food at the counters too, and signs advertise that they "cook what [they] sell, and sell what [they] cook"!
Now, I was there for a sit-down meal.. they have no fewer than three restaurants. The ground floor has a spectacular cafe, scrumptious cakes as far as the eye can see - the more substantial fare is to be found upstairs, with a restaurant at either end. They have a pasta / pizza restaurant, of course - and at the station end, a grill restaurant called Terra, which was what I plumped for in the end. She was kind enough to give me a quick look at the menu before I decided, and when I said yes, I was quickly shown to a seat.
Longest Italian wine list in London, apparently. I panicked for a minute, thinking they didn't do wine by the glass - turns out that list is there, although more restrictive; just look for the "Be quick, drink wine" page! I had a Pinot Grigio. And then another. It was damn good. Service throughout was flawless - I haven't seen better.
I skipped a starter, and went straight for the main - first steak I've had in ages, which came with (properly triple-cooked) potatoes on a wooden platter, on a trolley. The server gave me the choice of having it on a plate instead, which she assured me was warm, and is what I opted for - so she happily switched everything over for me. Sauce is always served on the side, here. Not that I really needed it, with steak this good - it was served in slices, strewn with rock salt.. and just perfect.
They don't have a huge dessert menu, as it happens - mostly panettone, which seems to be a house specialty. I had the gianduja panettone, which comes with optional sauce, as do they all - so I had the chocolate sauce. It was nice, but I'm not sure I'd choose it again - it's quite substantial, after a main meal!
Throughout, my every need was anticipated. The waiting staff were attentive and friendly - and the bill, at the end, was served to me in a teeny little envelope. :-) I'm looking forward to going back there again - but it won't become a habit. More suited to a treat, given the bill total! But well worth the visit.
And so, off in the cold to Top Secret. As it happened, when I tried the door, it was still locked - and who but David McSavage himself should open it for me! He was perched on a stool when I got down to the performance area, and we had a merry old chat, mainly about Covid. And how underdressed he was, having come straight over from Dublin, where it was apparently warmer. And how the silver lining about the terrible weather was how it had forced the cancellation of I'm a Celebrity.. ;-) So, if you hear him come out with that in a future show, you know where it came from!
Well, he was worried about a low turnout, but by showtime the place was full. And once he removed his cap - we could see he'd gone blonde! Yuck. Ah well, anyway. So, this was just an hour-long taster show that he threw in, perched on another stool, plucking at a guitar. Seemingly unrehearsed. As he said, other comedians appear unrehearsed, but are faking it and their seeming unpreparedness is actually very well-rehearsed indeed. Not him though - he just hasn't rehearsed. And indeed, this is what it looked like - he tried a few jokes on us, but mainly rambled on for an hour or so. In a very funny manner. Being a surreally funny bloke. I do think it helped that by far the majority of the crowd seemed to be Irish, and therefore knew what to expect.. Anyway, I loved it, always love this guy.
And then I was back in the freezing cold again, back with London European Club - we were off to Immigrant Comedy (standup comedy in English) at the Camden Comedy Club. Tickets from Eventbrite.. two shows, we were going to the later one. So, a Day of Comedy, indeed! Well, I had a variety of bus options - one was direct, so I waited for that, shivering. And it dropped me just a short walk away from The Camden Head, which as it turns out has the Comedy Club above it. Now, I have been here before - years ago! With the - now apparently, sadly, defunct - London Literary Walks. Mind you, that was in daylight, and I didn't remember the place!
I tell you this though, based on this trip, I won't forget it in a hurry - first pub I've ever been to that had NO white wine at all! I didn't feel like red - ironically, as that was the colour of my outfit - so that was that! (At least I'd had a glass at Top Secret.) In due course, I did at least find a table.. the others arrived eventually, and we started to chat, and that was fine - although while I was waiting, a lovely little old gent did offer to buy me a drink: not, as he said, in an attempt to pick me up, but just because I was alone, and drinkless. Aww.
Meantime, my phone battery was rapidly running down - something of a worry, as my ticket was on it. Never fear, here they had a list - checked off by the MC, who turned out to be the excellent Radu Isac! The acts themselves.. rather less excellent, I'm afraid, although hey, they tried! This was a night of immigrant comedy - mind you, the first up had a distinctly local accent! (but Polish parents, as he explained). We had Israeli, Serbian.. I thought the most natural of the night were the Italian and the Russian / Ukranian - although the latter did focus particularly on one of our group, which might have been uncomfortable. Ah well, if you will sit in the front row.. Most of the audience were foreign too, with a particularly high Bulgarian contingent! Well, not as polished a show as David McSavage's, but you have to start somewhere..
Afterwards, with my phone dead, I gave up on buses and followed my companions in the direction of the Tube, which at least got me home faster. Not in time to blog though, given how early a start I have on Mondays! Now, this evening was - of course - destined for film.. as usual on Mondays these days, with not so much on Meetup! Well, once I'd eliminated a couple of Indian films I'm just not interested in, top of the list came out to be Caught in the Net, a documentary from Prague about an experiment that was conducted, involving three young (but grown-up) actresses who could pass for children, and were hired to impersonate 12-year-olds online, and see what happened. Only showing in the Picturehouses, and I was originally going to see it in Picturehouse Central, until I discovered it had been cancelled there, for some reason!
Well, next closest was Hackney Picturehouse. I tried to use a Tesco voucher to book - wouldn't take it, for some reason, but at least I got the voucher converted! (It was due to expire tomorrow.) Another of those places I'd been to before, but completely forgotten. Anyway, again I got a single bus there - and did wonder whether I'd be late, given the stop-start traffic. Well, I made it just in time! and then had to figure out where the entrance was. No, not under where it says "Cinema", you actually enter where it says "Kitchen" - and I was glad it was in Screen 5, as that's the only one I could see signs for! So, upstairs, and into a pretty empty screen - it did fill up a little. Nice, soft pullman seats, as always in Picturehouses.
I was just in time - didn't even have time to log into their WiFi. Now, we all know pretty much what to expect from the topic of this film - perhaps what is most astonishing is its predictability. Within five minutes of creating a fake profile for a 12-year-old girl, it had 16 messages - and over the three months of the experiment, the girls were contacted by nearly 2500 different men, generally middle-aged. And generally fond of showing off their body parts. And very persistent about asking the girls to do things they weren't comfortable with. The rules of the experiment were carefully explained - they weren't to lead anyone on in any way, weren't to be flirty. Psychologists and a lawyer were always present on set - they actually built three bedrooms, using the girls' personal possessions, side-by-side, each complete with laptop and mobile phone.
Probably the stand-out moment of the film is the Skype call that one gets from a bloke that's so nice, so normal, that she breaks down in tears. He's the only one whose face is shown. And towards the end, they confront one of the prime offenders - they've concentrated on just a few, and this is one that the makeup artist on set recognised as someone who organises camp trips for children! He's utterly unapologetic, I might add. The closing captions explain that the police later seized the recordings to form the basis of criminal prosecutions - you can't go propositioning 12-year-olds, you know! Ugh, dreadful stuff - as one of the girls remarked, she had nightmares for weeks after.
I had fun on the way home - had to change buses, and Google Maps had me changing from one to another at the same stop! And there I was, getting all annoyed at the driver, because I could see my second bus, at the stop where he was also supposed to let me off! But eh, no - his stop is around the corner - silly Google Maps. At least I didn't have to wait long for the next.
Now, this was the last depressing evening this week. Tomorrow, back to comedy - one of my cheap clubs (CT) sold me a ticket for Mic Check at 2Northdown. (And sent me a dire warning today that late cancellation, or a no-show, would result in my account being blocked. No exceptions.) Gee, if they didn't have such cheap tickets..
On Wednesday, I booked A Medieval Ghost Story with the Surrey History Meetup, on Teams this time. Tickets from Eventbrite, free when I booked, at least! But you know, they'll probably record it. I hope so, because in the meantime, Invigorate came back with another pub crawl! (AKA Tour of Historic Pubs.) Much closer together this time, thankfully, and all in Southwark, so convenient for me! So I'm going on that, now.
On Thursday, I'm making what used to be my annual pilgrimage to Winter Wonderland! Whee! Particularly as, to get an evening ticket, I had to book three weeks in advance - to combat Covid, they're restricting numbers, and of course, evenings are the hardest to get. Not to mention that they're now charging an entry fee - but that is waived if you book at least £20 of attractions, food or drink in the same transaction. Which I always do - the Cirque Berserk and Magical Ice Kingdom. Looking forward to that hot chocolate with the shot in it already..
And then I'm back to Ireland for the weekend.
No comments:
Post a Comment