Walk: The Barry Wise Wise Tour of Soho

Tonight, Meetup threw up another walk - and my decrepit knee was just about working, so I said I'd probably manage it. This one was the Barry Wise Wise Tour of Soho, and gee.. by today, the only Meetup members on it were me and the organiser! But I was told that other people had booked directly through the event website (yay, no extra charge for booking through Meetup, BTW - other groups take note!), so it's not like it was just going to be the two of us and the two hosting the walk, or anything..

I left in plenty of time, which meant I hardly had anything to eat, as usual. Compromises must be made, after all. Even on the one-stop journey on the District Line, there was a red signal - but we eventually got to Earl's Court, where I took the faster Piccadilly Line to Leicester Square. I'd got an email the day before, with a map showing the meeting point in Soho Square, and a quick check on Google Maps revealed it's quite close to the Soho Theatre, where I've been many a time. So all I had to do was swing through Chinatown, take the street running alongside the Curzon Soho, and keep going till I found the square.

I was the first there. Goodee! Don't you just love when you're the first in a place and you don't know any of the others, and you can't quite figure out whether to approach random strangers? People drinking in doorways are probably not the best to approach under these circumstances, and I didn't - trying to appear simultaneously inconspicuous and obvious to anyone who might be looking for me was tricky.

I needn't have worried. These folks arrive in something like a blaze of glory, with a shopping trolley festooned with balloons. They set up camp, not right beside me, but just across the road - which was convenient enough. And proceeded to start the music. Yes, there's music throughout. I figured these random strangers were as good as any to approach, and when I did, Barry spotted me and announced the tour name. So that was all right then!

My name was checked off. You can purchase wine (red, from a carton, served in a Styrofoam cup) for £2, or a hip flask of rum & coke for £10, with a logo on the side. And then we mooched around for a while until the others gradually dribbled along. Never fear on that count either - they do like you to call if you're running late (the Meetup guy - who works with them - provides his mobile number with the email confirming location), but honestly, I got the impression they'd rather trawl the streets of Soho shouting the name of the person they were missing than let one get away!

The comedy starts straight away. There's a natural banter between this pair, and they just work into it everything that happens around them, while sticking to a loose script. Right from the beginning, you know this isn't going to be your standard walking tour. Mind you, the reason I say that has nothing to do with the dog-walker who was inconvenienced by having to walk around us as we gathered in an alley for introductory remarks - and other weirdness. Yes, I don't quite know what happened with this dog-walker, but apparently he muttered something, some guy in the group sniggered, and before we knew it, the dog-walker had shoved the other guy's girlfriend and was really spoiling for a fight. Took a couple of minutes for the situation to defuse.

What the hey! It's Soho. We wandered around for the next couple of hours or so, spotting blue plaques, dodging traffic, and with Barry & Clive, the fellas whose walk this was, engaging with, and generally annoying, the passing public. Really, they should be getting danger money - this isn't really the place to be doing that. Some passers-by were really intrigued by their antics, though.

Midway - well, at some point - we stopped on a street corner for free tea & custard creams. Ah goodee, dessert for me! And Barry entertained us with a really rather good rendition of I Dreamed a Dream, standing round the back of the Queen's Theatre, where Les Misérables continues to be shown. The evening ended in the red light area, where a large line of people were obviously camping out. We asked them why. Turns out they were waiting for something to do with a clothing brand, Supreme, and that this is the only European branch of that chain. Right..

I'd have liked to hang out with the guys in the pub where the tour officially ends, but actually, I should already be in bed! Work in the morning, you know. Maybe if it'd been a Saturday - they run tours on Wednesdays and Saturdays. Anyway, I can heartily recommend this tour - if you have a lively sense of humour. It's nice to see some of the backstreets of Soho, and you will be entertained..

Tomorrow is, of course, that Meetup event where I had something of an argument with the organiser. I'm headed to Wonderfully Wicked Witches and Old Women, at the Courtauld Gallery in Somerset House. Now, I had trouble finding the official link to this event, so was delighted to get the last Meetup place for it, courtesy of the Fill My Weekend group! Then Helen found it for me - and darnit if it wasn't cheaper on the official website, and there were still tickets there: unlike the Meetup site, where all tickets were booked up.

I was rather miffed - I hate paying extra, although it wasn't much. And seeing there was a waitlist, I thought the people on it should know this, so they could go on the official site if they wanted. So I posted a message to this effect on the event page on Meetup, including the URL they needed. Half an hour later, I had a private message from the group organiser, explaining that the extra charges were to cover fees for running the group (I believe you have to pay to set up a Meetup group!), and he was rather miffed that the official tickets hadn't sold out - they generally do, and he'd be having words with the manager!

What really vexed me, though, was that my post has been removed from that page. So I took to privately messaging as many people as I could on the waitlist, in case they could use the information. Up to them - I just thought they should have the choice. So, not very impressed with this group so far. Expecting to enjoy the evening, all the same - there's Spanish guitar, for one thing, and I do love it..

Back to Ireland for the weekend. For Monday, with nothing scheduled on Meetup that I could make, I took to Time Out - and Lordy, was that a pain! I had to go through 26 pages before I found anything. And they all append under Time Out's terrible new site design - which means it takes the page forever to load. What with that, and trawling through all the comedy shows they recommended, none of which suited - and through the shows that weren't showing that day, because you can't specify by day anymore unless it's "today" or "tomorrow" - and through the shows I couldn't get a ticket for, or could, but not for a price I was prepared to pay - I was relieved when I finally came across something that I could get a cheap ticket for and wouldn't hate. So I'm going to a play called "The Cutting of the Cloth", at the Southwark Playhouse. Official price £18, but there are plenty of offers. The best I found was with Hot Ticket Offers, who have a deal with this theatre for this show. Simply enter the code HOT on the theatre website when checking out, and the price drops to £12. And seating is unreserved, so it's win-win!

For Tuesday, I had rather less trouble - I'm headed to the same theatre, as it happens, to see another play, called These Trees Are Made of Blood. No deals on this one, mind. It's about the Dirty War in Argentina, and I booked because it did seem to be booking heavily.