Yesterday was gloomy.. rain, clouds. Gee, the perfect day for a walk! What the hey, the rain was supposed to clear by evening, and it did - a bit cool, a strong breeze and still overcast, but it was fine. I took a bus to the City, and consulted Google Maps about how to get to the Crutched Friar, where we were meeting. Well now, I do love the City - and one reason has to be all of the weird little passageways, nooks and crannies that come as a consequence of wending your way through, under, and between this hotchpotch of buildings. Google Map did not disappoint, sending me on various odysseys through passageways that I nearly missed, only for the little blue dot showing me I'd passed them!
More pictures here. Arriving at the Crutched Friar, I found myself lost again - yes, that corridor that looks like a passageway is actually part of the pub! Went in, and spied someone from our group, on the left. We wondered where the others were.. and after a while, I went to look for them. Sure enough, they were over the right hand side.. We waited for latecomers, and finally started off a bit later than advertised.
The walk was an interesting mixture of historical buildings - and weird, modern art. Modern sculpture it wasn't, but one of the most fascinating bits for me was St. Olave's Church, with many interesting features:
There was some interesting modern architecture:
..and some interesting modern art:
But I think this was my favourite:
Most of us repaired thereafter to The Astronomer, where - it being a bastion of pies - I had a very tasty steak and ale pie. Struggled to finish it. Not mad about the chips, mind - but the pie is recommended. And got home rather late. Great evening, lovely to see familiar faces - some of which I hadn't seen in an age! Roll on the next one.
Tonight was free comedy in Hammersmith again. With the first three of the above groups, plus DiscoverLDN.UK. And would you believe it - before I had the chance to cancel, they did! Well, Hammersmith & Fulham Friends did - which I'm taking it applies to all. Maybe not -anyway, it gave me the excuse. So I'll go to a film, as I was already thinking of doing; predictably, top of the list is Dunkirk. Showing at multiple times, nice and close to me.
I fly back on Monday, and saw an interesting Funzing talk advertised for that night - "Are We Living in the Matrix?" Well, I'm well overdue a free talk, with all of them that I've booked (every fourth free), so I contacted them to get a code to get this for free. Still waiting..! Despairing of them, I finally booked it on one of their limited 50% deals. It had been advertised with London Speaks Sessions and LDN Talks @Night - funnily enough, they've now both cancelled. It still seems to be running, though. No loyalty points for this one, I guess!
On Tuesday, another Funzing talk - I finally get to see Jennifer Rees again, when she's giving a talk on The Psychology of Criminals. With dim sum, great! (Had to stick with a 10% discount for this one - Fun_Day10 or Fun_Week10 are the ones you want for that.) And it's walking distance from me for once, in Covent Garden. She's a fantastic and engaging speaker. Excellent.. and Helen has sensibly decided to come too. On which occasion she'll deliver all the stuff I couldn't fit in my bag, coming back from Twickenham!
I was just looking up what to do on Wednesday - and wouldn't you know it, at that moment the Pop-Up Opera sent me a mail with upcoming events. Une Éducation Manquée is a short, French comic opera, whose run finishes that day. All right then!
Next Thursday, my first Meetup with Up in the Cheap Seats, one of several new groups I've joined to fill the great void left by the sad departure of the Man with the Hat. We're off to see The Tempest, with Simon Russell Beale, at the Barbican. Then I'm back to Ireland for the weekend again.
And on the 7th, back with Let's Do This for a vintage swing jazz evening at Wilton's.
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