So, she showed up in the office at about the time I finished. She kindly brought all the stuff I couldn't fit in my bag, coming back from Twickenham! I'd actually forgotten it. Now, although we were to get dim sum, we decided to get something more substantial to eat beforehand - there was no guarantee that we'd eat all of what we were given, or that it'd be substantial enough. We had no firm ideas about what we wanted, but Covent Garden is rife with restaurants, se we decided just to pop into one that took our fancy as we passed. And so it was that we came to Steak & Co.
Dark reddish-brown wood panelling was reminiscent of blood.. and as we ordered, the procedure was explained to me (Helen had chicken, but I decided to go for steak, to see how it compared with the last, excellent offering I had). The is one of those places where you get the steak rare, served on a sizzling hot stone, then cook it to your liking, accompanied by a butter (which you smear on the stone to help cooking), a salt or shake, and a sauce for the actual eating. I'd never tried this before - you're meant to slice the steak into strips so you can judge the cooking, and not apply the sauce until it's on your side plate, so as not to cool the stone. Helen had something much simpler - the "hanging" chicken skewer, which literally hangs over the plate. Funnily enough, it still has a cow on top:
We were well fed, the red wine sauce was amazing, and it was interesting to try - but I don't know how feasible it is to cook something and eat it simultaneously. Inevitably, it goes wrong - the bits don't cook fast enough, or cook too fast, and as the meal progresses, the stone cools and cooking is less effective. Not the cheapest either, for steak - you get the aforementioned, but all sides are extra. Anyway, we might have had dessert, but dim sum was calling - plus, it took us quite a while to pay, and although we were only a couple of minutes away from the venue, we still managed to be late.
From one restaurant to another - the talk was being held in Ping Pong Chinese restaurant. Where we gave our names at the door, and were directed to the basement. It hadn't started yet, of course - add half an hour to any of the advertised Funzing times. The screen was already up, and we were told to sit anywhere - the promised dim sum were to arrive at the interval. And when they did, sure enough, we only ate about half, and were glad we already had full stomachs. A very welcome, large container of iced water was available for anyone who wanted to fill a glass, and there was a bar - confusingly, without till: you had to pay at the till at the back.
Jennifer Rees didn't disappoint. Thoroughly researched, expertly presented as usual - and she showed how well she can deal with both a rowdy audience, and tech issues, which one of the Funzing guys sorted for her when necessary. She was upfront about the fact that she'd presented us with the most dramatic and extreme cases, in the interests of entertainment. However, as she emphasised a couple of times, she wouldn't show pictures of dead bodies - although she did show some of the artefacts recovered from the home of Ed Gein, the inspiration for a number of horror films, whose victims were dismembered and whose body parts were made into household objects!
She mentioned a number of theories that have been propounded for criminal behaviour, starting with behavioural learning theory, where people are assumed to pick up their behavioural traits from the behaviours of those they see around them. However, there were others - such as the idea that you could tell a prospective criminal from their physical characteristics. She pointed out statistics that show that many more men than women commit crimes - but in the case of women, in many cases it's been attributed to PMT! A very interesting section of the talk dealt with cognitive theories, where they way a person thinks can be supposed to determine the likelihood of them developing criminal tendencies. Religion is seen to play a factor, and she spent some time on criminals' lack of a sense of responsibility for their crimes.
The talk was peppered with famous names - Ted Bundy, Jeffrey Dahmer, Aileen Wournos - and with videos, both disturbing and amusing. One video showed an interview with Susan Atkins (one of the Manson family that killed Sharon Tate), creepy in her soft-spoken way, adamant that everything she'd done was because she'd been told to do it. A lighter mood showed a serial killer on an American tv dating show.. And throughout, the speaker engaged us in quizzes along the lines of "guess whether this person is a criminal". An absorbing and educational evening - looking forward to the next one!
I was just looking up what to do tomorrow - 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!
On 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 - who, unusually, posted my ticket to me. Then I'm back to Ireland for the weekend again.
On Monday, back with Let's Do This for a vintage swing jazz evening at Wilton's.
Next Tuesday - well, a member of Up in the Cheap Seats has obviously got a thing for the Camden Fringe Festival, because he's just advertised a whole host of stuff on there! And I've booked most of it.. Tuesday sees two short plays: Beautiful Little Fools, in The Cockpit, and Borders in a Bedroom, in the Tristan Bates Theatre.
On the 9th, I had booked free comedy in Greenwich, with Free Comedy Nights in Hammersmith, Wimbledon and Greenwich, and Random London. But instead I'm headed to the last thing I'm ever likely to go to with the comedy groups: London Live Comedy and Funzing UK have advertised "Gangster Magic" at The Water Rats. Magic and comedy - we'll see. For a minute there, I thought the magician was the same guy that organises the free comedy - they have the same name: but there is at least one magician out there called Marvin, so hopefully it's not the guy I know.
On the 10th, the London European Club is off to a contemporary dance performance called Morphed, at the Royal Festival Hall. It's part of the Nordic Matters festival, apparently.
On the 11th, handily enough, Spooky London Pubs (another new group for me - I think!) are hosting a talk on Conan Doyle and the Mysterious World of Light. Handiest of all, it's in the King and Queen - my local! Why, I pass it every day..
And on the 12th, I'm finally back with London Dramatic Arts, for the opening night of Against, with Ben Whishaw, at the Almeida. I'm in the rear stalls - they also have tickets in the front stalls, for a higher price, of course. They're actually also going to see Apologia, with Stockard Channing and Laura Carmichael, earlier in the day, but for a ridiculous price, so I passed on that.
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