My work meeting finished early, but I spent some time finishing something off. Still, it wasn't too late when I left - and although I missed the bus I intended to get, the next was along presently, and in fact passed the first one on the way! I was to meet Helen for dinner first - after navigating the horror of Southwest Trains, she'd spent the day at the cat exhibition at the British Library. I'm jealous - that's something I'd have been interested in myself - it does run till Paddy's Day, so I might make it yet.
She beat me to it, but I don't think I kept her waiting too long. So, into the Red Dog Saloon we ventured. A bit dark, but we could see plenty of free tables. We ended up at one in the middle, the ones by the wall all being for four. We were given one-page menus, drinks on one side, food on the other. We didn't fancy a starter, and both ended up going for the hickory burger, which sounded tasty, with fries. You can have three sizes of each burger - we both went for the smallest. I had the Spanish white wine, she had iced tea - which turns out to have unlimited refills!
We were served pretty quickly, and the food was tasty - if messy. I do HATE the policy of serving food on wooden trenchers. Oh, and the slice of tomato I had to remove from mine - I'm intolerant to tomato - was right on the bottom, which was awkward. We each had quite a large basket of fries, and our table was really too small for everything. By and large though, we fared ok - despite the weird lighting system.
The room was decorated with Christmas lights, which occasionally flashed on and off, occasionally stayed on, occasionally turned off completely - which is fair enough. However, to have the main lights going on and off randomly was just unsettling. There were two occasions that I counted when we were left completely in the dark! And several times, we were glad we'd already seen the menus, given that it would now have been too dark to read them. Maybe the dark was what confused the mouse into running into the dining room, from wherever he normally resides - he sat on the back of the couch for a while to pose for a customer's photo. Just as well we hadn't sat over there, on balance.
They turned out not to have desserts, and it took forever to get our bill. On our way out, we passed a Côte - might go for that, next time! It was great to see her, anyway.
I headed on to Soho Theatre, where I was early - for once! - for the performance of Gilgamesh, by Ben Haggarty of the Crick Crack Club. Their last performance of the year. Would you believe, I booked this on the 21st of August! Discovered as much when I was checking the confirmation, today. Sold out a while ago, as they tend to do. So I took myself to the bar, figured I might as well have another glass of wine - I asked for it in plastic, but had it finished by the time the house was open. Would you believe, I even got a seat in the bar! Hell, when I arrived, a whole table was free. Maybe because it was a Monday and they're saving themselves for Christmas. Unusual, though.
When they did call us, I took a moment to finish my drink, so wasn't in the first wave - and missed out on the front row, nuts. I got into the second, though - and handily, there were a couple of free seats beside me, where I could leave my stuff. Sometimes people can't make it - though they do welcome latecomers at these events. I also think they leave seats empty for storytelling here - there are always free seats at the sides. Perhaps the people who might have sat beside me sat there instead - the second row at the side is elevated, but not in the front-facing section, for storytelling.
What you can see in the photo are a covered stool, used in part of the story, and the music centre at the side, comprising a zither, a round drum with bells inside, similar to a tambourine, a small hanging bell, and several singing bowls - which I don't remember being used. You see, he'd brought a musician along - which I think added so much to the atmosphere, as always.
Gilgamesh is an ancient Mesopotamian epic. The oldest known major piece of literature, in fact! So, it concerns the epic adventures of King Gilgamesh, a mighty warrior: and all-round twat. Always spoiling for a fight, always getting into trouble, getting out of it by the skin of his teeth - perhaps with the loss of some innocent people along the way - and then singing his own praises afterwards. I'm not terribly impressed by war stories, frankly. So, as you can imagine, the first half of the performance - which had him and his pal slaying a giant and a bull, both sacred creatures, and performing feats of valour - I wasn't completely sold on. But it was beautifully performed, by both storyteller and musician.
I was much happier with the second half, which had less fighting and much more weirdness. Gilgamesh heads off on a fantastical journey to find his ancestor, who won the gift of eternal life. And when he eventually finds out how he did it - why, it turns out to be a carbon copy of the story of Noah's ark! So, Mesopotamian origins, huh?! Interesting. Anyway, a mesmerising evening of storytelling, with the spine-tingling accompaniment of Jonah Brody. And what a treat to have three storytelling evenings in such a short time! Looking forward to getting back to them next year.
Tomorrow, I've provisionally arranged to meet that old friend I met a while ago - who says yes, probably ok, but things are hectic.. who're you telling?! Well, I'm free most of the evening, so we'll see what happens.
On Wednesday, off to my last circus (and last event) of the year - Crash is at the Winterville Festival on Clapham Common. Tickets from SeeTickets. Sold out now, it seems. Then I'm back to Ireland for Christmas on Thursday.
I fly back on the 2nd, and on the 3rd I'm back with Walking in London for the Southwark Tour - Chronicles: Shakespeare's London. It's Funzing, of course, and I think this was the last I used my Funzing_Fb20 code for, getting a 20% discount. They've now apparently decided it's been used too often, and I'm down to a 10% personal discount.
On the 4th, I'm back at Soho Theatre for a comedy show - Jen Brister, with Meaningless.
The next few days are all Funzing, and the weekend is entirely with Look up London - excellent! She's so friendly, and always finds the most interesting tidbits for us. The 5th, I'm doing Unlock the Secrets of Fleet Street.
On the 6th, I'm doing The Greenwich Walk: Heroes and Villains.
And on the 7th, I'm with London Speaks Sessions, for a talk on Interviews With a Serial Killer. Funzing now have an Unlimited Talks option, where you can get unlimited talks for a month for £11.99 - however, not seeing anything else I fancy coming up that month, I've left it for now. As it is, I got a spectacular loyalty discount for this one!
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