So, I flew back to London last night. The weather's really turned cold, so I brought my warm coat, which has been in Ireland since March of last year (which did give me the chance to get it cleaned, as it sorely needed). And boy, was I glad I had, when we landed in Stansted and there was (ahem) ONLY ONE BUS to take us all from the nearly full plane to the terminal, as we had landed miles away, as usual, and at that time of night, that was our only option. Ah, the minutes we spent standing in the freezing cold breeze for another, which I thought must be like the initial experience of people exiled to Siberia. Particularly for the poor Ryanair employee who chaperoned us, and pointed out that he himself was only wearing a light suit, while pleading with us not to blame him, it wasn't his fault! Well no, it's the perpetual fault of the indifferent management of Stansted, who really do treat customers worse than cattle. As usual, a strong contender for Worst Airport in Europe.
Anyway, today, as mentioned previously, I was thinking of film again. What was coming up tops was Khel Khel Mein, a film about students learning the truth about Bangadesh's turbulent past. The ratings are crazy for this - starting at 8.1, within a day it had jumped to 8.3, and then stabilised at 9.1.. Closest showing is in the Vue Westfield Stratford City. Now, at Vue, it's cheaper to book online - but when I tried, their website was broken.
But then, yesterday, I got a last-minute reminder email from the Surrey History Meetup (SHM), for a Zoom talk this evening on Dissolution of the Monasteries - Superstition, Scandal & Dodgy Dealing. I hadn't seen it earlier, as it wasn't among the suggestions for "things to do near London". And I thought, you know what, that sounds more interesting to me. Not to mention that it was free, and I wouldn't have to travel for it - indeed, I'd be able to watch it in the office, and give a good impression by staying longer at my desk! And so I signed up for it - so it's a good thing that cinema website wasn't working.
Mind you, it wasn't the least complicated conference call I've ever done - turns out that the link provided was for registration, as I discovered when the organiser messaged me this morning to point out that I hadn't yet registered! which I promptly did. Then I had to forward the email I got following registration to my work email address - we can't access third-party email sites from our work computers any more - and when I clicked the link in that, in time for the talk.. I was asked for a passcode! Spent some anxious minutes thinking I hadn't got one, until I looked more closely at the email, and discovered a passcode in the subject line. I got in slightly late, but they didn't start for 10 minutes anyway. And I wasn't the only one with that problem - one woman spent 25 minutes looking for it, before posting a message on the event page. Just as well I was able to help her.
The talk was hosted by the Dorking Local History Group. Well apparently, this lady has given a few talks before, so they weren't so surprised that this one was well-attended, with over 50 participants. The event was advertised as running for two hours - but the talk itself was over in about 50 minutes, and there were about 15 minutes of questions before I logged off.
Not the best history talk I've ever attended, but it was interesting - and she made it fairly entertaining. She's from Yorkshire, but tried to make the talk as relevant as possible to Surrey - and I think she succeeded. Naturally - and despite sundry salubrious tales of debauchery on the part of clerics - the title relates more to the people responsible for the dissolutions, rather than the inhabitants of the religious houses that fell victim to them. With the devious Thomas Cromwell in charge, and assigned the task of dissolving as many as possible, charges were going to be invented, to enable institutions to be dissolved - their riches devolving to the spendthrift Henry VIII, their physical assets being snatched by rapacious local gentry. The clergy had to sign the Act of Supremacy, naming him supreme head of the Church of England, in order to secure a pension - the monks of London's Charterhouse, who refused, were starved to death en masse.
Lead was taken from the roofs, bells were melted down. Interesting anecdotes were included, such as how a local pond was dredged, and a pulpit recovered from the bottom - the clergy hid what they could, to avoid having to give it to Cromwell's agents. Or the stone from the building to be dissolved was used to repair the local church, this at least preserving the masonry for religious use. A few accounts of breweries whose origins lay with dissolved religious houses that had been used to brewing.. and yes, the dissolutions did help with the economy, as businesses that had been ringfenced by the clergy now went public. As well as breweries, think quarries - she used a Yorkshire example for that.
Questions were entered in the chat, and answered at the end. And we were given a Zoom survey, to which 81% responded with a "very good" or "excellent" rating. Great to have such a resource! And they saved me a journey tonight, to a film I was rather indifferent to.
Well, film tomorrow as well. So I checked that film's rating again - and would you credit it, it's now down to 8! meaning that we have a new contender. The Jump, only showing in the Curzon Bloomsbury, is a documentary about a Lithuanian sailor, back in the days of the Soviet Union, who chose to defect to the United States by jumping from his ship onto an American one. Didn't do him much good - they sent him back! but apparently the whole thing blew into a political storm. Sounds interesting - and saves me having to go to Stratford.. Not half sold out yet, so I'm keeping an eye on it.
Wednesday and Thursday, for the first time in a while, I'm back with Up in the Cheap Seats. On Wednesday, we're off to see The Drifters Girl, a musical about the female manager of The Drifters, played by Beverley Knight. Playing in the Garrick, and wouldn't you know, when I was checking it out, I saw a message from a member who couldn't go, and was willing to give away her ticket for free to the first person to get in touch. Well, it just goes to show, you can't even give tickets away - this was three days later, and I said I'd take the chance - sure enough, I was the first! It's a physical ticket, which she posted to me - now I just have to remember to take it with me! Not often, these days, I get a physical ticket. Oh, and yippee, Rear Stalls!
Looking forward to Thursday, when we're headed to Sadler's Wells for an Akram Khan production, the UK Premiere of Outwitting the Devil. Part of their Carnival of Shadows tour. And ooh, the first time I'll have been there since lockdown!
On Friday, back with one of my cheap ticket groups - TAC - for another concert at the Wimbledon Music Festival. This time, it's Yantra, an a cappella group, in the Trinity URC Church.
On Saturday, back with the SHM group - nominally - for yet another Zoom call. This time, it focuses on SHERF 2021 - a day-long conference based on the work of the Surrey Historic Environment Research Framework, and specifically on church archaeology. As promoted by the Surrey Archaeological Society.
And on Sunday, back with London European Club - we're off to Immigrant Comedy (standup comedy in English) at the Camden Comedy Club. Tickets from Eventbrite.. two shows, we're going to the later one.
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