Yesterday, I was booked with 45+ Not Grumpy Old Londoners again, for Laurence Summers' Elementary Sherlock Walking Tour. But wouldn't you know it, he cancelled it during the week! Personal reasons. Well, it's been rescheduled, but I think the new date is one of my weekends in Ireland. Never mind, it gave me the chance to meet up with an ex-colleague again - we met for an early dinner (his suggestion) in Frankie & Benny's (my suggestion - I hadn't been there in years). I invited Ivan, but that job of his is wrecking him - he said he needs to sleep for a month. Anyway, I could catch my other ex-colleague up on all the news!
Boy, was I glad that walk was cancelled - the weather was awful, with the storm still making its presence felt. Still that eerie, whistling wind - and drizzle. And freezing. When I went to the station for something to eat, the departures board was almost completely empty - an unusual sight! All the ticket machine screens were covered with signs advising customers to buy their tickets from the office, as most services were cancelled. A smaller departures screen explained, for the different services, what the cause of any cancellation was - trees on the line, or no power.. with several flights cancelled as well, I am so glad this wasn't a weekend I was scheduled to fly back to Ireland!
I had a few buses I could take into town, and in that bitter weather, I was delighted when one pulled up just as I got to the stop. With hardly anyone wanting to be picked up on the route, I made it into town in no time, and arrived at the restaurant just before the agreed time. My friend had arrived a few minutes before, and we went in together. To be greeted by the friendliest, most wisecracking waiter I've seen in years! He showed us to a table in the corner, and I proceeded to order far too much food.
It's all good, but the portions are massive; I started with garlic pizza bread, which was lovely, and chose carbonara with chicken and parmesan after - again, excellent, but I could finish neither of them. My friend was wiser, with a vegan hot dog and fries, no starter. What the hey. I went for mint choc chip ice cream (three scoops) for dessert - and suddenly realised how long it'd been since I had ice cream! I don't tend to, in winter, but I was already stuffed, and this was the lightest option on the menu. It was gorgeous, and the only course I finished. We ordered two rounds of pinot grigio for me (I had to specify white, they also have a pinot grigio rosé!) and lemonade for him - he was pacing himself. And the only time that our prompt service failed was on the second round of drinks, which took forever! Anyway, when the bill came, it was accompanied by a survey about what we thought of the food. Interesting, haven't seen that before. A good meal, at a good price.
We were, as usual, having an excellent conversation, and carried it on to the pub. There are two just down from the restaurant - but the Wellington, on the corner, was very crowded, so we ended up in The Lyceum Tavern. It's divided into booths, and we were lucky enough to get one in a little while..
Reading up on the history, I see that Bram Stoker is supposed to have lived upstairs for a while, and Dracula to have been written either in the pub, or the rooms above.. well, he was the manager of the Lyceum Theatre, which originally stood on the site, burned down, and was rebuilt around the corner. I also see that mobile phones are supposed to be banned - good job they didn't catch us! ;-) Anyway, after a while we repaired to the dining room upstairs - they'd stopped serving food, but it was warmer, away from the door. And we chatted about anything and everything until closing - always good to see him.
Mind you, I had to fend off several phone calls from my mother as I made my way home - she was miffed I hadn't called her earlier, and now it was quite late. Anyway, once she was dealt with, I started planning ahead, still having a lot of this week free - was thinking comedy, and while I was watching online clips of comedians, I fell fast asleep! Woke a few hours later to another clip playing and the light still on. So, I put myself to bed properly, and postponed the blog till I woke.
For this evening, I'd been thinking cinema - but changed my mind and went for TAC instead, there being nothing much on Meetup. And so I've booked for a comedy show at Leicester Square Theatre - at a fraction of the price. Not to be sneezed at. He's playing there for most of the rest of the year, it seems - but just one show a month, as he's simultaneously playing on Broadway! He's the only Western Rakugo master - it's Japanese comic storytelling, apparently.
For tomorrow, my other cheap ticket club - and more comedy. CT has limited tickets for the excellent Rob Newman's comedy show at 2Northdown.
On Tuesday, I finally get to see Laurence Summers again - the 45+s are off on a Cruising Covent Garden pub walk. Except I saw it first on their sister group, Carpe Diem, and have booked with them. Let's hope the storm has cleared off by then!
And on Wednesday, I'm with Civilised London again. They're going to a lot of plays these days - on Wednesday, we're at The Forest in Hampstead Theatre. A few famous people in this - Millie Brady, Silas Carson, Paul McGann, Gina McKee, Toby Stephens.. A while ago, I was contacted by the box office to say that during rehearsals, they'd discovered that my seat had a restricted view. Which is very thorough of them! So they'd reduced the price. I had a choice to make - did I want to stay in that seat, in which case they'd give me a credit note for the price difference, or change to another seat - if available, or upgrade to a more expensive seat and pay the difference, or perhaps book for another night? Well, I didn't want another night - so I rang them, and discovered there were no other seats available at my original price, so I upgraded, and am now in the second row. Well, as she said, the view would be excellent! Anyway, this is now sold out for the entire run.
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