Wow, what a day. What an awful day. I'm planning to move, you know, and today was the last day for the estate agents for the new place to get their references, and of all they asked for, all they were waiting for was the guarantor. She was demanding to see a copy of the guarantor agreement - they only sent it today. And lo, she didn't like it. Refused point blank to sign. Which left me with the awful prospect of losing both a gorgeous room in a prime location for a decent price, which I'd been so lucky to snatch from the clutches of other prospective tenants, and also losing a whopping deposit.
Mercifully, a friend in Ireland rode in at the last minute, like the proverbial knight in shining armour, and in response to my urgent plea, stepped in as my guarantor and sent off all the required documentation in 15 minutes. No response from the agents at time of writing, which I'm taking as a good sign. But after that, my hands were shaking. It's been years since I was so stressed, and I don't want that to happen often.
Anyway, tonight I was back with Civilised London, who were off to the opera at the Southbank Centre. The show in question was The Paradis Files. Looking for something to eat beforehand, I tried two nearby places that I was familiar with, only to find both were full. Having a look at the map, I discovered a steak bar/restaurant called The Archduke, which had availability, so I booked it.
Arrived just before my booked time, and was shown to a table near the door. The menu is one of those with wine on one side (which side she had uppermost when she handed it to me), food on the other. I was delighted to see they have wine by the carafe, which is just perfect for me - I chose the New Zealand white. Now, funnily enough for a steak restaurant - I didn't feel like steak! Wanted something a bit lighter, so I chose the rotisserie half chicken, which comes with fries.
OMG It only took one bite of the chicken to know I had something special. I have seriously never tasted better cooked chicken! Succulent, falling from the bone, tender - delicious. Ditto, excellent fries. I would love to try the steak here sometime. Meantime, I asked for the dessert menu - I had time - and sensibly, she waited to the side while I chose. It wasn't going to take long, I'd already identified what I wanted. (And they needed the table - they did fill up while I was there.) I had the ice cream sundae, which was vanilla and chocolate ice cream with chocolate sauce. And cream, and a few bits of fruit on top, which I removed - I don't like to mix fruit and chocolate. But wow, what a meal!
I headed to the loo, then to meet the others. I was still a bit early, but in due course our organiser messaged us that he was inside. So I joined him at his table, and caught him up on my news - and had a good old rant about my day. My hands had stopped shaking now, the wine having done its work. And finally our third member joined us, and it was terrific to see them both.
So. That's a screen you can see over the stage, where captions were cleverly displayed on a scenic backdrop. Underneath was a fake piano, the inside of whose lid was attractively painted, as it might have been in the 18th Century. However, there were no inner workings - the centre, where the strings should be, was empty, and the keyboard had no actual keys, but lit up whenever someone was supposed to be playing. Of the two vertical structures, on the left as you look at it was a kind of doorway, though which people passed when coming on for the first time, and on the right a kind of wardrobe, where - much like one of the pop-up opera groups - they stored costumes that could be easily accessed as the production went on.
The production involved many people with hearing or visual impairments, and a substantial portion of the show was given over to describing their own costumes for those who couldn't see them. And so to the true story of a blind pianist and composer, Maria Theresia von Paradis, pupil of Salieri and rumoured lover of Mozart.
The production values were excellent, you'd have to conclude. It's just.. well, I hated the score. Hate that discordant type of music, which coloured my impression of the whole production. Much of the plot centred around her relationship with her parents, and she did have an interesting life, but ugh, that music.. I was so glad it was a lot shorter than the runtime advertised on the venue website. Hey-ho.. on the way out, I ran into an old friend, and rejoining the group, we had a good final natter before parting. This was my only Meetup in a week, and I shan't have another for a couple of weeks to come.
Tomorrow, I'm back to Ireland for Easter - but left it so late to book, I could only get an afternoon flight - no problem getting the day off work though! Now, the cinema listings are finally out for Ireland for the next week. Four films I might be interested in, and only one showing in the Omniplex in the afternoon. So I've booked that one for Sunday - it's The Lost City, and stars Channing Tatum, Sandra Bullock, Brad Pitt, and Daniel Radcliffe in another of those lost-city-in-the-jungle capers.
The other three only have afternoon showings in Ennis - so, it's there I'm bound. They charge for booking, so I haven't. I have six days in which to see them - watch this space as to when that'll be. In descending order of rating, they are:
The Northman, a Viking caper about a young prince whose father, the King, is murdered, so it falls to the lad to avenge him. Nicole Kidman is the Queen, and it also stars Alexander Skarsgård, Ethan Hawke, Willem Dafoe, and Björk.
Operation Mincemeat stars the ever-dependable Colin Firth, Matthew Macfadyen, and Penelope Wilton in a comedy based on the true story of how, during WWII, they put the Nazis off the scent by handcuffing a case of fake "secret" papers to a corpse, and letting it be found. They've made a play about this too, you know!
Finally, Morbius is another of those superhero things - an antihero, rather. Jared Leto is the hapless biochemist who accidentally turns himself into a vampire - with all the powers that entails. Also stars Michael Keaton.
Well, my friend got back to me - they're away in the middle of next week, back on the 21st, so the most sensible thing to do seemed to be to visit on the 22nd, which I've now arranged with her. Happily, my boss was also fine with me taking that week as holiday. Anyway, I'll fly back to London on the 24th. And on the 25th, I'm off to The Corn is Green, at the National.
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