Play: Middle

Back to Ireland for the weekend..

And not much happened, apart from a laudable (but rather inexplicable) performance from the UK in the Eurovision! Couldn't see the appeal in the song myself, but there you are. That was the excitement of the weekend - and so back to London, and the unwelcome news that there was yet another blasted rail replacement bus for half the journey to London! Hell, when I know in advance, I just get the bus the whole way instead of chopping and changing - the last time I flew, this was the case. The next time I fly, this will be the case. But I wasn't expecting it this weekend as well! And I'm dead right to do so - it took us an hour just to get to Broxbourne, where we hopped on a train that took another half hour. Not to mention the WiFi wasn't working.. much faster just to get the bus the whole way.

Well, at least I got back in time for a meal at Cote. Had my usual steak frites - and the waiter that crouches down to take orders. As he waited for the diners at the next table to decide, and I was about to tuck into my steak, he turned and remarked, with a twinkle in his eye, "Quick, wasn't it? I had ordered it, I think they gave you mine.." Mind you now, I'm becoming rather unenamoured with the steak frites here - the steak always seems a bit tough. Never used to be. Ah well, might have to change my usual.. the chocolate ice cream, and the wine, were excellent as ever.

Tonight, headed to Middle, at the National. I headed off in nice time for a bite to eat at The Archduke - again, no problem getting a table. This is the place that does carafes, so I had another excellent carafe of white - and this time, I thought I'd go for the beef bourgignon. Which, I have to say, came extremely quickly, and was lovely - if not quite at the spectacular heights of the chicken! And I had time for another excellent ice cream sundae.. really recommend this spot, also for the ease of getting seated.

A short trot to the theatre then - queueing at the bar took longer. Now, they never did send my e-ticket for this, but the box office today assured me that my confirmation email, complete with seat number, should be fine - and so it proved.

Pretty packed house for this story of the "middle" of a marriage. They have one daughter, who's now of school-going age, and sure enough, the mum is beginning to question her life, and her love for her husband. Gets up in the middle of the night and comes down to the kitchen, makes herself a hot, milky drink. He wakes and goes to see what she's at, and lots of stuff gets said.

It's all very real, very believable. And in parts, very moving. Nothing too dramatic, just the lives of people just like us - or like people we know. The whole story rests on how we never say what needs to be said, until it's too late - bottle it all up, and it explodes and makes a mess. So, here we have a husband who always figured that his job was to work and provide, a wife who wanted more - and a husband left wondering what it was that was missing. The value of talking it out, eh? Come see this and try and figure out whether they've reached an end - or will go forward from here.. Runs till the 18th of next month. And with no interval, it's over nice and early!

Tomorrow, back with Civilised London for a meal at last - this one is at Mestizo (Mexican). Not usually my favourite, but I'll give it a shot. Meeting beforehand at the Crown & Anchor.

On Wednesday - well, I saw on Meetup that a group called Get a Tech Developer Job has a free webinar, Learn Web Scraping with Python! Now, we're expected to use Python in my new job, and I never have - so this could be very handy indeed.

On Thursday, I'm headed to the Crick Crack Club again, for Astray, at Rich Mix. A storytelling double bill, both Irish ladies telling Irish myths!

On Friday, headed to Marys Seacole, at Donmar Warehouse. Based on a true story. I've heard mixed reviews - we shall see.

And on Saturday - well Lordy, I've booked for the Roman London Walk, with Walk About London (also advertised on Walks, Talks & Treasure Hunts - both linked to London Guided Walks). Now, I missed the last two I was booked on with this company - third time lucky?