Today, back with Laurence Summers and the 45+ Not Grumpy Old Londoners - this time, it was a walk called Red Lights, Rabble Rousers & RocknRollers, around Soho. And Helen came up for it! So, a highly sociable week! Sadly, this'll probably be my last trip with Laurence and the 45+s this month.. the trials of working during the week. Not likely to be anything next month either, yikes! Ah well..
Google Maps told me to get the #8. Great. From Old Broad Street. Eh, you what? I can catch it closer than that. And I did. And just as well, considering that it was diverted, and didn't go down Old Broad Street at all! Wouldn't that have been nice, stuck there with no bus on the horizon?! Tsk, Google! Anyway, I got there and stopped off at a Caffe Nero en route, for their "luxury hot chocolate". We were to meet at Exit 1 of Tottenham Court Road Tube Station - of course, not arriving into there, I had to look up where it was! (west side, Charing Cross Road). Laurence arrived a bit early, and the time passed convivially as we broke into different conversations, before it was duly time to leave.
Soho Square was a pleasant place to start.. followed swiftly by Denmark Street, the "Tinpan Alley" of London. As we made our way down, we were accompanied by the sounds of music from people in guitar shops, trying out the merchandise - and competing with the building works.
And on to Chinatown..
..where we were just in time for a protest march!
Down to the mural on Carnaby Street - which I never realised was a clock with moving parts!
And so, finally, to lunch. Laurence made a good find with The Clachan - people thought it must be an Irish word, and so it proved, but I'd never heard of it! Means a small settlement, apparently.
Where I had a much better chicken schnitzel than, um, recently.. for a lot less money. With some v nice garlic mayo. And Helen and I shared a nice bottle of Oyster Bay. Yum. She had ordered for us on the app.. must get her back for that! None of the rest of us could get it to work.. grr. But hey, conversation sizzled. And when we were finished, we didn't want to be.. so we headed to a local Spanish bar, Bradley's.
Toilets are down a vertiginous flight of stairs (where they have a second bar), but otherwise it's a cool place, with a jukebox. And there we passed more convivial time, and drank lots more wine. Olé.. Another excellent day with Laurence & co.- one of the more interesting walks - and aw, I do miss these outings! Roll on the next.
Tomorrow, back with the Crick Crack Club (CCC). This is The Origins of Life and Death, with Jan Blake, at the British Museum, which I missed in January. Limited availability at time of writing, as they have socially distanced seating.
On Monday, I'm headed to a film - Everything Everywhere All at Once is a Chinese English-language comedy about a woman travelling through multiple alternate realities. Jamie Lee Curtis shows up too. Nearest showing to me is in Hackney Picturehouse, and I've booked because it's booking heavily.
On Tuesday, I had what was probably my last event rescheduled because of Covid - I was headed to the postponed Tarot, at Soho Theatre. Wow, it's over two years since I was there last.. (and now TAC have tickets, blast.) But yesterday it was cancelled, and now I'm headed - with TAC - to Death and the Maiden at The Tower Theatre.
On Wednesday, back with TAC - for another operatic evening at Hoxton Hall. National Opera Studio is presenting Mozart: Secrets and Seduction. (So much for Meetup being busy on Wednesdays!)
On Thursday, my only Meetup of the week - I'm back with Up in the Cheap Seats, to see a performance of As You Like It at Wilton's. Went for a slightly more expensive seat than usual, this time - I'm sick of straining my neck.
Then back to Ireland for the weekend - would you believe it, I've exhausted the films showing locally that I'm interested in! So it'll be a quiet one.
On the 16th, headed to Middle, at the National.
On the 17th, 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 the 18th - 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 the 19th, I'm headed to the CCC again, for Astray, at Rich Mix. A storytelling double bill.
On the 20th, headed to Marys Seacole, at Donmar Warehouse. Based on a true story. I've heard mixed reviews - we shall see.
And on the 21st - 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?
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