Walk: The Lady-Killer

Today, which no word from any prospective employers, I signed up to another walk with Laurence Summers and the 45+ Not Grumpy Old Londoners: The Lady-Killer is an inventive renaming of London's most notorious serial killer.. (Ooh, and I'd have to get cash out again.) Failing that, if I had to work (sadly, a necessary evil eventually), I could always head back to the Soho Comedy Factory this evening.. (Be aware, Design My Night sells tickets to this for £5, but you can show up for free..!)

So, with last night's play finishing early, I got to bed early, and slept soundly. Excellent! Set off in reasonable time today - I had a choice of buses, with the #205 going from King's Cross. Not only did that give me a direct option, where otherwise I'd have to change, but I figured I'd easily find a cash machine nearby. So that's the route I chose. And wouldn't you know it, I did find a cash machine, with two people waiting for it. Turned out that one was begging, and the guy at the machine had promised her cash, which he gave her - when I went to the machine, she immediately started to implore me for help as well. Now, sorry, but that was feeling too much like an industry to me - plus, the minimum I could have taken out was £10, which was more than I was inclined to give. So I apologised and said I couldn't, and she took herself off.

Well, the travel gods were with me, for once - not only did that not delay me, but even though I'd seen my bus across the road while I waited at the machine, the next was due in a few minutes, according to the display. And for once, the display told the truth! In fact, I actually arrived early for the walk - it was just me and Laurence for a while, with people dribbling along as the minutes passed. Ah, the perils of advertising a staggered start time..

The weather was being annoying, alternating between hot sunshine and cool shade - so my coat was being put on and taken off for the whole walk. This walk, interestingly, focused on the victims, rather than on the killer - an aspect I really like. I remember a lot of discussion about this in Ireland in recent times, about how naming killers gave them a sort of notoriety - thought something had been done about that, but perhaps not.

So, we strolled the streets around East London, some of which I'd seen before, some not. It's hard to get a sense of place really, so much has been rebuilt. Mitre Square is a case in point - I went on a Jack the Ripper walk when I first came to London, and remember it looking so different! So, even in that space of time, things have changed so much.. And it's hard to be definitive, when we not only don't know who the killer was, but are even unsure which victims to ascribe to him!

But hey. Names, descriptions of them and their backgrounds, details of what happened to them - handled as sensitively as possible by our guide. Theories abound, of course - why was one woman's ring removed? Do the dates have significance? Would the killer have had to have medical experience? Of the two that happened in one night, would it really have been possible for the same man to have committed both? Short of developing time travel, we're unlikely ever to know the truth. But we do love to continue speculating.

There wasn't a lot to photograph, honestly - the areas we walked through were either not terribly photogenic, or were places I'd photographed too many times before. But it's an area of town I don't know very well (although we did come close to my last accommodation), so it was good to explore. Mind you, it was sheer torture, when we passed a food market near one of the sites where a body was found, and the smells were so enticing.. I could have murdered a katsu, as we passed the stall. Ah well.

Lunch, as usual in this part of town, was in the Lord Aberconway - and, like yesterday, I had the steak and ale pie. And whoopee, this was much nicer than the last time I was here! The crust was edible, this time. I guess midweek is probably a better time to visit than Fridays. I also notice they've dropped the practice of taking people's names when they order, and asking for those people when they bring the order.. still didn't stop me initially missing my order this time! Never mind, it wasn't long in coming.

And as usual, it was great to see everyone - roll on the next!

Well now - tomorrow has proved a bit of a problem: hence the delay in advertising it. So, a couple of Meetup groups are headed to Beyond Bollywood, a dance show at the Peacock. And I decided that was what I'd like to do. Their event quotas were full - so I decided to book my own ticket, go on my own. But I have this theatre token from Seatplan, you see, and wanted to use that! Now, this is one of the venues that don't accept them online - so I had to ring the box office to book. Unfortunately, the box office has opening hours - and every time I thought to book, it was outside those hours. So I finally gave up, and booked one of the last two cheap tickets, without use of a token.

On Friday, assuming I STILL don't have a job (well, even if I get an offer tomorrow, they have to send me a contract, and there's no way I'd be up and running by Friday), I'm back with Laurence and the 45+s for a tour of Wild and Wondrous Wapping. Postponed due to one of the endless train strikes, so I'm delighted to be able to make it now. And that evening, I'm back to Ireland again.

On Saturday, I'm getting my second booster - in Ireland; they aren't rolling them out to my age group in the UK until at least Monday, so I said I might as well. No availability in Ennis, which is my closest centre, so I said I'd try Limerick, and had no trouble getting a slot there. And if I get jabbed in a timely fashion (you never know!), I might make it to a film - the appointment is for 2pm, and if I make it, the film in question - a few minutes' drive down the road, in the Omniplex - is Three Thousand Years of Longing, showing at 2.50. It's a fantasy in which Tilda Swinton is an academic, all of whose family have died, and who heads to Istanbul on holiday. Where she buys a curious lamp as a souvenir. Which, of course, has a djinn (Idris Elba) in it, who grants her three wishes.. pretty classic story, I'd be interested to see what they do with it.

And as usual, I'm back to London on Sunday. Leaving my taxi driver, who minds my car while I'm not near it, to take it for its NCT (equivalent of MOT) the following Friday.. Jeez, such a busy life!

Play: Angel

Tonight, I was back with TAC - for a play called Angel, in the Hope Theatre. Based on the true story of the "Angel of Kobane", a young woman who fought against the encroaching forces of Islamic State. This is the final part of an "Arabian Nightmares" trilogy of plays by Henry Naylor.

So I thought - why not try The Bull again, I remember it being good! So I trudged all the way up there - it's in walking distance. I see the quirky bookshop en route is sadly closed due to flooding! At the pub, I got the same table - I fancied the chicken schnitzel, which is excellent; sadly, word must have got out, because they were out of it. Instead, I had the pie - which, I have to say, is excellent too! Very moreish. I look forward to having an excuse to come here again.

The theatre being above the Hope & Anchor pub, I figured I might as well drink there once I was finished eating - so off I went again. The poor barmaid was trying to eat a wrap - I assured her that I needed the loo first, I'd be back. The loo is upstairs, across from the theatre..

When I came back down, she was just sitting down to her wrap again. Oh dear.. I apologised for the timing, as I ordered a drink. Which I drank in a booth. The pub was pretty empty up to showtime.

When a queue finally formed at the desk at the foot of the stairs, I joined them and got my ticket:

And in due course, upstairs - where I decided to take front row centre:

The show is an hour long. I thought it'd be good.

I was right.

This is the story of a teenage girl. She's a pacifist, so not terribly impressed with her father's tales of fighting for Kurdistan. Neither does she want to inherit the family farm - she wants to study law. So she's less than impressed when he takes her out back to hone her shooting skills on cans of Orangina.

The day she finds out she's been accepted to law school is the same day the bombs start to fall, and her mother yells at her to grab her things, they're off to Europe! Daesh is on the march. However, her father has stayed behind to fight - and when she finds this out, she turns her back and heads back the way she's come. Into hell. To find him. And a legend is born.

First--person POV. It's so powerful. You live every moment through this energetic portrayal. I was in tears, the actor portraying her was in tears. The guy two seats down was in tears. And as for her ending - I was reminded of a scene in The Lion in Winter, where Prince Richard (in future to be known as The Lionheart) is talking about a good death, and his younger brother Geoffrey scorns the idea. "As if how you fall matters!" to which he replies, "When the fall is all there is, it matters."

Very, very highly recommended. Runs until the 17th. You will see few better.

Tomorrow, which no word from any prospective employers, I've signed up to another walk with Laurence Summers and the 45+ Not Grumpy Old Londoners: The Lady-Killer is an inventive renaming of London's most notorious serial killer.. (Ooh, and I'll have to get cash out again.) Failing that, if I have to work (sadly, a necessary evil eventually), I can always head back to the Soho Comedy Factory that evening.. (Be aware, Design My Night sells tickets to this for £5, but you can show up for free..!)

Film: M (1931)

Today, fancied film - and with the film listings finally out, and rejecting the iffy-looking Indian films at the top, what came top was M, a 1931 thriller set in Germany about the hunt for a murderer. Only showing in the BFI, which has a tendency to sell out - this didn't, although I kept an eye on it. Still, it was in the large screen, so I was ok.

Wouldn't you know, I had no trouble getting out on time today. Huh! Arrived with tons of time to spare, bought a ticket - asked for dead centre - and, as I was slightly peckish, thought I'd try out their cafe while I waited (the actual BFI one, across from the ticket desks). D'you know, for all the times I've been here, I'd never been before! Wonder when it opened.. Well, I decided on a hot chocolate - and I'm delighted to say, it was one of the best I've had! I watched her make it - the thick chocolate mixture is pre-prepared, in a tub to the side, and comes pre-sweetened - all she does is add hot milk, and chocolate sprinkles on top. It is delish - highly recommended!

After that, I mooched along to the cinema, and went in when the doors opened. Sure enough, I was pretty much exactly dead centre - people were scattered respectably far from each other all around me. I have to say, over the course of the film, I began to find the seat a bit hard.. what can I say, cinema upholstery technology has advanced. Ah well. I did love reading the programme notes - the BFI is great on these, providing an information sheet on every single film they screen. The notes for this are, it seems, taken from a book about the film.

The notes tell us to take note of the iconic imagery - we must consider, after all, that this was kind of the first serial killer film. The passing of a shadow over the poster about missing children (for this is the story of a child-killer), the balloon caught in power lines, the letter M marked on the murderer's clothes.. but more than all of that, it's highly responsible, highlighting all sorts of aspects of the story: the growing hysteria about the crimes, the capacity of a crowd to grow into a mob, the bloodlust of the people who eventually catch the killer. Directed by Fritz Lang, starring the excellent Peter Lorre as the killer - this is really a film worth watching.

Now, glad to have the evening to myself. Tomorrow, I'm back with TAC - for a play called Angel, in the Hope Theatre. Based on the true story of the "Angel of Kobane", a young woman who fought against the encroaching forces of Islamic State. This is the final part of an "Arabian Nightmares" trilogy of plays by Henry Naylor.

And on Wednesday - assuming I'm not working by then, I've signed up to another walk with Laurence Summers and the 45+ Not Grumpy Old Londoners: The Lady-Killer is an inventive renaming of London's most notorious serial killer.. (Ooh, and I'll have to get cash out again.) Failing that, if I have to work (sadly, a necessary evil eventually), I can always head back to the Soho Comedy Factory that evening.. (Be aware, Design My Night sells tickets to this for £5, but you can show up for free..!)

Rye

Today, I was off to Rye. London and Sussex Walking Tours - whom I joined during lockdown - ran a daytrip! called Rye - Pirates, Ports and Jazz (they also have a jazz festival this weekend): and I'd never been. It's a bit of a palaver to get to, involving two trains - but well, it's about time I travelled a bit, and it wasn't not too early a start. And the tour itself ended early in the day, so I had plenty of time to eat and explore before my train(s) back.

Yeah, so you can guess what happened.. well, first off, I had a nice, long sleep, which I needed. This was good. The morning then got away from me - as it tends to do - and of course, I hadn't factored in that not only did I need to walk to St. Pancras, but I needed to collect my tickets (British trains in general not yet being technologically sophisticated enough to issue e-tickets, like the rest of the world), and of course, find my platform. The place is - massive. And yes, my platform was right at the other end. Oh, and would you like to guess how much I missed the train by? Two minutes. Of course, it didn't help that I ran the wrong way after I collected the tickets..

Well now, it was an hour till the next. And looking at the ticket, I realised that it was time-specific - so I had to buy a new outbound ticket. Ah well, at least I had time to do it! Also messaged the group to apologise, but I'd missed my train and would now be late. At least I checked my details for the second leg, and those tickets weren't time-specific, so I was OK. £36.50, I paid for a single to Ashford International (so called because it's on the Eurostar line). Bah humbug - but I didn't want to lose my entire day. I was also parched, so bought a small bottle of water from W. H. Smith. Whose price was a complete mystery to me, as were the prices of every bottle on the shelf - so much for transparent pricing. And then I went and sat staring at the platform I was to go from.

When the last train before mine had departed from that platform, I decided I could go and sit on the platform itself - just to be safe. And.. my ticket wouldn't open the barrier. Say what?! I tried it a couple of times - no joy. Panicking now, I realised what had probably happened - my ticket said it wasn't valid on high-speed trains, but this might be a high-speed train. (Yup - there was a sign at the barrier that said "Southeastern High Speed".) Now, please tell me - how does a machine allow you to buy a non-high-speed ticket to a high-speed train stop?!

My first thought was to go to the ticket office and try just to get an upgrade - the queue was so long that I'd have missed this train as well though, which was ridiculous. Instead, I ended up buying yet another single ticket! Now, I don't travel by train in the UK much - and am glad of it, with experiences like this - and I had no idea which of the ticket options were valid on high-speed trains! It didn't say, for any of them. The "HS1 Upgrade" option sounded promising, but turned out to be for London transfers, or something. So my next thought - thinking fast here, I had minutes to catch my train - was to get the most expensive option. But that was first class, which didn't sound right - so I plumped for the next most expensive, which was an "anytime" single, £6 more expensive than my first purchase, an "off-peak" single. Sure enough, when that was printed, I was relieved to see that it said "also valid on high-speed". FFS, how are people supposed to know this stuff..? Anyway, I galloped for the train, and dashed on just as the guy blew the whistle. And when the crowd of other latecomers in front of me moved down, I even got a couple of seats to myself..

I was still traumatised when I arrived in Ashford - and seriously underwhelmed by this "international" station. Jeez, I know I was now outside of London, but really - I had to exit to collect my tickets to Rye, and the lobby consisted of two ticket machines, a few ticket desks, and a Costa. And a couple of rows of seats. And that's it. Hmm - well, I collected my tickets - and what a palaver that always is, because you have to have your payment card, and your collection reference number, and they make you take out your card before you type in the number, so you're trying to hold everything.. including all the tickets, and the receipt, when they're printed! And of course, a return is printed as two separate tickets. I've always hated physically collecting train tickets - nothing about that has improved since I began doing it.

So then I looked for where I was to catch my train to Rye - and it said there was a rail replacement bus. Oh, for heaven's sake.. I hadn't noticed that at first, and when I had, had checked, but it was the best alternative, as there isn't otherwise a direct bus at all, so it'd take forever. Said it was to go from outside, and I overheard a worker tell another customer roughly where from. I had a look in Costa first to see whether there was anything I could grab - I had twenty minutes or so. I don't really like Costa, and sure enough, the only things that looked appealing were toasties - which I didn't want to have to wolf down, and couldn't take on the bus. So I went hungry.

The bus appeared in due course - double decker. I joined the other passengers on the top deck, to see the scenery. Honestly though, there isn't much scenery around here that would impress me - it's near the sea, and all very flat. Lots of fields, quite a lot of trees, some sheep, some bales of hay. Some of the flattest land I've ever seen, and I have to say I'm biased towards hills. And the road was most unsuited to our bus - very bumpy, and we frequently had branches scrape the roof. It was a relief, finally, to get to Rye - we squeezed through narrow streets, and past picturesque houses: and at one point, passed what was obviously a walking group, and I did wonder, as mine were supposed to have started by now - but these looked more serious hikers, many with rucksacks and one with walking poles. And nowhere did I see anyone that looked like the group leader, whose face I had seen online.

We were finally disgorged at the station, and I left a message on the group page, pleading for someone to tell me where they were. No response yet, of course. Laurence, this guide is not. Well, I said, I'm not traipsing around town searching for them - I was hungry, so I went in search of food. Nothing decent by the station, so I set off - and that walking group passed me on the way, heading in the other direction. Seemed to be led by a bearded chap, looked nothing like the guy I was looking for. Anyway, I thought the Pipemaker's Arms looked attractive - and they had a sign that said they did a BBQ until 3 - so I went in.

Lovely, big space - quite empty, apart from a couple of flies. Hmm. Someone came out from the back - she looked like staff, so I asked her were they doing food now? Yes, she said, the specials were on the board around the corner to the back. And there they were - again, not a long menu, but adequate - I dithered between the burger and the garlic chicken, eventually went for the latter. And chips. She really tried to push the coleslaw on me, said I could have it for free, but I just don't like coleslaw with hot food. I guess they had a quantity of it left over. Ah well. A New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc was a lovely touch! There were tables out the back, but I didn't fancy squinting in the sun, so sat inside.

It was served quickly - and oh wow, it was gorgeous! There wasn't much chicken - well, for £5.50 I hadn't expected much - but it was so succulent, the skin lovely and crispy. Two thighs, I had, with chips - and the chips were lovely too, presalted. I wolfed it down! Best thing I did today, really.

Afterwards, I headed in search of sightseeing.. decided to head up to the castle, which took me up Mermaid Street. I hadn't realised that this is the most scenic street in Rye, packed with historic buildings.. and would you believe whom I heard on a sidestreet as I climbed up?! The dulcet tones of the tour guide. Huh. So I stalked them, for the last half-hour or so of the tour - well, I had paid! He was wittering on about smugglers - a big theme, here, as the town used to be on the seafront. I have to say, he has a terrible voice for leading a walk - very weak. Anyway, his spiel also included a bit about the Mermaid Inn - apparently the most haunted building in Rye, if not the UK; they have rooms to rent, and it seems there's a different ghost in every one! Well, whatever about that, it sure is a scenic part of town:

His walk finished at the top of the road - and I have to say, I was rather glad I had missed most of it. It just didn't have much in it that interested me, and I couldn't have eaten until after - things worked out better this way. (Oh, and I caught him out on a historical point - it was George III, not George I, who was known as "Farmer George"!) And so I continued to the castle - lordy, those cobbles are uncomfortable to walk on!

Just across from it, I came across the lovely-looking Church of Saint Mary - they do recommend a visit, but at this time, I could hear music from inside: obviously a concert as part of the jazz festival. So I had to pass.

And so, finally, to the castle:

Admission is £4 for adults, and quite a few people were knocking around when I went in - in fact, the town was thronged. Double whammy of the bank holiday weekend and the jazz festival, combined with good weather. Well, I'm glad for the town's economy. I forgot to bring one of their free history fliers, nuts! Anyway, the castle is packed with historical displays - and the first really caught my eye!

There's a war memorial in front of the church, you see, and this used to decorate it! Spectacular. Also a very interesting torture exhibit:

As usual, you should work your way down from the top - which has some great views:

A fascinating, light-up display gives a vivid sense of the history of the place - press the buttons to illuminate different features, such as the coastline in Roman times, and the extent of navigability in Tudor times. And even though I'm not a big fan of military history usually, I had to stop at the display of helmets through the ages:

They also had a replica longbow, so you could try pulling the string - oh crikey, that requires some strength! and a very interesting comparison of the longbow and the crossbow. Elsewhere, a most evocative prie-dieu (kind of a place for private prayer, where the person could kneel):

And so to the Ypres Castle Inn, just around the back, to consider my next move - service was friendly and efficient, and they do have a big beer garden: but again, I didn't want to squint, so sat inside. I was now too late for the other attractions - so decided to head in search of food, to kill time. Which pretty much took me through the rest of the town. This, for example, is the Landgate:

And I have to admit, the town is choc-a-bloc with gorgeous architecture:

But unfortunately, this was dinnertime, and everywhere decent was packed - so I decided to head back to Ashford early, as my ticket there wasn't time-dependent; perhaps I could find somewhere good to eat there. While I was waiting for the rail replacement bus - which picked up around the corner from where we'd earlier been dropped off - I nipped into the public toilets. Which have the most curiously aligned instructions:

I have to say, the rail replacement system in Rye was chaos. All the buses had a sign for Hastings on them, a whole army of us wanted to go to Ashford - eventually, the lady in charge triaged it, and diverted one of the buses to Ashford. As one of the drivers said to her - was she sure it was to be a single-decker? Yes, she said firmly. And when she told us we could get on that one - there was a scramble for it. I got a seat, but it was completely packed, including standing room. At least the journey was less bumpy than the outward trip!

When I got off in Ashford - it was freezing! And as for eating - the Costa was closed, and there was nothing open nearby that interested me - a Turkish restaurant, but I didn't feel like Turkish, and an Italian: but I didn't like their menu either. The local fast-food places were exclusively takeaways. I ended up buying a sandwich and chocolate in the local filling station, and eating them in the lobby of the train station, staring at the departures board, and waiting impatiently for the train I had to take. I left it as late as possible to go up on the platform - sure enough, it was freezing. And to finish the day, with my phone battery nearly dead, I dozed all the way back to London.

Tomorrow, thinking of film - and with the film listings finally out, and rejecting the iffy-looking Indian films at the top, what it's looking like is M, a 1931 thriller set in Germany about the hunt for a murderer. Only showing in the BFI, which has a tendency to sell out - this isn't yet, but I'll have to keep an eye on it. Still, it is in the large screen, so I'll probably be ok.

On Tuesday, I'm back with TAC - for a play called Angel, in the Hope Theatre. Based on the true story of the "Angel of Kobane", a young woman who fought against the encroaching forces of Islamic State. This is the final part of an "Arabian Nightmares" trilogy of plays by Henry Naylor.

And on Wednesday - assuming I'm not working by then, I've signed up to another of Laurence's walks: The Lady-Killer is an inventive renaming of London's most notorious serial killer.. (Ooh, and I'll have to get cash out again.) Failing that, if I have to work (sadly, a necessary evil eventually), I can always head back to the Soho Comedy Factory that evening.. (Be aware, Design My Night sells tickets to this for £5, but you can show up for free..!)

Cabaret All-Stars & Tour: Glorious Greenwich

Yesterday, I got a cheap ticket with TAC to the Cabaret All-Stars! Now, although they advertise a "fine dining" menu, they don't say what's on it - so I decided not to risk it, given that their main business isn't food, and ate in O' Neill's instead. Had to go upstairs, but it was a lot quicker and cheaper than what I'd have got in the area around Embankment, and I was sure I'd be well fed. Service wasn't the quickest - and she forgot my onion rings - but I got out in time to arrive at the venue half an hour early, as requested by the ticket providers. And all praise Google Maps, which knows exactly where it is! and led me pretty much right to it. Mind you, once you're in the vicinity, it's hard to miss:

I felt like neither a VIP nor a Premium guest - the designations for the two queues - so joined the one that had people in it. Bag check, name check - he couldn't find my name at first, but I saw it on his list and pointed it out to him. And FYI, I was a VIP! (I think that's the minimum designation.) Some waiters are - well, waiting - to the side, and show people in. As a VIP, you go up to the balcony - the seats are large sofas curved around a table, and not at all a shabby view!

I did have to share my sofa in due course - they tried to squash in five more people, but the guy in the last group of four had a word with a waiter, and they moved to another table, to be replaced by a couple. So there were four of us at the table for the show. Food-wise, the menu had dishes for about £5 - chips, chicken, that sort of thing - presumably all small portions. I was rather glad I wasn't depending on them for dinner. I had a glass of wine, and then another as the evening wore on - the maximum measure they do is 175ml, for £10. Finding the wine a bit insipid, I switched to margaritas.. they have an extensive cocktail menu. These are £15, and went down much better - so I had two of those as well. Service was a bit hit and miss - the waiters had a lot to do, with two floors to serve, and it could be very hard to catch the eye of one.

Entertainment-wise, we started with half an hour of a singer, who explained that this slot was often occupied by somebody famous - so weren't we lucky to be able to see her before she hit the big time! She had several outfit changes:

She was good, acting as MC as well - but the other acts were excellent. We started with striptease - frankly, the lady was so heavily tattooed that it was hard to tell whether her clothes were on or off! She was followed by, I think, my favourite act of the night - the fire-eaters, who set fire to some very intimate parts of the anatomy! with great style, too:

There were a couple of acrobats, a couple of clowns - and I have to hand it to all of them. I've always admired circus performers, the lengths they go to, to entertain an audience: the crazy things they do. But last night was a new dimension - all of that, plus a sexy twist. It's a new kind of multitasking - hats off to them! Throughout, a good rock soundtrack - and I was glad not to have a ground-floor seat, and be in danger of being called onstage for a dance-off.

Excellent night, in general - highly recommended. The girls at the birthday party tables had great fun! The Cabaret All-Stars are finished now, but they are running other shows until the 30th of December, methinks. On the bus home, found myself sat beside an inveterate talker - really, I have to wonder how anyone can live with her! I don't mean to be mean, but seriously, she never closed her mouth! She was always talking, either to me or to the air. She'd just come from a show - wonder whether she was quiet for that..

Couldn't blog last night, as I had to redo the film list (which I didn't even get half finished) and then be up early this morning. I was back with Laurence Summers and the 45+ Not Grumpy Old Londoners for a walk called Glorious Greenwich. So popular, he reached capacity, still with several on the waitlist! Mind you, he had a lot of last-minute cancellations..

I had fewer problems getting to Greenwich than the last time I was there! Both bus and DLR were seamless - apart from half of Bank Station being blocked off, so I had a roundabout route to catch my train. Which Google Maps didn't factor into its estimate of how long it'd take me to get there! Never mind, it was a lovely journey - overground for most of the way, with some great views, and on a beautiful, sunny day. A group of Irish lads stood near me were commenting - in Irish - about the weird stop names. :-) And a lady on my other side had brought a dog, who decided that we were all much more interesting than her human..

What with a wait for that train, and a climb of stairs at the end, I was a little late for the start of the walk, as of course was someone else who arrived on the same train - but not really, because of course, Laurence hangs around for 15 minutes. And today he needed that time - people kept arriving. It was still a huge group! 

Greenwich was abuzz - for our first stop, there was music on both sides, with something that looked like a yoga session starting up on one side, and a busker on the other. We stopped for a look at the Cutty Sark, of course:

Sir Walter Raleigh made an appearance:

and the wall behind him carries the effigies of famous sea captains:

Greenwich has some famous vistas:

And what was cool was that we went to the chapel - which I didn't get to, last time I was here! So, worth making both trips then..

So much spectacular architecture. And such a nice place to come, on a sunny day..

Now, I never realised that this once occupied the fourth plinth in Trafalgar Square, which provides a seat for a succession of modern art works:

Excellent choice for a day out!

Anyway, he finally found somewhere that could accommodate us all for lunch - the Coach & Horses has outside benches, and had plenty of space. We had some rather nice fish n chips - and again, I got to share a bottle of sauvignon blanc. Our choice of the New Zealand label was approved of by our chatty waiter - and guess where he was from? ;-) When he later served me a top-up glass, he was also most approving of my choice to go large. Nice fellow. And it was a lovely, chatty, friendly afternoon. We even managed to avoid the pooing pigeon, positioned overhead.. just..

This evening, I was supposed to be meeting two ex-coworkers for dinner and drinks. But it turns out one got her wires crossed, and was now doing something else. And what a good job that I checked with the other - because he made exactly the same mistake! I did manage to cancel the restaurant reservation before I had to pay a penalty - just. Jeez, if people would only read instructions.. goes to show, you can never repeat things too often.

Tomorrow, I'm off to Rye. London and Sussex Walking Tours - whom I joined during lockdown - are running a daytrip! called Rye - Pirates, Ports and Jazz (they also have a jazz festival this weekend): and I've never been. It's a bit of a palaver to get to, involving two trains - but well, it's about time I travelled a bit, and it's not too early a start. And the tour itself ends early in the day, so I have plenty of time to eat and explore before my train(s) back.

On Monday, thinking of film - and with the film listings finally out, and rejecting the iffy-looking Indian films at the top, what it's looking like is M, a 1931 thriller set in Germany about the hunt for a murderer. Only showing in the BFI, which has a tendency to sell out - this isn't yet, but I'll have to keep an eye on it. Still, it is in the large screen, so I'll probably be ok.

On Tuesday, I'm back with TAC - for a play called Angel, in the Hope Theatre. Based on the true story of the "Angel of Kobane", a young woman who fought against the encroaching forces of Islamic State. This is the final part of an "Arabian Nightmares" trilogy of plays by Henry Naylor.

And on Wednesday - assuming I'm not working by then, I've signed up to another of Laurence's walks: The Lady-Killer is an inventive renaming of London's most notorious serial killer.. (Ooh, and I'll have to get cash out again.) Failing that, if I have to work (sadly, a necessary evil eventually), I can always head back to the Soho Comedy Factory that evening.. (Be aware, Design My Night sells tickets to this for £5, but you can show up for free..!)