Plays: Press & Tunnels

Tonight, Up in the Cheap Seats (UITCS), the same group as last night (with a different combination of members), were back at the Park Theatre for the Make Mine a Double series - this week, it's Press, which examines the world of journalism, and Tunnels, about two cousins hoping to escape East Berlin. So, darker than last week's.

Well, considering last week's debacle with the AWOL chef, we decided not to risk eating at the theatre - instead, we made for My Cottage, next door, for a pre-theatre meal. I have a lot to do in my last week at my current job - so didn't leave as early as I'd have liked, and ended up on the Victoria Line, which is only two stops away. Just managed to squeeze onto a rush-hour train - thank goodness it wasn't for too long! And then it's just a short walk.

I was the last to arrive - and gee, what an interesting finish on the tables:

No, that's not actually a spillage - they're made to look that way!

We noted how narrow the entrance was - you'd never think there could be a restaurant in here. But there is, with friendly service - and really, they were quick enough. And served (two of) us the most yummy chicken shawarma, with very tasty rice. Another had lamb shawarma and salad - memory fails as to what the fourth had. But we were very well fed - I'd be happy to come back and try some more.

And so to the theatre - again, both of these plays are in the smaller space, seating unreserved. And for Press, we were faced with a chair, a table, a rug, a dartboard on the wall. Kind of cosy - and a good soundtrack to welcome us. In fact, the first part in this short play of many parts is quite convivial! It's essentially a monologue - and for the first part, there was even some back and forth with the audience.

Interestingly, a non-speaking girl keeps coming in to remove the props - which are less and less relevant as the story progresses. After an intriguing start, we discover this is the worst kind of newspaper hack - the kind that fabricates populist news if there isn't any to hand. He describes all this for us with great glee - and goodness knows, the UK has some of the worst press in the world. So yes, we have all experienced this kind of journalism.

But wow, what a change for the final part. Now, we get to see the other side of journalism, as he has a change of heart, and begins to speak out about government oppression. The shift in mood is quite scary - and as the projection we've been seeing on the walls throughout turns to an actual photograph, you see where he's got some of his inspiration.

Because yes, the man who acts alone on stage throughout is also the writer - and it shows, I think. I loved this - it's clever, it's cutting, based on real-life stories, apparently. It's passionate. And the merge between the stories is believable. Oh my yes, I can recommend this - it's a most thought-provoking look into the whole of the world of journalism, both the disreputable hacks and the brave truth-tellers.

Second play of the night was Tunnels - live music for this meant a guy sat near the entrance with a guitar, and a sound desk of some kind - some electronica came out of there too. Two cousins are busy digging under the Berlin Wall, chatting as they go. Now, an Eastern European in our group wasn't very impressed, saying that's not how it was, but wouldn't elaborate on why - for sure, I was never over there before the wall fell, but for me it evoked memories of 1989, when it did fall, and I was at school, and couldn't keep from dashing to the tv to see what the next exciting piece of news was. It was almost daily, with the domino effect of the collapse of Eastern European governments - and isn't it funny how engaging stories of, say, the Stasi still are. Certainly, for me, the most exciting part of the play was when someone described a failed escape attempt over the wall. Not as good as Press, but still interesting - both run till the 10th, at varying times.

And so home - mercifully, by bus! which was almost empty.

Tomorrow.. same problem as last Wednesday, with little on Meetup. Until just recently, when the London Classical Music and Theatre Group advertised a London Philharmonic Orchestra concert at the Royal Festival Hall for that day! I managed a Black Friday discount too! ;-) So now I'm going to that.

On Thursday - well, my contract has been extended, and I start with the new company next week. I had booked an online talk, The Life and Times of Magnus Folk, from the Surrey History Meetup. One of the earliest electrical engineers in England, it seems. Anyway, it's free, and I've since cancelled - I found something more interesting while I was waiting for the play on Thursday night. The Arabic Music, Dance and Party Meetup Group are advertising an evening at the Bethlehem Cultural Festival - tickets from Eventbrite - in which there's a talk about 19th century travellers, as well as discussion of a forthcoming book, and a talk from a female artist in Gaza. Not that the group is advertising it, but there's also an Arab dance after, and another talk - you can go to some, or all. Happening in The Tabernacle. So, I booked a ticket - stopped short of joining the group though - we shall see.

Then back to Ireland for the weekend again - flying Aer Lingus for a change! My passport is due to expire, you see - I don't technically need one to travel between Ireland and the UK, but Ryanair demands it. Aer Lingus doesn't.. I finally submitted a renewal application - and they rejected my blasted photo. So much for the Photo Me booths - don't trust them, they pass photos that don't meet spec, it seems! Anyway, film for the weekend is looking like - Spirited, in which Will Ferrell plays the Ghost of Christmas Present to Ryan Reynolds' Scrooge, in a musical update to A Christmas Carol. Octavia Spencer plays Ryan's hapless assistant. Well, it looks like fun - Ryan Reynolds is always very watchable - and frankly, it's the best thing on in the afternoon that I haven't seen. Ennis will do - let us pray there isn't a match!

On Monday - yep, the London Chess Community again looked like the best option. Hmm. But just lately - hallelujah! I was saved by London Social & Cultural Meetups, who have scheduled a talk on The 70th Anniversary of the Great London Smog. (Although oddly, we're meeting outside - perhaps the venue is hard to find?) Anyway, I'm delighted - this is that friendly group I joined a while ago for Evensong at St. Bartholomew the Great, and I'm glad to be seeing them again.

Next Tuesday, well, Free Stuff and Free Events are holding another online singalong. Again, I cancelled my attendance at the last of these I booked for, so was reluctant to rush off and book again.. Or the Garden Talks have one on How Did Language Begin? Unfortunately, my free trial has long since expired, and they won't let me take out another. Well, I might have paid - but I'd be paying for a month's worth, so I figured I might as well wait until closer to the date, and get the value.. And yay, then UITCS jumped to the rescue again, with a comedy called Dinner with Groucho, at the Arcola. The setting is a dinner, somewhere in heaven, with Groucho Marks and T. S. Eliot the guests.. best available seats for £15 with the code FRANK15, until Friday.

On the 7th, I'm back with UITCS for Baghdaddy at the Royal Court. About a little girl, realising she's half Iraqi, just as the Gulf War is raging. I see CT now has tickets for this.. unusually for this venue!

On the 8th, I've signed up for another Watkin's Bookshop talk! This is Colin Stanley on Colin Wilson's Introducing the Occult. Well, the last talk I was at here was interesting, so..

On the 9th, I'm heading to Lightopia, at Crystal Palace Park. As suggested by Over 40 Living the Life, who are not actually hosting a trip themselves, but just wanted to advertise it. 15% discount if you subscribe to Lightopia's mailing list, 20% discount for purchases of 10 or more tickets. And durnit if Groupon hasn't just advertised cheap tickets..

On the 10th - I've bravely scheduled another meeting of Those who Do Not Come. It's my last weekend in London before Christmas, you see. Well, so far Ivan and my first boss in London are actually coming! while the one person who came the last two times probably not, for once. We shall see - I've booked The Lucas Arms - O' Neill's isn't taking bookings for that day. Deposit payable, refundable with cancellation up to 72 hours beforehand.

And on the 11th, I'm vaguely thinking of heading to see Carnaby Street's Christmas lights..

Play: Austentatious

These two days, I'm back with Up in the Cheap Seats (UITCS) - for some reason, I only just saw their advertised trip, tonight, to see Austentatious: An Improvised Jane Austen Novel, at the Arts Theatre. Awesome! Promised to be good - title decided by the audience on the night.

There are tons of restaurants around there - and as it's a Monday, I might even have got a table. But you know, there are easier things than squeezing into somewhere crammed in the West End, and taking pot luck with service.. Nope, I ate at O' Neills before I set out. Which was much more relaxed - although he spent so long over retrieving my order from the kitchen (they bang on the door when it's ready) that my onion rings were kinda cold by the time they got to me. And he brought them so late (half an hour after I arrived) that I ended up having to take the Tube, rather than the bus(es) I'd intended.

This show isn't the main one here - it's still Choir of Man, which has ads everywhere. But hey, the guy scanning my ticket seemed happy, and so was I. The folks were already in the bar - most of them, anyway. I queued for a drink before I joined them.

Some of us crammed into the Circle Slips - most were in the Stalls. I must say, it was a packed house!

Yes, that's a fiddler over the side, who provides accompaniment to the merriment. He actually couldn't be heard as we took our seats after the interval, what with the hubbub..

So, they dress in Regency garb, and speak in Regency language. Mostly. And someone at the start calls for "unknown Jane Austen titles". They pick one, and we're off. Now, someone complained that it didn't really seem improvised - well, but they never are, completely! Even the best improvisers have some stock phrases and themes - nobody could create a whole two hours or so completely off the cuff!

So, I thought it was funny - not hilarious, but definitely amusing. And I thought it improved in the second half. Not to everyone's taste - but it'd be boring if it were! They do have a sense of humour, and excellent comic timing - one man plays the dashing heartthrob, the other the slightly bumbling chap, and the ladies go around in pairs. Terribly Jane Austen. Recommended - runs Mondays (7.30, with interval), and late on Thursdays and Fridays (9.45, without interval) up to the 19th - limited availability for that night. Oh, and a couple of them hang around the bar afterwards, touting merchandise. So, this is your big chance to meet stars of the stage.. 

Tomorrow, the same group (with a different combination of members) are back at the Park Theatre for the Make Mine a Double series - this week, it's Press, which examines the world of journalism, and Tunnels, about two cousins hoping to escape East Berlin. So, darker than last week's.

On Wednesday.. same problem as last Wednesday. Until just recently, when the London Classical Music and Theatre Group advertised a London Philharmonic Orchestra concert at the Royal Festival Hall for that day! I managed a Black Friday discount too! ;-) So now I'm going to that.

On Thursday - well, my contract has been extended, and I start with the new company next week. I booked an online talk, The Life and Times of Magnus Folk, from the Surrey History Meetup. One of the earliest electrical engineers in England, it seems. Anyway, it's free, and I've now cancelled - I found something more interesting while I was waiting for the play on Thursday night. The Arabic Music, Dance and Party Meetup Group are advertising an evening at the Bethlehem Cultural Festival - tickets from Eventbrite - in which there's a talk about 19th century travellers, as well as discussion of a forthcoming book, and a talk from a female artist in Gaza. Not that the group is advertising it, but there's also an Arab dance after, and another talk - you can go to some, or all. Happening in The Tabernacle. So, I booked a ticket - stopped short of joining the group though - we shall see.

Then back to Ireland for the weekend again - flying Aer Lingus for a change! My passport is due to expire, you see - I don't technically need one to travel between Ireland and the UK, but Ryanair demands it. Aer Lingus doesn't.. I finally submitted a renewal application - and they rejected my blasted photo. So much for the Photo Me booths - don't trust them, they pass photos that don't meet spec, it seems!

Next Monday - yep, the London Chess Community again looked like the best option. Hmm. But just lately - hallelujah! I was saved by London Social & Cultural Meetups, who have scheduled a talk on The 70th Anniversary of the Great London Smog. (Although oddly, we're meeting outside - perhaps the venue is hard to find?) Anyway, I'm delighted - this is that friendly group I joined a while ago for Evensong at St. Bartholomew the Great, and I'm glad to be seeing them again. Mind you, until today, I was the only one who had signed up!

On the 6th, well, Free Stuff and Free Events are holding another online singalong. Again, I cancelled my attendance at the last of these I booked for, so was reluctant to rush off and book again.. Or the Garden Talks have one on How Did Language Begin? Unfortunately, my free trial has long since expired, and they won't let me take out another. Well, I might have paid - but I'd be paying for a month's worth, so I figured I might as well wait until closer to the date, and get the value.. And yay, then UITCS jumped to the rescue again, with a comedy called Dinner with Groucho, at the Arcola. The setting is a dinner, somewhere in heaven, with Groucho Marks and T. S. Eliot the guests.. best available seats for £15 with the code FRANK15, until Friday.

On the 7th, I'm back with UITCS for Baghdaddy at the Royal Court. About a little girl, realising she's half Iraqi, just as the Gulf War is raging. I see CT now has tickets for this.. unusually for this venue!

On the 8th, I've signed up for another Watkin's Bookshop talk! This is Colin Stanley on Colin Wilson's Introducing the Occult. Well, the last talk I was at here was interesting, so..

On the 9th, I'm heading to Lightopia, at Crystal Palace Park. As suggested by Over 40 Living the Life, who are not actually hosting a trip themselves, but just wanted to advertise it. 15% discount if you subscribe to Lightopia's mailing list, 20% discount for purchases of 10 or more tickets. And durnit if Groupon hasn't just advertised cheap tickets..

On the 10th - I've bravely scheduled another meeting of Those who Do Not Come. It's my last weekend in London before Christmas, you see. Well, so far Ivan and my first boss in London are probable attendees, the one person who came the last two times probably not, for once. We shall see - I've booked The Lucas Arms - O' Neill's isn't taking bookings for that day. Deposit payable, refundable with cancellation up to 72 hours beforehand.

And on the 11th, I'm vaguely thinking of heading to see Carnaby Street's Christmas lights..

Walk - Secrets of the Riverside Part 1: Tower Bridge to London Bridge

Today, I was back with Discover London, for a walk entitled Secrets of the Riverside Part 1: Tower Bridge to London Bridge. These events are excellent - I was delighted to be back on one! And this one booked up, well in advance.

My day's exercise started early, when I saw the bus approach and I wasn't quite there yet! Trotted over to it - and what with two people boarding before me, I made it. Now, it's supposed to stop just at the south side of London Bridge - nope, although the button was pushed, it carried on to the station. I wish TFL wouldn't confuse us like that - I've complained (again). Well, I got to the location about five minutes before she said she'd be there - to discover I was the second to arrive! In the end. out of over 20 that RSVPed yes, only seven of us showed up! Now, I know the weather forecast was bad, but it's tough on the people who couldn't come because all the places were taken.

Well, as to the people who didn't come, it's their loss - it did spit a couple of drops of rain on us as we went around, but no more. Meantime, the first I noticed was how much my shoes were slipping on the wet, flat surfaces - all of these super-flat surfaces that they've put down for tourists are a nightmare when wet! I spent much of the day worrying about falling over.. When we were walking along the merchant line, which shows imports and exports, at least I could walk along the middle, which has a rougher texture!

Cute scale model of the area, at the end:

As ever, fantastic views awaited us at the riverside:

Crossing to the other side, for the only time, we were introduced to Father Thames, at the top of the Four Seasons:

And somoene remarked how like tridents were the lights at the bottom - good point, I hadn't noticed!

We schlepped along to the old Billingsgate fish market:

Now, I heard a lot of facts on today's walk - some of which I knew already, some of which were new to me. But I'd certainly never been in the church of Magnus the Martyr before!

And oh, what a spectacular model of London Bridge in 1400.. gee, I'd like a copy of that myself:

And such attention to detail:

Why, there's even a miniature Henry IV!

And the sculptor himself, depicted as one of the hundreds of tiny figures: he's in this picture, in his policeman's uniform, just to the left of the chap sitting on the edge of the bridge:

Another terrific walk from this guide. She took us to the Monument pub afterwards - those of us who wanted - and we had lunch: unfortunately, they never do have the full complement here! Mind you, at least they had food, unlike the last time I was here (but then, we were earlier today) - but only roasts. Still, they did have the lovely sauce for which Greene King pubs are noted - and the Yorkshire pudding was particularly nice. And a few of us made an afternoon of it. Nice atmosphere in this pub.. and a very nice day was had.

The next two days, I'm back with Up in the Cheap Seats (UITCS) - for some reason, I only just saw their advertised trip, tomorrow, to see Austentatious: An Improvised Jane Austen Novel, at the Arts Theatre. Awesome! This should be good - title decided by the audience on the night.

On Tuesday, we're back at the Park Theatre for the Make Mine a Double series - this week, it's Press, which examines the world of journalism, and Tunnels, about two cousins hoping to escape East Berlin. So, darker than last week's.

On Wednesday.. same problem as last Wednesday. Until just recently, when the London Classical Music and Theatre Group advertised a London Philharmonic Orchestra concert at the Royal Festival Hall for that day! And wouldn't you know it, there's a Black Friday discount until the end of tomorrow if you book on the LPO website with the code BLACKFRIDAY. As I'd only just seen! ;-) So now I'm going to that.

On Thursday - well, my contract has been extended, and the new company is busy with a background check, and hasn't yet given me a start date. Which is just fine, as I only have to give a week's notice. I booked an online talk, The Life and Times of Magnus Folk, from the Surrey History Meetup. One of the earliest electrical engineers in England, it seems. Anyway, it's free, and I've now cancelled - I found something more interesting while I was waiting for the play on Thursday night. The Arabic Music, Dance and Party Meetup Group are advertising an evening at the Bethlehem Cultural Festival - tickets from Eventbrite - in which there's a talk about 19th century travellers, as well as discussion of a forthcoming book, and a talk from a female artist in Gaza. Not that the group is advertising it, but there's also an Arab dance after, and another talk - you can go to some, or all. Happening in The Tabernacle. So, I booked a ticket - stopped short of joining the group though - we shall see.

Then back to Ireland for the weekend again - flying Aer Lingus for a change! My passport is due to expire, you see - I don't technically need one to travel between Ireland and the UK, but Ryanair demands it. Aer Lingus doesn't.. I've finally gotten around to starting the online renewal process. Fingers crossed it goes quickly..

On the 5th - yep, the London Chess Community again looked like the best option. Hmm. But just lately - hallelujah! I was saved by London Social & Cultural Meetups, who have scheduled a talk on The 70th Anniversary of the Great London Smog. (Although oddly, we're meeting outside - perhaps the venue is hard to find?) Anyway, I'm delighted - this is that friendly group I joined a while ago for Evensong at St. Bartholomew the Great, and I'm glad to be seeing them again.

On the 6th, well, Free Stuff and Free Events are holding another online singalong. Again, I cancelled my attendance at the last of these I booked for, so was reluctant to rush off and book again.. Or the Garden Talks have one on How Did Language Begin? Unfortunately, my free trial has long since expired, and they won't let me take out another. Well, I might have paid - but I'd be paying for a month's worth, so I figured I might as well wait until closer to the date, and get the value.. And yay, just yesterday UITCS jumped to the rescue again, with a comedy called Dinner with Groucho, at the Arcola. The setting is a dinner, somewhere in heaven, with Groucho Marks and T. S. Eliot the guests.. best available seats for £15 with the code FRANK15, until Friday.

On the 7th, I'm back with UITCS for Baghdaddy at the Royal Court. About a little girl, realising she's half Iraqi, just as the Gulf War is raging. I see CT now has tickets for this.. unusually for this venue!

On the 8th, I've signed up for another Watkin's Bookshop talk! This is Colin Stanley on Colin Wilson's Introducing the Occult. Well, the last talk I was at here was interesting, so..

On the 9th, I'm heading to Lightopia, at Crystal Palace Park. As suggested by Over 40 Living the Life, who are not actually hosting a trip themselves, but just wanted to advertise it. 15% discount if you subscribe to Lightopia's mailing list, 20% discount for purchases of 10 or more tickets. And durnit if Groupon hasn't just advertised cheap tickets..

On the 10th - I've bravely scheduled another meeting of Those who Do Not Come. It's my last weekend in London before Christmas, you see. Well, so far Ivan and my first boss in London are probable attendees, the one person who came the last two times probably not, for once. We shall see - I've booked The Lucas Arms - O' Neill's isn't taking bookings for that day. Deposit payable, refundable with cancellation up to 72 hours beforehand.

And on the 11th, I'm vaguely thinking of heading to see Carnaby Street's Christmas lights..

Winter Wonderland & Christmas Lights Bus Tour

Today, I had my Christmas get-together with Helen! We planned a Christmas bonanza - first to the Magical Ice Kingdom at Winter Wonderland, where we determined also to have a stroll around the Christmas markets, and get some alcoholic hot chocolate. Then food - then we were on a Tootbus night-time open-top bus tour. As booked on Wowcher. Now, there was a rail strike today, but it didn't affect her. There was also a Tube strike. Of course, there was a bus strike too.. Happily, affecting neither of us!

Well, I was up in decent time - although the lift in our building is (finally!) fixed, SOMEONE is still doing building works - really loud building works. Drilling and hammering at 8.15 on a Saturday morning - I ask you. So, I was there in good time to meet Helen at the stop where I told her to get off.

That, apparently, is the Animals in War memorial.

And kudos to her for following the directions! Well, as she remarked as we headed to the Red Entrance, what a good job we weren't entering by the Blue (main) entrance - as I was to see for myself later, when we left that way. What a queue.. of the hour and a half we spent in Winter Wonderland, we'd probably have spent most of that time waiting, in a queue that size.

Speaking of entrances - what an excellent idea Winter Wonderland had, to use What 3 Words to help people to locate the entrances! Google Maps couldn't find the entrance exactly - but What 3 Words has mapped the entire world, using a random combination of three words to describe each 3-square-metre patch. So you can be that precise! Oh, and the app will tell you what the three words are for where you are at the moment - and then asks whether you want directions in Google Maps! and off you go. So, Winter Wonderland provided the three-word combination for each of the entrances, and you just look those up in the What 3 Words app, and click through from there for directions in Google Maps. Location has never been so easy - it basically eliminates the need to know coordinates!

Pity they didn't give the What 3 Words location for each of the attractions! We had the usual fun trying to find the ice kingdom - which I see actually has a castle frontage this year! The theme is that a wicked witch has turned the queen to a block of ice, and the king has to come and rescue her, with the help of some faithful subjects. The carvings are as impressive as ever - just watch out for the odd lump of snow falling from the frozen condensation on the roof!

The poor attendants were mithered telling people not to touch the ice - a major problem was kids patting this dog's bottom!

I think the witch's castle is guarded by a bear, which has to be defeated:

Battle is duly joined:

And you actually end up walking through a castle wall made of ice! Most impressive - there's an optional ice slide for kids, too.

Finally, the king and queen make good their escape:

And as well as the usual ice benches to sit on (brr!), this time, they have a carriage!

As usual, well worth a look - I've omitted lots of small details here. Wrap up, though - I think they keep it at -10c.

Now, the last couple of times I was at Winter Wonderland, they had the "boozy" hot chocolate at the exit to the ice display. Not this time - but we did have some lovely churros and doughnuts! We duly came across the "boozy" hot chocolate just across from the Apres-Ski Funhouse. I have to say though, I can't recommend the "Jameson orange" option - it's rather sickly. They used a different orange shot in previous years..

We found the Haunted Mansion interesting enough for a photo stop:

Very Christmassy toilets they have:

Many unisex:

Some nostalgic art on sale:

Winter Wonderland runs till the 2nd of January. Well, after we'd schlepped around the markets, we were ready for a sit-down and some food. So off we hied to Henry's, a moderate walk away - thanks, Laurence, for introducing me to it! Never really busy - I think passers-by think it's more expensive than it is. We were seated without problem - unfortunately, we ate enough that we were absolutely stuffed! We also bonded with our server over her love of cats.. Happily, we had plenty of time before our bus tour, and wandered our way slowly up there afterwards.

As we started, at 4.30, it was just getting nicely dark. We sat upstairs of course - and the promised rain mostly held off. I didn't envy the next tour, though! It rained more heavily later.. Oh, and we could all take a free Toot Bus Santa hat!

Down Oxford Street, we actually spent most of our time window-shopping! which was just fine with us. For all that they keep mentioning two branches of M&S, two branches of Primark - I counted at least four branches of Zara along its length! And the traffic was dreadful - which suited us just fine, as they had to drop us back (roughly) where we started. So we got an extra-long tour! I have to say, too, that guide - whose patter never failed for the whole tour - had something to say about absolutely every place the bus paused! Every building we passed. Well done, that man.

The crowds - well, the crowds were as bad as they are here every weekend..

Some buildings were decorated with particular care - Fortnum & Mason's frontage was made to look like an Advent calendar:

And I thought Waterstone's was sweet:

That done, Helen had time to head for a hot chocolate - I checked out the nearest Caffe Nero, and we were lucky enough to get a table in what was a very busy cafe. And she was lucky enough to get the last of their new chocolate and hazelnut choux-nuts (like doughnuts, but with choux pastry - as she remarked, more like a profiterole). And I love their luxury hot chocolate - they do know what they're doing. And we had a lovely couple of pieces of gianduja, which they always keep by the till. Unfortunately, after that, her luck ran out - she'd left her (new) phone on the table while she ran to the loo, and there was a beggar, with a board, doing the rounds of the tables. With hindsight, of course, I'd have done something differently - but as it was, she used her board as a cover to lift the phone. Bummer, not a good end to the day. Well, 'tis the season for opportunistic thievery.. Be careful out there.

Ah well, despite that, it was good to see her! With her planning a move to the other end of the country in the New Year, these meetings will become less frequent..

Tomorrow, I'm back with Discover London, for a walk entitled Secrets of the Riverside Part 1: Tower Bridge to London Bridge. These events are good - I'm delighted to be back on one! And I see this one is now booked up. So I really need to get to bed soon!

The next two days, back with Up in the Cheap Seats (UITCS) - for some reason, I only just saw their advertised trip, on Monday, to see Austentatious: An Improvised Jane Austen Novel, at the Arts Theatre. Awesome! This should be good - title decided by the audience on the night.

On Tuesday, we're back at the Park Theatre for the Make Mine a Double series - next week, it's Press, which examines the world of journalism, and Tunnels, about two cousins hoping to escape East Berlin. So, darker than last week's.

On Wednesday.. same problem as last Wednesday. Until just yesterday, when the London Classical Music and Theatre Group advertised a London Philharmonic Orchestra concert at the Royal Festival Hall for that day! And wouldn't you know it, there's a Black Friday discount until the end of Monday if you book on the LPO website with the code BLACKFRIDAY. As I'd only just seen! ;-) So now I'm going to that.

On Thursday - well, my contract has been extended, and the new company is busy with a background check, and hasn't yet given me a start date. Which is just fine, as I only have to give a week's notice. I booked an online talk, The Life and Times of Magnus Folk, from the Surrey History Meetup. One of the earliest electrical engineers in England, it seems. Anyway, it's free, and I've now cancelled - I found something more interesting while I was waiting for the play on Thursday night. The Arabic Music, Dance and Party Meetup Group are advertising an evening at the Bethlehem Cultural Festival - tickets from Eventbrite - in which there's a talk about 19th century travellers, as well as discussion of a forthcoming book, and a talk from a female artist in Gaza. Not that the group is advertising it, but there's also an Arab dance after, and another talk - you can go to some, or all. Happening in The Tabernacle. So, I booked a ticket - stopped short of joining the group though - we shall see.

Then back to Ireland for the weekend again - flying Aer Lingus for a change! My passport is due to expire, you see - I don't technically need one to travel between Ireland and the UK, but Ryanair demands it. Aer Lingus doesn't.. I've finally gotten around to starting the online renewal process. Fingers crossed it goes quickly..

On the 5th - yep, the London Chess Community again looked like the best option. Hmm. But just lately - hallelujah! I was saved by London Social & Cultural Meetups, who have scheduled a talk on The 70th Anniversary of the Great London Smog. (Although oddly, we're meeting outside - perhaps the venue is hard to find?) Anyway, I'm delighted - this is that friendly group I joined a while ago for Evensong at St. Bartholomew the Great, and I'm glad to be seeing them again.

On the 6th, well, Free Stuff and Free Events are holding another online singalong. Again, I cancelled my attendance at the last of these I booked for, so was reluctant to rush off and book again.. Or the Garden Talks have one on How Did Language Begin? Unfortunately, my free trial has long since expired, and they won't let me take out another. Well, I might have paid - but I'd be paying for a month's worth, so I figured I might as well wait until closer to the date, and get the value.. And yay, just today UITCS jumped to the rescue again, with a comedy called Dinner with Groucho, at the Arcola. The setting is a dinner, somewhere in heaven, with Groucho Marks and T. S. Eliot the guests.. best available seats for £15 with the code FRANK15, until Friday.

On the 7th, I'm back with UITCS for Baghdaddy at the Royal Court. About a little girl, realising she's half Iraqi, just as the Gulf War is raging. I see CT now has tickets for this.. unusually for this venue!

On the 8th, I've signed up for another Watkin's Bookshop talk! This is Colin Stanley on Colin Wilson's Introducing the Occult. Well, the last talk I was at here was interesting, so..

On the 9th, I'm heading to Lightopia, at Crystal Palace Park. As suggested by Over 40 Living the Life, who are not actually hosting a trip themselves, but just wanted to advertise it. 15% discount if you subscribe to Lightopia's mailing list, 20% discount for purchases of 10 or more tickets. And durnit if Groupon hsn't just advertised cheap tickets..

On the 10th - I've bravely scheduled another meeting of Those who Do Not Come. It's my last weekend in London before Christmas, you see. Well, so far Ivan and my first boss in London are probable attendees, the one person who came the last two times probably not, for once. We shall see - I've booked The Lucas Arms - O' Neill's isn't taking bookings for that day. Deposit payable, refundable with cancellation up to 72 hours beforehand.

And on the 11th, I'm vaguely thinking of heading to see Carnaby Street's Christmas lights..