Back to London, phew. Just as well I reminded my perenially forgetful taxi driver about the clock change though! But, what with Ryanair's schedule change, I get to fly a bit earlier now, and not on the last flight of the night - so, fewer knock-on delays! and I get in at a reasonable time - and, crucially, in time for the Stansted Express. When it's running.
Today, I initially booked with the Happy Positive Group! For their weekly Monday trivia night! They seem to be completely online. But wow, looking at it lately, they seemed to have switched today's meeting to tomorrow! Although, having cancelled my attendance, I then noticed that all Meetups were displaying in the wrong time zone, so were shown as starting five hours later than they actually were.. I complained, and they did fix it. Well, I probably wouldn't have gone anyway.
The best Meetup left for today seemed to be with the Shanty Singers Colliers Wood. This is another of those things I once booked and ended up cancelling, so I said I'd hold off on booking that till nearer the time. But you know, when I looked more carefully.. this is a big complicated affair, with "warming up exercises", a vocal coach, a "practice session".. for goodness' sake. The more I read, the less enthusiastic I felt.
I finally gave up on Meetup, and booked with TAC, for a Kirckman piano concert at King's Place. Thought it'd be nice, and it is definitely close.
Wow though, the boss found a lot of work for me to do today - I was still working on it after 6! Finished at 6.10 - which was actually fine for the evening, the concert didn't start that early - but I had wanted to shop first. Never mind, off I went. First stop Nando's, of course - I wouldn't eat in King's Place, in preference, the service is terminally slow. So was getting seated at Nando's! Did you know, they have different tables for one than for two?! Seems, if it has a bench on one side and a chair on the other, it's a table for one - the booths are tables for two!
Well, I did get seated after 15 minutes, finally - and of course, the app makes it all the faster now. And the food was excellent, albeit the chicken was a little chewy today. I seem to have arrived at a bad time, BTW - the crowd waiting completely vanished while I was eating! Sadly, I had no time for a dessert, or a second glass of their excellent chardonnay - one day, perhaps..
A short walk, then, to King's Place, I had my name checked off the list and went downstairs. Where the show in Hall Two was just on the point of starting - I was in Hall One, though. I nipped to the toilet first, where someone urged me to hurry, it was starting! (Something about a rail workers' film..?) Anyway, my business done, I headed for the bar - only to be told it was closed! FFS.. Not worth their while, I guess, certainly once the crowd for Hall Two had gone in.
I was the first into Hall One - and had a most decent seat. (I checked afterwards - my £4.50 ticket was face value £25, yippee.. £27.50 with booking fee!)
The crowd was rather sparse.. don't take the photo as a guide to that though, it was taken at the interval! Anyway, the pianist was excellent, as you'd expect - apparently deeply entranced throughout, he threw himself into the expression of the music. The pregnant pauses were maybe a bit suspenseful, mind - he had a habit of sitting, hands still poised over the piano like claws, as if having a mental conversation with the instrument. I took to counting the seconds, towards the end - the last pause lasted about 40 seconds before he relaxed back in his seat, and we knew the concert was over, and we had permission to clap.
As to the material - as I anticipated, a mixture of dissonant modern stuff (yuck) and nice, lyrical, traditional classical. The only ones I half-recognised were some decent Gershwin adaptations. Not, honestly, my favourite musical sojourn, but still, it was nice to get back to classical again! First time in an age.
Oh, and I had time to shop - partially, anyway - on the way home.
Tomorrow, I've booked for Phaedra, at the National. Stars Janet McAteer.
On Wednesday, I'm back with Up in the Cheap Seats to Sadler's Wells - first time in an age - for Creature, by Akram Khan! I absolutely love his work. Handily enough, I used my latest Theatre Token for this - would have used it for Phaedra, but while neither theatre takes them online (you have to phone if you want to use a token), the National charges extra for phone bookings. So I used it for this instead.
On Thursday, back with the London European Club, at somewhere called the Ugly Duck, for Synchrony, a female 12-piece string ensemble. Tickets from Eventbrite. As hosted by Eleanor Salter Thorn again! So glad to see her hosting events in more central locations..
I was keeping Friday free because Ivan is feeling thirsty again. :-) And for once, he seems to be sticking to the date, having booked us a table at The Lucas Arms (which, as he pointed out, has a smoker's area). We're hoping to have Martin - my other friendly ex-boss - join us, but he has more family commitments, which he's trying to juggle - we've told him to join us whenever. And this looks like turning into the first zapoi in a while - Ivan is talking about booking a studio, where we can drink overnight. Oy ve, watch this space.. So, not pushed about doing anything extra on Saturday.
And on Sunday, I'm back with the Crick Crack Club, for Orpheus Dismembered, at the British Museum, courtesy of Ben Haggarty. The event there that I'd already heard of..
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