Restaurant: Colosseo

Tonight, Helen was in town for a conference - we met for dinner at Colosseo, before I was due to head off to join Up in the Cheap Seats again, for The Good Person of Szechwan, by Brecht, at the Lyric Hammersmith! At least I'd get fed, this time..

Blast it, three buses again, like last night. Had a Murphy's Law experience when the bus I was supposed to change to was right in front of us as we came to the stop! which would have been ok if I could have got off straight away.. I couldn't of course, because we were stopped at a junction! and despite the fact that nobody could come down there, with the bus stopped there, of course I couldn't get off. So I missed it, and was delayed.

And it was not appreciated that the stops didn't even advertise that the #11, my third bus of the day, stopped there! Of course, it mightn't soon - the #11 is, apparently, being discontinued. Tsk - one of the best routes in London. Figures.. they can't see anything good without wanting to end it.

Well, I was slightly late again, but never mind.

Had my usual chicken in white wine sauce, with some garlic bread and roasted potatoes. And ooh.. although the menu wasn't unusual, by gum it was tasty! And as the evening wore on.. I said sod it, made my apologies to the group, and we had a second bottle of wine. And dessert - and ooh, they have tartufo! It's years since I had it, and I love it so.. Oh, d'you know, every now and again I need a break.. this was it! Thanks Helen, and for convivial company too! About time I celebrated getting a U2 ticket (at 5am) .. watch this space.. and now I can chill, then get to bed early. Stunning.

Tomorrow, I was thinking film again - but just yesterday, London Baroque Music Lovers advertised a Handel concert at the Heath Street Baptist Church. It's a performance of his opera, Rinaldo. I do love a bit of baroque, haven't heard any in ages - and it's, as usual, months since I was last with this group! so I plumped for this.

No confusion over what I'm doing on Saturday - back with Laurence Summers and the 45+ Not Grumpy Old Londoners again! This one is Clerkenwell: A Village of Contrasts - not so far from me. How fortunate am I, to be living close to so much history..

On Sunday, I got a free ticket for David McSavage's new show, Lazy Bastard, at the Top Secret Comedy Club. Still available, still free, if you're interested..

On Monday - well, there's a ton of stuff on Meetup! I finally decided that the most attractive thing was the Vintage Soho guided walk with Barrie, again with the 45+s (it's a bank holiday, you see). As with so many of his walks, however, tickets are also available with TAC - and even though I still have to pay him £5 cash on the day, it represents a saving!

On Tuesday, I was thinking film again - but another late listing has the World Music Meetup (WMM) advertising Sounds of Sudan, at St. Ethelburga's Centre for Reconciliation and Peace. At a time when Sudan is in the news for all the wrong reasons, this sounds a lovely concert by Sudanese artist Mo Sarrar. So now I'm going to that.

On Wednesday, again, loads of stuff on Meetup - but two of my groups are running events that would interest me, but are sold out. The Horror Book Club, meantime, is reading The Yellow Wallpaper - a novella that I found on Kindle, and downloaded a free sample for. Mind you, it came as part of a collection.. and is so short that its entirety was included in the free sample! so I read the whole thing in half an hour. How different from our last assignment.. I wasn't that keen on it - although the ending is good. So I'll probably head to yet another film that night. That blasted film listings site still has, as of now, partial listings up for it. So - subject to change, as so many films are listed with the caveat "no information available at the moment" - Wednesday's film is looking like How to Blow Up a Pipeline, the fictional account of climate activists attacking a pipeline in Texas. Showing in my local cinema - not that the listings site let me in on that secret, but from experience, I tried the cinema website myself directly..

Next Thursday, I booked a livestream from the Crick Crack Club, from the Story Museum Oxford. This is King Lear Retold. However, these tend to be available for a week after - so I've taken the opportunity, also, to book another concert with the WMM! This is La Chinganera, in the Finnish Church - and the concerts organised by Eleanor Salter Thorn of TunedIn London are always good!

Then back to Ireland for the coronation weekend..