Concert: Freddie Joon & Clayton

Yesterday, back with Buddies on a Budget in London - Mandy introduced us to the Floating Pocket Park, in Paddington! where they have free things in summer - yesterday, it was a free concert: Freddie Joon (she mentioned her name so often during the concert, you couldn't forget it!) and Clayton. Now, I have a late meeting on Wednesdays - which, had it run to time, I'd have had to skip out of. But wouldn't you know it, yesterday the boss both ran out of things to say, and also had vocal problems, what with all the presentations he's been giving lately. So.. it lasted all of 15 minutes, and I legged it immediately thereafter.

I could get the bus.. but traffic was dire - around King's Cross, anyway. Mercifully, it eased further down, and I got there in reasonable time - no problem at all for Google Maps to find this place, nor indeed for me. Access is through sundry laneways between the buildings, and I could see the water - the "floating pocket park" is on pontoons on this bit of water, and it was easy to find the musicians, who were already in full flow. So I moseyed off that way, located the deckchairs, located Mandy, dragged a deckchair a bit closer, and eased myself into it - it's been years since I sat in one, so the operation needed some care,

Very chilled vibe - pity that the glorious sunshine we'd had in the morning didn't last, though! It's not really my kind of music, but it's fine.. they're good, and fair play, they took requests, with Freddie looking up the lyrics, and Clayton the sheet music I guess, on their phones. Mandy put in a request - and good for her, got it played twice when a little girl requested it later, and Freddie agreed to play it again! Closest they got to my music, mind, was when someone requested Little Lion Man! And they did make a good attempt at that, but it's not really their thing. But hey, it was great to be back listening to music in the open air again - feels like summer! Well, apart from the fact that we were freezing.. Freddie must have been very warm, as she dispensed with her outer top for most of the show. Mind you, it does look quite fleecy and warm..

Afterwards, the general consensus was to head to the nearby Pizza Express, which six of us did. Gradually defrosting, most people had pizza, which, to be fair, is kind of the house specialty. I was going to, until I finally found the "al forno" section at the bottom - so I had carbonara. For a change - I hadn't had it in this chain before. And it was very nice, I must say, with nice, crispy bacon. I also thought the new "hot honey dough balls", which were advertised on the table, sounded interesting, and ordered a portion of those - sadly, they never arrived.

But apart from that, service was quick as a flash, and as friendly as you could ask for. A couple of people stayed while I had dessert - the chocolate fudge cake is, I'm happy to report, very good. And conversation flowed as freely as the wine, all night - honestly, best Meetup in ages! Delighted I came along.. Roll on the next one with these folks.

Exiting wasn't quite as easy - I think a lot of these properties are residential, and this central section seems to get closed off at night, with locked gates cutting off all those laneways! We left between 10 and 11pm, by which time two of the gates were locked - and had we left after 11, I'm not sure what we'd have done, as that's when the gate was to be locked that we left by! Never mind, we escaped to visit another day.. With another blasted early morning meeting today, though, it ran too late to blog last night.

Tonight, another film - this, however, is a private screening, organised by The London Palestinian Rights Meetup Group, in association with the Bethlehem Cultural Festival! Showing at the Prince Charles is Farha, the dramatisation of the life of a young Palestinian girl in 1948 - just at the start of the Nakba.. includes a Q+A afterwards with the director. Tickets from Eventbrite again. Tomorrow, I'm back to Ireland for the weekend.. Sadly, of all the films showing locally, however, there's only a couple I'm interested in seeing, and neither is at a time I can manage, what with keeping my mother company in the evenings! Ah well..

On Monday is An Evening Stroll in Fitzrovia, courtesy of a new group, Paul and Tim's Greater London Talks and Walks! So yes, I'll give it a go..

On Tuesday, The Horror Book Club just advertised an author event, with two female horror writers, at Waterstone's in Trafalgar Square. Tickets bookable in advance - I checked out one of the books as a free Kindle sample, and liked it, so I said I'd go. Pay extra and you can get a book with your ticket - but only one, and it costs more than both together cost on Kindle! So I passed on that option - if I feel like it, I'll order them on Kindle afterwards.

On Wednesday, thinking film again - and despite the new films I've seen advertised, it's still looking like The Blue Caftan, which was always near the top of the list. It's Moroccan, and showing at my local cinema - not that either of those film listings websites seems to think so, so I had to confirm on the cinema's own website! Grr..

And next Thursday, I'm back with TAC for a play called The Last of the Pelican Daughters, at The Courtyard..