Tuesday was a non-going-out day in the end, as our visiting colleague took herself off home for the night. I did look for something last-minute for myself, of course, but there was still nothing on Meetup, and unlike Monday, everything from my cheap ticket clubs was sold out! I guess Tuesday is that much more popular than Monday, eh? Finally, I thought about a film - but I had to go so far down the film list to find something showing that night that, by the time I did, it was too late to go to anything. So I had an early night in, and shocked our team lead by beating everyone in the team into the office on Wednesday..
I'd booked with London Literary Walks on Wednesday night, for another Sculpture in the City walk. But wouldn't you know it, he just realised beforehand that the display only starts later in the month! He's postponed it to next month. Which left me free to head back to Sands Films, where Eleanor, courtesy of TunedIn London, and advertised via the London European Club, was hosting a blues concert by Errol Linton. Lovely!
Weather was a bit warmer, thankfully, and the traffic gods were with me - this time, I was given several suggestions for my first bus (although the 43 doesn't go from that stop, tsk!), and had under 10 minutes to wait for the 47, which I picked up at Monument this time, at one of those bus stops that attracts about one bus per minute. And so it was that, despite terrible traffic on the first leg of the journey, I was in Rotherhithe half an hour earlier than last time! So when I got to The Ship, I decided to risk ordering chips.
More photos - and videos - here. Hmm. I guess they didn't have the cooker turned on, because it took over 20 minutes for them to arrive, and when they did they weren't fully cooked. Never mind, they were piping hot and very welcome. Funnily enough, while I was waiting, from the conversation I overheard at the bar, I discovered that, not only is the barmaid Irish, but has the same first name as I do! Anyway, I didn't stay to chat - legged it as soon as I'd finished.
Now that my leg's better, it was only a hop, skip and jump to Sands Films - not a full house this time, unusually, and happily my favourite chair was free - a nice, comfy armchair, into which I settled. Wasn't long before the concert started - a glorious evening of rhythm n blues, Mr. Linton fronting four others - one on keyboard, one on bass, one on percussion, and one on guitar that reminded me of Bill Murray!
For the next couple of hours, the house rocked to the music of these five men, in the most head-nodding, toe-tapping, concert I've been at in an age. Oh, it's so long since I've listened to r n b! By the end of the night, they were dancing in the aisles. Eleanor mentioned that he's the artist she's invited there the most - I can see why. A great, relaxed evening, a real tonic for the cares of the day.
Afterwards, again I was on the run, knowing how long it takes to get home from there - well, not too bad this time, with buses coming quickly, and especially since it wasn't as cold as last time. Still, it ran too late to blog, and I was just too busy to blog at work yesterday, what with California panicking over a late software release.
Yesterday evening was the office's monthly social - this month, it was in Junkyard Golf Club. Well, it beats feckin' ping pong! We had yet another late meeting - so many people in North America to talk to - and I walked down afterwards with the one other writer who was in. It's a basement venue, and I was glad I decided to leave my coat in the cloakroom, before anything else - it was boiling hot! Worth the £1 charge.. £2 for bags, BTW, and they ran out of space for a while!
We got wristbands from the evening's organiser - there are four different courses here, and our wristbands detailed which we were to go to, and at what time. We found the course without problem - basically ignored the start times, after the initial one, just streaming in, taking clubs, balls, scorecards and pencils from the guy at the entrance.
Our course was "Pablo":
Something of a jungle theme going on. Nine holes of crazy golf followed, in somewhat stifling heat, despite the ice-cold air being blasted out by one air-conditioning unit, somewhere in the middle. To mitigate the effects, there's a treetop bar halfway through! The holes themselves? Very entertaining! Lots of tricky challenges. The first is 3 par - they give up on estimates after that, but do have the odd sign warning that there's an eight-shot maximum! I'm sure I was improving by the end.. good fun, good choice of venue!
Afterwards, we writers had a drink in the bar, only to discover that everyone else had decided it was too hot and headed outside. Someone was sent back to tell us that they'd headed left - so when we finished, that's where we wandered. We found them sat at a food stall at the end of the lane, bearing the name of The Orange Buffalo. Ooh, I thought, food! They do wings and chips - I thought wings would be too messy, so stuck to chips. Thought I might also have some onion rings, but they didn't have any ready, so I didn't.
Turns out that pretty much any of the choices of sauce you can have were a bit too hot for our crew! I'm not sure anyone finished their portion. Anyway, we sat and chatted until it was pretty dark, and we started to lose people. A couple of us then mooched over to the nearby bar - when we went for drinks, we discovered it was Juju's Bar and Stage! I thought it sounded familiar - seems I was at a talk there, last year. Well, a few of us stuck it out to the bitter end - and many thanks to both who bought me drinks! A really good, really social night.
Now I'm back in Ireland for the weekend again. Gotta say, it's warmer here, way more humid. On Monday, back with Up in the Cheap Seats for the first time in weeks! Another performance of Showstopper! The Improvised Musical - different every night. At the Lyric again.
On Tuesday, another Funzing talk, courtesy of London Speaks Sessions and LDN Talks @ Night - Inside North Korea. I see the code crazy_fun is still getting a 10% discount.
On Wednesday, London Literary Walks is taking us to A Circus School and Shakespeare's Dark Lady.
On Thursday, back with Up in the Cheap Seats - at the Bridge Theatre this time, for My Name is Lucy Barton, starring Laura Linney. I got the very last £15 seat!
Next Friday, would you credit it, I'm back with London Dramatic Arts! to see Monogamy, at the Park Theatre. Well, it sounds interesting - and they've sold their allocation for this showing, so we're free to buy our own (gee). My good God, it's August since I was last with them..
On the 16th, Funzing is advertising an ice skating display in aid of the victims of Grenfell. Via Funzing UK. The usual 10% discount applies.
On the 17th, Let's Do This is headed to the World Illustration Awards exhibition at Somerset House.
On the 18th, I'm headed to storytelling by Crick Crack again, finally.. I haven't been able to make any of their more recent ones. It's in Soho Theatre, and it's Sally Pomme Clayton, with Crow. Blood. Snow. Oh my God, it's been ages. Naturally, you'd never know from their Meetup group that it's happening at all. Our boss was supposed to be in London that week, so I decided to leave the rest of the week free, for now.
Then he pinged us, this week, to say it'll actually be the week after. Cue me booking things frantically for the week that was now free - happily, I did well. On the 19th, something very interesting - Up in the Cheap Seats is off to Whist, at Sadler's Wells. Now, turns out that this is an immersive, VR experience! Definitely different.
On the 20th, London Literary Walks is off on Pop the Weasel, and I'm delighted to be able to accompany them.
On the 21st, back to Sands Films for Fete de la Musique - Belcirque is performing, and they do sound quirky. Then it's Ireland again at the weekend.
On the 25th, I'm indulging myself with a premium seat to see Andrew Scott perform the one-man show, Seawall, written especially for him. It's at the Old Vic, two weeks only.
On the 26th, back with Up in the Cheap Seats, at Sadler's Wells. It's the Nederlands Dans Theater again - I remember good things about them from before. As I say, the boss is now in the office that week - well, he'll just have to manage without me, those two nights. I'm keeping the rest of the week, and the weekend, free, just in case. Hey, I do have to move that week as well, so could probably do with the time!
And on the 2nd, back with Up in the Cheap Seats, at the Gielgud Theatre for Imperium I - Conspirator. The first part of a double-bill, but viewable independently, it is told from the point of view of Cicero's secretary, as he watches how his master's work is used to bring about an end to the Roman Republic. I should probably have booked the second part at the same time - there's a discount for that - but well, my schedule is generally so packed..!
Tonight, I cancelled more free comedy in Hammersmith (Free Comedy Nights in Hammersmith, Wimbledon and Greenwich, Random London, Hammersmith & Fulham Friends, London Live Comedy, and Discover LDN.UK) for another Funzing talk - The Psychology of Dreams. As advertised by London Speaks Sessions and LDN Talks @ Night. (As ever, WELLBEING30 was still giving 30% off most talks, last I looked - but the current 30% discount code is Funzing30. Use it wisely.)
Left in good time, and caught the 8 to just past Liverpool Street Station. I was so lucky to get a seat - it filled up completely (real squashed-against-the-windows crowd, all seats and the downstairs aisle full of people). And, of course, it was a new Routemaster - and with temperatures on the rise, the upper deck of one of those is the last place you want to be on a hot, sunny day, what with the malfunctioning aircon and the windows that don't open! Still, it was hot and sticky even in a downstairs seat, and I drowsed most of the way, before squeezing gratefully through the crowd to get off.
Ahead, next right, and straight ahead - I easily found 15 Hanbury Street. What wasn't so easy was actually finding Juju's! Consulting Google Maps on my phone, with its rapidly fading battery, I concluded that yes, it was behind this friggin' brick wall, somewhere. (One thing I do hate about Funzing is its constantly changing, and obscure, venues.) Peering through the railings along the side street revealed a beer garden, but the door was resolutely locked. Desperately consulting the event page, I read that entry was along a lane.. through a courtyard.. well, continuing down the lane with the railings proved fruitless, so I headed further along Hanbury Street, to where an enormous queue was waiting to gain access to some festival or other. Turned out that was at the other side of the courtyard where Juju's was. (Whee!)
People were just starting to arrive, and the guy at the door was asking for our "tickets" - would this do? I asked, brandishing the event confirmation page on my phone. Boy, was he scrupulous about checking. When he finally let me in, I stood at the bar for A Very Long Time before one of the Three Zombie Barmen finally got around to me (hey, it wasn't that busy!), then took a seat. It was scheduled to start at 7, but of course it didn't - still, it was bad that they hadn't yet removed the spangly stage backdrop so our speaker could show slides.
These things generally start about 30 minutes after time - I was surprised when we started at 7:15 (maybe the speaker was fed up). And the trouble started straight away, with a mic that apparently had to be held at a specific angle in order to work - and then only if it felt like it. The speaker was patently annoyed that people were arriving until well into the talk (they evidently expected the standard 30-minute delay with Funzing), and it didn't help that there was constant noise from the outside bar, until they closed the doors, and no aircon, which meant the place was sweltering when they did close the doors. Dreadful, dreadful place for a talk - typical Funzing, just pick somewhere with a good bar. Because I daresay it would have been a good bar, if drinking were the point of your evening. However, I sincerely hope they don't pick it for any more talks.
Having said that, the talk itself was interesting - allowing for the breaks our poor speaker had to take, to mop the sweat from his brow or have a drink. I've always been interested in sleep and in dreams - did a project on it in school, in fact. Things I learned tonight included how, in dreams, we lose all meta-awareness: the capacity to know why we do the things we do. So, we end up behaving in the oddest manner in our dreams. Which also have a tendency to be bizarre. Other than that, he didn't have a lot that was new to me - dreams occur in REM sleep, which occupies maybe 2 to 3 hours of our nightly sleep. Interestingly, if we're sleep-deprived, and catching up on sleep, REM doesn't occur - the body spends its time in the sleep state that repairs the body, instead, characterised by deeper, slower brain waves. He also mentioned how REM helps with the learning and retention process, and how the most effective therapy for PTSD is to prescribe drugs that prevent REM sleep..
He mentioned Freud, Jung, and Adler, with their various dream theories, applying the theory of each to one of his own dreams, to illustrate. (Freud won, with the most sensible analysis.) But, as he pointed out, no-one has produced a complete theory, and he completely rubbished "dream dictionaries". As we came to the Q+A at the end, he warned that most questions would lead to the answer "We don't know".. The only inappropriate question of the night came from a lady behind me, who asked him about predictive dreams. Don't get me wrong - I have a scientific background, and am well aware of the difficulties in proving these things are real: but I have had dreams that were undeniably precognitive, and had I collected evidence at the time, I could have proved the phenomenon. However, I doubt most people could say the same - and what was he supposed to say, in this setting? Wrong person to direct her question at.
Tomorrow, back with the London European Club, for a concert of Greek music at Sands Films. Looking forward to that - I love the venue, but haven't fancied the last couple of concerts they've had there.
On Thursday, I was booked for free comedy in Hammersmith (!) with Free Comedy Nights in Hammersmith, Wimbledon and Greenwich, Random London, London Live Comedy, Hammersmith & Fulham Friends, and Discover LDN.UK. Did you think I'd actually go? ;-) Well, I'm not - but the reason is an unusual one. My new company is very nice indeed - and they have an annual volunteering day: gardening. I hate gardening. And it's that day. For the whole day, they're at it. And yesterday week, the office manager kindly informed us that it was compulsory unless we were on holiday. Huh! Well now, I hate being told what to do. So I've suddenly decided to be on holiday that day - and as it's a Thursday, the next too. Helen has suggested we get last-minute, half-price, day tickets for Death of a Salesman at the Yvonne Arnaud Theatre on Friday - sounds like a plan!
Then comes a weekend I've been looking forward to for a while. Long-anticipated, the European leg of U2's 30th anniversary tour of The Joshua Tree kicks off in Twickenham on Saturday and Sunday. 'Mare of a place to see them - after I saw them there in 2005, I swore - never again. Happily, I now know someone living down that direction! :-) Helen is also coming with me to the first concert, and I'm staying with her for the weekend (now starting on Thursday, as she kindly offered). Which sorts transport for the first night - she'll drive. The second night, I'll head back by bus - the train is an absolute nightmare. Anyway, this would have been a weekend in Ireland - hence the trips back two weekends in a row, preceding it.
On Monday, nothing had been appealing - until I tried the Meetup app again, and came across a Meetup group called, attractively, Let's Do This! Quite new - anyway, they have organised a trip to see La Voix Humaine, a 40-minute solo opera, performed in English by Opera Up Close. It's in King's Place, which I love. I'd already found it by the time the Man with the Hat took us there, but it was with him I went the last two times: so this'll be bittersweet. Lordy if I didn't then discover that it's co-run by a couple of the Man with the Hat's old members! So of course I'm going. Great to see the Man with the Hat has left a classical legacy - there are very few Meetup groups doing this sort of thing. And at a discount, yet! Unsure, at this point, whether they're marketing it as a dating site, what with age restrictions, and an insistence that members post their photos and full names. We shall see..
Next Tuesday started out with yet more free comedy in Hammersmith - the same five groups. But then Funzing (the same two groups) rocked up and saved me, with a talk on Blitzed - Drugs in Nazi Germany. Has to be better, frankly.
The 12th, I'm currently still looking at free comedy in Greenwich, with London Live Comedy, Free Comedy Nights in Hammersmith, Wimbledon and Greenwich, and Random London.
The 13th, more of the same - in Hammersmith - with the Famous Five (aforementioned) groups - Discover LDN.UK twice, as before. At least the headliner that night is John Hastings, who's guaranteed to be good - and it's a lovely, small venue to see him in. Then it's back to Ireland for the weekend.
On the 17th, more comedy - for £3.60, this time. Tez Ilyas is performing at the Pleasaunce, and I know he's good - saw him in Top Secret once, for free..
The 18th, the U2 tour continues - I fly to Barcelona that day, to see them that night! One of their crazy, one-night-only appearances, on what is a very limited tour. Turns out I'm seeing them at half of all their European concerts for the year!
I fly back on the 19th, and that night am - provisionally - booked for more free comedy (quelle surprise). Greenwich, the above three groups. There are some interesting Funzing talks that night, but I've already seen them.
The 20th, I booked another Funzing talk (the above two groups). This is a talk about serial killers, as given by a forensic psychologist (Jennifer Rees) that works with the police, and who also gives terrific talks about psychopaths. Highly recommended! She's a terrifically engaging speaker, and looks far too young to be working in such a murky area. Unfortunately, now I've had to cancel - turns out that the much-anticipated first Meetup of the Man with the Hat's other ex-members' group, Love London for Less, is happening that night, so of course I'm headed to that - we're going to the Icebar, where I've never been. Should be interesting. Just a pity the only other instance of that talk I'm missing is sold out - I've added myself to the watchlist.
Then I'm back to Ireland for a long weekend - first to Dublin (from London City airport, a first for me), for U2's (one-and-only!) concert there.. then down to see my mother for a couple of days, flying back on Tuesday.
On the 26th, I had booked free comedy in Greenwich - same groups as before. Then Funzing rode to the rescue, and instead I'm now headed to a Funzing talk entitled "Politics - WTF!" Appropriate, no? Anyway, I booked them on a once-only code "iwantfunzingagain". Or you could try "Funzing30" - both give 30% off, but are time-limited.
On the 27th, free comedy in Hammersmith again. So far.
So, that brings us to Friday 28th July, and it's off to Amsterdam, for my final two U2 concerts of the year (sniff). On Saturday and Sunday. Really, you have no idea of the organisation that went into all of this, back in January..! I'm literally headed to half of their European concerts on this very limited tour.
I fly back on the 31st, and just saw an interesting Funzing talk for that night - "Are We Living in the Matrix?" Well, I'm well overdue a free talk, with all of them that I've booked (every fourth free), so I've contacted them to get a code to get this for free.
And on the 1st, I finally get to see Jennifer Rees again, when she's giving a talk on The Psychology of Criminals. With dim sum, great! (Had to stick with a 10% discount for this one - Fun_Day10 or Fun_Week10 are the ones you want for that.) And it's walking distance from me for once, in Covent Garden. Excellent..
