With spending half of yesterday blogging, it was indeed a bit late for breakfast - or even brunch - by the time I surfaced. So, dinner ("brinner ?") it was. And a good location for that seemed to be Rembrantplein, just up the street.
More photos here. Too much choice, really. I finally decided to go with the Argentinian Steakhouse De Maria.. you will not find a better steak than at an Argentinian Steakhouse, and for me it's one of the highlights of coming to Amsterdam. They were pretty empty, so early, and I took a table inside.
..where I had a cow staring at me!
Fair enough, I suppose. So, I had a sirloin.. cheapest on the menu after rump. Smallest cut - really, I find them too filling to have anything bigger. I ordered pepper sauce too, and a carafe of house white. Ordering wasn't difficult - she literally had nothing to do but wait for me, and was stood just behind my shoulder!
The wine was indifferent. The steak, however, was spectacular! As expected really, and the best I've had since the last time I was in Amsterdam. The sauce was pretty redundant - although it proved useful for the indifferent chips I'd ordered as a side. Another tartufo for dessert - and while it didn't reach the dizzying heights of Saturday, it is always a delicious choice.
Out into brilliant sunshine, and my next mission was to source €7.50 worth of change, so I could buy a 24-hour ticket. Ahah, a Starbucks.. so I bought a bar of chocolate there with a €20 note. Unfortunately, although she apologised for all the change, it was of the nature of small change - not replacing any notes. So I had to pop into the supermarket as well, where I bought more chocolate, small enough to pass ArenA security, and finally got enough change.
At the Metro station, another queue to buy the ticket.. and would you believe, the machine was taking notes! Must only be the machines for train tickets that don't - which makes no sense. The GVB (city transport) machines seem much more reasonable.
Anyway, my journey yesterday was much easier. Less of a wait, got on the first train, even got a seat! My stadium entrance was the same as on Saturday, so I knew where l was going. Ticket worked again, yay! And despite the unisex pat-down, the cute guy I got seemed shy about doing it, so I got in without it. Wheezed my way up the stairs again - I was sitting close to where I'd been on Saturday, but more to the back.
I didn't care - direct view, and as I say, this is a small venue. This ticket's face value was less than Saturday's, and I did wonder about the finer points of pricing. And, despite the sunny weather, the roof was closed again.. oh, joy!
The crowd's Mexican wave only (!) went around six times on this occasion. And I wondered where everyone was - my section stayed pretty empty for ages. In due course, they arrived, and we started.. Great thing was though, the outside of my row stayed almost empty, so I had plenty of room to jiggle..
Now, a U2 show is always a great show - but it is really Bono that carries it, and sometimes he makes an extra effort. Straight from the start last night, something was different.. later in the show, he thanked the Netherlands, saying they've always been so generous to the band. "Wouldn't be the same without you!" as he said. He also expressed surprise at this level of enthusiasm on a Sunday night!
SET LIST
ENCORE
I was a bit far back to see until they broadcast it on the screen, but you could see it in him, how he was feeding off the incredible energy in the crowd. The first change came when, instead of Bad in the first section, they played A Sort of Homecoming - him remarking that that was what it was like for them, coming to Amsterdam. Oh my God, they hardly ever play it.. I always dissolve when I hear it. This was a good start!
He pulled a guy with a Polish flag onto the stage during New Year's Day - a sign of Solidarity. Again, the crowd was in fine voice, and he left the singing to them both for Pride and for I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For. And I absorbed every moment of the awesome display during the Joshua Tree section, conscious that this would be my last time to see it live.
Again, the flag during Miss Sarajevo started left of stage, and only got halfway round - but from where I was sitting last night, I could see better that maybe at that point, the gap between sections was too great to pass it across. Sadly, no balloons during Beautiful Day this time, and no Mysterious Ways. The screen was turned off again during One.
And we should have been finished. But he had one more surprise.. he sent us screaming into the night with an amazing performance of I Will Follow, their first single and a pure rush of adrenaline. Nobody left singing 40, as one tuneless guy did last night - but hands down, this was THE concert of the tour. And despite having to pay over twice face value on Viagogo for Saturday, and over three times for last night, it was so worth it. I wouldn't have missed it for the world. Write it on my grave, that I was a U2 fan.
Coming back, no delay to get into the station, or on the train, and I got a seat again! Despite the concert finishing 10 mins later than Saturday, I got back 15 mins earlier. And it would have been straight to bed, except for my mother's online grocery order, that had to be put in..
So, this morning, I overslept. And what with a delayed tram into town, a queue for the ticket machine to buy a ticket to the airport, and a delay till I found a train going to the airport.. well, I missed checkin by 10 mins. That'll teach me to book a morning flight, the day after a concert! So I went online, where Skyscanner gave me the cheapest fare that would get me back in time for my talk this evening. And then I needed to charge my phone.. a dreadful lack of charging points in the airport, the first I found were in Starbucks. Where I also had breakfast, and blogged. Unfortunately, poor internet reception there, so it was a bit of a palaver.. but look, done!! And in time to get my boarding pass for the next one. :-/
And I'll be glad to get home and change out of these concert clothes, which are getting a bit.. ripe. I saw an interesting Funzing talk advertised for tonight - "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 contacted them to get a code to get this for free. Still waiting..! Despairing of them, I finally booked it on one of their limited 50% deals. It had been advertised with London Speaks Sessions and LDN Talks @Night - funnily enough, they both cancelled, then re-advertised. It still seems to be running, although at a different location. No loyalty points for this one, I guess! I should still be back in time to make it.
Tomorrow, another Funzing talk - 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. She's a fantastic and engaging speaker. Excellent.. and Helen has sensibly decided to come too. On which occasion she'll deliver all the stuff I couldn't fit in my bag, coming back from Twickenham!
I was just looking up what to do on Wednesday - and wouldn't you know it, at that moment the Pop-Up Opera sent me a mail with upcoming events. Une Éducation Manquée is a short, French comic opera, whose run finishes that day. All right then!
On Thursday, my first Meetup with Up in the Cheap Seats, one of several new groups I've joined to fill the great void left by the sad departure of the Man with the Hat. We're off to see The Tempest, with Simon Russell Beale, at the Barbican - who, unusually, posted my ticket to me. Then I'm back to Ireland for the weekend again.
And next Monday, back with Let's Do This for a vintage swing jazz evening at Wilton's.
Yes, I'm now back in Ireland for Christmas - after what's been a helluva year. No, I haven't been avoiding you.. I really have been that busy! Read on.
So, last Man with the Hat Meetup of the year was on Tuesday, when he took Let's Do London - for less! to the West End. Dead Funny, the show was. Well, West End comedies and I don't always agree, but I said I'd give it a shot - so did lots of other people, it seems; I believe he sold all his tickets in half an hour. I did mention to him that he might sit me in the second row, just in case I made some involuntary and unfortunate facial expressions, and put the cast off..
Well, Tuesday turned out to be quite a busy day for me, what with my contract finally coming through to be signed. Excuse me - printed out, signed, scanned, and emailed back. Lucky my flatmate was in, because it turned out I also needed a witness. Also because, when I was trying to scan the thing back in and getting a separate file for each page, she was the one to tell me about the free pdf merge software.. but it took time to download and install that, and then combine all these files, and upload the thing. And, by the way, wrap a couple of presents. So I was a bit frazzled when the time came to head out.
A couple of buses got me to just past the Vaudeville Theatre - well, I could just have got the 87, but Google Maps suggested I could speed things up a bit by taking the 344 to Vauxhall and catching up with the 87 there. Which all went fine, but I was still a bit distracted by the time I got to the theatre, and plain forgot where the Man with the Hat had said he'd be. To be fair, I'm generally so familiar with the venues that I don't need to check! So as I wandered into the lobby, I thought I heard this voice calling my name.. oops, there he was, outside (where he'd said he'd be). Mea culpa, completely forgot!
Wandered back in again, ticket in hand - it was nearly time - and got a drink from the teeny cloakroom/bar in the corner of the lobby. At £9 for a large wine, it wasn't exactly cheap, but hey, I was in the mood. We had the front two rows of the stalls - well now! And whee, I was in the second row..
Now, it helps - for this show - if you like old-fashioned English comedy. This is quickly impressed upon the audience by the clips from old tv shows, displayed on the stage curtain:
(Spot the stars..) Specifically, as we soon see, a liking for Benny Hill is a real help. Handy, then, that I always liked him.. Anyway, the title refers to a local comedy appreciation club, of whom we meet five members: a doctor (hence the skeletons and other anatomical doo-dahs scattered about), played by Rufus Jones: his neglected and broody wife - who doesn't really feel the comedy as the others do (the excellent Katherine Parkinson): their married friends (Ralf Little and Emily Berrington): and the comedy nerd of the group (Steve Pemberton), who bursts in near the start to announce (sadly) the death of Benny Hill.
So I hunkered in to try and find it funny. You know what, I needn't have worried. I have often found West End comedy.. perplexing, i.e. what are they all laughing at? But this has a good, clever script, quite a dark story, and the cast is fantastic. It follows the lead of many good plays before it in completely changing our view of the characters as the plot progresses. The first half sees sparks fly during the rows between the doctor and his wife, as he plans an evening of remembrance for Benny, and they babysit for their friends (and wow, is she annoying). But just you wait for the second half, when the story flips, the characters are turned on their heads, and things go so bonkers that the best thing they can do is recreate old comedy sketches. Oh, and we get some (pretty much full-frontal) male nudity. Eh, yeah, whoopee. I'm not going to score him - but I did feel for his wife when she had to, em, touch him..
I'm not one for slapstick, so didn't really appreciate the food fight near the end as much as some others. And do beware if you're in the front two rows - that food really goes flying. I ended up with a sausage roll under my feet, Mary got sprayed with soda water, I believe. Ach, all in an evening's entertainment. Recommended - booking until 4 February. Afterwards, our Hero with the Hat had booked us tables in The Port House, just down the road - and for all of us that stayed, there was room. And as it says on the website, it is cellar-like, and candlit:
Very atmospheric. They do tapas, and so did most of us. Not the Man with the Hat though, who escaped rather early. Have to start tying him to a chair. Well, anyway, I had croquetas and brochetas (both of chicken) - wouldn't really recommend the brochetas, but the croquetas were ok. Pity they were out of the ham ones, though. And you know, it's becoming a habit for Mary and me to share a bottle of wine - so we did. And that was rather tasty, so we had another. What the hey, I was celebrating the signing of my contract! And so it came to pass that we were the last two to leave - and I rather gave the game away to my mother, whom I called on the bus home. Gee, she thought I was already at home until I said I'd have to have a chocolate when I got there.. And the bus trip ended with an entertaining and inquisitive puppy, whose long-suffering human let him play with a small boy, who was absolutely thrilled!
When I did eventually get home, it was straight to bed - Helen was coming up next day, and had suggested a couple of trains she could get at different times; I bravely suggested she surprise me. Happily, when I woke next morning, it was to a text that she was getting the later one. Good - I could get ready very slowly, which I needed to, feeling a bit fragile. I always meet her at Waterloo, and was going to get the bus - but when it was taking forever to arrive, I caught a train instead, reasoning that if I got there early I could get a drink to rehydrate. Which turned out to be a Very Good Idea, especially as I hadn't had breakfast - I woke so late, and we were going to have lunch first.
I fancied Chinese, so we were back to New Loon Fung - as I explained, they're consistently good. Another shared bottle of wine, I had my usual, and she had duck - and special fried rice, which, as she later remarked, could have been a meal on its own. The standard practice of waiters automatically refilling our glasses when they were empty ensured that we were well supplied with wine, and we toddled downstairs afterwards and outside, ready to shop till we dropped. Only a pity we had to carry it afterwards..
An afternoon's trailing around markets left us in need of a sit-down, and heading randomly through town, we spotted a Caffe Nero that didn't look too busy. And my, what a good choice.. the hot chocolate was good enough that I didn't have to add sugar (!) and they had a little basket of gianduja by the till. :-) 35p each. Ooh yeah. And we both had the rather excellent chocolate fudge cake, with the chocolatey bits through the middle, and the golden crispy pieces on top. Now, that could be construed a most satisfying chocolate fix..
Somerset House, next door (open late on Wednesdays through Saturdays), provided some distraction while we waited for it to be late enough to head to Farringdon Station for our guided walk. Skirting the ice rink..
(more photos here) ..we headed indoors to the Fortnum & Mason's Christmas Arcade:
Highly decadent, very pretty - and some things were even affordable. We purchased.
One of the fun things about bus travel - in London, anyway - is that as you move around town, the best route to your destination can change, with Google Maps suggesting different stops, or even different buses. So, another quick check of the app, and off we went to Aldwych for a bus to Holborn.
Farringdon Station was soon located.. much too early, so we wandered up the road to find somewhere to sit. Most places were really busy, and we ended up having mango & passion fruit drinks in Starbucks. And a welcome sit-down. And in due course, we moseyed over to the station, and there they were, brandishing signs - not many, which is a shame, especially as this was in aid of Shelter, but as our organiser said, so many people were away for Christmas already. Hey, I would've been away too, except that I booked my flights in September, when I didn't yet plan to quit my job! But I was glad to have the extra time in London.
This was my first time with London Social Detours - meant to come with them before, but - as I recall - set out without my Oyster card, and by the time I discovered it, it was too late to go back for it and still make the walk. We chatted for a bit, then set off - two guides, taking turns at the stops. The theme was Christmas in Clerkenwell, and our organiser carried a little bag, with Christmassy factoids on strips of paper, reaching in like a Lucky Dip to read one every time we stopped.
Well I have to say, it was fascinating! Definitely one of the better walks I've been on. We went around all sorts of dark alleys and side roads that I'm not familiar with, and the factoids were varied and informative. Did you know that, back when turkeys fist became popular, they were raised out of town and walked in for slaughter? And because of the distances involved, they wore little booties!
Another stop had us outside where Marx used to live - where we heard that Lenin spoke English with an Irish accent, because he learned it from an Irishman in London. And may have drunk in the pub on the corner - sadly, I didn't get around to getting a photo of it, although it was singularly the most glittery, sparkly pub I've ever seen.
One of the roads we were supposed to go down had police tape across it - an intrepid member of our group nipped across to ask them what was going down, and it turned out they were filming an episode of Fearless. And on we went, hearing about the Knights Hospitaller, whose priory today only exists in the form of the atmospheric St. John's Gate:
And so on through Clerkenwell, for stories of Christmases past, and the obligatory nod to Dickens. An hour and a half, roughly, and time well spent - sadly, we couldn't stay for a drink with the others, as Helen had hurt her foot and was still recovering - I was impressed she made it through the walk at all! Anyway, I'll definitely keep an eye out for these walks in future.
Now, I had all intentions of starting this blog that night - but got tired. And then got an unexpected email from Ebay, thanking me for my purchase. (?) Logged in, discovered a (hidden) record of a purchase for £250. Checked my bank account - unfortunately, yes, my balance had gone down by about that much. So what with cancelling my bank card.. and the Ebay purchase.. and trying to contact PayPal, through whom the payment had been made, from a fake account with my bank details.. the blog got put on the long finger. As it stands, as I say, the purchase has been cancelled and the money refunded - unfortunately, to a Paypal account to which I have no access. PayPal aren't being very helpful, and the bank say there's nothing they can do until the transaction is explicitly shown. I can't even check my account online now that my card is cancelled, and the new one is being delivered to my London address - whereas I'm back in Ireland for Christmas. They did estimate that, what with the holidays n all, it won't be shown online now until maybe Wednesday. Watch this space.. I swear, after this, I'm dealing with neither Ebay nor PayPal, ever again!
Well, met my erstwhile boss yesterday just before I flew back, in the local Caffe Nero - whose hot chocolate and gianduja, I'm delighted to report, are every bit as good as the branch beside Somerset House. And after one of those hectic journeys, back I find myself. Watching telly, which will be my occupation for a while now.
I fly back to London on Monday 2 January. On Tuesday 3rd, I had my trusty placeholder of Free Comedy in Hammersmith - gee, it's been a while now since I actually went to one of those! Anyway, I booked with Free Comedy Nights in Hammersmith Wimbledon and Farringdon, London Art Comedy & Culture Lovers, London Live Comedy, Random London, and London for a Tenner or Less and Funzing UK (both Funzing groups, and both advertising the thing twice). And then what happened? Pretty much all the Free Comedy in Hammersmith Meetups were cancelled for the first two weeks of the New Year, whyever that was. Friday's as well. So, forced to find something else for the 3rd, I've signed up - for the first time - with TNT Comedy, with Dave's Stand-Up Comedy. Same deal, only further away, in Kentish Town.
And on Wednesday 4 January, yay, I'm back with the Man with the Hat (no, not Santa Claus) - Let's Do London - for less! is off on their annual festive trip to The Nutcracker (ahh!) at the Opera House. Sold out performance, I see. It'll be great to see the folks again - I'll miss them over Christmas.
And Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to all! Not sure whether I'll be blogging again before the 3rd.. but you never know. Keep reading!
