an even quieter place…
…is where I currently am, for some last minute R&R before the Christmas panic excitement gets into full swing.
I will be back for business as usual from Wednesday, which will also mark two weeks to the day since I baked my Christmas cake for the first time in a good few years! Cake 2024 is wrapped up safely awaiting a nice drink (as am I), and will be taken out periodically when I get back, eventually to be rolled in marzipan and icing (if only). All courtesy of this kit from Waitrose (which has ensured for the first time ever that I’m not still trying think of ways to use up mixed peel in August) and a bit of help from the spice box – there’s never enough, after all.
The vigilant will have spotted the Christmas hours page is up and with relatively little effort required beyond changing the days, since for the first time in probably a decade I have no availability between Christmas and New Year – sorry!
Despite this being traditionally a good week for everyone to get up off the sofa, brush the Celebrations wrappers aside and stagger into town for a bit of a change of scene, the timings plus station closures have made it sufficiently impractical so as to be not worth the bother. Plus the last time I worked on a New Years’ Eve was somewhere between farcical and catastrophic and I will not be chancing that again.
But it’s still a month away! For the next couple of weeks, it’s going to be busy busy right up until Saturday 21st. Not quite yet, though.
Some calming nostalgia is required just to set the pace for the next few hours, and who better than Gomez, whom I once saw in a field somewhere I was too mashed to remember the following day, let alone some twenty five years on. You can never have too much Gomez.
More soon! I will be back directly…..
a quiet place…
It really is! November that is – at least once Guy Fawkes night is over. Even the fireworks don’t seem as loud as they were, although the trip down to the celebrations in Battersea Park a couple of weeks ago was well worth the effort since it included not just fireworks but stage shows, well above average food and superior toilets (fairly necessary for fifty thousand people, but far from guaranteed). I will definitely be back next year!
Given the urge to stay closer to home as it gets dark earlier and earlier I have been spending a bit of time getting acquainted with the Barbican highwalks, after deciding to check out the new escalators which appeared next to the Moorgate station entrance a couple of months ago. I have studied the rules (parkour is strictly forbidden, as is trumpeting), got lost on several occasions and wound up in the Barbican café, art gallery and library a few times more but it’s all part of the learning experience, that being learning that any ideas I previously had of renting a flat actually in the Barbican rather than just near it would have been a level of insanely misplaced self-belief normally the preserve of Donald Trump.
Planning ahead has been the modus for the few weeks; for anybody who hadn’t noticed, Christmas is looming. While skiving the entire month of December for shopping, food obsessing and festive nights out would be overkill (and I am anticipating doing a lot of all) it turns out that I’ll be having something of a enforced long break, since there are extensive station closures up to New Year, Liverpool Street for one being shut from Christmas Day until Thursday 2nd. Ouch.
Paddington, Euston and St Pancras plus the Thameslink are also having a little rest, so whilst I will be in town from the 30th December on I will likely be finding other ways to occupy myself, obviously without venturing back into Mumsnet-land (see Before Midnight last month; Christ alive). Plenty of entertainment is in the offing regardless, including ballet and the New Year Proms within twenty four hours of each other, plus a fair bit of Waitrose-dependent staying-in time and Pokémon Go to force me outside into the real world at least once a day.
I will be getting the usual Christmas blog page up soon too with full details, although as ever the best way to find out is to just ask. The next couple of weeks will be decidedly lo fi, prior to a brief trip away at the end of the month and the start of Christmas proper – yay!
Song Of The Week is continuing in the mellower vein – especially after the hi energy of last week! – with another perennial favourite. The weather forecast is suitably abysmal, so feet up and kettle on it is.
More soon! Next job, the Christmas hours – watch this space…
put the needle on the record…
I will never learn.
If an event takes place west of Pimlico, it is not for me. If it takes place far enough West to be in Zone 3, I should dismiss it instantly and not even think about going. If I am at such an event and find myself counting the number of people with sunglasses on their heads even though the sun is well on the way down and won’t be back for a good eleven hours: abort mission and proceed in an easterly direction faster than a badger with it’s arse on fire. These are not my people.
So with apologies to Annie Mac, Before Midnight was £50-something well spent to remind me that we are not in fact all the same, and that suburbs are best left to those who are familiar with their protocols. I’ll stick with Fabric, Koko and their tackier but even more friendly sister, Day Fever in Soho; an over thirties disco which starts at 3pm prompt and finishes at 8pm (next event 16th November) and save my money. I may also save some curious looks; I still don’t know whether these arose from my lack of sunglasses or just my not being drunk (or drinking) at 5pm.
The following Sunday’s afternoon live stream of The Marriage Of Figaro was a different matter altogether, mostly because I had some strong tea and a double size Milky Bar but also because visiting your lovely local cinema to watch a live opera from barely a mile away is an extremely comforting and civilised way to spend any Sunday afternoon, even given that MoF is basically Hollyoaks with singing. There are lots more streaming events coming up at the Barbican too – yay!
Meanwhile the weather has finally committed itself, and the pouring rain notwithstanding, autumn is here! My favourite time of year by far, not least for the extra hour in bed last Sunday but the London Film Festival – many of the entries are appearing in cinemas now or soon (Anora, Blitz, The Apprentice) but my favourite of all Piece By Piece (above) is just over a week away on Friday 8th and Lego Snoop did not disappoint. None of these are any excuse for not going to see The Substance before it’s run finally ends, however. Do that now.
November being the peaceful time that it is, there are relatively few exciting plans on the horizon until I duck out for a couple of days at the very end of the month; availability will be pretty much as advertised and more flexible than usual assuming notice starting with next week – yay! If this reads like code for the weather is crap, it’s dark all the time so I don’t feel like going out much that is indeed the case, but a bit of hibernating never hurt anyone.
Back to the kitchen dancefloor for Song Of The Week and an all time London favourite for the darker days, video and all. Whatever happened to Ms Dynamite?
More soon! I’m (unusually) here on Saturday this week too, so if anybody fancies calling in before I set off for the fireworks, just get in touch…
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