august bank holiday means one thing…
Hello from Leicester Square! You’ll be reassured to know that Leicester Square on the August Bank Holiday weekend is gratifyingly normal – busy, smelly and very noisy (currently the fire-and-brimstone preacher outside the casino is in full swing competing with the buskers on the corner while the nice quiet Muslim guys hand out free Qu’rans and chat to everybody), and that’s from somebody who frequented many punk gigs once upon a time. The giant inflatable Suicide Squad starfish has gone, though.
For the last few months generally and the last few weeks especially, going out and doing things rather than sitting about the flat thinking about doing things has been the order of the day and writing about both has taken a backseat as a result; I’m currently on the final day of FrightFest (recommendations from the weekend and many others on request ***Riders Of Justice***) and everything is very much back to business as usual, or at least it will be from tomorrow when I’ve had a full nights’ sleep, knocked the Irn-Bru-and-TUC-sandwich-biscuit diet adopted over the weekend in order to cram the films in on the head and look less like shit (and see above).
The City is filling up again, new places are moving in to replace the gone-but-not-forgotten (small café at the top of my street, sadly no more; Doughnut Time two minutes away on Fenchurch St – woohoo!) and best of all the Prince Charles Cinema is booking all nighters, marathons and double bills at full capacity with a vengeance. So I’ve had a bit of a holiday – the reopening of galleries and cinemas is at least partly to blame (and certainly my new Cineworld Unlimited card, which has allowed me to wander in and out of what was the Empire practically at will for the last three months or thereabouts), as has been the pleasant weather and more obviously, the gradual increase in visitors now folks are starting to wander back into town – yay!
I promised myself I wouldn’t leave it more than six months, and whilst a hiatus in the form of a complete break from all work-related stuff bar the bookings themselves (necessary given the rent and bills, plus like most people I got a several-month break from bookings last year whether I wanted one or not) has been lovely, it’s time to settle back down into the routine things. Alongside the brand new pictures (finally!) and a bit of a general tidy up, that includes the – slightly neglected, but definitely not forgotten – blog. I am (equally definitely0 back.
The vigilant will have spotted a minor availability change; I am now otherwise engaged volunteering one day a week until mid afternoon out at Poplar (so not far away) and thus not availabile in either the morning or over lunchtime. This is currently Mondays (and anybody who has ever tried to speak to me first thing on a Monday morning will be under no illusion that parcelling me off somewhere else for a few hours to acclimatise is a very good idea) but possibly switching to Fridays. You’ll know when I know, although anybody who habitually books after 2-3pm is unlikely to notice a thing one way or the other, to be honest.
Also back (and in the spirit of both the FrightFest weekend and Ministry Of Sound 30th Anniversary) is Song Of The Week – yay! No better time for a kitchen disco than a Bank Holiday, and a weapons grade classic that has seen me get my dancing trousers on many a time despite being twenty six years old now! Was it really that long ago?
The Ministry of Sound 30th Anniversary party starts onsite on Saturday 17th September and continues at the O2 on November, but more of that later. Three more films to go and I can get some sleep…
More soon!
Subscribe to blog feed.
About the Author: