night at the museum!
It’s December already! I know this partly because of my many advent calendars, but even without the daily excitement from Fortnum & Mason, Space NK and Bonne Maman, the weather has provided ample guidance.
Despite (or perhaps because of) the encroaching gloom, the last few weeks have been as busy as ever, with barely a moment to spare between orchestral clubbing at the O2 with Ministry of Sound, the obligatory cinema trip or two (the Raid/Raid 2 double bill with Gareth Evans attending to answer questions being a particular highlight) and my new favourite thing to do on a Saturday night, camping at the Natural History Museum.
For anybody who wasn’t already aware, adults can pay to arrive in the evening with sleeping bags, pillows (stuffed triceratops optional), and their toothbrush, and settle in for the night with a three course dinner, biology/dinosaur themed talks from experts, films, a spot of handicrafts – I was and am very proud of my new dinosaur friend and his pipe cleaner scarf – and not least, the run of the museum for the entire night. I had a blissfully quiet wander around the (usually mobbed) Wildlife Photographer of the Year exhibition at 1am with half a dozen or so others to wind up before taking to my sleeping bag around 3am when the main lights go out. I did brush my teeth.
A full breakfast and a trip to the museum shop for a sparkly dodo to go on the Christmas tree later, I was on my way back across town in minus temperatures to spend the rest of my Sunday in bed. I cannot recommend Dino Snores enough, and given that the NHM’s Silent Discos are back too, I suspect I will be spending more time over at South Ken than I ever thought I would after my one attempt at actually working there (in 2009, I think) ended after a day and a half with my bogging off back to civilisation in a huff, or more specifically my favourite hotel in Waterloo where the punters – whilst not perfect – generally managed to conduct their bookings without whining, sulking or patronising me to within an inch of my life. The Invisible Line Of Cuntery is drawn somewhere between Pimlico and Sloane Square, I think.
I also had a semi-unexpected trip down to Brighton to see Pete Tong when the opportunity arose last week; Mr Tong has visited most of us in spirit on plenty of unwelcome occasions I’m sure, but I wasn’t going to turn down another chance for a spot of Ibiza nostalgia even if it did mean a bit of a train ride. Brighton is now the furthest south I have ever been in the UK (which means that it’s Burger King is also the most southerly place I have ever had their lovely crispy chips, although with it being five or so years since I last had Burger King, the location was not foremost in my mind at the time), and I will be back.
As of this next week (and as we can hopefully see from the fairly hastily cobbled together Christmas page overleaf), things will be settling down a bit and whilst a fair few evenings are still taken up with the usual Christmas films and so on, I will be here until the evening of the 22nd and keeping as much availability as possible including a fair chunk of Saturday 18th – yay! After a bit of a break I will be back (albeit in a limited capacity) just before New Year and then again just after before everything returns to business as usual a week or so after that. I will be also taking bookings slightly further ahead than usual (from previous visitors, that is), for those who like to plan – for clarity this means a week or so at most.
Back to the music and not just a solid gold kitchen disco classic for Song Of The Week, but the original video featuring the peerless Darryl Pandy and his fabulous mullet too! A very happy man.
I will endeavour to get another update in before Christmas, but in the meantime I will be well wrapped up and looking forward to the celebrating – Christmas tree is next on the list! There will be plenty of goodwill to all men on offer too, needless to say.
More soon!
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