Climbing The Gherkin (Not)
Posted: Sun 19 June, 2016 Filed under: Charitable, Health, London, Thoughts Leave a comment »Today was the day I was supposed to be doing the NSPCC’s Gherkin Climb – walking up the 1,000+ steps of the Gherkin building.
For a number of reasons – not least that period of food poisoning over the week – I ended up not doing it.
I had reservations anyway, as I wrote about before, and had pretty much chickened out of doing it already, but the food poisoning sealed the deal.
The event was well attended though, I’m pleased to say – and some of the times achieved for climbing the Gherkin are pretty impressive – the quickest ascent being a gobsmacking 4minutes 31 seconds. That really is going some.
Another Culture Weekend
Posted: Mon 13 June, 2016 Filed under: Day Trips, Domestic, Driving, Food, London, People, Single Life, Solo Dining, Theatre, Thoughts, Travel Leave a comment »The weekend just gone turned out to be another of my more “Culture”-based ones, and was thoroughly enjoyable.
Saturday involved a drive down to Bray in Berkshire, for a meal at the Waterside Inn. Having been quite disappointed earlier in the year by the three-Michelin-starred Alain Ducasse restaurant at the Dorchester in London, I’d decided I should try another one for comparison purposes, and opted for the Waterside, as it’s had those three stars for thirty years now.
Safe to say, I’m very glad I did – I had a fab time (including getting to meet and have a quick chat with Michel Roux) and really enjoyed the entire meal. Sadly – although understandably – they don’t allow phones/cameras or photos in the dining room, so I couldn’t do my usual of taking a pic of each course, so you’ve been spared that ordeal, but it was definitely still brilliant.
Then on Sunday I went down to London, and saw Midsummer Night’s Dream at the Globe – and thoroughly enjoyed that, too. I’m still very much a newcomer to Shakespeare in general, so can’t comment on how it’s been done this time in comparison to other staging etc., all I can do is say that I found it great, and a brilliant production. The weather wasn’t the best, so I was glad to be in the galleries rather than the standing area – although the seats were still bloody uncomfortable due to other people spreading themselves wide, and I ended up standing instead for the second half.
I’d done some other food/burger-based bits either side of the main play, so ended up walking about 17km during the day, but that’s just me and my own idiocies and preferences.
All told though, a decent weekend – and quite quiet/easy by my standards, with less driving and so on. An all-round win, in my opinion. 🙂
Shakespearean Reservations
Posted: Sat 7 May, 2016 Filed under: Do More, Domestic, Five Year Plan (now Ten), London, Theatre, Thoughts, Writing 2 Comments »As I alluded to in a previous post, I currently have some reservations about the Shakespeare plays I’ve seen. Admittedly, I don’t have a great depth of knowledge on the subject, and I’m pretty new to it all, so I may revise these thoughts at some point. Anyway, it’s based on the current state of things – and I’m seeing a lot more over the next year, so we’ll see.
Anyway.
At the moment, while I enjoy seeing the plays, I do find myself thinking that they’re a bit… am-dram. Hamlet with Benedict Cumberbatch had (in my opinion) quite a weak cast, Cumberbatch excepted. No-one else was up to scratch – I saw it twice, once live at the Barbican, and once at the cinema from much further into the run. Both times, that was how I felt.
Seeing King Lear in Manchester over the weekend I felt the same – while it was good, and engrossing, a number of the actors were again very am-dram, over-enuniciating and so on.
It might be that I’m expecting too much from the actors, that I’m mixing ‘am-dram’ for just ‘theatrical’. I don’t yet know. I didn’t get the same feeling with Faustus though, so the jury really is out.
Over the next few months I’ve got a number of theatre things lined up – not just Shakespeare (although I’ve got Romeo and Juliet, and Tempest on that side) but others from all walks, including Jesse Eisenberg’s new one, Jonson’s The Alchemist, and a Pinter play with Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellen.
So there’s going to be a lot more thought going into this, as I figure out more about whether it’s Shakespeare stuff in general, or whether I’m mixing up other terms and so on along the way. It’ll be interesting, either way.
Weekend Travel – Sunday
Posted: Thu 5 May, 2016 Filed under: Day Trips, Do More, Domestic, Five Year Plan (now Ten), Food, London, Single Life, Solo Dining, Travel Leave a comment »Having done Manchester on Saturday, I then went down to London on Sunday – I’d made plans and reservations for the early evening, but went down early because, frankly, I’m a bad, bad man.
The main objective was the next Michelin-starred place on my list-of-sorts, the two-starred Hélène Darroze at the Connaught Hotel. That had been booked for a while, and I’ve been looking forward to it for ages.
But then another of my favourite places, Blues Kitchen, announced their latest burger special, the Piskey Whickle, which was introduced on Sunday.
So that just had to be done…
It ended up that I went in earlier than expected, then walked to Blues Kitchen (3 miles, from Euston) for the special, and then across London (another 4 miles) to vegetate around Berkeley Square for a while until it was time for the evening meal. Frankly, it was the only way I could justify doing both on the same day, but as I had the time and the inclination, why not?
The meal at Darroze was spectacular – I would say it’s now the best place I’ve been to on this project, and I massively enjoyed the entire experience. The only exception was my first instance of being a messy sod in a Michelin-starred place – a piece of food fell off my fork, straight into a sauce that can only be described as “hyper-green” – splat. Jackson Pollock all over the pristine white tablecloth. ‘If you’re going to do it, do it with style‘, that’s my motto.
Because of the time, I wussed out of walking back to Euston, so got the tube from Green Park back to Euston, and then a train home – again, all remarkably smooth, and a contented end to a fantastic weekend…
Theatrical
Posted: Wed 27 April, 2016 Filed under: Day Trips, Do More, Domestic, Five Year Plan (now Ten), Getting Organised, London, Travel Leave a comment »Having gone to Hamlet and a couple of other things last year, I decided that this year I wanted to go to more theatre productions – and it all looks like it’s being pretty successful so far.
I’ve already seen Faustus in London, and seen Henry Rollins twice (not quite a theatrical production as such, but still qualifies for these purposes) but the bookings for the rest of the year are starting to look pretty impressive, including…
- King Lear at Manchester Royal Exchange
- Romeo and Juliet at the Garrick in London
- The Spoils in London
- No Man’s Land in London
- Doctor Faustus (again, but by the RSC) at the Barbican, London
- Aliens Live at the Royal Albert Hall (the film Aliens, with soundtrack performed by orchestra)
- The Tempest in Stratford-upon-Avon
I’d say that’s a pretty successful list for the coming months, and certainly fulfils the target of “Getting out and doing more”…
Second Thoughts
Posted: Thu 21 April, 2016 Filed under: 1BEM, Charity, Cynicism, Domestic, Five Year Plan (now Ten), London, Stupidity 1 Comment »As I wrote a while back, I’ve signed up to the NSPCC’s “Climb the Gherkin” challenge in about eight weeks’ time. It involves walking (or, if you’re a lunatic, running) up the 38 flights of stairs inside the Gherkin in London to get to the top.
It’s fair to say, I’m having some doubts and second thoughts about the wisdom of it. It’s a lot of steps…
I’ve looked it up – because I’m an idiot – and now know that it’s over 1,000 steps to the top, and that’s making it all a bit real. There’s a lot of me to lift up that many steps, and really not many places where you can get to train or prepare for something like that.
I’ll still go, and I’m sure I’ll complete the challenge. It’s just that it might destroy me along the way…
London Weekend – Faustus and stuff
Posted: Sun 17 April, 2016 Filed under: 2015/16, Domestic, London, Reviews(ish), Travel Leave a comment »This weekend was another London trip, although spread over two days rather than one, which made life a bit less chaotic than usual.
The primary reason was to see Faustus at the Duke of York’s Theatre. A friend of mine had got tickets, and as part of my 2016 mission to see more stuff and so on, I went too. I know the basic idea of the story of Faust, although I’ve never read it, so had that as a basic idea of the play, but no idea of what else to expect.
As it turned out, it’s a very good production – if also very strange. I liked a lot of it – but admittedly started off thinking “This is garbage”, although I did reassess that quite rapidly. It’s got a whole lot of interesting ideas and propositions within it, so it’s an interesting production.
Other than that, the usual large-scale wandering around London, reconnecting bits of geography I hadn’t seen in a while, and generally doing a fair bit of walking, as well as everything else. As it was a weekend away, I decided to stay in a (far more expensive than usual) hotel in the area, which I’d eaten in before, but not stayed in.
All told, a thoroughly decent weekend, and much enjoyed. I should try this culture thing more often…