Winter Lights
There was two Winter light displays in London this year - one at Canary Wharf which lasted about 2 weeks, and one in Central London as well as King's Cross which was only on for four nights. We ended up going to the Canary Wharf one with a friend after having dinner in Brick Lane, which was rather entertaining; and we visited the other one at the King's Cross site on the last night it was on, which was swarming with people. Both were equally as good as each other I think - they were different, but had their own charm.
This was a dining experience with a difference. It had been on Sasha's London Bucket List, and it had taken me forever to obtain tickets for it - they always sell out in very quick order. What was it? well, its hard to describe - even moreso since its very secretive, and you're sworn to secrecy about what you see in there. They don't tell you where the venue is until an hour or two before your allocated arrival time, all you know is that it's somwhere on the "Ginger Line" - the East London Overground line (the Overground being represented by an Orange line on tube maps). You follow the directions (X marks the spot, naturally!) and arrive inside a bar area and waiting room for your appointed "travel time" into The Machine. If you wish to drink, you need to order your drinks at the bar before you go in - you are then handed cooler satchels with the bottles in for your journey. Entry into the machine is by a wooden canoe which gets pushed through a wall and then... well, I can't say!
While I can't say anything specific about the experience, there's enough clues out there for you to piece together the vague concept. Ok, so it's secretive and exclusive; "Chambers of Flavour" implies that there's more than one room where you eat; and its an "interactive" experience, which means there's a theatrical element to it all. Its all very clever and you never know what to expect next - the food was rather good in my opinion also. So I read, each year the rooms get changed for a new set so people can go back each year and experience something different and yet the same. It probably has its biggest impact on first-timers - if you were to return, you'd have some inkling as to what to expect. Its not cheap, but it was certainly a neat experience and highly entertaining!
Qantas were hosting a concert for Australian singer Tina Arena in London on Australia Day, and Sasha had entered a competition to win return flights from London to Australia. Unfortunately she didn't win those - but she did manage to get two tickets to this concert out of the same competition. It was originally going to be at Shepard's Bush but got changed to the O2 Forum in Kentish Town (so the 'fake' O2 - not the main one in Greenwich). Before the concert, we visited a nearby Pub on the recommendation of one of Sasha's colleagues - she recommended the Pork Baps they did, and I have to say they were amazing. Then it was to the venue, and up to the "Qantas Lounge" where we had a few drinks on Qantas before proceeding into the venue and watching the Concert. I knew of Tina Arena, but couldn't recall anything she'd sung off the top of my head - but many of her songs when they came on were highly familiar, and are lodged in my head as "Hastings Day's" songs. In all it was a good concert (I won't lie, it did help that others in the Qantas section decided to leave in dribs and drabs throughout the show as it meant we had more room to sprawl) but it was not something I would have gone out and bought tickets for. Don't get me wrong - Tina is an incredible singer, she has a great voice and is able to belt out the tunes as pitch perfect as you hear them on the radio, she's just not my main kind of music. With her powerful voice it is a wonder she never went any further - she was at her height in the mid-90's, but probably got drowned out of the airwaves by an angry Alanis Morisette and the rise of Girl Power, the Boy Bands like Backstreet Boys, Nsync and the huge commercial promotion machines that went with them. A pity that in a day in age where her singing style would probably get noticed, her new stuff remains in the background. A nice evening out however, thanks Qantas!
A christmas present to the group from Cory - we went and watched the theatre show "Peter Pan Goes Wrong". It is a derivative/spin-off by the people who made "The Show That Goes Wrong". Much like the title states, the show is Peter Pan, but the show 'goes wrong' which is highly entertaining and even before the show starts there's an entertaining "pre show set up" which doesn't go according to plan either. Very clever, very funny - and it makes me interested to see what "The Show That Goes Wrong" is like, because we all know the Peter Pan story and what is supposed to happen - it would be interesting to see how a show which you don't know the story to "goes wrong" and how often you pick up on it.
Its been a long time in between Arsenal games for me - I suspect that Jeremy has been a bit wary of my 66% loss ratio for the 3 games I've attended. Burnley were a team that Arsenal should beat easily as they aren't even in the same division as Arsenal, and this was Sasha's first Arsenal game too. The game was good, but not great - the final score of 2-1 gives some indication why, Burnley managed to get a goal past a very messy and not-trying Arsenal team which seemed to be too complacent after scoring their first goal. Arsenal didn't have their top players on the field, but even with a group of second-string Arsenal players I feel like that they should have played better than they did. All it would have taken was for Burnley to get another goal (which looked like happening on a couple of occasions) and Arsenal to fail to equalise, and Arsenal would have been ejected from the FA Cup by a lower grade team - imagine the upset that would have been! However Arsenal won, which is the main thing and my win to loss ratio is a firm 50%.
This last one wasn't January at all, it was the night after we got back from Belfast and was my Christmas present from Sasha. About 10 years ago I was introduced to the comedy of Eddie Izzard by some colleagues at Census, and would play the MP3's of his shows over and over again on my MP3 player at work. He has been doing a World Tour since I've been in the UK - starting out in the UK, then playing in virtually every country except the UK (yes, even New Zealand!). However he did come and play in the UK at the end of his long tour and that's what we went and saw. It took a little bit for him to get into it, and I guess for the crowd to warm up but before long we he was absolutely on form - regaling us with stories as well as History, and having the entire audience laughing uncontrollably. By the time of intermission I was literally wiping away tears from having laughed so much - it had reached a bit of a crescendo where Jesus battled Darth Vader in a lightsaber battle, which was interrupted by Mr Stevens from the catering department on the Death Star (referencing a rather infamous sequence he did many years ago in one of his shows about the Canteen on the Death Star - a sequence which had been in one of those MP3's I'd listened to). He was equally on form for the second half, and managed to round the show off very well. I'm very happy to have seen Mr Izzard perform in person - and the show was just simply excellent. One of the best Christmas presents - thank you Sasha!