From 'La Mole' to Penge

January, arguably the longest month of the year, is behind us.
We did quite a bit, in fact we've been out every single Friday night (and also had a busy couple of Saturdays).

The first Friday was Adrian's sister's birthday. She came down to London for the week-end, so that she could also see the Panto.

We - and our dearest friend David, in London for the panto - went out for dinner at a local pizzeria, Sicilian Art Pizza. The food, as always, was excellent and a good time was had by all.
I managed to sneak in a cake I had bought from Patisserie Valerie but we didn't embarass her (or ourselves) with a rendition of Happy Birthday!

That was reserved for the following day, when the whole Panto audience sang! No picture of her blowing out the candles as I was carrying the cake.
We recreated the scene at home later that evening, although it was only the 3 of us and David.



"Cyril the Squirrel and the Magic Nut" went really well.
Yes, there were a few complaints that they couldn't quite hear at the back but apart from that it was a success.
It was thrilling to see my 'work' performed and people enjoying it.

Here are a few photos from the performance plus a portrait of my very own Panto Dame. Doesn't she look familiar? LOL



























Well despite having the scripts in their hands, some of the actors managed to forget their lines, etc. Although in a way it added to the merriment.
One of the characters was called Verbena Vixen but at some point Kitty Furball called her Vergina. Corpsing ensued, and I can still laugh out loud now just thinking about it!

The following Friday Adrian met me straight after work and we first went for a steak and lobster dinner at a restaurant at the Hippodrome Casino. A touch of Vegas in the heart of London!





Then we wandered around Leicester Square, Trafalgar Square, St. James' Square and Piccadilly, and later King's Cross for  for "Lumiere London", a free light festival.
We expected it to be busy (some streets were closed to traffic) but not so ridiculously crowded!
We only saw about half of the sights and after King's Cross we had both had enough of the crowds and decided to call it a night.











































The following Friday it was dinner and opera.
We had an early dinner at Vico, a "bustling trattoria in the heart of the West End, where Soho and Covent Garden meet. We serve Italian food, The Appian Way – from along the Via Appia, which connects Rome through Lazio, Campania, Basilicata and Puglia to Brindisi in the South. We serve simple food cooked with heart, and are located in a perfect spot for dining before or after a show, or a meal in town“.
It's round the corner from work and I have a 25% discount card for 'locals' until the end of February.
We had been once before in September when it had just opened and it was noisy, had a sort of industrial look with plenty of empty space and stools to perch on, and you bought your food at the counter and ate it with plastic plates and plastuc cutlery!! I thought it could have been a place where teenage skateboarders from the rich Italian bourgeoisie would hang out.
Obviously the concept didn't work and now it has been refurbished like a proper restaurant. And we enjoyed it much more.




(the courgette chips were to die for!)

Then we went to see La Traviata at Covent Garden, the 3rd time we've seen this particular production over the years, but always very enjoyable even from our £14 seats up in the gods.



Last Friday it was culture again.
We went to see the "Celts: art and identity" exhibition at the British Museum. It wasn't too busy and we really enjoyed it.





After a quick Mc Donald's, we went to the cinema to see 'Youth', the new film by Paolo Sorrentino. We absolutely loved it!

On the Saturday, we had invited Roberta (Adrian's Italian teacher) and her brother Carlo (visiting from Italy) for afternoon tea, so we had a busy morning and early afternoon of baking, but it was fun and we enjoyed a few very pleasant and chatty hours, drinking tea and prosecco, and eating.

When I look at the pictures taken during the last few weeks, I see a lot of food. But I'm positive we did so much more than just stuffing our faces!

The last Friday in April we went to Roberta and Gianfranco's for dinner. Roberta is Adrian's Italian teacher, but needless to say we didn't speak much italiano!
I got there straight from work and when I took my coat off we all laughed because both Adrian and myself were wearing the same M&S shirt (I had bought mine first, but as Adrian really liked I bought him one too). The children were rather amused by our 'uniform'!

On the Sunday, we went to evensong at Southwark Cathedral.
The service was rather long (and at one point I nodded off slightly); when the service was over we gathered outside to witness the internment of the ashes of our neighbour Jo. Both Adrian and I thought that the place was anything but peaceful with the constant din from the trains passing on the nearby viaduct, the noise and the smell from the adjacent Borough Market, and the people eating on the benches but it probably suited our late neighbour.

May started with a book launch. Bobby, a neighbour of ours, launched his book "Seeing Sodomy in the Middle Ages" at the "Gay's the Word" bookshop. It was packed.
Before the launch Adrian and I had dinner at a nearby Strada:



Then we had the 'excitement' of the general election (LOL!) and the first get-together for the Residents' Association's Panto (I decided to write another one: "Cyril the Squirrel and the Magic Nut").

The following week was very busy:
- Paul, an old friend of Adrian's, coming for the afternoon and then dinner on the Tuesday
- dinner and theatre on the Thursday
- exhibition at the National Gallery on the Friday
- gardening all week-end (lifting the bulbs and planting dahlias, lilies and a number of seedlings)

We went to see "Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown - The Musical" which was excellent and very funny:



We had a pre-theatre set dinner (tapas serves à la afternoon tea) at Salvador and Amanda's in Covent Garden:







The exhibition we visited at the National Gallery was 'Inventing Impressionism': "the UK’s first major exhibition devoted to Paul Durand-Ruel, the entrepreneurial art dealer who discovered the Impressionists".
We both really enjoyed it.









After the week-end of gardening, we went to the local garden centre/cafe' on the Sunday evening for a 'meet the neighbours' event. I baked some macarons to take round.



Last week was somewhat quieter, although we both had dentist appointments and Adrian had to go for laser treatment on the eye which had undergone cataract surgery a few years ago. The treatment went well and now he can see clearly again!

It was also Eurovision week and our friend Richard arrived on the Friday to stay for a few days.
We also had the great pleasure of meeting Gregory (isledemoi) on the Saturday.
As Richard was visiting, we invited Gregory round for a cuppa on the Saturday afternoon, rather than suggesting meeting in town.
I'm afraid the 'spread' wasn't quite as abundant as on previous occasions (no scones!), but we had sarnies, a chocolate cake made with Old Speckled Hen (a 'fine ale'), lemon curd macarons and orange natas.
We were all in agreement that Gregory was a very charming guest!















In the evening we watched Eurovision with Utku, a neighbour of ours. It was fun but we were disappointed that Sweden won (quite a boring song, in my modest opinion).

Sunday was spent finishing planting the dahlias, etc. and Monday (which was a Bank Holiday) was spent at home again for me (Adrian and Richard went shopping - when they got back they found some freshly baked scones waiting for them).
And now it's all back to normal, although tomorrow evening we have another meeting re the Panto (meeting the actors to discuss their involvement, so that I have an idea when writing it. This time we have 2 professionals in the cast - no pressure! LOL!) and on Friday we're invited at Mike and Alex's in Streatham for dinner.

This week-end was spent (again!) entirely at home, apart from a quick sortie to the local garden centre/cafe' this afternoon.
I was lazy and we spent lots of time watching telly!
I'd like to say that I have our American trip all under control but it's not quite as well planned as previous ones: maybe it's a sign of aging but I seem almost unable to concentrate long enough to write down a proper itinerary. I'm sure that it will come together in the end. Plus it's not as if we were travelling to the Amazons.

I'm starting to get excited about it, although I am also very excited about the upcoming episode of the Great British Bake-off (the charity version) with Jennifer Saunders, Lulu, Joanna Lumley and Dame Edna!

Talking of telly, on Friday I tried to get tickets for a recording at the Hammersmith Apollo of a BBC special for the 60 years of Eurovision. Tickets sold like hotcakes and they were not cheap. £63 for a standing ticket in the stall (I don't think so!). I've tried the slightly cheaper - and seated - circle tickets but by the time I entered the captcha string there were no tickets available (and I tried a few times). Maybe it's for the best to watch it on telly.

After all our little trip to the theatre with Michael on Friday night gave me a bit of a headache due to the loud music (I confess that at one moment I thought that I couldn't deal with the noise and wanted to run out - but of course being in the middle of the row, one would rather pass out that disturb other people. Not that everybody was that considerate: the guy next to me spilled his drink over me and, by way of an apology, said that he didn't do it on purpose because after all it was vodka, and not just a soft drink!)

Oh yes, so the theatre. We went to see


at the Leicester Square Theatre, and it was good fun. Apart from the excessive volume. And a few drunk people who made a show of themselves. I did tut and rolled my eyes a few times.





Spring seems to be on its way.






Hopefully by the time we'll be back from our trip, it will be warmer and sunnier.
I'm looking forward to sow my flowers seeds.

This week I'm seeing the ENT specialist on Tuesday. I'm giving the naked yoga a miss because of the upcoming trip and because I think we're spending too much time on our knees during the class (LOL!) and my left knee has suffered from it.
The teacher said that I can get out of the yoga class as much as I want and that there's no limit. Poppycock, I say. Break your tendon when you're almost 50 and you'll change your mind!

On Tuesday I went to Milano for the day to meet my friends Paola and Francesco.

I took the fast Italo train



which takes you to Milan from Turin in under 50 minutes (it travels at 300 kmh). I got here at 9:40 am.



I had time to visit 5 churches slightly off the beaten track before meeting my friends for lunch. I took pictures of/in 4 of them.

The first was the church of San Maurizio al Monastero Maggiore which, in the past, was attached to a Benedictine convent. The front of the church was opened to the congregation



while the back - separated by a screen -



was reserved to the nuns, who would receive communion and watch the priest raising the host through two small holes in the screen.



The church and the nuns' hall are a masterpiece of Renaissance art, frescoed by Bernardino Luini and his sons. It is so lovely to look at.














(What big ones!)

I really loved the Noah's Ark's frescoes:









The second church was the Church of San Sepolcro, which had originally being modelled on the church of the Holy Sepuchre in Jerusalem.



It has a couple of terracotta scenes from the Last Supper



Then I visited the Church of San Sebastian, with its frescoed dome.



It was erected by the city of Milan to ask for protection from one of the many plague epidemics.

The last church was the church of Santa Maria presso San Satiro



built by Bramante at the end of the 15th century next to an 8th century chapel dedicated to San Satiro



which incorporated some Roman columns.

The most eye-catching feature of the church is the trompe l'oeil apse



You are tricked into thinking that the church has a choir, while in fact it's only 3 ft deep, as it is revealed when you get nearer:



The dome is also beautiful:



After pizza and a lot of chatting, we walked to Piazza Duomo





and to the Galleria to admire the Christmas tree adorned with Swarovski crystals:





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Christmas was spent at my parents' with my brother; and we visited my aunt in the afternoon.

I travelled back to London yesterday morning.
The flight was almost 2 hr 30 min late leaving because of technical problems.
The divider between business and economy was stuck without being locked in position, and the captain was concerned that it might move abruptly in case of turbulence.
So they had to call an engineer.
In the meantime, a passenger collapsed and the paramedics had to be summoned.
After the passenger and his family left the plane, the engineer arrived and with the help of a couple of passengers and the captain managed to unscrew the divider and then lock it in position.

Luckily I got back in time to relax at home before going out to the theatre with my sister-in-law and nephews (who travelled down to spend Christmas with Adrian)

We went to



Wilton's Music Hall which is (according to their website) " the world's oldest surviving Grand Music Hall and London's best kept secret. This stunning and atmospheric building is led by Frances Mayhew and produces an exciting programme of imaginative, diverse and distinct entertainment including theatre, music, comedy, cinema and cabaret."





The show was "Mrs Hudson's Christmas Corker".
The actors worked very hard and there were some funny parts, but I didn't really enjoy it that much.
I don't know if it's because we sat in the gallery and on the side and we all missed some of the lines (no microphones used) or because it was just all a bit too silly for me. It had good reviews - perhaps I'm not sophisticated enough to understand it.
I must admit that I enjoyed one of the actors who was rather hairy and in one scene had a costume mishap and ended up briefly naked (full frontal!). Oh gosh, I'm turning into a dirty old man! LOL!


(The Shard lit up for Christmas)

I haven't quite finished posting about our Tuscan holiday (we've been back over 5 weeks) and I have been neglecting talking about what we have been up to in London too.

We have been to a couple of exhibitions in the last few weeks: 'The Vikings' at the British Museum and 'Veronese' at the National Gallery.



The first one would have been really interesting if the number of visitors hadn't been so high. You had to queue everywhere! The first room had the labels that accompanied the artefacts at knee level: not a good idea when there's a mass of people blocking the display cabinets.
Things got a bit better (or perhaps we got used to the crowd) and we enjoyed the rest of it.
In my opinion, the British Museum just sold too many tickets for each time slot.



Veronese on the other hand was superb! We were given a little booklet with the painting descriptions and you could spend as much time as you wanted looking at them.
As always with paintings produced by one artists, I'm always curious to read about which museum or collection they belong to.
I found it rather poignant that some paintings which were created to be together are now continents apart.

For instance, these portraits of a noble family from Vicenza were re-united: the men are in Florence, and the ladies in Baltimore.


(Pictures courtesy of Wikipaintings).
I wonder whether at night when the gallery is quiet, they all have a nice chat?

Before going on holiday, we went to the theatre to see Angela Lansbury in Noel Coward's "Blithe Spirit", her return to the London's stage after almost 40 years!



It was very great fun and we were amazed at how sprightly and nimble she was on the stage!

The day after we came back from Tuscany we visited the RHS Great London Plant Fair at the Horticultural Halls in the evening.



The week leading up to Easter was very busy.
At the week-end Sue came to visit us - we didn't really do much (although we spent a couple of hours at a local charity fair selling our floral cards).

On the Tuesday evening we went to listen to Bach's St. John Passion at Westminster Cathedral.



Very nice, especially because of the surroundings (no pictures allowed) but an experience not to be repeated for a while.

On Thursday Linda and Bert (two neighbours from the other end of the street) came for dinner:



On Good Friday, after Veronese, we went for a very naughty steak lunch



before watching 'The Punch Game' at the cinema.

On Easter Saturday we ventured out of town, going to Hastings for the day, thanks to some very cheap train tickets that we had booked ages ago.
We really enjoyed the day out.



The highlights were the ruins of the Norman Castle and the old town.



The castle can be reached via one of two funiculars







The castle was the first one built by the Normans in England after their successful invasion in 1066 and used to cover much a larger ground (much of it has been lost to erosion)





Here we watched an introductory video and then had a walk around the ruins, admiring the views.







We walked down to the old town.



It could have been an episode of 'This is your life!' as within 30 minutes we bumped into Carole - who used to live across the road - in the park near the castle with her dogs, then Paul and Antony whom we hadn't seen for about 10 year (before they moved to France) and finally Lynne (who has moved to Hastings) and Miranda (but the last meeting had been arranged) who were later joined by Sue, yet another neighbour.
We had tea and a slice of cake with Lynne, Miranda and Sue at St. Leonard's.



Lynne drove us back to Hastings.

We had a look around the Stade - the shingle beach - which is apparently home the largest fleet of beach-launched fishing boats in Europe.


(These tall, black sheds are used to store the nets.)

We went on a ride on the other funicular







and then strolled around the old town, before catching the train back to London (2 hours to London Victoria!)













The week-end before last Fiona - Adrian's sister - and Inigo visited.



On the Saturday we went to the William Morris Gallery at Walthamstow (very interesting!) and had a walk around the nearby park.















When we got home, I was 'dragged' (I hate parties!) to Linda and Bert's leaving do at a bar at Crystal Palace. We stayed for about an hour and then came home to cook dinner, and play Perudo afterwards. (I won, I won, I won! LOL!)

Last Thursday we had an evening out in town.
We had dinner at the camp-looking restaurant Salieri on the Strand,





followed by 'Handbagged' at the nearby Vaudeville Theatre.



The play was simply superb!
The idea is intriguing: on the stage you have the present-day Queen and Margaret Thatcher (the play - I believe - was written before the former Prime Minister's death) reminiscing about their private meetings and their relationship. (The Queen meets the Prime Minister every week privately, so no-one knows what is said).
The stage is shared with another Queen and another Thatcher who are contemporary to the events that are narrated, and with 2 actors who play an array of part from Dennis Thatcher to Neil Kinnock to... Nancy Reagan.

The result is hilarious, in spite of some of the subjects that are being covered, which certainly are not.
Having 2 pairs of Queens and PMs on the same stage is a brilliant ploy. And the way that they interact with the audience is very clever: in a way, they keep you on your toes!



The actresses are so convincing (appearance, voice, mannerisms) that sometimes you forget that they are not the 'real thing'.
For instance, when the Queen stated that at the time of the IRA bombing of the Grand Hotel in Brighton she was in America on a private visit to 'inspect some studs' there was only some hesitant sniggering in the audience to start with, before we all erupted in laughter. Surely Her Majesty wouldn't say such a thing! And no, she wasn't amused at all!

On Saturday we went on a Downton Country location tour but it's a tale for another post.

It's been a busy week.

On Tuesday evening we met our friend Lucia - in town from a conference - for dinner and then ice-cream.
In the last few days the weather has been sunny and warm, without being too hot.





Tonight we had dinner in Little Sicily.

Here's Adrian with his Milanese di Pollo con spaghetti al pomodoro e basilico.



I had the same. The combination is something that would send shivers down the spine of many Italians, but I'm made of sterner stuff (or perhaps I have lived here way too long! LOL!)

Then we went to the theatre to see "Viva Forever!", the "Spice Girls" musical.







The musical - written by Jennifer Saunders and produced by Judy Craymer (the producer of hit musical "Mamma Mia!") - is closing at the end of the month, after only 7 months.
It had very bad reviews and obviously hasn't pulled in enough punters. Surprising, considering its pedigree.

It was entertaining and there were some witty lines that wouldn't have been out of place in Ab Fab.
But the story wasn't strong enough. The musical is about a girl group on a TV talent show and satirises the hunger for fame at all costs, but doesn't quite go far enough in my opinion.
It also acts as a jukebox for a number of the Spice Girls songs.  It was fun but it failed to engage me.

Still for £24 each for a 2 course dinner and theatre, it was a cheap night out.

Talking of Girl Power, last week we watched 3 TV programmes all very different, all about women and all very enjoyable:
"Up the Women", a historical sitcom about a group of suffragettes
"Psychobitches", a comedy/series of sketches in which famous women are psycho-analysed
"Mothers, Murderers and Mistresses: Empresses of Ancient Rome", a series of documentaries.

It's not my birthday yet for another 20 minutes or so but I have already started celebrating.

We've been out all day.

First stop was 'The Shard' the newest skyscraper to grace (or blight! - take your pick) London's skyline. It opened to the general public a couple of weeks ago.



It is the tallest building in the European Union and the second one in Europe.

The views from the 68th floor and the 'open gallery' (as in open to the elements but still behind glass) on the 72nd floor are breathtaking.
London spreads as far as the eye can see and the river and the complex railway network really look as the arteries of this city...

The views are magnificent




You can see many more photos in this slideshow



After we left the Shard, we took the Jubilee line to Green Park and walked down to Buckingham Palace



and the nearby Goring Hotel where we had a scrumptious and relaxed afternoon tea.
It exceeded expectations: a 5 star tea with a 5 star service in a 5 star hotel!

We were there for over 2 hours!



We had the









We then attempted to walk off a few calories by strolling in St. James' Park


(from the park you can now see the top of the Shard)

to Leicester Square. We went to see the Supreme Fabulettes at the Leicester Square theatre.

As we were early we had a drink at Manbar (previously 79 CXR)


The show was great fun!
The three ladies were joined on stage by a (former?) American porn star called Johnny Hazzard who had appeared in 2 of their videos (which were directed by Boy George).
He was wearing very short jeans cut-offs and he suffered a bit of wardrobe malfunction a couple of times with some of his family jewels dropping out! And guess what? Even a porn star blushes! LOL! (We got an eyeful as we were in the second row).



And here you can see the three ladies performing their latest single "A drag queen is a cowboy's best friend"!



And after all this excitement



it was time to catch a bus to Victoria and the train back home!

We spent the evening at the Chocolate Menier Factory.

First dinner





(this was Adrian's toad-out-of-the-hole)

and then theatre: the first preview of

which was quite fun!

The stage was level with and came straight up to the first row, in fact you had to walk on the stage to get in and out




and it was great to see the scenery getting pulled apart and rebuilt  in the 2 intervals right before your eyes! (from student lodgings at Oxford into a cloister and then into a drawing room)

There was something in the air tonight. The guy sitting in front of me kept brushing my knee and squeezed my leg once in a very absent-minded way, and someone else apparently (according to Adrian) 'heavily cruised' me in the intervals and particularly when we were leaving. He was probably wondering whether I had stepped out of a production of Cirano de Bergerac but Adrian just said that he's almost 60 and he knows cruising when he sees it!

After a pizza


and dessert



on the South Bank, we went to the National Theatre for a preview of


A new play which will have its world premiere next Tuesday.

The cast of 6 is lead by Julie Walters and interestingly 3 of the 6 actors have been in the Harry Potter films (which I have never seen).



Julie Walters plays a former hippy, now dying, who's reunited with her son and daughter (and granddaughter).
There's a lot of swearing and shouting, and some very funny lines. 
I enjoyed the play but found it a bit long.

We got the 22:55 train home and spotted a steam train at Victoria
 

As you probably know, Adrian (london1952) has been attending an Italian evening class since last September.

Last night they had a class outing to the Globe Theatre



to see Shakespeare's "Julius Caesar" in Italian, as part of an international programme



37 plays, 37different languages

Roberta - the teacher - had some spare tickets and Adrian managed to talk me into going.

The evening for Adrian and myself started with an Italian meal at Zizzi's.
 
The restaurant is so close to Southwark Bridge you are almost under it

 


I had the Zizzi's platter of assorted 'affettati' for starter and Adrian bruschetta

 


followed by 'Penne alla Vodka' for me and Pizza 'Mezzo Mezzo' for Adrian (it should really be 'Mezza e Mezza' as pizza is feminine but hey  'gnocchi' was spelled without the 'h' on the menu)



We really enjoyed the meal although we were a bit pressed for time.

The Globe theatre is just round the corner. I made the lady that checked our tickets laugh when she asked "How's your Italian, gentlemen?" and I replied "Mine's excellent"!

Watching a play at the Globe is certainly an experience.
It's a circular theatre and the centre is opened to the elements: with impeccable timing, it started raining just before the play started and stopped when it finished.
Not that we had to worry as we were not standing in the pit but sitting on the benches in the gallery





But please don't think we had it easy. The benches - even with cushions - were hard and halfway through the first half we were shuffling in out seats, trying to find a position that didn't hurt our backs.
Adrian was in pain and he said that he thought he was going to pass out.
Of course, as we didn't want to disturb the people sitting next to us, we waited until finally the interval came.

By then quite a few people had left. Was it the rain for the standing audience? Was is the benches for the people in the gallery? Or did they find it hard to follow the play in Italian? Or was it *gasp* the performance itself?

I say it was the performance. Adrian gave it a score of 1 out 10 (and I believe that the 1 point was gained by sending out Mark Anthony in jeans that showed quite a bulge!).

How can I describe it?
Well, imagine your Romans clad in sunglasses, jeans and leatherette coats with tails, the scenery made up of a broken chair, and of 3 wooden doors on castors moved around the stage the whole time, the bier 'built' with two plastic dustbins with another bloody door on top.

Picture the actors rolling and prancing about on the stage, putting light bulbs in their mouths, jumping up the doors and climbing on top of each other and even inside the dustbins. 


Come back for more?  What? Are you NUTS?

In the interval we decided that we were going to stay as long as we could move to the row behind (some people had left by then) where it was possible to rest our backs against the wall.
And so we did, and sat through another hour of this modern, self-indulgent monstrosity.

The performance was certainly very energetic but it failed to draw me in.
I couldn't really care about what was supposed to happen to the characters (you had to use your imagination - Caesar was stabbed by drawing red lines in crayon on the chair; Cassius was killed by a soldier who perched on his shoulders and rubbed red dye on his bald head).

Yes there was applause and even cheers at the end. Was it relief? Or perhaps politeness? Or maybe it was friends and relatives?

I for one was very relieved when we left and went back to normality, whatever that may be.