saturday night (& the rest) at the movies…
Almost two weeks (sorry) on, and with the memory of fourteen hour days in a cinema seat, breakfasting on pick and mix (not once but twice) and meeting fellow aficionados of the good* (Sleep Tight, Chained, Sinister, American Mary), the bad (Outpost 2, Under The Bed) and the so-bad-they’re fantastic (step forward Tulpa, which had the whole 1000+ strong audience falling about laughing but sadly not for the right reasons) the fun is all over for another year and normal service has well and truly been resumed.
As anticipated, the five days spent either in my Kings Cross digs, my superb (see picture above for just how good!) seat in Empire One, or in some sort of transit between the two were unutterably fabulous, and thanks to the kind folks who took me up on my last minute morning offer, considerably less of a strain on the pocket than they might have been – how on earth people who are not prostitutes manage to survive a tourist-type holiday in London for longer than a day without resorting to bin-foraging is completely beyond me, and whilst a fine time was had, it was not before time I left the lights of W1 behind, dragged (literally) my wheeling-impaired suitcase onto the underground and rediscovered the real world. Well, you know. Sort of.
Operating on a mini-scale out of a budget room certainly has its merits as I found on the weekend mornings, but it was still a blessed relief to return to civilisation and aided by an enthusiastic first visitor who happened to be in the right place at the right time (ie. when I’d just been given a room two hours before check-in and therefore avoided the interminable 2pm countdown trying to make a flat white last for an eternity in Costa) I have had a delightful, if tiring, few post-fest days back in Victoria, complete with Actual Hot Food (well, other than McDonald’s at least), the highlights being a very blue steak béarnaise prior to an unexpected trip to the cabaret last Friday evening (not far from the highest chair-on-a-chain ride I have ever seen – see above) and my catching-up paella date with Kinky La Rue on Saturday afternoon, whereupon I ate nearly enough to fall asleep on the train home, and more than enough for the complete lack of any serviceable food in the fridge when I finally got back not to matter in the slightest.
As some already know I will be back sooner rather than later – yay! My New York trip is approaching fast, and to break up the journey a little I will be back on the South Bank for a couple of days prior. The usual New York blog page (aka Where The Prices Are) is being rehashed as we speak and will be up here soon, since the sheer shitkicking mentalness of my schedule for last month prevented my doing pretty much anything useful outside hanging around in either hotels, airports or railway stations waiting for it to be time to climb aboard something – dates all in the usual places, and the shopping list is already well underway! In the meantime, next week sees my long overdue return to the Channel Islands spanking-new (four wheeled) suitcase in hand and with hopefully less shenanigans in Jersey than last time; not that it matters, as if the late summer sunshine keeps up I will be officially heading for the lovely St Helier beach, followed by that Thai restaurant I still haven’t tried yet. Guernsey, meanwhile, is not far from booked up on the Wednesday at least – it’s been far too long and I’ll be back sooner next time. Promise.
For the remainder of this week fairly predictably (and bar appointments already arranged), I will be officially persona non grata – I have ridiculous amounts of admin to catch up on plus the sun is shining, and as ever, Scarborough availability is limited at the best of times. I will, however, be back for what passes as a normal week between the 17th and the 22nd, so do get in touch! And October is looking considerably calmer…
More soon.
* see also Cockneys vs Zombies, which while no Shaun of the Dead did make me laugh hard enough at one point for a cola bottle to nearly come out of my nose. Other football fans will do likewise…
Subscribe to blog feed.
About the Author: