Sunday Pub Lunch

 I don't really remember when I last went out for a pub lunch!

This one was special because I was meeting all of my Young Man's family for the first time since before the lockdowns.  We went to The Star at Sidcup Place:

Looking at the brickwork, I think the central portion is the oldest part, and they claim to go back to the 1700s, with a previous manor house on the site, surrounded by grounds which are now a public park.

There's also a Community Walled Garden, which is absolutely beautiful, and run by volunteers:

The meal was very good, and plenty of it, and it was lovely to see the Young Man's family again.

Whovian Day

 Of course, this was the one day of my holiday when it rained all day!

The plan was to go into the city for the day, ending up at UNIT HQ in South Moulton Street for Doctor Who: Time Fracture, so I spent the day cosplaying the 13th Doctor.  (This was why I had my hair cut!).

It's fortunate that the coat is functional, and at least shower-proof, though I did get a bit damp.

We were going to start off at the Museum of London, but we couldn't get a time-slot early enough in the day so we moved straight on to a spending spree at Forbidden Planet.

I regret nothing.

We had lunch at Ippudo, which serves Japanese food.  I had the best noodle soup I had ever tasted, with some good green tea.  I would definitely go back again.

Then, despite the rain, we wandered round Soho for a bit, looking for the locations of AZ Fell & Co., Aziraphale's bookshop from Good Omens.  My Young Man also pointed out the place where the exhibition had taken place when the series first came out.  He went to it, and took a lot of photos of the costumes, and the Bentley parked outside.

I've written some fan fiction on AO3 in which Crowley wakes up in Aziraphale's bookshop, recovering from being drugged, which includes memory loss - so he escapes from this weird angel who he thinks has captured him, and gets as far as the hut in Soho Square Gardens before he passes out.  So I had to go and see the hut:

The story is called Confused Serpent, and I'm Eigon on AO3.

We were booked into Mr Foggs' Society of Exploration in the afternoon, for cocktails.  As part of the track and trace system, we had our temperatures taken at the door, the first time I've had that done in the pandemic.

Downstairs, the bar was warm and cosy - we were seated in the 'railway carriage' at one end.  With some advice from the waiter, the Young Man chose a Guano Point, described in the menu as "short, warming and rich" and made with 12 year old Dewar's whisky.  I chose the Spicy Rupee, described as "spicy, aromatic, exotic" and made with vodka and elderflower.  Both of them were absolutely delicious, and well worth the rather high prices.  We rather liked the music there, too - quite mellow swing.

We hadn't quite managed to leave enough time for another meal, so we got a sandwich to eat on the go again, but arrived at UNIT HQ early enough to have a lemonade in The Lucky Bar just round the corner.  Each table had a D10 in a tray, and if you rolled a 7 you didn't have to pay for your drinks!

Then we headed into Time Fracture, ready to save the Universe!

It wasn't quite as easy as it had been in The War of the Worlds to maintain social distancing - this wasn't one linear story we were following.  We all started and finished in the same place, but between that there was a lot of mixing of groups as different people followed alternative paths through the storyline.

We started in the UNIT lab, and I even got to type on one of the consoles as we tried to work out why strange things were happening all round the world.

Then we went through the Time Fracture itself, to the Court of Queen Elizabeth I, and an alien market place, an intergalactic space liner (with two very good alien cabaret singers) which was diverted to Gallifrey, and finally to Gallifrey itself, where we became part of the Prydonian Chapter!

At one point the actors leading us from place to place made very sure that no-one would be badly affected by strobe lighting before we headed into a dark tunnel full of shop dummies.

We met Davros!  And the Young Man had to negotiate with him for assistance!

There was a Sister, and a Brother, of Karn, and an alien auction, and a Kerblam stall.  We were told to look for Brian the Ood, who we saw in the distance but never got to meet.  We ran down corridors.  There were Cybermen and Daleks and Weeping Angels and an early version of Torchwood - and at the end of it all, we saved the Universe!  (and we got a Tshirt and a poster!).

It was all a huge amount of fun!

Adventures in London

 I've written on my other blog about my problems with the buses from Hay at the beginning of my holiday.  I missed my train by a whisker so I went to the ticket office to ask what I should do.

"Do you still want to travel?" he asked.

Here I am, standing with my suitcase: "Well, yeah!  I've got someone meeting me at Euston!"

"So, do you want the quickest route or the cheapest?"

I went for the quickest, which got me into Euston an hour later than I was expected.  It's at times like these that I think it might possibly be useful to have a mobile phone - I had no way to tell my Young Man that I was running late.

It didn't help that the station cafe is closed for the duration, and I took one look at the vending machine and decided I did not have the mental energy to work out how to make it give me a bottle of water.

I had enough time between trains at Birmingham New Street to grab a coffee and find a quiet corner where I could take off my mask to drink it and eat the sandwich I'd brought with me.

I saw the Young Man almost as soon as I stepped off the platform at Euston - he'd had a station announcement put out, thinking he'd missed me and I'd gone wandering off into London and he'd never find me again!

He was going to take me to Cafe Rouge for lunch, which would probably have been nice if they were open.  By this time I was really quite hungry, and thirsty - the only way to access the buffet service on the train was by an app, which in my case I had not got.

Next door to Cafe Rouge is Nando's.  "Chicken?" he asked.

By this time I would have eaten greasy cardboard.  Chicken sounded fine.

To get into Nando's the Young Man had to point his phone at the track and trace symbol, and order by app.  He couldn't work out how to do that, so eventually we managed to get a paper menu, and a girl came to the table to take our order.  "The pitta's got coleslaw in it," she said.

I hate coleslaw.  I didn't care.  I'd eat it.

"What is there to drink?" we asked.

They had no tea, or coffee.  Juice was only for babies.

"Look, I just need something liquid!  What have you got?"

"Coke?"

"That'll do!"

I hate coke.  The last time I bought coke I used it as a drain cleaner, which in my opinion is all it is fit for.  I didn't care.  I drank it.

So, that meal was simultaneously the worst I've ever had, and exactly what I needed at that precise moment.  I will never willingly set foot in a Nando's again.

When we left, I was at least feeling a bit more human, so we went round to the Euston Tap for a half of Oyster Stout to take the taste away before we headed back to the Young Man's flat.  The beer was delicious.