Last night, I went to my second Meetup event. Ken's Events had organised free tickets to a classical concert at St. Peter's Church, Eaton Square, so I decided that sounded like a plan, and registered. Priority was given to holders of the Ken's Events card, so I bought one of those too. With it, you get in free to all their events for a whole year, so I figured that's good value - considering they run 4 or 5 every week, and I nearly went to one already last Saturday.. before something better came up!
One of the attendees posted a comment on the site, asking whether anyone was willing to accompany her back to the Tube afterwards - she was a bit nervous. When I discovered we were headed in the same direction, I offered, and we agreed to meet beforehand.
The group was meeting in the Victoria pub at 6.15, which meant I needed to go straight from work. I checked on Google Maps, and it's only a short walk from Victoria station. When I got there, it didn't take long to identify the Meetup people, who were clustered near the entrance. Easier than Saturday, for sure! The eponymous Ken turned out to be an elderly Northern Irish guy, with a great memory for names - he had a list of attendees, but I was glad I'd brought a receipt for my purchase of the Ken's Events card; he had no record of that. I now have a physical card.. which I have to mind for the rest of the year.
The pub was packed, and our large group (42 attendees in all) crowded in wherever we could. Service was fairly efficient, and I did manage a glass of wine. The lady whom I'd offered to accompany home gave me a beautiful red rose in thanks... this was lovely of her, but I did have to carry it around for the rest of the evening, which was rather awkward.
The criterion for leaving for the concert seemed to be that everyone had arrived, and we set off with plenty of time to spare. It's not a long walk, but wove through several backstreets of Belgravia - knowing I'd be part of a group, I hadn't bothered to check the route myself. We duly arrived at the classically designed St. Peter's Church, and got our free tickets.
We took a pew (literally) - or rather several. We were nice and close to the music, and of course the high-ceilinged church provided excellent acoustics. The programme started with Shostakovich and Ravel. The performers, all recent graduates of the Hong Kong Academy of Performing Arts, were as accomplished as you'd expect. You know, someone asked me at the interval what I thought of the performers - you couldn't fault them. In particular, I used to play piano - and the pianist was stunning, playing a beautiful piece by Ravel.
This led into a quartet of Chinese pieces, played on traditional instruments. Gorgeous. Only thing was, I was starving, and kept thinking how much I'd love a Chinese meal right then.. At the interval, wine and tea were served to the side: free, but a donation was appreciated. After the interval, all eight musicians came on to perform a series of pieces by a Hungarian composer whose name I didn't recognise - I only learned as much as I did by sneaking a peek at a programme the people in front of me had left when they went off for drinks at the interval.
Afterwards, the plan was to head to the Wetherspoon's in the station - we were headed straight back to the Tube, but decided to walk along with the group. Ken set a blistering pace - I imagine he was dying for his "drinkies". He ended up having us cross the busy road in front of the station, right in the middle of traffic! We were there for ages, and someone who had noted that the concert finished earlier than advertised mused that maybe the extra time was allotted for crossing the road! Silly place to cross. Anyway, we finally made it, and eventually completely lost Ken as he dashed across the station concourse. Never mind, we wound our way through the warren of corridors to the Tube, and were soon home. Of course, I haven't had a chance to shop all week, and had finished what I'd bought on Sunday - dinner last night consisted of most of a Chocolate Orange.
I'd have blogged last night, but wanted to check first what I was doing next - there was nothing I fancied on Meetup, and since Time Out updated its search function, it hangs almost every time I want to use it. So I had to wait to come into the office, for a better internet connection. So, the plan is - back to Ireland today for a long weekend, and my next night out in London is on Thursday - when I'm headed to a saucy show called Margaret Thatcher, Queen of Soho: a drag comedy about Maggie getting lost in Soho and becoming a cabaret star. Showing in the Leicester Square Theatre. Not many tickets left, so I booked.
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