The Icebar

Tonight, first it was free comedy in Hammersmith - with London Live Comedy and Hammersmith & Fulham Friends (soon to be closed down for lack of an organiser, I hear). Also hosted by Free Comedy Nights in Hammersmith, Wimbledon and Greenwich, Random London, and Discover LDN.UK. Then I booked another Funzing talk (as usual, with London Speaks Sessions and LDN Talks @ Night). This was a talk about serial killers, as given by a forensic psychologist (Jennifer Rees) that works with the police, and who also gives terrific talks about psychopaths. Highly recommended! She's a terrifically engaging speaker, and looks far too young to be working in such a murky area. Unfortunately, I had to cancel - turned out that the much-anticipated first Meetup of the Man with the Hat's other ex-members' group, Love London for Less, was happening tonight, so of course I headed to that - we went to the Icebar, where I've never been before, meeting in Strawberry Moons beforehand. Never mind about the talk - although, despite being on the watchlist for the talk, I received no notice, Helen spotted that another instance of that talk has been scheduled for next month, and I'm booked for that.

Well, I could walk there in just over 10 minutes. So I did, and was, of course, the last to arrive. Ah well. What with the bad headcold I've had, as well as all the air travel I've been doing, I'm kind of deaf in one ear, which sometimes made conversation a bit awkward - but I soldiered on. I think we all agreed that drinks were very reasonably priced, especially for central London! Truly, this bar is recommended. And we had a convivial chat there before heading the short distance to the Icebar..

Where we had to wait a bit. The receptionist, upon hearing that one of our party had cancelled, kindly gave us two extra drinks vouchers - which I'm not sure anyone actually used. After a bit, a chap with a mouthpiece came along to usher us into the waiting area, where we stood for a substantial bit more - well, we had been early (you're given a 40-minute slot). Gave us time to peruse the cocktail menu, behind us. And when the time finally came, we were encouraged along, till we got to a handy spot where a helper popped a hooded cape over our heads, advising glasses-wearers to remove them first. Mittens are attached, one at each side.

Oh Holy Hell, it's cold! Seriously - whatever clothes you have on when you get there, keep 'em on! I had an overcoat on, and was still chilly - thank goodness I didn't have bare legs! The capes are great, actually - thermo-insulated, they do very well for the bits that they cover. The place has a wildlife theme, this year:

(More pictures here.)

You get one free cocktail with entry - I chose a "Blue Baboon" (which, indeed, came out blue), and loved it - simply lemony. Now, the drinks were served in ice glasses - I believe you could get a free one if you brought back the first unmelted. Well, mine was pretty unmelted - but, you know, it was flipping freezing to drink, putting thick, river ice to your mouth - I don't think that many went back for seconds. There seem to be three basic colours, not completely indicative of what they contain:

Careful - those surfaces are slippery, although be assured, the floor isn't. We meandered about as best we could - it was kind of hard to distinguish people, in their identical capes, many with their hoods up. Mittens are essential to handle the drinks. The place was pretty packed, and about halfway through, a cloud of what I'm assuming was dry ice was squirted in, to keep the temperature down - at any time, you could press the button to leave, and we eventually did. I'm not sure any of us stayed the full 40 minutes - except, perhaps, our fearless organiser. Quite the experience, though! Glad I did it, not in a hurry to do it again.. and what a relief to exit to the bar, and normal temperatures. A trip to the loo is well recommended, for the sake of the airblade hand dryers - just the thing to get the blood pumping again. And we had a good chat in the (warmer) bar after. Great start for the group, I think! Roll on the next one.

Frankly, I was glad to get finished early, after the week I've had. Tomorrow, I'm back to Ireland for a long weekend - first to Dublin (from London City airport, a first for me), for U2's (one-and-only!) concert there.. then down to see my mother for a couple of days, flying back on Tuesday. That concert sold out in six minutes on public sale - I was lucky to be in the presale.

On Wednesday, I had booked free comedy in Greenwich - London Live Comedy, Free Comedy Nights in Hammersmith, Wimbledon and Greenwich, Random London, and London Art, Comedy & Culture Lovers. Then Funzing rode to the rescue, and I booked a Funzing talk entitled "Politics - WTF!" Appropriate, no? Anyway, I booked them on a once-only code "iwantfunzingagain". Or you could try "Funzing30" - both give 30% off, but are time-limited. But only just today, I checked.. and whoopee, London Literary Walks is back at last, with a Sculpture in the City walk. Thank goodness I can cancel Funzing up to 48 hours beforehand without penalty.

Next Thursday, free comedy in Hammersmith again. So far.

So, that brings us to Friday 28th July, and it's off to Amsterdam, for my final two U2 concerts of the year (sniff). On Saturday and Sunday. Really, you have no idea of the organisation that went into all of this, back in January..! These were the only ones I couldn't get tickets for officially - bought them on Viagogo.

I fly back on the 31st, and saw an interesting Funzing talk advertised for that night - "Are We Living in the Matrix?" Well, I'm well overdue a free talk, with all of them that I've booked (every fourth free), so I contacted them to get a code to get this for free. Still waiting..! Despairing of them, I finally booked it on one of their limited 50% deals over the weekend.

On the 1st, I finally get to see Jennifer Rees again, when she's giving a talk on The Psychology of Criminals. With dim sum, great! (Had to stick with a 10% discount for this one - Fun_Day10 or Fun_Week10 are the ones you want for that.) And it's walking distance from me for once, in Covent Garden. Excellent.. and Helen has sensibly decided to come too. On which occasion she'll deliver all the stuff I couldn't fit in my bag, coming back from Twickenham!

And I was just looking up what to do on the 2nd - and wouldn't you know it, at that moment the Pop-Up Opera sent me a mail with upcoming events. Une Éducation Manquée is a short, French comic opera, whose run finishes that day. All right then!