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liadnanI tried liberté, egalité, fraternité and lunch, but it didn't scan as well...
Some years ago I discovered what I firmly believe is the best café/patisserie in London. I now feel like some Hampstead type on the verge of launching into a description of this darling little place, but rest assured, I'm not. And I don't live in Hampstead. Primrose Hill is completely different. No, really.
But I digress. I seem to have said that before sometime.
Anyway, I frequently go to this place either for lunch or for coffee after work. It's a somewhat bizarre establishment. Founded in 1871 by a mysterious Frenchwoman, it's still mainly a French operation, and its main purpose is being a very expensive patisserie. The current part-owner is a former (and still part time) actress, and the place is known as an unofficial Equity hang out for resting entertainers. And not a few minor and even not so minor celebs as well. As well as serving superb coffee, croissants and cakes, it's occasionally a tiny theatre and art gallery (there's a rather good video installation in the upstairs room at the moment).
Most years, on 14th July, the staff put on a sort of tableau vivant in the street of scenes from the Revolution, and I've therefore just returned from being entertained, on a Soho street (it's almost opposite Soho House and next door to the Coach and Horses, if anyone's wondering), by representations of the storming of the Bastille, the execution of Louis XIV and Marie Antoinette and the murder of Marat. Culminating with a rendition of the Marseillaise at the end of which the owner, for reasons purely of art, rips open her blouse to reveal an impressive bosom. At this point the traffic down Greek St stops briefly...
The police affect not to notice, by tradition.
In the course of all this I managed to step into the drink which a minor TV celeb (plays the posh woman on Dinnerladies among other things, I could google but I can't be arsed) had put on the floor in order to clap better, but she was very nice about it. I decided not to tell her I always thought she was quite cute, if a bit old for me.
As it happens, I'm not wildly keen on the French Revolution, I've always thought it a superb example of why bloody revolutions are to be avoided, but there you are. (Also, I'll be first against the wall when the revolution comes... For one thing I'm a liberal, for another I'm a lawyer... "first thing we do, let's hang all the lawyers.." as Shakespeare makes someone say, probably in Richard II. You can tell I'm on the ball and checking everything I say properly today, can't you?)
It's sweltering hot still, though they tell us it'll be gone by the end of the week. Ho hum. I don't have much on after the mad shenanigans of last week, which is undeniably a good thing on this occasion. Rather strangely, given that it was the hottest day of the year I had a manic burst of energy on Sunday, having decided I could no longer face living in the horrible pigsty that was my flat. So I cleaned it, top to bottom. Sorted out all my paperwork, threw four bin bags of rubbish away, organised the books and seriously thought about putting up shelves, didn't actually do my tax but organised the pile, cut down the other "to do" pile drastically, and even cleaned the bloody windows and put up some more pictures. Unfortunately the vacuum cleaner is broken, and some inconsiderate fool used the other one to unblock their drain, but that's the only thing left to do. I felt so cheerful when I woke up this morning and looked at it all.
Actually I'm cheeful most of the time these days. I know I gripe a lot here, and I'm frequently lonely, but frankly I love my job, I have loads of really close friends around, and most other things are fine. And the sun is shining, which always helps. Plus a certain person is around for a week between various bouts of good works and might possibly be prepared for a little more convincing.
One final thought... I'm not sure this country needs to take much from French social and political practice, but closing the country down for a month in summer has always struck me as a storming idea.
The catch on the spring loaded CD/DVD drive on my laptop appears to have gone. Are these things mendable? It works with a big blob of bluetack firmly stuck to it.
Jack Straw said "weapons of mass distraction" on Today this morning, I swear he did.
Some years ago I discovered what I firmly believe is the best café/patisserie in London. I now feel like some Hampstead type on the verge of launching into a description of this darling little place, but rest assured, I'm not. And I don't live in Hampstead. Primrose Hill is completely different. No, really.
But I digress. I seem to have said that before sometime.
Anyway, I frequently go to this place either for lunch or for coffee after work. It's a somewhat bizarre establishment. Founded in 1871 by a mysterious Frenchwoman, it's still mainly a French operation, and its main purpose is being a very expensive patisserie. The current part-owner is a former (and still part time) actress, and the place is known as an unofficial Equity hang out for resting entertainers. And not a few minor and even not so minor celebs as well. As well as serving superb coffee, croissants and cakes, it's occasionally a tiny theatre and art gallery (there's a rather good video installation in the upstairs room at the moment).
Most years, on 14th July, the staff put on a sort of tableau vivant in the street of scenes from the Revolution, and I've therefore just returned from being entertained, on a Soho street (it's almost opposite Soho House and next door to the Coach and Horses, if anyone's wondering), by representations of the storming of the Bastille, the execution of Louis XIV and Marie Antoinette and the murder of Marat. Culminating with a rendition of the Marseillaise at the end of which the owner, for reasons purely of art, rips open her blouse to reveal an impressive bosom. At this point the traffic down Greek St stops briefly...
The police affect not to notice, by tradition.
In the course of all this I managed to step into the drink which a minor TV celeb (plays the posh woman on Dinnerladies among other things, I could google but I can't be arsed) had put on the floor in order to clap better, but she was very nice about it. I decided not to tell her I always thought she was quite cute, if a bit old for me.
As it happens, I'm not wildly keen on the French Revolution, I've always thought it a superb example of why bloody revolutions are to be avoided, but there you are. (Also, I'll be first against the wall when the revolution comes... For one thing I'm a liberal, for another I'm a lawyer... "first thing we do, let's hang all the lawyers.." as Shakespeare makes someone say, probably in Richard II. You can tell I'm on the ball and checking everything I say properly today, can't you?)
It's sweltering hot still, though they tell us it'll be gone by the end of the week. Ho hum. I don't have much on after the mad shenanigans of last week, which is undeniably a good thing on this occasion. Rather strangely, given that it was the hottest day of the year I had a manic burst of energy on Sunday, having decided I could no longer face living in the horrible pigsty that was my flat. So I cleaned it, top to bottom. Sorted out all my paperwork, threw four bin bags of rubbish away, organised the books and seriously thought about putting up shelves, didn't actually do my tax but organised the pile, cut down the other "to do" pile drastically, and even cleaned the bloody windows and put up some more pictures. Unfortunately the vacuum cleaner is broken, and some inconsiderate fool used the other one to unblock their drain, but that's the only thing left to do. I felt so cheerful when I woke up this morning and looked at it all.
Actually I'm cheeful most of the time these days. I know I gripe a lot here, and I'm frequently lonely, but frankly I love my job, I have loads of really close friends around, and most other things are fine. And the sun is shining, which always helps. Plus a certain person is around for a week between various bouts of good works and might possibly be prepared for a little more convincing.
One final thought... I'm not sure this country needs to take much from French social and political practice, but closing the country down for a month in summer has always struck me as a storming idea.
The catch on the spring loaded CD/DVD drive on my laptop appears to have gone. Are these things mendable? It works with a big blob of bluetack firmly stuck to it.
Jack Straw said "weapons of mass distraction" on Today this morning, I swear he did.
