And the night goes by so very slow
Dec. 13th, 2009 11:35 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
millionreasonsBrunch at the rather fancy Bistrotheque (so fancy its name isn't on the outside of the restaurant and we're walking up and down the warehouse filled council estate street and peering into urine soaked alleyways trying to find it) and then local art for local people at The Wilkinson Gallery, Vilma Gold, the Fred Gallery, and the Kate McGarry gallery. Bethnal Green has sure changed since I lived here, no posh bistros or art galleries or Tesco Expresses back in '95 (although the dodgy strip joint on Cambridge Heath Road is still there). My favourite exhibition is not the esoteric installations but the more traditional paintings of Martin Brown; an Edwardian disco, Catch (on Kingsland Road), people captured in paint at gigs, and the view of the canal from the art gallery window.
Afterwards we go to the market to buy Imperial Stout, Christmas cake flecked with gold,some organic frankincense and myrrh and the most exciting thing I've ever imbibed - chocolate soup: chocolate, coconut milk, brandy, port and spices, making it taste like that thick hot chocos that Spaniards drink with their churros, crossed with mulled wine. Forget your Moet and your Beaujolais Nouveau and your coca-cola, this is the real thing.
In the evening we go for an unfortunate meal at Church Street Chinese Haikksun which ticked several boxes in my bad books: i) different prices on the menu outside to the menu you're given inside ii) the heating being turned off, despite the bitterness of the night ii) spending a lot of time choosing what to have and, on ordering, being told it's not available and iv) asking for a bottle of beer and being given draught (so you have no idea what you're drinking). Hopefully the recession will do for it. Even if it had been superb, there was still the matter of the people seated next to us (despite the restaurant being empty) whose ordering went something like this:
"What's sweet and sour chicken?"
"It's chicken that is both sweet...and sour."
"Oh no I don't want that. I want what my friend had last time I came here. It was chicken and mushroom and bean things all together with rice. Do you do pilau rice?"
"No, we don't."
"Oh no that's Indian isn't it. Well it was chicken and mushroom all together. Do you have that?"
"I'll give you some more time to think about it."
Waiter comes back.
"Are you open on Boxing Day?"
"Yes."
"What time?"
"I'll just check."
Waiter comes back. "Normal time."
"What's normal time?"
Waiter comes back. "6 p.m. Are you ready to order?"
"Well what I want, it was chicken and mushroom and bean things all together with rice. Oh, not rice! Noodles. My friend had it last time....."
ad infinitum.
We then watch New Zealand genre-busting steam-punk serial-killer detective-thriller noir Perfect Creature which had the usual vamp cliches - female human falling for broody male vampire, she feeding from his blood when she is injured, but quite an intriguing twist on the usual vampire lore. In this 'verse, vampires are a holy order of brothers and good godly humans regularly give blood to feed them (yep, religious types are parasites). The order are anti-scientific and become more so when one of their number genetically experiments to find a cure for vamp sterility (all vampires are men), creates a virus which causes him to become infected and he mutates into a traditional murderous vampire hellbent on creating zompires - blood-crazed mad creatures. As in quite a few similar 'genre' films, the alt. world created was more interesting than the plot.
Afterwards we go to the market to buy Imperial Stout, Christmas cake flecked with gold,
In the evening we go for an unfortunate meal at Church Street Chinese Haikksun which ticked several boxes in my bad books: i) different prices on the menu outside to the menu you're given inside ii) the heating being turned off, despite the bitterness of the night ii) spending a lot of time choosing what to have and, on ordering, being told it's not available and iv) asking for a bottle of beer and being given draught (so you have no idea what you're drinking). Hopefully the recession will do for it. Even if it had been superb, there was still the matter of the people seated next to us (despite the restaurant being empty) whose ordering went something like this:
"What's sweet and sour chicken?"
"It's chicken that is both sweet...and sour."
"Oh no I don't want that. I want what my friend had last time I came here. It was chicken and mushroom and bean things all together with rice. Do you do pilau rice?"
"No, we don't."
"Oh no that's Indian isn't it. Well it was chicken and mushroom all together. Do you have that?"
"I'll give you some more time to think about it."
Waiter comes back.
"Are you open on Boxing Day?"
"Yes."
"What time?"
"I'll just check."
Waiter comes back. "Normal time."
"What's normal time?"
Waiter comes back. "6 p.m. Are you ready to order?"
"Well what I want, it was chicken and mushroom and bean things all together with rice. Oh, not rice! Noodles. My friend had it last time....."
ad infinitum.
We then watch New Zealand genre-busting steam-punk serial-killer detective-thriller noir Perfect Creature which had the usual vamp cliches - female human falling for broody male vampire, she feeding from his blood when she is injured, but quite an intriguing twist on the usual vampire lore. In this 'verse, vampires are a holy order of brothers and good godly humans regularly give blood to feed them (yep, religious types are parasites). The order are anti-scientific and become more so when one of their number genetically experiments to find a cure for vamp sterility (all vampires are men), creates a virus which causes him to become infected and he mutates into a traditional murderous vampire hellbent on creating zompires - blood-crazed mad creatures. As in quite a few similar 'genre' films, the alt. world created was more interesting than the plot.
