Treading The Boards Of Life

Life, it’s not what it used to be. Of course I say that not really knowing if what it was is like it is now, I rather suspect it’s not but I have no verifiable proof to back up my statement; much like the latest gossip on the Super Injunction Twitter account is just here-say that people assume to be true because everyone is talking about it so obviously there must be some truth in it, right? Wrong? Who cares?

It would seem that more people were/are interested in who might have been having sex with someone they perhaps shouldn’t have been than were interested in getting out to vote last week on the referendum as to whether we should abandon the First Past The Post (FPTP) system for elections in favour of the Alternative Vote (AV) system. A whopping 41% of the eligible UK population voted of which around 70% favoured staying with what we have. What I find so sad about this is the way it’s advertised as a landslide victory for the No campaign. Yes, 70% does sound like a lot doesn’t it, but 70% of 40% is really on 28% of everyone…not so much a landslide as a sachet of Body Shop’s finest mud pack.

Last weekend I went for afternoon tea at the Edwardian Radisson at Leicester Square. In all honesty I wouldn’t recommend it to anyone. Why? I hear you ask, well for one thing the scones, although nicely warm and served with a goodly helping of clotted cream failed to come with jam! Whoever heard of afternoon tea with jam-less scones and clotted cream?! My other niggle was once we had drunk the first pot of tea, 2 cups each, it was then like a session of Where’s Waldo in trying to find a member of staff to ask for another pot. Granted the sandwiches, scones and cakes were nice…the service was more than a bit lacklustre, this extended to trying to pay the bill, we finally got the bill but after 15 minutes had to go looking for someone to take the money. I would like to think our experience was a one-off but all the same, it was pretty poor form.

The afternoon wasn’t a complete waste, a trip to China Town saw me replenish my stocks of jasmine pearls (green tea, dried over Jasmine leaves and then rolled into small pearl-like balls which unfurl in water) and Oolong tea and then we stopped off at a Bubble Tea shop where I had a very tasty green apple milk tea.

Tonight I was fortunate enough to get tickets for the press night of Bette and Joan which is set during the making of their 1961 movie Whatever Happened to Baby Jane? and revisits their infamous fifty-year feud. It stars Anita Dobson and Greta Scacchi. It was very good, quite funny and not something I might have ordinarily chosen to go see but I was glad I did. There were quite a few luvvies in the audience including Patricia Hodge, Christopher Biggins, Cilla Black, Paul O’Grady and Clive Anderson who I kept referring to as  Clive James. I don’t think Clive James was there.