Hello, loyal blog readers! As many of you know – but maybe some of you don’t – my last few posts have omitted a few things. Because while I did write about everything from our muddy walks in Shoreham to our windy walks in Kirkcaldy, I didn’t mention that Randi and I are also expecting a baby in October. But we are! So, please just mentally insert a lot of extra paragraphs about hospital scans, midwife appointments and test-driving pushchairs in John Lewis, because we’ve been doing all of that too.
We’re very excited, but also, I’m not the one who’s pregnant, so you’ll have to find Randi’s top-secret pregnancy blog to read all about that. (I’m joking, there is no such thing.) (Or is there?) (There is not.) Once the baby is born I’m still planning to carry on with this blog in some shape or form, but obviously everything in our lives is also about to change, so let’s just see what happens.
In the meantime I’m going to carry on with a regular catch-up. But for those of you who were already in on the secret – or figured it out from all of the clues in the post titles – thank you for all of your love and support so far!
When we left off Randi’s parents had just arrived in London, and since then we enjoyed two weeks together with (mostly) sunny conditions. (Unfortunately, this did mean we were all wearing shorts when I erroneously led us down a narrow alleyway lined by stinging nettles.) As usual Beth and Stu cooked us a series of delicious meals – making friends with our local butcher in the process – but on one of their hard-earned nights off, Randi took us all out to Strangers’ Dining Room in Parliament for dinner. And for the first time, it was light enough to go out on the terrace first!
Together with Tash, Katie and Cormac, we also got a chance to visit Lea’s exhibition Zines Forever! DIY Publishing and Disability Justice at the Wellcome Collection. As someone who as a child once ‘published’ a twice-weekly newsletter with a total possible audience of four people – not so different from this blog! – I’m inherently quite fond of the concept of zines. If you’re not familiar, here’s Lea’s explainer. And on top of that, I’m also in favour of any exhibition which induces people to sit quietly in the corner and read.
After the exhibition we all had lunch together, followed by a round of complimentary teas and coffees for which none of us had a good explanation. Then Randi, Beth, Stu and I popped into the British Library – so really exploring the full spectrum of publishing – before meeting up with Andrew and Bonnie for a production of The Gang of Three.
I’m not sure whether this play was truly excellent or merely very, very well chosen for political nerds, but we loved it, even if (from the perspective of factional Labour Party politics) it’s one of those hands-over-your-eyes moments when the leadership totally blows it and the party is left adrift for two decades. It’s the mid-1970s, and Roy Jenkins, Anthony Crosland and Denis Healey are all vying to succeed Harold Wilson as leader. Despite being broadly in agreement about the future direction of the party, they’re unable to unite behind one candidate, partly (of course) because of personal ambition but also – at least as I see it – because there’s no one obvious standout contender. As a result, of course, they all lose, and we know what happened next.
The play itself is witty and fast-moving with excellent performances from all three actors, although during the flashback scene to their Oxford University days I did find the portrayal of a young Jenkins to be significantly more convincing than young Crosland. Many thanks to Andrew and Bonnie for snagging tickets to this!
The other planned activity with Randi’s parents was a cooking class at the Jamie Oliver Cooking School in Highbury, not far from where I used to live. (Indeed, we walked back via Drayton Park and Highbury Fields afterwards so I could say hello.) We’d opted for the Mexican street food class which resulted in some very tasty tacos, with tortillas pressed and kept warm in a cute little tin foil pouch until serving. Food highlight: chipotle chicken. Lesson highlight: mind-bending onion slicing efficiency.
Talking of food: as a joint celebration of Randi and Tash’s birthdays, last Friday we ventured up to Seven Sisters for Nigerian tapas together at Chuku’s. Everything was delicious, including the cocktails, and it was only social politeness which allowed the last few suya meatballs to survive on the table for so long.
The next day, Randi and I visited the Picturehouse Central (a beautiful venue, by the way!) to join the coordinated cinema screenings for the two-part Doctor Who season finale. This definitely triggered some mixed emotions. The immediate future of Doctor Who is now more uncertain than it’s ever been since the 2005 revival, and while I agree with those who say it can never truly die – Doctor Who will always come back, it’s just a question of when – it’s sad to contemplate another period in the wilderness. But more pressingly, I wasn’t ready to lose Ncuti Gatwa, and his regeneration was frustrating given that it seemed bolted-on to the story at the last minute, tied to a weird character twist for Belinda which I didn’t buy. Regeneration is always a double-edged sword, but this didn’t feel right.
That said, it is obviously always a thrill to see Doctor Who on the big screen and the story itself felt very well-suited for it. I loved The Rani – both of them – and I just hope we see them again. [Update: After watching the utterly lovely Doctor Who Unleashed special tonight celebrating the last 20 years, I realised I forgot to mention how excellent the scene with Jodie Whittaker returning to the TARDIS was. Loved that too.]
Finally, we saw mum last night for Thai food and a play at the Hampstead Theatre: House of Games. This is an adaption of a 1987 film which was first staged in 2010, set in Chicago at an ambiguous time. (I mean, it’s clearly still supposed to be around 1987, but it just bugged me when someone claimed to be able to play Snake on a cell phone.) Essentially this is the story of a long con, with the charismatic Mike – aided by a clever band of accomplices – seducing Margaret, a straight-laced psychiatrist and successful author, into an expensive scam.
Randi and I both likened this to a page-turning thriller. Unlike, say, a play at the Bush, the production is deliberately tuned for comedy and intrigue rather than raw emotion. This is absolutely not a production about the deep scars which con artists leave on their victims. This is not a complaint… sometimes you just want a fun Saturday night out at the theatre! But Randi was less forgiving of the dodgy American accents (it really didn’t feel like Chicago) and I think we were both surprised at how dramatically the ending has been softened from the original film, which – at least based on reading the summary, I haven’t seen it – suggests that it would provide a much more satisfying character act for Margaret.
Besides the accents, though, we enjoyed ourselves. The staging was also excellent, with a two-level set design featuring the brightly-lit psychiatrist office sitting above Mike’s disreputable bar. As it happens we were there on closing night, however, so if you were interested in seeing either of the plays in this post… it’s too late, sorry!
Congrats Dom, awesome news. Give Randi my best.