52 New Things - Week Six

My latest new thing was 'Go to a podcast recording'. At the moment I prefer listening to podcasts rather than music in the mornings. Sometimes I can learn new things but mainly I get to laugh to myself (and get funny looks from other commuters)  as I enjoy comedy based shows during my commute to work, my favourites being No Such Thing as a Fish, Answer Me This, RHLSTP and The Nerdist. 

I decided to get tickets for RHLSTP, or Richard Herrings Leicester Square Theatre Podcast, to give it, it's full name. Richard Herring is a comedian, who, to be honest I hadn't really heard of before I started listening to the podcast, and the Leicester Square Theatre is where he hosts his podcast - simple really. For the podcast Herring interviews different comedians. I started listening a couple of years back when I randomly downloaded it. Since then I've listened to him interview people from Stephen Fry, David Mitchell, Isy Suttie and Tim Minchin. At the moment the live recordings take place on Sunday afternoons. I booked a couple of tickets for me and Stuart a few of weeks in advance, before the guests were announced. I wasn't worried though, he's interviewed probably hundreds of people and I think I've known the work of about 80% percent of them. I figured there was a good chance when I went to a live show I'd know the comedian, and I really hoped Herring would be interviewing one of my favourites, like David Mitchell or Charlie Brooker. 

The Leicester Square Theatre is small, cute theatre on one of the side roads of Leicester Square. If you don't know it's there it can be easy to miss, slotted in next to a church and the Prince Charles cinema. If you've never been I recommend it, there's not many places in Central London where you can see great comedy in such a small location.

As I had booked my tickets so early (before the guests were announced) I had front row seats. The best place to sit when Stephen Fry, Miranda Hart or Katherine Ryan turned up to be interviewed. 

As I took my seat I noticed the theatre wasn't all that busy. That indicated to me that perhaps the guest wouldn't be the most well known, but I was still hopeful I'd at least have heard of them. Turns out Richard Herring was going to be interviewing two comedians this week; Robert Popper and Luisa Omielan. Unfortunately I hadn't heard of either of them, however as I'm trying new things, I decided shouldn't be put off listening to a couple of new comedians.

The first guest, Robert Popper, is a writer and producer who created the show Friday Night Dinner and has worked on programmes such as The Inbetweeners and Look Around You. What I was most interested to hear about though were the books he'd written including The Timewasters Letters. I remember reading this a few years back, it's one of those easy books you can read on the tube. Popper started writing funny letters to different companies after finding a directory in the BBC offices one day. If you do read the book, I think some of the replies are just as funny, or more so than the original letters.

The second guest, Luisa Omielan, was much more on my level. She had toured with her show 'What Would Beyonce Do' which was a sneaker hit at Edinburgh last year. She was engaging, funny and made me want to see her next stand up show 'Am I Right Ladies'. 

If you want to listen to the full interviews you can download the podcast, and even listen to some of the back catalogue. If you can though I recommend going to a live recording, even if like me, you don't know the guests. Herring is entertaining, a little bit ridiculous and more than a bit crude, my kind of comedian basically. You can book tickets, and see the list of upcoming guests here.

As it turns out Herring will be interviewing David Mitchell later in the series but tickets have already sold out, dang it.

52 New Things - Week Five

Whilst the weather was still quite fine I decided that my new thing for the week would be to go on a History Walk. London is a fantastic city bursting at the seams with history and true tales, this means there are hundreds of different history walks to choose from. For me it was an easy choice; I have always had a strange fascination with the story of Jack the Ripper. I remember there being a book all about the gruesome crimes committed in 1888 in our bookcase at home when I was younger. As a child who loved all types of ghost stories this book of true crime completely gripped my imagination. So when picking which walk I wanted to do, it had to be a Jack the Ripper one. Next up, was choosing the company to go with. I didn't do much research, just scrolled through a few websites. In the end I went with London Walks. It had really good reviews and has won awards for its Ripper Tours.

To attend any of the walks they offer you just need to turn up to a specified meeting place, pay £10 per person and join in, there's no need to book. Stuart and I went for the 3pm Saturday tour, meeting outside the Tower Hill Tube station.

We arrived at Tower Hill a few minutes early so had enough time to walk around the small park outside the station. This park marks the location that all the people not lucky enough to justify a private execution at the Tower of London, across the road, would meet their very public and very grim end. Luckily, now I think it is mainly used for office workers to eat their lunch in during the week, and for Stuart to wander through looking all thoughtful at the plaques, of course.

Then it was time to join the tour. We were the first people there, so we paid our money and waited to see if anyone else was going to join us.

I thought as you didn't have to book and it was a relatively cold afternoon in October that there wouldn't be many people at all. In the end I was really surprised by the number who arrived. There must have been twenty people in total, so it was nice to see so many enthusiastic history buffs! After everyone had gathered our guide led us to a spot by the old London Wall (which dates all the way back to the Romans) to introduce us to our subject matter.

I'm afraid I am a terrible blogger as I didn't even make a note of our guide's name, but the gentleman was very eloquent, interesting and animated. Most importantly he spoke very clearly and projected his voice well. Stuarts hearing isn't the best and I was worried he would miss some of the story, but Stuart confirmed he heard every word, which was a great feat considering during the tour our guide had to deal with traffic, alarms and general London street noise.

We were taken all through Whitechapel and around the outskirts of the City of London. To really feel how dirty and smelly it would have been in some of the streets during the Ripper crimes we were even treated to a section of the story whilst stood next to some pretty ripe wheelie bins!

One thing worth noting when attending this tour is how much London has changed in the past 120 years. None of the locations where the murders took place really exist in the same state any more; they've been turned into carparks or smart offices, or, like on Mitre Street (the image below the church photo) the small alleys are dwarfed by the city buildings behind them. One location that does still stand is St Botolph's Church. According to our guide, in 1888, this church was known as the 'prostitutes church' as so many ladies working the streets would visit here, walking around it to escape possible arrest from police. One of the many things I love about London is how historical sites blend and merge with the new buildings that are always being erected. History might be built on or around but it's not completely forgotten. It's just sometimes a bit of imagination is also required!

What I found interesting about this walk was how our guide brought the era to life for us. He didn't just tell us the gruesome details of the crimes, he set the scene and made sure we realised the characters in the tale were real people. He took the time to explain how tough life would have been for a large number of Londoners back then, particularly in the East End. The women working the streets almost always had no other choice. The cost for a bed for a night in a local dosshouse was exactly the same that the clients would pay the prostitute. At least one of the women killed was turned away from the local dosshouse as she lacked the money. She insisted they keep a bed spare for her, as she would earn the money and return, but she never had the chance to. On this tour we were shown the women weren't just tragic victims, but real people who had to do what they could to survive, which with the Ripper on the prowl just wasn't enough.

In total the tour lasted about an hour and a half and I think this was good value for our £10. We walked some streets I have never visited before, were entertained by a professional and knowledgeable guide and most importantly were left to question adn make up our own minds about what happen all those years ago. Why did the killings stop, so seemingly abruptly? Were there more victims than the canonical five?  And the question we may never know - who was Jack the Ripper? Like so many people before us, we'll have to mull it over with a drink at the Ten Bells. Meet you there.

52 New Things - Week Four

I had a busy week last week so I decided to try something relatively simple and quick for part of my 52 New Things challenge - bake bread. Turns out for an amateur like me baking bread is not as easy as I had imagined.

I'm going to let you into a little secret - I thought it might be easy as I've made bread once before. However it was the simplest recipe ever - just a packet where you had to add water so I guess that doesn't count as a real recipe or a proper bake (and therefore this still qualifies as a new task for me to try). Inspired by the Great British Bake Off I decided I wanted to make something from scratch and a little more challenging. On the BBC website they have a range of recipes different contestants have made on the Bake Off, so I chose to go for some soda/quick bread recipes from week three. Looking through these I thought, bread is easy so why bake one when I can try two! Therefore I went for savoury and a sweet recipe. These were;

Alvin's Prosciutto, manchego and balsamic onion bread and Paul's Cranberry and orange sweet soda bread.

As I don't bake often (ever) the first thing I had to do was get some supplies, including some new scales.

I started with the savoury onion bread. It seemed pretty simply, caramelising some onions, mixing some flour, butter etc. So far so good. As the recipe was for quick bread you don't use yeast to get the rise, but have baking soda and buttermilk and I think that somehow makes it rise.

The unbaked product was pretty sticky and I couldn't knead it (like I've seen all professional bakers do). I tried to rewatch the Bake Off episode to check but wasn't on iplayer any more so I had to go with the fact I was sure I remembered them saying it is called quick bread as you do not spend ages kneading it - you just give it a quick mix. So hoping for the best I popped it in the oven.

Then I started on the orange and cranberry recipe. With the fresh orange zest this one smelt divine.

It also looked a bit more like I expected it to - not too sticky, easier to shape and much lighter.

The onion bread was ready first and straight away I saw I had made a rookie mistake. It said to mix some of the onion in the bread and then put the rest on top. This just meant I had burst crusty onion on the top. The picture below was after I picked off a ton of black mess.

I have to admit it wasn't the best looking loaf. Luckily the orange and cranberry loaf was ready soon after and looked so much better. It rose better, smelt amazing and actually looked appetising!

Then it was time for the true test - the taste test! I can safely say the onion bread tasted as good as it looked. I followed the recipe exactly and there was a lot of stuff in the mix (a whole packet of prosciutto, a whole block of cheese as well as the caramelised onion) and it made the whole thing really stodgy. I think there was too much prosciutto as it was just too salty. Not a raring success by any stretch of the imagination. Luckily the day was saved by the sweat bread. It was so much lighter, the flavour was really well balanced and Stuart even wanted seconds (no one wanted seconds of the onion bread). All in all it wasn't a complete failure but I didn't find a secret love for bread making. Since I splashed out on some shiny new scales I might, at some point in the future, try making some bread where you have knead it, but I'm not in any rush to get back to the kitchen!