Football, Coroners, Soho, Cursed Child, and The Porcupine (oh my!)

On my first evening after work, it was the Wales v. Portugal match in the Euro Cup 2016.  So my plan was to find a pub showing the game and have some fish and chips and a few pints.  I headed down Horseferry Road towards The Barley Mow, where I had some pints the first night I was here.  I got there about 45 minutes before the match and it was pleasantly uncrowded so I ordered my food and beer and sat down at a single table and settled in for the match.

After another thirty minutes, one plate of fish and chips and a pint down, more people starting filling the the rooms in the pub and it started shaping up like a good crowd to watch the match.  There was one guy/bloke at the table behind the railing from me that would watch my little one for me to make sure no one sat there while I popped to the bar for another beer or went to the loo.  He was really nice.  Until... yes, until Wales wasn't doing well and then the expletives at a volume you could hear across the street came out.  He was the most vocal one in the entire bar and all heads would nervously swivel his way when a "feckin hell!" came flying out or whatever his choice words were at the time.

Alas, by the match end Wales was out, but they did have a heck of a go for the entire series.  So I was free to head back to the hotel.  As I headed out, the building across the road caught my eye.  It may be hard to read the sign, but it reads: Coroner's Count. Not sure why they need a court, but there you go.  That wrapped up a somewhat uneventful Wednesday for me.

For Thursday I didn't feel like doing the football thing one more time so I decided I would like to do something else that I may not convince Kari would be fun:  check out a music shop.  I love used music shops and new cities offer a chance to add new items to my music collection.  New cities in new countries are even better.  I found the shop called Fopp on Yelp and decided to give that a go after work.

I figured I would take the tube for my trip to Soho, but my quick check with my travel planner (Google maps) says the best way would be taking a bus.  So the bus would take 26 minutes and walking will take 33 minutes.  So I walk it instead, so worth it.  I get to walk past Parliment, the Abbey, Big Ben, and Downing Street again.

Once I got to Soho and its new sights, I encountered a theatre that really took me for a shock.  Seeing its display got my mind working.  I thought J. K. Rowlings was done with the Harry Potter stories.  However, it looks like there's a play that she's written, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child (parts 1 and 2). It will be opening here on 30 July.  Brilliant!  However, it appears I may miss that while I'm here. So too bad about that.  Oh well, on to music!



I shop at the Fopp.  Not much in the way of used music so a slight bit of disappointment.  No worries, I picked up some items that I've been wanting and I even saw a book there that I will want to read eventually.  I just didn't want to have to pack it on the way home.  It's Michael Palin's collection of diary entries.  It should be a pretty interesting read.  I've read the autobiography of John Cleese and was very entertained so this may be just as or more entertaining.

My main task done, the primary concern now became feeding my ever-increasing hunger.  A quick Yelp search revealed nothing immediately around me so I started heading back towards Trafalgar Square.  A block or two down, I stop at an intersection and see a free house (pub) that looks about half full.  A quick Yelp check is very positive and it says it's more of a place where the locals go instead of a tourist place.  Sounds perfect.  Eating and having a pint and a couple of half pints at The Porcupine was a treat.  It's 143 years old, but from where I was sitting, it didn't look a decade over 110.


Ah, now I'm losing the light so a brief stop in Trafalgar Square for some obligatory photos and I head back to the hotel.  I should be able to make it for the last half hour of the match and use the two £5 discount vouchers for skipping room cleaning at the lounge for some free-ish beer.  Indeed, my beer was 75p total and the Laphroaig I finished with was £2.20.  So worth not having someone make my bed twice...