Marie’s Cafe: fast Thai in Waterloo

Marie’s Cafe on Lower Marsh, tucked behind Waterloo station in North Lambeth is a curiosity. It is a traditional “caf” by day and a Thai restaurant by night. 

This is a chaotic place to eat: it is BYO, has laminated menus and we were asked to move tables twice before our food arrived. Despite all this, the cafe is totally endearing and a refreshing change from the chains that have taken over central London. The food came very fast, was piping hot and thoroughly enjoyable. Before my first visit, I was unsure how vegetarians would be received, but there are a number of options and my Thai green veggie currie was ideal after a long hard week. The bill for mains and dessert came to under £10 each!

Advice: (1) book if you are going on a Friday night or are looking for a table for more than two; (2) expect to be dining close to your neighbours; (3) expect to be asked to move tables if they are struggling to fit everyone in; and (4) take your own wine or fizz.

To Kindle or not to Kindle?

It has taken me some time to accept Kindles fully, but I am a convert: my Kindle has rescued my commute from a deluge of grimy free newspapers or shoulder ache from fat paperbacks. My Kindle is full of my comfort reads (Jane Eyre, a variety of Wilkie Collins books, Rebecca, etc.) and can take a waiting list of more recent popular reads (Wolf Hall, Bring up the Bodies, Gone Girl, etc.). And this has changed how I buy book – now it is more “picture” books that I will acquire in physical copy, such cook books and travel guides. No more will my house be cluttered with books I bought and now regret, like the awful and ubiquitous Da Vinci Code and One Day. Plus the Kindle battery lasts for ages, unlike my frustrating new iPhone, and the backlight on my “Paperwhite” model allows me to continue reading when my train lights cut out with alarming frequency. In fact, I struggle to remember why I was so resistant to get one in the first place… 

Have you made the switch too? And what’s on your Kindle?

RSC’s “Bring up the Bodies”: Breathtaking

After reading Wolf Hall and Bring up the Bodies last year, I was excited to hear about the two RSC plays adapting the seemingly unadaptable books. Not that I could get tickets…! It seems incredible to me that two books of historical fiction, no matter how brilliant, could pack out a theatre in the West End for a straight play. The hype, in itself, has been wonderful to promote the theatre at a time when there have been so many high profile productions terminating their runs early.

Anyway, I was delighted when a friend offered me a spare ticket to the second of the two plays, “Bring up the Bodies”.

Daytona: A curious ripple, rather than a dramatic splash

Courtesy of Masterclass, I was lucky enough to be given press night tickets for “Daytona”, a new play that recently transferred to the Theatre Royal Haymarket. The three person cast features Oliver Cotton (who also wrote the play), Maureen Lipman (my favourite!) and Harry Shearer (a.k.a. Mr Burns in The Simpsons).

It feels difficult to explain what this play is about – to provide a synopsis would be to “give away” the plot twists and turns that provide all of the momentum to this production. Instead, all I can say is this: