You can all come out now...

...the whingeing has stopped.  Firstly, thank you so much to all of you who sent cyber hugs, emails, and offers of sewing machines (thank you Claire!) On pain of sounding like an Evening Standard journo,

THANK GOD FOR LOCAL SHOPS!

I had a phone call just after lunch to say that it wasn't as serious as feared and the machine was ready for collection, and popped the five minutes down the road to get it.  That turned into a free tutorial on how to use the automatic button hole, and basically they were incredibly helpful.  I think I may still go down the route of buying an industrial machine from them, but now it's not so urgent, plus I can use my domestic machine for the occasional bit of overlocking etc so I don't need to buy two machines.  All together now - hurrah! [Flib finally gathers up the last of toys she chucked out of the playpen on Saturday]  So the quilt top is done...

Next I'm showing a WIP and some souvenirs...

The WIP part is my first attempt at simple freezer paper stencilling.  There will definitely be more to come!  I've got lots of samples of this wool weight fabric in various colours, again thanks to Ethel, and I want to stencil images and symbols on it for purses. 

The souvenir part is the badges from The Reindeer's crackers, from Saturday night.  You walk in through a car park off Brick Lane, looks a little grim, and when you emerge upstairs it's a masterful concoction of glittery pink stars, blue lit pine trees and blurrily efficient waiting staff.  I was among the first three of our party to arrive and we decided to start with cocktails - the Reindeer Martini was Ketel Citroen vodka with elderflower, presented in a champagne coupe and decorated with redcurrants.  All very festive.  All very eye-wateringly elderflowerish.  The senior barman noticed the look on my face as my eyes rolled back in my head from the overwhelmingly 'cordial' effect - as in it tasted like it should be diluted with a pint of water, rather than making for a genial experience.   A second shot of vodka, proferred by senior barman, improved it no end.

You know, after two of those, I really shouldn't have noticed what the food was like.  But I went against my first instinct when ordering (dear god, when will I learn) and chose the steak rather than the risotto.  The waiter had called it 'a gud steak' in his lovely Scottish acccent.  Yeeeeeeeees, but only if you have a penchant for boot leather.  Ideally I like my steak blue or perhaps rare (I only order steak somewhere I assume it will be a prime piece of meat, basically) and to be on the safe side ordered it medium rare.  And then sent it back to be cooked more.  You know that old joke about 'How did you find the steak?' 'Oh I looked under the peas and there it was' - in this case they hid the dauphinoise potatoes under the steak because they were carbonised. By dessert I had given up hope but did try the chocolate and raspberry cake which had an alarmingly sharp fruit tang which was almost metallic. 

Next up was the cabaret.  I had hoped the (sound alert!!) Puppini Sisters were doing our show, but they'd been on earlier for the 4.30 show.  We were treated to Kiki and Herb. Eh.  It just wasn't a patch on the cabaret at Pigalle, say, but part of the problem may have been that there was just a little too much of Kiki and Herb.  Diluted, as part of a bill, they may have worked better.

All in all, we came to the conclusion that yes, it was worth going. It was an experience.  They got away with murder on the food.  But it was still worth it, simply for the sheer spectacle and the triumph of style over substance.  But that's ok as it's all disappearing after twenty-three days, the entire substance of it will be dismantled and removed, it's a pop-up restaurant.  Because remember, kids:  The Reindeer is not for life.  It's just for Christmas.

Comments

[Amy]

That just sounds like such a cool experience. I had never heard of the "pop up restaurant" concept before. Sort of like when raves were in fashion, but with food, eh? They probably have something like that over here, and I'm just not cool enough to know about it :)
Sorry the food didn't live up to the hype but it sounds like it was fun anyway. And I'll bet you looked fabulous in your dress!