Why I'm Doing Sober for October

I know you probably don't really care, but I feel the need to say anyway. I certainly wouldn't care if it was me and someone else was doing it. I'd probably just think that they were being bloody boring and if they wanted to give money to charity, why didn't they just do it instead of forcing their sober personality on their poor unsuspecting friends and acquaintances. Turns out that wino friend ain't so fun without a couple of g&ts...

I definitely wouldn't sponsor anyone and likewise I wouldn't expect anyone to sponsor me. Sure it's for a good cause but why should I give someone money for not drinking? That's a personal choice and not like you are climbing a mountain or doing a marathon or what not. You're just laying off the vino. Big woop-de-doo. I'd probably prefer if you were just consistently drunk anyway, it would amuse me more. 

But I'm doing it. Macmillan Cancer Research's "Sober for October" campaign planted the seed and it has rooted and sprouted and here I am on the road of 31 days without London's Prozac and here's why. (aside from the obvious benefit to the WONDERFUL charities I'm supporting, soz Macmillan, I'm spreading the lovveee and all the below charities are fab - see links below to see what they do xx.)

Bender September

First there was the summer of pubs and Pimms and mid-week gins. Al-fresco = el drinko and there's just too many options. Then there was a two week holiday in Crete at the beginning of September full of Greek spirit. Then there was a well-oiled business's trip to Japan followed by days and days of social occasions right up until last weekend and then I stopped and promptly got flu. So sure my body is crying out for this

My Bank Balance Doesn't Want to Sponsor My Drinking Habit Anymore

It's not looking happy (see previous paragraph) with my endless shenanigans. It's basically telling me that it only wants to pay for necessities and occasional wholesome treats and not double Hendricks G&Ts for me and five friends in London's marked up establishments. Look at me, it insists, I'm so skinny right now (unlike you) and I need to get a bit of meat on me before you insist that it's Christmas and you want more sponsor money. I mean really.. Rude. 

To Do: Sort Life 

There's a few things in my life right now that really need sorting, that need some decisions to be made, actions to be taken, the most significant life-admin, possibly. 

I have found myself not to be the most productive when a) hungover or b) planning my life admin around my jam-packed social life. I feel that losing the sauce for a month will propel me in to action, as the thought of a six hour pub session when everyone else is pissed and I'm nursing an orange juice and trying to make sense of dull drunkards conversation is not appealing. 

Health

I haven't been to the gym in at least three months and I have certainly piled on some holiday weight. I need to fight that bitch with all my sober strength and the arse-kicking endorphin loving, clean-eating version of me is not usually present at the same time as lush wine-o-clock me. So one of them has to get packing for a while while the balance realigns...  The end result will be back to moderation in all things...

Just to Prove I Can

Four years ago I didn't drink for 40 days and it wasn't too much of a stretch, didn't really affect my life at all... When I thought about that recently it scared me, hence the need to do it immediately. 

A lot of people will assume I can't do it too and therefore I would like to stick my middle finger up and prove I still have the will power of Mother Theresa when I want to.

A lot of other people may think that this really is not a big deal, no alcohol for a month, but if you are a young(ish) professional in media, in London, with my social circle unless you hate booze... trust me it is no mean feat...

My page is here. 

I don't expect anyone to donate as I said, I bloody wouldn't. I plan to give ten pounds every time I pass a situation when I would usually drink. However, I will be splitting equally between:

• Macmillan Cancer Research
• The Halow Project
• World Land Trust
• Epilepsy Action

Please read more about these wonderful charities on their links.

I'll keep you updated....

Channelling Americana at Earlham Street Clubhouse

I spent most of the early noughties wishing I went to an America High School. I wanted the geeks and jocks and cheerleaders, I wanted the peppiness, bitchiness and drama and football games in international sized stadiums. I wanted to vote for Prom Queen. I wanted to hang out in dive bars with jukeboxes, eating pizza and discussing crushes and life with flamboyant syntax and wordiness. I wanted all the boys I knew to look at least 25 with abs-ful bodies and apparent sexual charm and confidence or be nice guys with abstract, intellectual interests. Why did no one I know have keg parties?

Pacey: "Ever stop to think about how much hormonally charged energy you put into the quick quips and biting banter? Your life would be considerably more productive if you took some, what's that word again, oh that's it -- action." - Dawson's Creek

Alas, I was neither American nor in a faux TV show/film reality. Yet I yearned for a taste of this American dream that was so different to the boarding school, books and inexperienced fumblings that was the reality of my early-mid teens. Drinking Bacardi Breezers on a bench whilst my friend snogged a Goth from the local boys boarding school just didn't seem like livin' the teenage dream to me.

The Entrance

So, when I heard about Earlham Street Clubhouse opening in Covent Garden back in November, I knew I had to go immediately, if only to indulge my teenage self. So I trekked my fave drinking pal there on the first Thursday we both had free.. Promising a 90s Beverley Hills teen crossed with East Coast clubhouse(!) vibe and a cocktail menu with such delightful names as Stifler's Mom and Sweet Valley High, I knew it would not disappoint. 

Ceiling Menu

It did not. The cocktails are delicious, (I tried three different ones and they were all good) the barmen are hot and chatty, you can buy pizza by the slice (!) and the retractable menus pull down from the ceiling; practical and kitsch.

(c) ESC

Obviously. there's a jukebox WHICH you can change with your phone after downloading an app - it's usually playing American rock of all eras.. AND if you're lucky enough to get a table (we weren't), on some of them you can flirt with likely gals and guys on other tables with the lickle burger phones (I didn't actually see any of these). LOL. Seriously go there now... Here's a few more crap photos soz...

The décor is uber trends and it's underground.

Serious cocktails....

V & I

Obviously after all those yummy cocktails, we ended up drunk and dancing in Soho... Here's the swilled #selfie...

By the way you can book; we thought you couldn't hence no table, but apparently you definitely can. 

Earlham Street Clubhouse

35 Earlham Street

Covent Garden

London

WC2H 9LD

020 7240 5142

info@esclubhouse.com

www.esclubhouse.com 

PS:

Here are the menus: (I had Rollin' With the Homies & Beauty School Droppout - both delish if you're a wine/champagne fan. Unfortunately we didn't try the pizza - but all I spoke to said it was gooood)

Drinks:

Pizza:

Champagne and La Plein Soleil

On Friday, I took one of my girls to a screening of the 1960 French film, La Plein Soleil (directed by René Clément) at the Working Title premises near Bond Street. I'd acquired the tickets through an Emerald Street promotion, which I signed up to and promptly forgot about.

 

To be honest, I haven't watched a foreign language film since school aside from the obvious Amelie and the odd few obligatory Alfonso Cuarón titles at Uni when lustful Spaniards and the beauty of Gael Garcia Bernal managed to persuade me to stray - albeit fleetingly- from my diet of chick flicks, Harry Potter and anything with Joaquin Phoenix in it. 

In art, literature and even television I like to think of myself as quite cultural, but for some reason when it comes to films, I seem to sit quite happily in the comfort food sort of arena, period dramas and happy endings. Not particularly used to applying my shaky French, whilst trying to read at the same time.

La Plein Soleil had piqued my interest due to it being the original adaptation of The Talented Mr Ripley - a film which I enjoyed, largely due to the impressive acting skills of the entire cast but specifically Matt Damon who proved his great versatility as an actor. 

I must admit too that there was free champagne on offer and free wine and free nibbles and after weekends of hitting it too hard, a nice Friday with a French film and free champagne seemed quite the pleasant option. Of course what ended up happening was that I was late out of work and my friend went shopping and we managed to miss most of the free stuff, helper-skeltering in at the last moment....

"Aha yes.. You two are the last to arrive" said the lady on the door on hearing our names "you have five minutes to get a glass of something.."

Of course five minutes didn't slow my thirst and I managed to very un-surreptitiously slug my two glasses before they called us in to the screening room.

And the film.. What do I have to say of that? It has taken a significant amount of paragraphs of my languid, self-obsessed scene-setting to reach even a hint of the film. Shock me. Well firstly the actor, Alain Delon, who played the lead role of Tom Ripley is dreadfully good looking, in the way only the French can be - all arrogant blue eyes and pouting. Apparently it was his first major film role, remind me to look at more of his work... 

Secondly, the scenery is absolutely stunning. Set in all the beautiful parts of Italy and swathed in the scratch sixties film roll, it all looks impossibly picturesque and glamorous. The actors playing Marge and Phillippe (Marie Laforêt and Maurice Foret) are just as attractive and beautifully dressed as you would expect them to be and they play the parts well, though one can't see why Marge adores and Tom obsesses over Phillippe so much as we can with Jude Law in the Minghella-directed modern adaptation. 

The plot is much slower and to be honest not as gripping, the defection away from the original book by Patricia Highsmith, which clearly depicts Tom having a homosexual obsession with his friend threw me a little. In Plein Soleil, a non-homosexual Tom seduces Marge after killing Phillippe in order to totally take over Phillippe's life. I just prefer the original story and believe it fits better with Marge and Phillippe's ridicule of Tom.

However, Alain Delon is a wonderful actor, depicting his version of the cold character of Tom Ripley with a casual nuance. He radiates an easy arrogance and a calculated body language that depicts Tom's lack of morality perfectly. He is so unbelievably sexy that you wouldn't question Marge jumping into bed with him so swiftly. 

The ending of the film is deliciously French with a hint that Tom is about to be caught and committed for murder as the police descend on a beachside bar that he lays sunning himself in. However, the audience never knows, as the credits role just prior to this scene, leaving us with the feeling that just maybe he escaped.

Overall, I liked the film and I enormously respect Delon, but I still prefer the Minghella directed Hollywood version. So populist, I know....

Buy the DVD on Amazon: Plein Soleil Special Edition *Digitally Restored [DVD] DVD ~ Alain Delon