Christmas Eve – Monday, 24 December, 2018
Even a found Christmas can be dull and gloomy and it was like that when I headed out to Brick Lane on the Saturday before Christmas – Christmas Eve Eve! I visited the hairdresser and trusted my head to her. I came away wondering just what she’d changed – there was very little hair on the floor and more time spent on diffusing and perfecting my curls than cutting – but the back did look better, I’d had a good time, and I wasn’t upset. That’s a major achievement.
I stopped at Ambala for some samosas and grabbed a chicken tikka roll for some lunch. But the view from Whitechapel was dismal.
My friend, Judy, sent me a message when I got on the bus and we switched to talking for real (yes!). The whole of Cambridge Heath Road and Mare Street was the same dismal grey as Whitechapel Road had been. And then we passed Mare Street Market and the lights caught my eye. I had to get out to look more closely.
Inside was a real Christmas grotto. I wandered around and enjoyed the atmosphere, everyone laughing and everything glistening.
Krish has always been a humbug. Not interested. Bought presents but never on Christmas. Sometimes left his own presents unopened for days. I love to decorate and the year I was in Toronto, leaving him in London, and I Skyped to see that he’d put up some Christmas lights I was flabbergasted.
This year he’s been excited. Christmas has made his eyes light up. He even went alone to the West End to see the lights when I haven’t even been yet. And he agreed to come to a local pantomime at Hoxton Hall.
This year it was Rapunzel. The story goes that when the castle cook stole some lettuce (called Rapunzel) from a witch’s land, the witch sent the king a baby but put a curse on him, saying the baby would be hers on its 18th birthday. Of course, there’s a handsome prince who comes to the rescue, and a drag queen cook with outrageous clothes, along with a kindly but not-too-bright king. It was a fun afternoon and much less formal than the Hackney Empire. The audience played along with the booing and cheering, the expected banter with the cook, ‘She’s behind you,’ ‘Oh no it isn’t!’ and all the rest of the panto magic. Audience participation is everything.
Then we walked in the rain down to Spitalfields to see how it looked just before Christmas. There were a lot of people but it wasn’t crazy. I love to wander among the stalls and imagine buying the things. I rarely do buy, I don’t know where to put anything, but it’s fun. We hoped to have a snack on our way home – we’d had a very light lunch before going to the panto. I chose The Smoking Goat but, alas, we were half an hour too early for the kitchen. No food so we didn’t stay. Instead we went home, Krish made pork with polenta and mushrooms, we ate some chocolates, drank some cider and headed to bed.
But Spitalfields Market – both old and new – was sparkling!
Some videos from the panto. The audience loved singing along with a song that was super catchy and totally unknown to me! And a hearty Christmas greeting as we left for the night.