a mixed bag - London & Peru (sort of)

I had the pleasure of introducing the lovely Alice from Bologna to the Daunt's bookshop in Marylebone High Street, a shop not only beautiful for it's architecture but also for it's unique (well probably not) way of arranging it's books by country, not just non fiction but it's fiction too.

Now Daunt's is becoming almost as famous around town for its ubiquitous bags as it is for it's shops.  Alice and I were in Daunt's for a book signing and during the evening, Alice bought a book and was given an ordinary plastic bag to take it home in.  Later in the evening I was kindly given a signed copy of the book being launched and Peter, behind the till kindly asked if I would like a bag for it and handed me one of their lovely linen ones.  

At this Alice started to pout for the unfairness on the bag stakes and Peter reached down below the counter to get her a linen bag saying as he did so, "would you like one?".  However, as Peter had been bending, Alice had been turning so what she heard was "come back another time".  By the time Peter emerged from the counter Alice was about to launch into "Why, that's not fair??!?!"  However, luckily I had guessed what she thought she had heard and pointed to the fact that Peter was holding out a bag to her, (she was still partially turned), and was offering it to her.

So a big thumbs up to Peter for not only giving Alice a bag but for giving us a really good laugh for the evening (and cementing my reputation with Alice for knowing what she is thinking).

By the way, Peter's not crazy about photos and since I adore his hair I include a backward shot as well. 

Meanwhile, and unfortunatlely I haven't got a picture of any of the people involved in this, but I want to give a big thumbs up to the gentleman on the 82 bus, going northbound around 10:30pm at Dorset Sqaure on the evening of Wednesday, 30th April.  It was during the tube strike and the bus was full and everyone wanted just to get home.

I was on the top deck and could hear a confrontation between the driver and a passenger getting on.  The driver turned off the engine and wouldn't go anywhere until the passenger got off again.  Everyone around me was either just grumbling, calling the driver names and the passenger names in equal measure or getting off the bus.  This one person, (I could only hear partly what was going on), offered to pay the new passenger's fare, the driver started the engine and we all got home.  He was only person on the bus who didn't think just of himself but of the solution.  Thank you.

One of the great things about London is it doesn't matter how long you live here, (from birth for me), there are always new things to discover.  My friends introduced me to my first Peruvian restaurant, Tito's, new London Bridge www.titosperuvianrestaurant.com

We were greated by Carlos and Juan who both made us all feel so welcome.
Carlos went on to not only explain the dishes to us but also, we then had a really interesting chat about the economy in Peru and the changes going on then.  We also had a really good laugh about introducing Guinea Pig on to a menu in the UK and how he could imagine that going down with patrons; "bring us your pets, we'll cook them for you!".  That may not sound so funny here in writing, but it really was very funny and light hearted.

So to Carlos and Juan a big thumbs up and thank you for a lovely evening and for teaching us so much.

As always, if you would like to send in a post to tell us something nice that happened or to say thank you to someone, just get in touch and we would have great pleasure in putting up your stories here.  Thanks.

I borrowed a couple of pictures off the web this week so,  copyright acknowledgements: 

thanks to Kake for the picture of Tito's www.flickr.com/photos/kake_pugh/  reproduced here under a Creative Commons licence://creativecommons.org/licenses/
and to Urban75 for their lovely picture of inside Daunt's  www.urban75.org/blog/

RNIB Black Lion Pub Quiz - the whole thing with thanks and photos

Anyone that follows me on twitter (@14NC) will know that I've been going on and on lately about a special pub quiz http://readforrnib.org.uk/event/london/literary-pub-quiz/ at The Black Lion Pub in West End Lane, NW6 http://theblacklionnw6.co.uk/ on behalf of the Royal National Institute of the Blind, (RNIB), Read For RNIB Day Campaign.  Well this post, which is a slight departure from the norm, is to say thank you to the many that helped with the night and to share some photos from the evening.

My idea was to take over the usual pub quiz and make it into a "literary" one, i.e. Read For RNIB, to raise awareness of the RNIB's work and to highlight the fact that only 7% of books are available to those that can't read normal print (http://readforrnib.org.uk/about/accessibility-of-reading/) while having a bit of fun at the same time.

I needed help.  I managed to recruit Carla who works at Paramount Properties (@west_hampstead) in West End Lane, and I couldn't have involved a better person or company. 

Carla and I went "cold-calling" to the pub and saw Gloria, (see earlier post Half A Bank Holiday for more about Gloria).  She loved the idea but had to check with management.  Management, in the guise of James, couldn't have been more helpful and supportive. (@TheBlackLionNW6)

Yes, we could have the pub on Sunday, 13th October and take over their normal quiz.  Usually all the entrance money goes first to paying the Quiz Master, Gareth, and then whatever is left over is the winners' prize.  The pub very generously agreed to hand over the entry money to us for the RNIB.

We had a date and a venue.  Now we needed prizes.  We had two main ideas.  Books and local businesses.  At this point, we had no idea how just how generous people were going to be!

To the authors and agents and anonymous individuals that donated signed copies of books, an enormous, huge, thank you and thumbs up 

           

Ruth Cherrington (@CHistorians) http://www.clubhistorians.co.uk/

Barbara Levy Literary Agency

Dame Stephanie Shirley (@LetItGoOfficial) http://www.steveshirley.com/splash.php http://www.let-it-go.co.uk/

Fiona Barrows (@fbarrows) http://about.me/fbarrows

Joseph D'Lacey (http://josephdlacey.wordpress.com/)

Kay Sexton (@kaysexton) http://www.kaysexton.com/

Rupert Crew Agency (@rupertcrew) http://www.rupertcrew.co.uk/

Other prizes donated included books, farm jam and proseco.  These were from various individuals but from someone I would particularly like to mention, Andy Sarner, (@Bubela), some mixing bowls and a kitchen towel as prizes for the winners.  Even though Andy couldn't make it on the night she went especially to the local kitchen shop to buy.  Other individuals and companies that deserve a thank you are Kamils, Chris and Ed at Browns, West Hampstead Library, Matthew at Cycle Surgery, Lena's, Jonathan of http://www.westhampsteadlife.com/, Anne, Marlee and Dave.  (If I've left anyone out, in this list, above or below, forgive me, let me know and I'll add you in!  Also, throughout here I've put twitter names if known and websites but I haven't included facebook pages which I know a lot you have, forgive me.)

To the local businesses, who so stepped up the mark, both putting up our posters and contributing prizes, you get an overwhelming thumbs up and thank you 

Danny and Saskia at West End Lane Books - a credit voucher (@WELBooks)  http://www.welbooks.co.uk/

Andre at West Fish Cafe - a meal voucher (@TheWetFishCafe) www.thewetfishcafe.co.uk

Shane at Art 4 Fun - six individual studio sessions (@Art4FunCafe) www.art4fun.com

Sylvia and Neel at Banana Tree - a credit voucher, a cuddly toy and a tote bag (@bananatree) www.bananatree.co.uk

Debbie and David Colour Division - voucher for photo session (@ColourDivision1) www.colourdivision.com

James at Little Bay Restaurants - credit voucher (@TheLittleBay) www.littlebay.co.uk
Esmeralda at Nail Suit - credit voucher http://www.nailsuiteuk.com/

Ed and Maziar at One Blenheim Terrace - a meal voucher (@OneBlenheim) www.oneblenheimterrace.co.uk

Mukesh and Nilesh at Peppercorns - (@peppercornsuk1) www.peppercornshealthstore.com a credit voucher 

Alicia and Davood at Hana - a meal voucher (@HanaRestaurantx) www.hanarestaurant.co.uk

Elijas and Sam at David's Deli - a meal voucher

The Black Lion in the end, didn't just donate the door money, they also donated bottles of wine as prizes, a meal for two voucher, arranged a Truman Brewery tour and stuck their hands in their pockets to add to the collection.  I can't say thank you enough and then we come to Carla.  

Paramount Properties http://www.paramount-properties.co.uk/ are very involved in the neighbourhood and through Carla, Robert Lazarus, the Sales Director and Spencer Lawrence, the Letting Director, not only did Paramount give a beautifully designed tote bag to absolutely everyone that took part in the quiz, but they also agreed to match whatever we raised at the pub.  Thank you  

The Tote Bag

So this was my idea for what the evening would involve but then, married couple Carol and Bob Bridgestock,who write the D.I. Dylan (@DIJackDylan) crime thrillers under the name R.C. Bridgestock (@RCBridgestock) and who had already sent me a signed copy of one of their books and an Audio CD of another came up with a great wheeze; I could auction off being a character in their next book.  Brilliant, in keeping with the theme and, more importantly, a great money raiser. Thank you both, so much.  http://rcbridgestock.com/ 

Okay, we've got the prizes now we need an event.  The RNIB helped (in the guise of Benjamin, Julia and Julie ) by sending balloons to decorate the pub, more tote bags for prizes, pins for the winners bags, bookmarks, posters, and literature for anyone who wanted to know more, but still, we needed a Quiz Master.  

In stepped Gareth.  Gareth usually does the quiz at the pub but we had the idea of wanting to add extra book-ish and blind-ish questions, (like "What time travelling author who fooled a nation with his radio broadcast also wrote short stories including one entitled, The Country of the Blind?" and "Which author of the Adrian Mole books has lost her sight?" and "Which blind Labour politician was Home Secretary from 2001 until 2004?"), no problem.  He was game for it.  I want to do a sealed bid auction at the beginning and end.  no problem.  But there was a problem, (to me); we couldn't speak until the week of the quiz or meet until the night.  Now I'm not a control freak, (no really, it's all lies), but this was giving me a little bit of anxiety.  Absolutely no need.  Gareth excelled and couldn't have been more helpful, intuitive or collaborative.  No only that, but after he'd left and said goodnight, Gloria handed me more cash; Gareth had donated his fee for the night.  Gareth, thank you and  a huge thumbs up   

And in case I didn't say thank you enough to James and all the staff at the Black Lion who were so brilliant on the night and before.  Thank you, thank you, thank you, we'll be back! 

Now to the night itself - wow it was great and I hope these pictures give a little sense of how much fun we all had! (if anyone would like a copy of any of these photos, please do just get in touch)

And.... the grand total raised?  £700.00.  Thank you all so much and give yourselves another thumbs up or two.

In closing, anyone who is unfamiliar with the EverdayFolk Blogspot, we're here for you, this is a public pinboard where you can tell us about that great smile, that bit of extra service you encountered in your day which just made the difference.  Please feel free to send us posts, comments or just follow.  Thanks.