Week 184: soft shoe

Got some Bombas socks some months ago, and they might be the best socks I’ve worn in all my years of wearing socks – slightly ugly, but both comfortable and hard-wearing, and the company give the impression of not being evil bastards. I didn’t use to like a shorter sock, but I’ve come round to the sleekness of ankle and no-show socks, especially when wearing shorts, so the socks I got were that kind. Now winter is coming I thought I’d investigate their longer socks, but turns out they’ve closed their UK shop after less than a year – yes they give it the old soft shoe about “you now have access to our larger assortment of socks & underwear”, but getting socks shipped across the Atlantic Ocean feels a bit much? Weak pound innit.

To London’s glittering West End to see Stewart Lee’s Basic Lee. Lee was looking a million dollars actually. Turned out it was the opening night, and it will be mildly interesting to see how the show has evolved when it comes to a provincial theatre or the TV maybe next year. Pleased that someone’s tackling the Hugh Fearnley Whittingstall issue.

The stone lions in Trafalgar Square were still fenced off – very sensible to stop the carnivorous beasts eating the dead head of state who’d passed-by the day before, lead-lined coffin or not you can’t be too careful, but couldn’t they hurry up and let them back out now? Saw some bagfuls of decomposing flowers too.

Days later, to Ipswich to see Edwin Gamble (supported by Chloe Petts). I think they were funny but the acoustic design of the Corn Exchange maybe isn’t great. I’m supposed to hate Ipswich and everything it stands for, but the waterfront in particular is actually quite nice, it was like being somewhere on holiday. No cathedrals but two bus stations, one of which is called “Tower Ramparts”, and who doesn’t like a rampart?