The driest Martini

When you ask for a dry vodka Martini in the American Bar at the Savoy, this is what you get.

And it was the driest Martini I have ever had. Superb.

The reason we were at the Savoy was because today we had tickets to see Dirty Rotten Scoundrels with Robert Lindsay, Rufus Hound and Samantha Bond. It’s a musical version of the movie. It was fantastic! We thoroughly enjoyed it. We also thoroughly enjoyed going to the Savoy, which has to be our favourite venue.

Imagine, leaving your flat, hopping on a ferry, leaving the ferry at Embankment, strolling through the beautifully blooming tulips in Embankment Gardens, entering the labyrinthine lower parts of the Savoy, head to the American Bar to enjoy a perfect dry Martini with olives (and nibbly things) before taking our seats to be royally entertained by an enthusiastic and talented cast. Then, after the curtain, imagine walking back through the tulips, back onto a ferry, and back to the flat, stopping off to collect some takeaway Chinese that Mirinda had ordered from the ferry.

That was pretty much our day though I did leave out a couple of things. They have to do with the appalling customer service displayed by the Thames Clipper staff.

Today, it was mainly about the woman selling tickets at Canary Wharf. First of all she assumed I wanted two tickets when I’d only asked for one. Well, actually, I just said “A return to Embankment, please” so I guess I didn’t actually say I only wanted one. That has stood me in good stead in previous mercantile dealings. I mean, when I go into Starbucks and order “A grande, triple shot, hazelnut latte, please” they don’t prepare me ten of them. Last week when I bought a pair of trainers, the guy didn’t try and sell me four boxes. No. Normally, I only get one.

But that was only half the problem. Mirinda wanted to renew her monthly pass. This was something the ticket seller was frightened of. Subsequently, she had to wait for the ticket collector guy to return and help her. Any delay or query about every day operations makes Mirinda somewhat tetchy. As the ferry arrived, she was a little bit further on than merely tetchy.

She’d already told a woman in the queue behind her that she could buy a ticket on the ferry (the ticket seller insisted that the woman could not, to which Mirinda merely replied by repeating that she could…this could have gone on a long time) so she took her own advice and told the ticket seller she would buy her ticket on the ferry as well.

That was all a bit unnecessary and could have spoiled our day but we didn’t let it…and the ferry ride was so wonderful, it couldn’t be ruined anyway.

Then, on our return trip, we came across the Ferry Nazi. This woman was pretty ferocious. But we, basically, ignored her, talked about our garden and watched the boats float by on the busy Thames.

But, briefly back to Dirty Rotten Scoundrels…it would be remiss of me not to mention Katherine Kingsley who played Christine Colgate. She has the longest legs possible and a wonderful voice. We thoroughly enjoyed her performance. And we mustn’t forget John Marquez, (he usually plays the hapless policeman, PC Penhale, in Doc Martin) who played Andre Thibault, the hapless French policeman.

To be fair, everyone was fantastic, as I said earlier. As soon as it finished, I wanted to see it again.