Panto and Waterloo Brasserie

The pantomime was OK - a bit of a curate's egg - good in parts. Sandi Toksvig was excellent and Pauline Collins made a fabulous fairy godmother, but as Dorothy said, it was all a bit laboured, and a bit coy about all the gay stuff. Quite funny though, and the Old Vic is a lovely theatre. Madeleine tells me that the bar is a good place to meet if you work in the area, and the food is OK too.

We tried the Waterloo Brasserie with Dorothy and Julian afterwards. Poor old Dorothy was very tired. I had quite a nice fish soup and Julian had an excellent onion soup. Dorothy had a brie tatin. Dorothy's chicken with spaghetti was apparently no good, with the spaghetti being in fact some kind of overcooked soft noodles, so it was sent back and exchanged for the lamb dish that Julian had had. I had a vast crab, which was superb, except that it was served in too small a container and on lots of ice which rapidly melted leaving it in a pool of crabby water.

I was not there when they were clearing the plates and apparently the waitress spilt crab water on my coat and bag. Dorothy spoke to the manager who agreed to pay the drycleaning bill for my coat and deducted the service charge. I shall probably go there again, and eat the crab, but will take the precaution of removing all the ice from the plate in the first place and making the waitress take it away.