Just a minute

Dining experiences take all shapes and sizes these days and right now I am experiencing their extremes.

Last weekend was the s-club annual pre-Christmas rugby international at Twickenham.

The opposition were the Argentines, and the events during the match have been well documented. Our after match tradition at the moment seems to be a visit to the Richmond Chinese, a place I have frequented for years.
I seem to remember having my 30th and 40th birthdays there as well as celebrating Chinese New Year several times with my late great mate,Figs.  I still have a mud man and monkey puppet the restaurant gave me when they had the artifact shop next door. The same family still run it.

We were a bit revolutionary this year though on the Friday night. We decided to stay at the Farmer's Club in Whitehall, and on my recommendation we went to the Faulty Towers dining experience in the old Charing Cross station hotel, now called the Alba.

The show featured Basil, Manuel and Cybil and was a parody of the famous restaurant scenes from the Fawlty Towers sitcom. It started with drinks in the bar follows by a three course dinner punctuated with comedy sketches. It was both humorous and entertaining, and I would definitely recommend it.

The tickets were £70 plus drinks and its interesting to note it is at the Floral Pavilion in New Brighton in January where prices are £42.50. There are a few seats left for the Sunday lunch, otherwise it too is sold out.

John Cleese is pretty browned off with the show as he and his colleague actors get no royalties.

So onto today, which finds me in a unit in central Liverpool called Ziferblat. Its the name of a new kind of social space where everything is free except the time you spend there. It's 8p per minute and that's it. I have had toast and jam, cake, minced pies, bananas, soup and loads of coffee!. The concept was founded in Moscow in 2011 by a chap called Ivan Meetin. Apparently it means clockface in English and is billed as a tree house for grown ups.

There are two in Liverpool and one in Manchester and its ideal for me as I have just popped the car into BMW for a service, I bet they charge more than 8p per minute gulp!