Another night on the town

Friday night was Shakespeare night. And in responsible parenting mode, the boy was left home alone with the usual box of matches, sharp knife, drugs, cigarettes and porn. This week he allowed to bring a friend, so there was an expectation of twice the mayhem.

They decided to cook themselves supper...and did a fine job of grilling bacon and 'soss' and heating Heinz finest. I know they did because the evidence left behind wouldn't have troubled the CSI team too much. Nothing that a couple of days scrubbing won't fix.

I love the teen mindset. I never switch the mobile off, 'just in case', but it does go onto silent and vibrate mode. So the texts sent during Act 2 went unanswered. After all I'm not sure that Denmark would appreciate me fiddling with my Nokia whilst one death follows another. It was a simple request...could he go and stay at his friend's house. And when I didn't reply, another text 'Dad?' And then another. He's been known to do this when he knows I'm riding the motorbike too. As we tripped out of the foyer, I replied in the affirmative.

By contrast to last week's little jaunt, I was with some of the parents from the boy's school...including his maths teacher. They're a very sociable lot. But it did curtail my 'fecking and blinding'. We started off at a 'pop up' bar designed by Tom Dixon that would probably look fab after dark, but in early evening light looked more like sonething thrown together by the pre-school group. We trundled off to Wydham's theatre to see Jude Law prove he can act (I quite liked him in Mr Ripley and Sky Captain and the world of tomorrow, but I don't think he often troubles the Oscar jury). And I'm delighted to report back that it was fine performance and a beautiful production. Ido have to confess though that sitting in a warm theatre at the end of a hard week after a couple of gin and tonics made for a keeping awake challenge. I can also report that Mr Law has very big hands.

Celebrity spotting was de rigeur in our group. I contributed by offering to get a copy of Hello and poiting to the man on the stage. It seemed the best I could manage.

No eating in the street for us, but a trip to Sheeky's for oysters and fish stew at the bar. And lots of carefully selected Sauvingon Blanc. Very nice, very civilised. And the taxi dropped us all home around about the time that I should have been long asleep.

So no love-lorn Celts jumping tube barriers, no fights at the show, and no touts hanging around trying to flog tickets to Himlat and no new T-shirt. But a nice way to spend a Friday night (given the choice of Hamlet or Jonathan Ross) and a boost to my cunning plan to build a better social life now I'm not quite so tied to being at home with the boy all the time.

Extremely good indeed, I might even say the best Shakespeare play for a long time, though I'm sure not a patch on the Kings of Leon I'm off to see in a couple of weeks. Did I mention the Kings of Leon? I'm very excited indeed.