An evening with Levison Wood

Sophie and I were excited to see Levison Wood this evening and Sophie had managed to bag front row seats! We had booked a table at Lola's for 5.30pm and Keith very kindly dropped us off so we could enjoy a few glasses of wine.

Lola's was empty when we arrived, but the bar/restaurant soon filled up. Some people had chosen to sit outside in the early evening sunshine, but we took the same table we'd sat at the last time, overlooking the downstairs bar.

We ordered a bottle of the house Spanish red and two bottles of sparkling water. We decided to order different tapas dishes this time: pork belly bites, pigs' cheeks with pureéd potato, black pudding topped with a sticky marmalade, padron peppers, cod croquettes and sublime peppers stuffed with soft cheese. The food was delicious and the pork belly bites and peppers were especially lovely. The red wine went well with the food and we both did a bit of people-watching, always our favourite pastime!

We managed to find room for puds - Sophie indulged in churros with chocolate sauce while I opted for the blackberry pannacota dusted with chocolate.

All the staff were friendly and the service was great. At 7pm, we paid the bill and walked the short distance to the Royal, where Levison Wood was appearing. Derngate was also busy with people arriving for an evening performance of the Birmingham Royal Ballet. 

We took our seats on the front row, and Levison Wood appeared at 7.30pm, dressed very casually in jeans, a tee-shirt and a jacket. He was a little greyer than when we'd last seen him in 2017,  but very entertaining and interesting. He opened the show and talked about fear, describing the car accident that had nearly killed him while in Nepal.

Fear was the theme of the evening, and he showed us some alarming clips of when he was in Syria and had come under fire. He must be mad! At the interval, Sophie and I had a glass of Shiraz and chatted about the show. You were able to buy his books in the foyer, and we both said that we'd love to watch the programmes again.

In the second half of the show, a female journalist interviewed him and showed some more clips, one of which was an excerpt from Walking with Elephants, where lions killed a water buffalo, much to Sophie's horror. He then had a question-and-answer session with the audience, who asked some good questions.

It had been an excellent evening and thoroughly enjoyable. It was great to see Levison Wood so close! We joined the throngs of people leaving, as Keith had texted to say he'd arrived, and drove home gazing at the beautiful evening sky.

Mooney was already in when we arrived home and was sitting on the windowsill waiting for us! Gomez appeared, so Sophie was able to get both cats in. We avoided watching the Eurovision Song Contest... that's strictly reserved for tomorrow!