Week 26. We are both trying to slow down each day however we are fighting a losing battle

Hi. I suppose we could have commented on what a great meal we had at Langan's  Brasserie last Friday week, however we won't.
Or, I could rave on about how fantastic the Last Night of The Proms was the following evening (and it was a winner), however we will give that a miss.
And, I won't even give you a blow by blow of the Leonard Cohen concert we attended on the Sunday evening at the Wembley stadium, and yes this was one of the greatest performances we have ever witnessed.
And finally, I could  even go into detail regarding the England v Ukraine football match we attended at the Wembley Stadium last Tuesday evening, but what do you say about a footie game? We were there?
Just take it from us, all these events exceeded expectation, end of story.
What was of real interest to me was all the side activity that goes on when you go out for an evening.
LANGAN'S BRASSERIE 
Langan's is a bit of a dining institution. The brasserie is located a stones throw from the Green Park tube station, a natural venue for us as we don't have to change tubes en route. Entrepreneur and raging alcoholic Peter Langan joined forces with actor Michael Caine to set up this restaurant back in 1976. Peter was a real piece of work. Apparently he managed to get  sozzled  on a daily basis. His party piece centered on throwing himself under tables occupied solely by women, then starting to howl  like a dog whilst at the same time attempting to gnaw away at the nearest female leg.
You have to love guys like Peter. He was a legend. It's a pity he ended up a flame char-grilled carcass, the result of burning down his house (in an orgy of self destruction) whilst still inside the building.
What I find really interesting about this restaurant is the clientele. Talk about a cross section of London society. Over lunch you can see any number of tables occupied by fast talking, overweight, over dressed 'Arthur Daley' types. 
And middle aged buxom blondes crammed into outfits two or three sizes too small are a dime a dozen. No lack of excess flesh on display here.
There is none of your pretentious two and a half hour table time limits in this establishment. If you plonk yourself down at noon and want to kick on until mid-night, so be it. I reckon Langan's is a "must do" for any overseas visitor interested in enjoying a great lunch or dinner in a restaurant packed with atmosphere.
THE LAST NIGHT OF THE PROMS
This evening is all about national bonding inclusive of a trip down memory lane , back to a  time when England ruled the waves. It's all pretty good stuff. Heaps of flag waving and with tears in your eyes we belted out Jerusalem, You'll Never Walk Alone, Land of Hope and Glory and on and on. 
We were sitting in an eight person box up on the third level directly adjacent to the front of the stage so we had a great view of the proceedings.  There was a corporate box to our right.  None of those guys and their four spouses had a musical brain cell  in their collective heads, however that didn't stop them from having a good time. The boss took a shine to Julia so we spend the evening downing free Frog Champers courtesy of these musical philistines.
As for the guys in our box, well they were also a very interesting collection . The couple directly in front were Scots. The husband  (a now retired corporate one man killing machine ) spent the night alternatively singing out of key, waving his Scotland flag in hysterical fashion, laughing,  crying, or clapping his hands out of sync in much the same way as one of those toy mechanical wind up monkeys claps the large cymbals attached to it's hands. 
The American couple (in their late sixties) sitting next to us were to my mind a dream. At least the guy was. We had been talking for a few minutes when he says to me " You're not from around here are you". To which I replied that we hailed from New Zealand. "Aaah", the  guy says, "Tell  me what's the population of New Zealand. And I reply, " four million". Then this chap says," geeze, that's not many people for one country. In California we have four million criminals". And I immediately respond, "that's a coincidence, that's the same number we have." 
No one says anything for maybe twenty seconds, then the guy's wife leans towards me and whispers, "are you sure about that, are you telling me everyone in your country is a criminal " . Julia's trying her best not to break up at this point as I look this woman in the face and say , "look, maybe I exaggerated  a little. Maybe it's only three million. Whatever it is , it's a lot"
I kind of wished these guys had hung around for round two, however at the break the husband confided to me that they were leaving early as they felt slightly uncomfortable being surrounded by people singing without having to refer to music scores. 
The two fellas n front of the Americans provided the highlight of the evening. The older of the two was eighty five, an Englishman who informed me that he loved Kiwis and New Zealand having worked there way back when the Lower Hutt Hospital was being built. His sixty year old non English speaking son-in-law was from Liechtenstein. The moment of high drama for these guys occurred when we all stood to sing the national anthem. That was, all of us with the exception of the son-in-law who didn't have a clue what was going on so stayed stuck to his seat. Not for long. Halfway  through the first verse the father-in-law happened to spot his daughter's spouse still seated.The old guy didn't hang back and screamed at the poor seated son, "Stand up. Show some respect for or Queen you bloody heathen. Stand up right now, do you hear me." 
Never again will I sing the British national anthem without thinking back to that evening when that old guy bawled out his relative. 
During the concert I spotted  no less than two elderly women who suffered attacks and had to be dragged out of their seats in a horizontal position. No easy feat  as both were seated in the middle of their respective rows
Pretty tame stuff when compared with what was going down in immediate vicinity.
LEONARD COHEN
A brief word. Leonard is now seventy seven yet performs with the energy of a man half his age. A four hour concert split by one twenty minute break. This man is a bloody legend. Both he and his backing group (of many years) are as slick as they come. If you get the chance, go and see this man in concert before he 'pops his clogs'
THE ENGLAND v UKRAINE GAME AT WEMBLEY STADIUM
It's the normal deal here. 70,000+ English fans face off against 15 Ukrainian supporters. That seems like a fair fight. What was interesting was the effect on the English supporters when the Ukraine went one up half way through the first half.
When it became apparent that the English had a real battle on their hands, you could sense a sea-change within the stadium. Tribal instincts took over, the level of abuse directed against both the  Ukrainian team and  their  small band of supporters reached fever bitch. To be honest, it wasn't my thing . I'm all for home team support however there are limits.
For the sake of both the opposition team and their supporters I'm just grateful England equalised in the eighty fifth minute.
In the future I think I will stick to watching the oval ball code.
As an aside, you know how you hear about the current generation of adults who spend most of their waking hours staring into their iPhone screens, well we had a classic group of five addicts sitting directly in front of us at the football. If I hadn't seen it for myself I wouldn't have believed it however the sad fact is that these two males and three females spent the entire match either downing lagers or staring and /or typing on their iPhones. Their seats cost sixty five quid a shot. What a waste. If these five were typical of their generation , all I can say is that the future of western civilization is looking a little dodgy.

Anyway, Saturday has now rolled around and we are off to see Nigel Kennedy in concert. You may recall he's the guy who has spent most of his life denying his comfortable middle class roots in attempt to portray himself as some kind of lower working class genius. It should be an interesting evening.