Bridget Stirling

No, they served me (barely) but I'd almost rather they hadn't because it was not worth a 90-minute round trip by tube/bus and an evening of being ignored.

There are places that won't accept solo women diners, though.

The food was excellent.

Anyhow, I know this isn't huge in the scale of the world, but it's one of the ways in which that world shows solo women that we are (still, in 2025!) seen as sad and broken, if we are even seen at all, as if women can never be happy unless they're attached to someone else.

Women alone in good restaurants aren't sad spinsters. We're just trying to have a nice evening like anyone else. If that bothers you, I guess stop allowing solo bookings? But you'll be missing out. Solos are actually good guests who will tell their friends why they loved (or hated) their experience.

Good restaurants know that solo foodie travellers exist and often want to enjoy something special. Often, they treat me incredibly well and make an effort to make my evening special.

Why should I have to miss out on one of the best parts of travel because I sometimes like to go alone?

I know they say women over 40 become invisible, but I haven't experienced anything like this. Restaurants need to know that solo diners are often there to enjoy and focus on their food and often tell others about their experience. Often, they write reviews, especially if they have dietary needs.

If I was in a country where it's the norm to signal a waiter when you need them, that would be different, and I know how to do that, but my experience of the UK is that they are less hovering than in North America but present, in particular if you catch their eye. But it was like I was invisible.

From what I can tell, nobody was actually assigned to look after my table, so nobody did. There was even a comment at one point about how I was the "only booking for one" that evening. Well, if you really don't want solo diners to book, you can change that setting in your system.

It took nearly two hours from when I walked in to when I left, and while I'm not a fast eater and I enjoy lingering over a meal, that's not why it took so long. I left feeling frustrated and a bit humiliated.

Finished dessert and my semi-cold espresso shot and sat for ages again until I got fed up and put my coat on then went to the front to ask for my bill.

I told the man — politely — about my disappointment. He comped my glass of wine, which was fine but really didn't make up for the poor experience.

Sat for a long time again, then had a server come by like I was an afterthought while he was serving the table next to me. I wanted dessert and coffee to follow it but ordered both together because who knows if anyone would have come back again.

And then again, not a single bit of anything until my plates were obviously empty. And I know they were checking on tables because I heard them asking others. I don't need a fuss, but I felt like I was ignored until it was obvious someone needed to look after things.

However, instead, I somehow ended up with the hot vegetable side as well as my pie, which arrived together. The vegetables were good but I had wanted the salad to start. They offered to change it but then I'd have ended up with a cold main.

Another long wait to order a glass of wine and by the time that they came back, I'd decided on my meal too, starting with a simple green salad and then a lovely sounding chicken pie (which as a celiac is delightful!).

It's not actually very nice as a solo woman diner to stand around and have people look at you and edge past you to get to the door.

And then I was seated and it did not get much better.

From the start, it was a mess. Despite their claimed strict time limits, the table before me lingered and I had to hover awkwardly in the doorway of a very small restaurant for about 10 minutes.

Apparently in 2025, "solo female diner syndrome" is still a thing. It's a downer because I was really looking forward to my meal at a London restaurant much praised in the celiac community.

If you don't want to take reservations for one, then don't. I travelled 45 minutes across London for this?

Friends and I were texting after I saw both Cabaret and Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny in the same day and I was overwhelmed. We noted that we need art not only to warn us about fascism but tell us how to resist or we risk hopelessness. It was nice to leave the theatre tonight feeling hope.

All that aside, see the show if you get the chance! It's very good and timely, and I hope it makes it across the Atlantic soon.

This is not in any way an indictment of the musical but rather an indicator of how fascism creeps into every corner of life without people realizing it. I bet you didn't know the Waldorf school guy had an influence on Italian fascism.

However, it's odd to stage it in a theatre in a building named after a man who was kind of a fascist!

A lot of people don't know that while Steiner opposed the Nazis, he was also pretty fashy and extremely racist and antisemetic.

The Cable Street musical is really good and someone needs to stage it in Canada. It's a call to action we desperately need.

I notice that other stats on hours of reading per week put Canada slightly above the US for hourly reading, so I think you're correct that we are maybe reading more forms of writing.

Interesting. Canada also seems to be missing from many lists. Given the high level of education, literacy rates, and the strength of Canadian publishing relative to our population, it's odd.

I am both angered and impressed by people who sleep well enough on planes to snore.

Anyhow I would like people to understand that a leadership race is an opportunity to grow a party and that the people they're slagging are the same people they're going ask for money and time in a few months.
How you treat them may determine their response or whether they even answer the phone.

I bought a membership last week with great trepidation after walking away several years ago, and wow, that sort of conduct is not the way to keep me.

Absolutely wild and yet perhaps unsurprising that the "Bernie Bro" smear is being applied to @avilewis.ca supporters out here in Alberta.

Funny how people who claim they're building big tents never seem to want to make room on the left side.

Canadian government travel advisory page showing a green label for the US that reads "take normal security precautions"

Canadian government travel advisory page showing a yellow label for the UK that reads "exercise a high degree of caution"

Make this make sense.

Anyhow, anytime people want to stop acting like it's an overreaction when we say where this is headed, that would be great. I don't like feeling like Cassandra all the time.