Grab your mike and slippers for fun in the living room
Burlesque dancers, luxury casinos and string quartets – in London, they come to you. As the chill outside sets in, here‘s Time Out‘s room by room guide to getting the very best of the capital‘s cultural treats without leaving the house
Grab your mike and slippers for fun in the living room
Living room
Poker
Fumbling around with a scuffed old deck of cards and using your pennies as chips can take the edge off hustling your friends with a pair of aces. To get the authentic experience, call Dial-a-Dealer; its ‘home poker’ package costs £130 for four hours (£40 per hour after that), and for that you’ll get a professional dealer, a ten-seater deluxe nine foot by four-and-a-half foot poker table (plus chairs), casino-grade playing cards and a set of reassuringly chunky clay chips.
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Booking is done online, and the dealer will phone you the day before the session. All you need to supply is the players, the venue, and the kitsch green visors and armbands. Twist!
Dial-a-Dealer (www.dialadealer.com).
Music appreciation societies
Apparently, Richard and Judy’s book club has led to a sharp increase in book sales. What chances of them doing the same for singles then? Instead of analysing Zadie Smith’s latest novel they could have a deep and heavy chat about the subversive message of ‘A Moment Like This’ by ‘X Factor’ champ Leona Lewis – all in the name of MAS (the Music Appreciation Society). There’s no organisation as such – like book clubs, you can hold your own MAS night at home. Just stock up on booze and ask ten friends to bring along two songs. One should be themed (decided the previous week), the other is a free choice. Guest names are drawn from a hat to decide the order tracks are played and each guest is encouraged to talk about their chosen song – why they love it and comparable works. For example, someone might reminisce how 2 Unlimited’s ‘Get Ready For This’ soundtracked their first kiss (with tongues) at a school disco. The only rule of MAS is that everybody listens respectfully. There is to be NO harassment… until the song is over. The downside is that you might never forgive that friend whose happiest moment occurred while listening to Nizlopi’s ‘JCB Song’.
Home cinema
DVDs, like videos before them, were designed for evenings when we just want to huddle inside – which makes it all the worse that you have to trek out to rent one, and then to return it (late). Among the multitude of online movie delivery options are www.lovefilm.com (£9.99 a month, one film at a time, with a free 14-day trial), www.blockbuster.com (£9.99 a month, one film at a time, with a free 14-day trial) and www.tescodvdrental.com (£7.97 a month, one disc at a time, free 14-day trial). All three deliver by post, and don’t charge late return fees.
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