Yes, I am already behind on my blog - obviously because I have been having too much of a fun time
So two weeks ago, Liz, Sian and I went to see Swan Lake at the London Coliseum. Liz found out about £15 tickets for the under 25s which luckily we still are.
Before the show we met up for dinner at a Japanese restaurant around the corner Hazuki. The main claim to fame of this restaurant was its close proximity to the Coliseum, but we found that they did lovely food, and swift service. My sushi came a long time before Liz, and Sian’s hot food, but it was all delicious.
Today I went with Rob to the Dome to see the Tutankhamun exhibition. This was my first trip to the dome, so was a chance to look around, and see what O2 have done with the place. The first impression I had was how small it was. However, after looking up how big it actually is, it has the impression of being small and compact, it appears that there is a lot in there, and the way it is divide up makes it appear smaller than it actually is. It definitely has a temporary tent like feel to the structure, and after 8 years the roof is starting to look a little dingy. The core of the dome is taken up by the O2 arena, with a host of restaurants and other attractions around the edge. As the refurbishment was quite recent the inside has quite a polished, however fake feel, with all the restaruants having very pristine fake brick facades. We also had the pleasure of negotiating our way around hundreds of Spice Girl’s fans, many dressed up like their idols.
So Tutankhamun! Certainly an impressive collection of beautiful artefacts, and despite its steep price tag (£20 a head http://www.visitlondon.com/tutankhamun/) it is well worth a visit. You are allotted a time to arrive, and you are let in with a crowd of around 30 people for the introductorary video. This means that the first few exhibition halls are quite crowded until the group disperses and spreads out through the rooms. We paid to have an audio guide between us which was well worthwhile because it gives allot more information than is on the individual item descriptions. We were particularly impressed with the wooden children’s chairs which still retained their original woven seats. In general I was impressed with what had survived; I expected allot of stone and metal and was pleasantly surprised how many wooden artefacts they had on dispay. The Egyptians believed that what they buried with their kings would last forever, and they were right! However, we were disappointed that we didn’t get to see the actual death mask or mummy of Tutankhamun.
On Monday Rob took me to see/hear a radio 4 program being recorded. This is something we do from time to time, but not being an avid radio 4 listener myself, I have quite an indifference to allot of what is on offer. However this time was different, I was initially keen to go because the Museum of Curiosities is co hosted by Bill Bailey who is awesome.
The show is based around the idea of a unique museum where there is no link or connection between the various exhibits. Each week three invited guests offer up their suggestions as to what should be added to the museum, and they are discussed. A few suggestions from the audience are also added.
We expected this to be a light-hearted random show, with crazy suggestions, we were wrong. The invited guests were university professors in Maths, Chemistry and a medical doctor. They spent about an hour nerding over their various professions, generally introducing what their particular interests were. Then they added their suggestions. The most interesting being phlogiston the substance that was thought to burn when you light a fire. In short the show was incredibly nerdy, however really funny with Bill Bailey adding his usual brand of humour throughout. It was also interesting to see him interacting with guests who were clearly more intelligent that he is, rare I suspect.
What I dislike about radio 4 is how inane and repetitive most of the shows are, I mean you aren’t likely to get any surprises with Just a Minute. However, this was incredibly high brow, actually giving my brain something to think about. However, I feel that Rob was less impressed as he likes Radio 4 so that he can switch his brain off !!!
Last night Liz organised a trip to see Cinderella at the Old Vic. This is the pantomime written by Stephen Fry http://www.oldvictheatre.com/whatson.php?id=37.
The panto was awesome. The humour was more adult than some panto’s, and there was no chorus of Children. However, they did pull some kids out of the audience. They were required to recognise food, including groceries from Fortnum and Masons (they were mocked for being in the expensive seats and not knowing what this shop is) and then spam (their parents were praised when they didn’t know what this was either). Buttons and Dandini get it on in the end which was a pleasant addition to the plot. The also mocked the Old Vic for being poor.
The set was awesome; this is one of the things I love about West End shows. The house was particularly impressive, with both and upstairs and downstairs in the same set. We also enjoyed the puppet mice who popped up throughout the show.
The famous people included Sandy Toksvig who was the narrator, and the Chamberlin. She was awesome; she really kept the show moving. We particularly enjoyed seeing where she would pop out of next; at one point she invaded one of the boxes and stole the audiences Malteasers. The other celebrity was Pauline Collins who played the Fairy Godmother. She was brilliant; the fairy godmother spends half the show despairing about how pathetic Cinderella is, and how she is bound to help this hapless creature who doesn’t really deserve it.
One thing we were all wondering, which I don’t think is ever explained, how come the glass slippers don’t change back with everything else at midnight.
Before the show we all met at Wagammas for dinner. The usual good fare of noodles and rice. As some people were a little late in arriving we had time to sample the deserts. Most of us opted for the coconut ice-cream which is always a hit; however Rob had the pavalova which isn’t to be recommended.
After the show we went for drinks down the road at the Wellington. Large pub, lots of space, but they kicked us out at 11.30.
No I am not dead, I just got bored of writing my blog.
So as it’s a new year, I have decided to start writing it again, but slightly differently to how I wrote it before. This appears to be in keeping with everyone else I know who is writing a blog. Everyone is re assessing why the write their blogs, and how often they can be bothered to do it. So the reason I got bored was that about once every 10 days I would realise that I hadn’t written my blog in a while, and would sit down and document the past week’s activities. This could get pretty dull if I had a dull week, and if I had an interesting week then nothing got the credit it deserved. So I plan to write about individual events in individual blog posts.
So this means that some events in my life will get completely missed out because I won’t get around to blogging about them. Hopefully however, what I do write about will be more interesting and actually informative about places I have been that might actually be worth other people going.
As a point of note, this is exactly the opposite to what Bill has decided to do with his blog. He has decided that he should write rarely but comprehensively. We will see which of us gets bored first
I have just come back from a weekend in Warwickshire. My company hired out Warwick castle for the day, for the UK staff to have a big party. Warwick castle is now owned by Tussauds, so its like a medieval theme park, not just a pile of ruins.
Everyone bussed up yesterday morning, and started the day with Pimms and pastries. We generally explored the castle before watching a Trebuchet display, apparently the largest in the world. Lunch was a selection of picnic items sat on the grass watching a jousting display. Lots of hammed up play fighting, impressive trick riding and of course stunning horses. After lunch we wandered around a bit more before going on the haunted ghost walk with people jumping out making people scream. The day ended with strawberries, cream and shortbread with bagpipes. Fun day, although I didn’t manage to see half the people I knew must have been there which was a shame.
At the end of the day everyone jumped back onto busses back to London, and their respective regional offices. However, me and rob had decided to make a weekend of it so checked into our hotel - a short walk from the castle. We crashed for a few hours, and then headed down for dinner. We had a package deal which included a three course meal in their lovely French cellar restaurant. Really good food, I had frogs legs to start which I have never had before. They were interesting, however they didn’t really have a taste of their own, they just tasted of the sauce. They are also very fiddly to eat. Today we quickly toured Warwick - not really much to see and then got a bus to Stratford on Avon. Very pretty town, but again quite small so after lunch we caught a very slow train back to London.
Last weekend we had nothing planned, and so decided to start to sort out the house. After lunch with Bob, Rob’s old school friend we went down to town to pick up paint, painting implements, wallpaper paste and the like. We successfully cleared out one of the bedrooms (the one with hideous yellow walls for those who have seen it!), took up the carpet and started to investigate the walls. It turns out we know very little about DIY, so the room is now empty with a little less wallpaper. Next free weekend we get hopefully we will remove the rest of the wallpaper, and finish it all off.
The previous Saturday I had a day of eating in other peoples houses. We trekked down to South London to Adam’s for a lovely roast dinner, and then a rather experimental (but really nice) pudding with his new ice cream maker. In the evening I went up to Kings Cross to Margaret’s for Pizza and nibbles with some of the girls from work. We watched England get totally destroyed in Eurovision dance contest. Margaret’s flat is in one of the nicest council estates I have ever seen, apparently designed by a top architect it has one awards, and 3 minutes from Kings Cross - what more could you ask for ?
Other than that we have lost a couple of softball matches, although the pub after is always fun. I bumped into Charlotte’s sister George who has just started to work for an architects in London. Monday night we had Sarah over for dinner, lots of wine and gossiping. Oh and the other week Emma didn’t manage to make it up so we had Rob’s parents and gran over for dinner. They took the opportunity to drop of even more of his stuff.
Well I’m back from Cambridge. I arrived back into my normal office excited to see everyone and quickly acquired 2 new projects on my desk.
My last week in Cambridge was fun. In Cambridge over the summer they have Shakespeare performances in a number of college gardens. So on Monday night I decided that the best thing to see in a garden is A Midsummer Night’s Dream, which was on in Trinity College Garden. It got pretty cold towards the end, but I really enjoyed the show, not a Shakespeare I had seen before. On the Tuesday evening I had a side saddle lesson at the stables I have been frequenting. Certainly different to what I am used to, apparently you could see the concentration on my face as I tried to keep my balance. I really enjoyed it, I want to do it again if I get the chance, and according to my regular instructor it had a noticeable effect on my seat.
Last weekend was an Underwood family reunion. Me and Rob got the train home on Saturday morning (following Rob’s work bbq on the Friday night) in time for lunch. In the afternoon we went up to North Wiltshire to Rob’s uncles house to pick up some furniture they have donated us. In the evening Granny, Uncle John, Aunty Alison and Suzanne came over for dinner. We got to see photos of Suzanne’s wedding up on the Isle of Sky. On Sunday the plan was to have a picnic on Roundway hill but the weather was foul so we had an indoor picnic in a nearby village hall. A lot of time was spent cooing over Simon and Sarah’s baby Lauren who is very cute. We did managed a short walk over the hill with the dogs, but it was pretty wet.
This weekend has been a bit of a shambles. Friday evening went as planned, after a few drinks with work I headed down to South London to listen to Jazz under a church with Will and Adam. Emma is back for 1 week between her South American travels and her Europe travels and the plan was for her and a few home people to come up to town for the weekend. Yesterday Emma was a mixture of hungover and jet lagged and so couldn’t face the trip up. Instead we headed out with Dom and Sarah to see Knocked Up at the Cinema followed by drinks and then board games back at their house. Today Emma realised her car was out of tax so also didn’t make it up. So we invited Rob’s Cousins Andy and Tom over for a bbq lunch. Emma is looking into trains for tomorrow!
Greetings from Cambridge. I am spending a month working for a pharmaceutical product design firm in Ickelton in Cambridgeshire. The office is located in this awesome old barn just off the M11, in the middle of a field. On Monday morning I catch a train up to Stanstead, pick up a hire car, and drive up to the office. In the evenings I am staying in a hotel in Cambridge. I am working on an Arup project which is in collaboration with this company in Cambridge so while I am here I able to be totally immersed in all aspects of the project including lab testing, human trials, the CFD as well as advising them as to the capability of CFD for their other projects. This is my third week, the first was very tiring because I kept getting lost, and the hotel I was in was pretty rubbish. The past 2 weeks however I know where I am going, and I am in a lovely hotel near to the station.
To entertain myself in the evenings I have been exploring the city, the colleges and all along the backs. I have also found somewhere to ride, at the South Cambridgeshire Equestrian centre. They have massive horses, which totally suits me and I am learning yet another persons opinion as to the correct way to ride. One evening I went to see the new Harry Potter film, it’s the best of the lot so far but it is never going to be how I imagine it.
At the weekends I am back in London although I haven’t really had time to do any unpacking or sorting because we have had a constant stream of visitors.
The weekend before last Polly was down in London. So on Friday night we went for drinks on Upper Street and generally caught up on life whilst drinking far too many cocktails. ON Saturday armed with a hangover we went to Dom and Sarah’s for lunch, followed by the new Simpson’s film at the Canary Wharf cinema. Rob invited Bill and Alicia along as well, and after the film they all came back to see our house and for dinner. On the Sunday Polly came for lunch and to see our house. She wanted a chance to catch up with Cindy and Adam while she was in town so they came for lunch too - always a pleasure to see people.
Last weekend Rob’s parents came over for Saturday lunch to bring all of Rob’s stuff. When I say all I mean pretty much everything he has ever owned and never got around to sorting out - more boxes to unpack. However they did bring all our pictures, an entire tool shed and Rob’s kitchen utensils. In the evening me and Rob went to the Proms. We saw the National Youth Orchestra play Prokofiev’s Piano Concerto, and Shostakovich Leningrad Symphony. On Sunday I had the grads from my floor over to see the house and to eat pizza. Our bread machine makes rather good pizza dough, and I bought every topping I could think of in Sainsbury’s. Everyone seems impressed by our house, especially it’s size, however it’s a bit of a mission to find it in the maze of the housing estate.
Last weekend myself, Rob, Catherine and Andy headed off to Fairford for the annual Shislton family reunion. There we joined the rest of Rob’s family, his welsh cousins and his gran. His Wiltshire cousins were to join us on Saturday. Friday night was spent chatting until the early hours. Saturday was a quiet day reading my book and chilling out in the garden chatting with Rob’s family and admiring the planes passing overhead. Lunch was a rather splendid picnic and for dinner a take away spread of both Indian and Chinese.
Sunday morning we had a early start back to London to go to the Arup London summer BBQ. The day started with Pimms, followed by an its a knockout competition. Me and Rob were in a team with Margaret and her boyfriend Chris, and an assortment of Arup people from other buildings groups. I have never done it’s a knockout before but its great fun if a little wet, you generally have to dive through giant foam covered inflatable’s as a team relay collecting rubber chickens and balls. We won all but one of our games which made us winners overall. Once we had put on our pretty clothes we had lunch which was a fantastic BBQ and salad spread which we had to eat sheltering from the sudden and very heavy downpour of rain. Once the rain subsided it was time for fun fair rides and general socialising. We had particular fun on the dodgems; however we were unsuccessful at winning any prizes on the games. I have now met most of the partners and children of my team as well as chatting with the usual graduate crowd.
The week before last was a fun week of training in Hammersmith with Star CD learning all about particle modelling which is in preparation for the next 4 weeks which I will spend in Cambridgeshire working with Team consulting, a biomedical firm working on inhaler design. If anyone can suggest fun ways for me to spend my evenings in Cambridge then please let me know.
We are now all moved into our house; however we are not quite unpacked. Lucy has gone up to Edinburgh for the summer, and so it is just us in the house. Another small teething problem with a leaky toilet dripping through a light fitting in the kitchen ceiling, but we seem to have fixed it. We now have a cooker, and it has finally been plugged in which has made me very happy, I was getting fat on take away food.
The weekend before last we had a mammoth cleaning session of the old flat before handing the keys back to the Haden’s. We were rewarded by a yummy dinner at Dom and Sarah’s – they felt sorry for us having no food or cooker. On the Saturday we went to Richmond Park for the panto London picnic organised by Will. Apart from some general moaning about the distance we had to walk everyone had a great time. As per usual everyone bought far too much yummy food but if you are sat in a park for long enough it usually gets eaten. Lots of fun Bristol people came up for the day which was a really pleasant surprise. There was cricket with Shadow (Andrews’s dog) proving to be an expert fielder.
Today I read Harry Potter along with millions of people across the world. I couldn’t be bothered to queue up at midnight for my copy so popped down the road this morning. Really pleased with the ending, I had some fear that as with an number of book series that I have read that I wouldn’t like the ending, or that the book would be consumed with one long battle. However, I loved it, the book brought together everything from the 6 previous books, settled everyone’s allegiances, people die, but many important characters live. The epilogue is a bit naff in my opinion, but I guess it’s nice to know what happens to the survivors.
Another busy couple of weeks, with very little free time to write my blog. One of the main reasons that I have been so busy was that I was on a major project at work which rather took over my life. It was hard work at times with long hourse, but I learnt lots and it was interesting to get to meet the clients.
So last weekend was Glastonbury which was very very wet and very very muddy but awesome all the same. I went home Wednesday night escaping London before rush hour got crazy, sharing my train with a large number of fellow festival travellers. Me and Dad set off early on Thursday morning, arrived and managed to get it and set up camp before it got too busy and before the crazy weather set in. After lunch (and the rain had stopped – temporarily) I set off exploring, reminding myself of the layout of the site and seeing this years sculptures and decorations. In the evening I managed to meet up with my old school friend Chris, and his mate Dave. After a few beers at his campsite we headed to the Left field tent which starts its entertainment a day earlier than the main stages. The rest of the festival progressed with a few highlights of Bill Baileys secret not so secret stand-up gig, The Killers, The Who, Kaiser Chiefs, Kasabian, the Marley Brothers and of course Shirley Bassey. For the first time I didn’t go with and camp with a big group of people, but I found this gave me the freedom to meet up with lots of different people throughout the weekend with out stressing about meeting up with people all the time.
The house is progressing. Yesterday my parents bought up a van load of furniture which then had to be unloaded. It all went smoothly except for a wardrobe that had to be taken to pieces to get it up the stairs. Rob and Dad then made a trip to Rob’s parents store in Staines to collect a load more furniture while we re built everything. Of course it rained so everything got a bit damp although it feels more like a house now we have furniture. Many thanks go to Will and Rich for helping us shift stuff.
The Tuesday before Glastonbury we went to the Music into Water concert. Mo an old violining friend of mine, and fellow Arup engineer plays in the London Charities Orchestra, and this season’s concert was in aid of Water Aid the Arup charity. The concert was in St Johns Church in Westminster which happens to have a vaulted restaurant underneath where we ate dinner beforehand. A really good turn out from the Arup graduate crowd and great music. In particular there was a stunning concerto from a visiting violinist.
This Tuesday Liz went out for leaving drinks which turned into leaving dinner. We went to the Med Kitchen near to Leicester square where we were treated to lovely food, wine and a visit from a mouse. A small mouse came out from the central barrier ran into the middle of the floor and then back again. When we pointed this out to the waiter he suggested that it had come in the open front door. About 15 minutes later the same thing happened again and when we pointed it out to a different waiter we got the same excuse suggesting that this is a standard excuse and the mouse is a permanent resident. Not a restaurant I would suggest since they didn’t even suggest a discount to make up for the mouse.
