School Disco

Patrick Entertainment, UK Life

SchoolDiscoA couple of weekends ago, I somehow found myself at the infamous, School Disco for their tenth anniversary. I thought it had shut down but apparently it had simply moved locations to somewhere near Great Portland Street.

We started the night off at Frankies place, then catching a couple of taxis to get us there. A few Red Bulls early in the night seemed to do their job well an I didn’t have any problem staying up.

School Disco wasn’t as bad a place I thought it could have been, expecting something more akin to The Church. Fortunately all it meant was everyone dressed up in themed costume, unsurprisingly around the whole school theme.

We definitely had a great night out and I was thankful it was walking distance home when we left sometime in the morning.

Ryuichi Sakomoto

Patrick Entertainment, Music, UK Life

Sunday evening say a long trek into Sloane Square to arrive at Cadogan Hall to see Japanese composer and musician, Ryuichi Sakomoto. It was pretty tough getting there with the heavy rain and the tube network down. I’d been invited to see this musician perform, with him being pretty famous for creating enchanting soundtracks for many movies and events. It’s not normally my thing for live music, and thought I’d still give it a go.

Cadogan Hall is quite small, probably the same size as the Union Chapel and it’s acoustics were definitely great with rich sounds coming from all angles. It seems pretty modernly built with comfy cushion backed seats.

CadoganHall

The show had been sold out when I looked it up earlier that day, so I was still surprised to see handfuls of seats empty on the night. The inclement weather explains some of it no doubt.

Watching a pianist perform was quite an experience. Being fairly tired and warm from the outside cold, I honestly couldn’t help myself feeling drowsy at the start of the performance. It didn’t help that Sakomoto started off with long, fairly abstract pieces that whilst enchanting, also didn’t help me feel less drowsy.

Towards the end the pieces definitely became more lively, and the accompanying visualisation projected on the screen matching it’s vibrancy. I think I even recognised a number of the songs, perhaps backing tracks to some anime movie or something.

The performance was very impressive and whilst I wasn’t compelled to give a standing ovation like some members of the audience, I still found it a nice contrast to the week.

An american thanksgiving in london

Patrick Farringdon, Food, UK Life

This weekend I got to share in celebrating the American holiday, thanksgiving with some friends from the US. I hosted it at my place considering we had a little bit of a bigger kitchen.

Finding a fresh turkey at this time of year wasn’t as hard as I thought it could be with turkey being a traditional English Christmas bird. I ended up ordering a non frozen organic bird from the wonderful butchers in Marylebone, The Ginger Pig. I can’t say it was particularly cheap but it was definitely one tasty bird.

Turkey

Thanksgiving ended up a whole day affair since the bird needed plenty of time to cook. This gave us plenty of time to chill out, watch some television and drink some wine. One of the traditions was for each guest to bring or prepare some dish that represents their background, so we ended up with many different dishes for the evening. Combined with a 7.5kg turkey, let’s just say that there was plenty of leftovers at the end of the night.

Now my only challenge has been to work out what other things I can cook with turkey as a meat.

Trip to Edinburgh

Patrick Food, Travel, UK Life

The last couple of weeks have been amazingly busy. I seriously don’t know where all the has been going. I know at least where this last weekend went as I took the train from Kings Cross up to Edinburgh. Figuring that I come into this station from work anyway, I figured it’d be easiest getting on a train that takes about four and half four rather than catching planes, waiting for airport security and then catching a bus on the other side. I’m really glad I did as well. The train was comfy although going first class doesn’t include a meal like the Virgin trains do. These ones to Edinburgh are taken care of by the National Rail East Coast line. I reserved a table so that I’d have access to power sockets although I didn’t need to worry since I think all of those seats came with it.

Our trip to Edinburgh (seemingly like many trips) centred around hanging out with friends enjoying good food and wine. Eight of us went up, having a lunchtime booking for Michelin-starred Restaurant Martin Wishart.

MartinWishart

We had an amazing meal (more of that over here) and plenty of wine to go along with it. Like many great meals I’ve had recently, this one seemed a bit like a marathon taking just under four hours to complete. We were lucky then that this place was a couple of streets away from the vaults of the Scotch Malt Whiskey Society.

Whiskey

We spent the rest of the afternoon until early in the evening sitting around in the dark oaked halls of the vaults, sipping a wide variety of drams and simply enjoying each other’s company. It definitely got busy towards the end of the evening, where we stepped out to grab a quick meal before heading home to our wonderful apartments. The next morning we had breakfast at Urban Angel, one of the best places for a Sunday brunch before walking around town and having to return to London early afternoon.

One other place worth visiting if you’re in Edinburgh and dying for a good coffee is Artisan Roast. It’s got a fantastic little vibe and particularly great coffee.

Gigs Galore

Patrick Entertainment, Music, UK Life

October ended up as a busy month for seeing some live music. A couple of Fridays ago I ended up at Brixton Academy to see Franz Ferdinand. I’d last seen them at the massive Alexandra Palace and was stoked to see them in a much smaller venue. Although they hadn’t actually produced any new material for a while, they certainly put on a very impressive audience that kept the entire Academy packed throughout. They had amazing video and lights accompanying them and just put on an awesome show.

Wednesday this week, I returned to The Forum, this time to see the Scottish based DJ performance, Calvin Harris. I’d seen him live a few years back at a festival and although he was simply DJing then, he definitely got the audience up and jumping.

Calvin Harris

That night was the same and I can’t imagine that The Forum has ever been so hot with so many people jumping around. We arrived to see the support act, Mr Hudson who seemed to have a bit of a following of his own and did well to warm up the audience. I’m glad that I didn’t bother to bring my coat as I saw a number of people with sweaters and coats suffering from their layers in such an energised audience. Great night, great music and what a way to enjoy a good night out in London.

The Cribs at The Forum

Patrick UK Life

A couple of weeks ago, I went to see The Cribs at Kentish Town’s Forum. For some reason, I remember seeing their first support act who were… to put it simply… awful. I’m afraid the female singer probably shouldn’t have been singing and some of the other band members looked like they’d rather be elsewhere. Fortunately the second support act (Adam Green) was much better getting the crowd warmed up for, what would be, a very energetic performance. He was quirky, witty and bouncing all around the stage.

The band played their set right up to the Forum’s curfew, leaving it strangely without an encore. It definitely wasn’t needed considering how high energy the entire set was. The floor was heaving from all the people jumping around and there was definitely no chance anyone was going to get cold inside with all that body heat. The performance was much better than what I was expecting, mixing in new songs with old songs and just being very engaging with the audience from the very start. A good way to spend a Thursday night out.

What’s been going on?

Patrick UK Life

The last couple of weeks have been a bit of a whirlwind, finishing up one project located in Tower Hill only to go back to another client for a short three days and then starting a new coaching gig way out in Cambridge. I’m trying the commuting daily to see what it’s like – slightly better than Marlow and it still means I get to do things in London.

A couple of weeks ago, I saw the Chicago Bulls beat the Utah Jazz at the O2 Stadium. Super exciting game where it literally came down to the last minute and the last ball as the decider between who won. These Americans definitely have entertainment down with every little break, every little time out and half time filled with some sort of entertainment generally including audience participation, or just simply acrobatic or cheerleader type entertainment. Great atmosphere.

This week I went along to see The Cribs at The Forum, one of my favourite venues around London. Packed out and heaving with people with lots of energy, it was definitely a hot and humid session inside. One really terrible support band (the audience almost booed them off) and one really great support band.

Weekend Wrap Up

Patrick UK Life

MelAndBenThis weekend went by so quickly. Fortunately it was full of sunshine, warmth and lots of face time with some good friends. Friday night kicked off the weekend by meeting with Mel and Ben (pictured to the right) who I know from back home and saw when I first got to the UK over four years ago now. We ended up at the Two Brewers and being one of the last to leave. I remember some people having food there, with a disappointing review of the Chilli Con Carne (really bad proportions).

Saturday started off rather slowly, with an outing to the gym to work out Friday night’s drinks. I settled at one of my favourite cafes where I continued on some writing I was doing. Catching up with one of the people I worked with in Copenhagen, I dashed out quickly to Dollar Grills and Martini, a hip martini and cocktail lounge in Exmouth Market. Awesome selection of drinks and atmosphere, it was a little disappointing I had to leave so quickly before heading out to dinner. I met up with Mike and his wife with a couple of their friends for dinner at Navajo Joe. With a bar downstairs, music pumped through but the entire experience was pretty nifty with interesting decore and great tasting food (the spiced-rub fish was amazing!). Interesting people arrived in small packs throughout the night to slowly filter to the bar downstairs. We all remember having a laugh at one girl in particular who had a black dress backed by a zipper right from the top to the bottom. The number of jokes we had with that! Everyone else had to catch the last train out, living out of London so I meandered back home where I caught up with a few other people at Smithfields.

Sunday I walked all the way out to Limehouse to catch up with some university friends from back home. It was great to see both Amanda and Marc where we had a lazy Sunday lunch at The Gun in the Docklands. A fantastic, light and airy atmosphere, it was a nice place for a lunch but not as good as I thought it might have been. I’ll write something more about it on my food blog later. Walking back home and indulging in what sunlight was left, what a great way it was to finish off the weekend.