Pearl Jam at Hard Rock Calling

Patrick Entertainment, Music, UK Life

Summertime in London means festival atmosphere and this year, Gerrod got us some tickets to see Pearl Jam at this year’s Hard Rock Calling. Hard Rock Calling fell on the week where we fortunately had plenty of sunshine and, amazingly, no rain. As a result, Hyde Park ended up a bit like a dust bowl with the number of people, evidenced by the black feet by those brave enough to go barefoot or in thongs (i.e. flip flops) and by the stunning sunset that served to only highlight the low hanging haze.

Although it ran most of the day, I didn’t get a day off work for it, so we turned up to see Ben Harper and the headliners, Pearl Jam. They played for a very long time starting early due to the constraints of playing in Hyde Park, finishing up around 10pm. We managed to get fairly close to the stage – probably about a third of the way from the front where we pick up some decent sounds. Even from this distance, we relied on the big screens to work out what was going on. Given that it was summery and Pearl Jam did put on some decent tunes, it was hard not to enjoy yourself.

Here’s Stac, Gerrod and Wes all enjoying the tunes. What a fantastic evening and time. It was great seeing Stac and Wes as well since I hadn’t seen them for ages and, it being hard to see them when they live all the way up in Aberdeen.

Wimbledon at Last

Patrick Entertainment, London To Do, Sport, UK Life

It’s only taken almost five years to finally turn up to Britain’s well known tennis championship, Wimbledon. I applied for the annual lottery – something all residents in the UK can do to buy tickets without lining up, and although I didn’t get any tickets, my sister managed to get some. So off, we went to Wimbledon on a bright sunny, perfectly summery day.

The court grounds were heaving, although perfectly civil. I’m glad we didn’t really have to queue very long to get in, and with allocated tickets for Court 2, didn’t have to line up for a seat for any of the outdoor courts as well.

On our court, the biggest player match was probably Sharipova who literally towered over her opponent and easily won out her match. It was amazing to see the speed of her serves live. Most men seemed to hit at last 120mph-130mph, which Sharipova came close to, averaging 110mph. Compared to many of the other women players who did less than 100mph, she was definitely a force to be reckoned with. Here’s a picture of her victory over her opponent:

The other big news of the day was the visiting of the Queen. Unfortunately we didn’t get to share Court 1 with her, but managed to see her walking around the grounds (accompanied and blocked off my plenty of security guards). I’m glad that I brought my new zoom as I was nowhere near her for the photo below:

Even if you don’t get a ticket to any of the court games, it’s definitely worth going and indulging in the whole atmosphere. It’s fun and with so many people enjoying themselves, you’ll find it hard not to do so yourself.

Henry Moore at the Tate Britain

Patrick Entertainment, UK Life

We’re really spoilt here in London when it comes to museums and art galleries. Not only do we have some of the finest and interesting collections, but many of them are free to the public for viewing as well. One of the museums I haven’t been to until quite recently was the Tate Britain, although I’ve run past it many times during my jogging route around the Thames. Located much further away from many of the other museums, it felt like this one was visited by those who really wanted to go.

One of their current exhibitions is the Henry Moore exhibit, an English sculptor and artist. Although this was one of their paid for exhibits, we managed to score some free tickets. The exhibit takes you through all of Moore’s work, including many of his drawings and massive sculptures.

I liked a lot of his work, although I did find the repeated theme of disfigured, or stretched body shapes, particularly focused around the mother and son theme slightly disturbing given the number of times it appeared.

I think I’d need to be a fan to have paid for the tickets, but it’s a great display and well laid out exhibit.

Racing around Smithfields

Patrick UK Life

This weekend seemed to be one filled with sport, with not only most of London halted by the various World Cup matches displayed in pubs around the city, but a charity fun run and the Smithfield Nocturne that I could hear from inside my Clerkenwell flat this weekend. Despite the threatening clouds and ominous light splatters, I couldn’t help and see what all the commotion was.

The nocturne is actually in its fourth year (apparently!), hosting a cycling race around the perimeter of the market place. It’s big but it’s not really that big. However it’s all in the name of fun and this year joined hands with London Festival of Architecture to liven up the crowd. Given that this area is pretty dead during the weekend day, they managed to draw a sizeable 10, 000 people throughout the day.

Going for a large number of hours and various relay races, the first and probably most entertaining heats was the foldable bike category. Although some seemed to take it pretty seriously, many people took the humourous and dressed the part of the city cyclist in a proper suit, or at least some element of one.

Of course, they had a number of other heats including more serious heats of racers such as those pictured below.

Dotted around the central market, many stalls set up shop advertising cycling related gear, or accessories, including some very cool gear. HTC, the big sponsor even had a big stall handing out cardboard-bound mirrored periscopes to spot the action above the crowd. Makes me want to get a bike again!

Jellymongers at The Experimental Food Society

Patrick Food, UK Life

Last Thursday, on a very nice day ending with glorious sunshine, I found myself surrounded by other foodies at the Intercontinental’s Cookbook Cafe, for the inaugural event of The Experimental Food Society. I can’t even remember how I found out about it, but I bought a ticket as soon as I saw my calendar free. The first event, invited the famous and enthusiastic Jellymongers, Bompss and Parr (a very British duo in name and person) talk about their passion for food.

The duo told rapturous stories about how they first dove into Jelly, with several ventures into dining and atmosphere experiences that make me think they would host some of the best parties. I missed their Alcoholic Adventures; I look forward to their Complete History of Food event. It won’t be the first time these groups collaborated.

For its first event, the Experimental Food Society did well and I’m pretty sure all the participants enjoyed themselves with a £5 ticket giving us the entertaining dialogue and show, a glass of wine or champagne (that flowed freely after the formalities, not that it stopped a few people before the actual event) and scrumptious finger food provided by the Intercontinental. Their only improvements include ensuring everyone could see the projector screen, or to ensure everyone had a place to sit as I noticed several people hovering in the aisles. Not bad for a first.

Of course, Bompas and Parr did a few demos involving jelly and, being well prepared, we all got a small plate to wobble at our leisure, mine a deliciously light Absinthe and Lime.

Overall a fine place to spend an evening and I look forward to the next event.

Trondheim

Patrick Travel

I spent last week in Trondheim for the XP2010 conference. I found myself particularly busy for the entire week not only running my single workshop but helping chair a number of sessions and invited to help out with someone else’s. I’m really glad a few of us decided to stay around for the weekend and with the spectacular summer weather we had on Saturday definitely made the most of it.

Trondheim is really far north. So far north that the sun doesn’t ever really go down. The picture below is what Trondheim looks like at midnight and it never got any darker. I can tell you this because many of us had troubles sleeping throughout the week without even with blackout curtains in our rooms.

For the conference, we stayed at the Rica Nidelven hotel, serving what was acclaimed at Norway’s best breakfast. I regret not taking as many great photos of the offerings although I will remember the three stations very clearly for some time. One of them, operated by a very efficient lady serving some of the best coffees (cartado is closest the flat white), another with a person freshly slicing smoked salmon and some other sort of fish, and another operated by a person concocting fresh juices and “energy shots” made with things like ginger and other juices. The conference hotel was lovely and this was the view from my room (below).

As expected, things in Norway haven’t got any cheaper and with the weaker pound, even more expensive. This pint of local beer brewed at Trondheim’s Microbrewery cost more than £7. Ouch!

Fortunately spending all day in a pub isn’t your only option when there is sunshine all over the place. Visiting their Cathedral and surrounding grounds is definitely worth visiting for its amazing interiors. As part one of the welcoming events, we got to sit inside as they had someone perform a song on each of the two organs contained within.

We can definitely recommend walking along the river as well since the scenery is quite spectacular, and when you’re done with that, head up to the fort where you get a decent view of the surrounding area. It’s not too far from the central part of Trondheim at all.

Even the Norwegian’s get in on the whole BBQing season with their versions of the portable BBQ lighting up many of the different parks. It seems like the popular game Kubb is just as popular here as everywhere else with wooden blocks out on almost every patch of green in one park.

We had a bit of time on our hand, even after visiting the local Island where they executed people in the past although I wanted to go and take the bus out to a small town called Hell. Admittedly there’s nothing out there to do although the bus ride was nice and scenic, following the coast line as it took us there and back. We even had the same bus driver on the way back who had a big grin on his face when we boarded the second time.

I also finally got to see one of those buildings I thought they might have this far north, where they grow grass on the roof of their house.

We had a great time chilling after the conference in Trondheim and although the weather and the conference definitely had something to do with it, I will look back at that week rather fondly.

For a place to hang out, we can also recommend The Good Neighbour (Den Gode Nabo) (pictured above) with its floating deck providing an awesome place to settle back for a drink and sun yourself.

Returning to Marlow

Patrick Restaurants, Travel, UK Life

I’d organised to meet some friends out for dinner at the Compleat Angler (pictured below) at at Marlow, one of the locations I worked at early last year. Although terribly inconvenient for commuting on daily basis, I could definitely see some of the beauty about coming out on a weekend and this was the first time I truly got to enjoy it. I think it helped that I visited last weekend when stunning summer hit all of the UK.

Funnily enough little towns like this don’t change too much. The town still had it’s little high street filled with a mish-mash of high street chains and the more boutique shops one would expect from a town like Marlow. I’m glad to see the local bakery/cake shop that proved particularly popular with the retired folk still operating. Although I arrived their quite late, it was nice to see the park was still ever busy and full of life.

One strange thing we did notice were the swarms of insects flying around the sky. They seemed to be particularly attracted to dark (or maybe it was the warmth of) objects since we saw a black car’s hood literally covered in them. We managed to catch one early on and although we didn’t really know what it was at the time, I guessed it to be a Mayfly (mainly because they sounded British, I didn’t know what one was but they just seemed like it).

Looking at the wikipedia entry and pictures, I think my guess was a good one.

We had a fantastic dinner at Bowaters restaurant in the Compleat Angler, and ended up with this spectacular view (above) on the way home!

A Day in Dubai

Patrick Travel

Our plane ended up in Dubai after a “medical emergency” required us to veer off course yet it proved to be a fortunate diversion with the UK airspace closing down Heathrow and our timing leading us to simply stay grounded instead of turning backwards, or ending elsewhere on the European continent.

I have to commend Qantas for doing an outstanding job with the first hotel arranged for 175 people in economy within an hour of passengers starting to filter through. Prioritising and forming reasonable queues seemed to be a big problem but as mentioned in the previous post, was probably more due to a lack of ground staff than anything else.

Even them smaller hotel, the Arabian Park Hotel did a great job of finding a number of bus loads appearing on their doorstep, offering people breakfast in order to mitigate the growing queue out their front door as they slowly worked their way through the crowd. Admitedly this hotel isn’t as nice as the two ones that I stayed in last time (fairly thin walls to the point I could hear the TV next door) but it certainly did the job or providing a temporary place to rest and freshen up.

After breakfast, checking in and freshening up, the first task was hunting down Internet. As previously mentioned, the hotel wasn’t really that up to par with the whole Internet thing (no wi-fi in the rooms and the LAN didn’t seem to be working in my room) so off it was to hunt down Internet. Although the first task was really about trying to get some cash. Strangely the hotel did some conversions although they only accepted British Pounds but it was enough to get me a cab ride to “Bank Street”, the wide road that hosts almost all of the different banks. A couple of ATMs later, and I found one that would accept my card.

Now doshed up, I walked around until I recognised a few places and ended at a place with lots of internet cafes. It’s pretty cheap being AER2 (about 40p) per hour with many terminals equipped with webcams, speakers. Some of the terminals were well old-school as well. Think really large CRT screens and the gratifyingly loud keyboards that almost made me very self conscious as I sent out the announcements of my delay.

Last time I came to Dubai I don’t think we saw the markets on the side of the river, a short “Abra”-ride away from everyone. The Abras provide a huge service to the community, connecting both sides of the river for only AER1 (20p) ferrying a constant stream of people. When the Abra-drivers get tired, they moor their boats alongside a quieter part of the river where they have their own social gatherings with other Abra boat-masters.

I love wandering the various markets in other countries, although don’t really like the hassle of all the touts trying to get you into their stores with their different tricks. “Come in and look only.” “Look only,” is the phrase that puts me on the defensive. I think there’s a huge difference between the bargaining rituals you need to go through and the touts that are there to draw in the tourists or the first-time sucker. One of the special things about the markets are the little person drawn-carts that ferry goods around the smaller alley ways although this doesn’t really stop them from getting on the road themselves.

(spice market)

Out of the various souks, my favourite by far is the spice market. You know when you’re in the vicinity when the strong pungent odours hit your senses and the walkways seem to be covered in an even more of a dusty haze (if that seems possible in Dubai). Buckets of full spices fill your senses and despite all the normal spices one would expect in an Arabic spice market (saffron, cardamom, cloves, cinnamon, etc) they did surprise me with a number.

There’s been plenty of development and given the constant construction sites, it looks like they’ll be plenty more new things being finished over the years to come. I didn’t get a chance to go to the tallest building in the world, this most recent attempt newly opened in February this year. The other most noticeable investment which I’m pretty surprised about is the metro system. I have no idea how it works or whether or not its a popular or economic choice for locals but I think it’s great they’re thinking so far ahead to a more sustainable transportation system.

After a very late lunch and lots more wandering around, I retired back to the hotel to repack my stuff and to freshen up for hopefully what would be the last leg of the journey.