In May this year, Jamie Hewlett, co-creator of virtual band Gorillaz won the ‘Designer of the Year Award’. While refurbishment of Royal Festival Hall is underway, an exhibition showing a mural of his band’s characters is up until February 2007. The series is not large but some of the artwork is nicely detailed and quite large.
If you’re in London I suggest taking a look if you’re in the area, or check the rest of them out here.
A couple of Saturday’s ago, the UK office of Thoughtworks ran an internal conference that we call an ‘Away Day’. A work colleague of mine, Tom Scott and I presented a workshop titled Lean at Large: The Value Stream Map. Our goal was a tough one to fit in an hour, with a fundamental aim of giving people experience at value stream mapping and drawing some conclusions from it. Thanks to all the people that came along and participated – we certainly got some great feedback and more importantly we hope you got something useful out it.
We spent some time first talking briefly about lean theory, its relevance to software development before talking more about the wastes in manufacturing and production and their equivalents in software development. We gave an example of how you would leverage a value stream map highlighting system wastes, and then how you might analyse it to gain the most improvements to your system.
The next part of our session was more hands, with four volunteers acting out different roles using lego to create a car production line. The other observers broke into groups to observe and map out their value stream maps. Based on feedback notes we handed out and what people said to us after the session, I think most people found it fun and energising for such a late session in the day. Some peopel found it relevant and useful and some others could immediately see parallels in the game to the ways things operated on their current projects or current work environments.
Since we believe in continuous improvement, here are specific actions we will be doing for the next time we run this session:
The Case: A late night in town
Date: November 9, 2006
Time: Late
Location: Little Italy, 21 Frith St, London, W1D 4RN
Synopsis: Run by the owners of the chic Bar Italia, this modernised Italian bar fronts a classy multi-tiered restaurant serving delicately presented Italian food. The wait staff buzzed around, talking surprisingly quietly to each other in Italian while the three excessively attentive bar tenders execute orders with amazing precision and speed. In contrast, the ladies next to us at the bar leisurely work their way through a couple of bottles of champagne and indulge in the bowls of free olives that sit at the bar. As per the He Who Knows Challenge, we ordered a round of Long Island Ice Teas that arrived in a flash. These versions are slick, served in the proper rounded tall glass and had the perfect balance between being smooth and tasty (as well as toxic). The result was a drink that needed no help and slid down the throat far too quickly.
Atmosphere:Attracting a little bit more of an older crowd, and a certainly better dressed crowd than most other bars I’ve been to, the brightly polished wooden floors and sharp lights set the perfect mood lighting. The elegant dining areas on the multiple floors are filled with white table-clothed tables set perfectly with fine cutlery and glass sets that look like they’re waiting for a fine three course meal to be consumed.
Conclusion: A place that certainly wasn’t getting any emptier as the night wears on and proud to declare their commitment to late nights by keeping open until 6am until Christmas, this place is a great place for drinking some fine drinks at equally fine prices in a quality atmosphere.
On our current project, we try to keep testing as close to as what’s going in proudction as possible. We take frequent database backups (appropriately clean some of the data) and then each developer and the QAs restore them to local copies of SQL server. The DB in production is massive with its transaction file, so here’s a way of speeding it up for local copies.
On Tuesday, my team and I finished our second and final phase of my current project, so what better way to celebrate with the customer than by visiting the Absolut Ice Bar? The inside ice bar looks like a very trendy freezer maintaining a cool -5 degrees Celsius and loaded with various furniture and sculptures all made of ice. The drink concoctions are created out of Absolut vodka and more colourful liqueurs and dispensed to you in large glasses also made of ice. Thankfully it’s easy to stay in the cold for the limited session of 40 minutes since you’re given a warm furry poncho-like coat equipped with a gloves and a warm hood.
The outside bar is as trendy as the actual ice bar, equipped with modern decor and funkily lit tables. Their drinks menu offers a limited selection of beers but makes up for it with its extensive range of spirits, martini and cocktail mixtures all at equally trendy London prices. We had a fantastic night out on the town and though it’s not an every weekend experience, I think the Ice Bar has a lot going for it.
Every so often, one of our offices around the world hold an internal conference, that in the UK’s case is called thee Away Day. Just like many other conferences, you get a whole heap of people together and you find out some interesting things. Since our office is so large and we had quite a number of visitors, you also end up doing a bit of networking.
Sessions I attended included Marco Abis’ sessions on “Back to People”, Erik Dorenburg and Nick Drew’s presentation on “Software Visualisation”, Angela Martin’s “Customers are from Mars, Developers are from Venus”, my own presentation about “Lean at Large: The Value Stream Map”, and then a brief session with Martin Fowler on a summary from a small gathering he had on DSLs.
Someone asked me a while back to do a comparative review of Wagamama’s to the one back in Brisbane, so here goes. Wag’s is a bit of an institution over here in London with 23 locations in Central London, many more in Greater London and numerous stores opening overseas. The concept is simple – modernised, fast and efficient Japanese food you eat at benches you may share with other people. Attendants beam your orders wirelessly to the kitchen, scribbling down numbers on some paper placemats and food comes out as soon as it’s cooked, so you may get your main meal before your side dish.
There are subtle differences to the ones over here compared to my memories of the one at The Emporium in Brisbane. I think the dishes on offer do not greatly differ, but I think prices are comparatively more reasonable here in London – I think you’ll pay about the same price for a meal at many other places. Queues here at some of the more central ones are bound to be long if you go anytime after 7. Surprisingly many of them are very close to each other, so if the Covent Garden one is busy (which it usually is), then it’s very close to go the Bloomsbury one.
Living in the UK also gives you access to the member’s site that offers your even more promotions such as a free side or two for one meals at selected branches. Better yet, when a new store opens, you can even win tickets to some of their pre-opening sessions where they give away whole sets of meals all for nothing but your time. My sister’s attended two openings since moving here.
I think the concept of Wagamama’s is great, and the number of times I have been the food quality is always consistently high, though service will always depend on who is serving you.
Charcoal cooking is guaranteed to be an amazing dining experience, especially when it is done at an Argentinean restaurant, where they part delicate smoky flavours to their food over a parilla (an Argentine charcoal grill). Quite recently I was able to indulge in a wonderful meal at Buen Ayre up in Broadway Market (see my thoughts on another restaurant close by called The Dove).
This little Argentine Grill & Bar offers a simple but effective menu and although they exceed the expectations of a wonderful Argentine beef eating experience, they do also cater for vegetarians with their grilled mushrooms, aubergines and haloumi cheese.
The various steaks they offer are apparently from Argentine and for the flavour, texture and preparation you get, I think is definitely worth the average of £12 per steak. I was fortunate enough to be dining with a large group of people so we also tried a number of their other dishes including their empanadas, grilled provolone cheese, ox tongue and chips with garlic butter. Pretty much everything was wiped clean except for the ox tongue that not even the brave person who ordered it could finish. I think it’s extremely thick cut combined with its unique texture and strong flavour is only for the true aficionado.
One of the best things about this restaurant includes their innovative extension of the parilla to the dining table. These excellently valued parrilladas are definitely worth getting if you have least two people. Each parrillada (a small brazier) arrives at the table filled with hot charcoals and topped with a plethora of meats including steak, sausages and a variety of sides depending on which one you choose.
Before eating at this restaurant I don’t think I have eaten that much meat since arriving in the UK, but I really enjoyed the atmosphere and the quality of the meat that we ate. Broadway market is not exactly close to a tube station and even though you should make a reservation, I think it is most definitely worth the trip out to East London for it.
Details: Santa Maria del Buen Ayre
Found On: 50 Broadway Market, London E8 4QJ
Contactable On: 020 7275 9900 or their website
Highlights: Great parilla cooking, fantastic quality steaks at very reasonable prices all in a great atmosphere.
Improvements: Bookings are timed and its location means you have to get a bus from the tube station.
The Kua Rating: 8 out of 10