Despite have lots of signs even a bus stop named after it, I really think they should have called them the Remains of the Temple of Mithras instead of just The Temple of Mithras.
As you can see from the photo below, there really isn’t much of a temple. This one was moved (almost all of these were below the ground) was moved to Temple Court on Queen Victoria Street and historians believe that it was built in the middle of the 2nd Century AD.
What a surprise to be asked by someone at a client from a different department to run an agile workshop. It’s a great sign that some people want to hear more about it, and even greater to be recommended by a fellow client developer to run it.
I’m lucky enough to be working with a client within walking distance of home, but I’ve been suffering under the ridiculously cold and windy weather than has been hanging around London (okay, not cold compared to Russia or other places), and it’s not much fun walking around in it. There have been signs of snow (2 minutes of sleet/light snow here or there) but the closest thing we got today was just more cold rain… Hmm… 40 degree heat and blue skies doesn’t sound too bad right about now.
London is one of those central hubs of the world (a few European and American cities come to mind as well) where dance music thrives, so it is only appropriate to at least get yourself to a dance event worth going to. This Saturday, I found myself standing underneath a row of lights beneath London Bridge Tube station with a bunch of mates, waiting in a massive queue only to get into the February Raindance. It was kind of surreal standing with at least hundreds of other people beneath the tunnels, wisps of smoke pervading the air and the occassional car, and not-so-occasional (read frequent) hawker trying to sell their wares (glo sticks and other stuff).
Raindance is a rave held three times a year somewhere around London. This time it was held at Seone and like most things in London, people came out in scores to visit. Though entrance was pretty low, be prepared to pay handsomely for essentials, especially the bottle of water (at £2.50 a pop!) but is still worth the fun night everyone had. There were several major rooms, each playing different types of music including Hardcore, House, Club Classic, Old Skool, Jungle Drum ‘N Bass, House, Hard House, and Breakbeat. My favourite room was definitely the D&B room but doubling as a major thoroughfare meant it was completely packed all night long.
Thanks to Grandpa Mushroom Joe and Mike for organising the entire night and the rest of the gang for making it an awesome and tiring night!
Firstly I just wanted to apologise for any popups that any of you may have been getting in visiting my site. I have been getting them myself and thought it was other sites causing this. It was becoming quite frequent and I found out that the free service I use for web-traffic analysis had changed and started doing little popups (this was the little icon that used to be on the menu).
They have now been replaced with another service. If you still see the icon, make sure you do a SHIFT-F5 on your window to make sure you get the latest, but do post a comment if you have any other issues.
Thanks.
TheKua.
London is an interesting place to be looking for a flat, as what you get is never as good as what you want it to be, yet expect to pay through the roof for it. We advertised last week for a flat mate, but after having gone through the process, we learned a few lessons posting an advert for them. Admittedly, one of our other housemates posted it, and they didn’t exactly put too much effort into it.
Here are a few good things to put into an advertisement that might help weed people out and give people looking a better idea of what they’re getting before you have to arrange for people to come around and visit:
Finally when you have listed details about the place, it’s also good to ask for details for the people who are viewing because you will need to weed people out, and it helps to have more information than less. Think about asking for their:
After having a delicious breakfast at 202 again and meeting up with Kath from Oxford, we went to visit the Tate Modern down at Southbank. It is a huge warehouse building directly opposite the Millenium bridge and located next to Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre. Entry is free except ot some special exhibits, but the rest of the collections are free to view. The gallery shows some interesting collections such as the Embankment structure by Rachel Whiteread pictured below.
Other collections were a little disappointing to me, but mainly because they were far too abstract for me to understand or even try to understand. A good example is one in which red paint was “violently” thrown at a canvas so that it would achieve some message which I couldn’t quite get immediately out of a canvas simply covered in red paint. My most favourite of the collection was the Andy Warhol room that showed a number of his works (including the Elvis Presley and Jackie Kennedy ones) and described his interesting motivations behind them.
For the “He Who Knows” Challenge, I’ve been yet to visit a Conran restaurant, so this Thursday I did the next best thing and visited The Cow, a restaurant run by Tom Conran, the son of the more famous Sir Terence Conran. I have been meaning to go this one for quite some time, as it’s only a twenty minute walk from where I live but I just hadn’t put in the effort.
The Cow is a gastropub with the bottom floor hosting an oyster bar and a tiny private dining room upstairs set with about eight white-clothed tables. Like most pubs anywhere, the bottom floor can get quite smokey and so we decided to eat upstairs in the dining room (although note that people are allowed to smoke there as well). I highly recommend that you book in advance as its popularity ensures that locals always fill the small number of tables most nights of the week.
The dining room is extremely petite. Its tables are close enough together to be able to hear side conversations but with enough room that it doesn’t feel like you’re sharing your table. The one page menu is short but has enough variety amongst the starters, mains, sides and desserts to leave you satisfied and as typical as anything associated with the Conran name, has a fair amount of seafood.
I shared a starter of smoked eel and potato and bacon salad. There was a decent amount of eel and the smoky flavour definitely came through. The salad accompanying it was quite good as well although the dressing had an excess of horseradish that really overpowered the dish at times. I followed this with the main of roast halibut, leeks, laverbread served with an orange butter sauce that was perfectly cooked. The leeks, though softened still had form and the laverbread went well with the sweet and firm flesh of the fish but I did find the orange flavour in the sauce did not come through very potently. My dessert was a prune and armagnac crème brulee that really hit the spot at the end of the meal and was not excessively rich or sweet.
For people that want a nice meal, The Cow offers a great experience in terms of both service and food quality although you can find better gastropub affair at other places. The wine list is extensive, the staff appeared to be very knowledgeable, and service was quite good. I would not exactly make it my local place but definitely a place to indulge.
Details: The Cow
Found On: 89 Westbourne Park Road, W2 5QH
Contactable On: 020 7221 0021
Highlights: Pleasant service, great quality food, extensive wine menu, wide selection of Oysters
Room for improvement: Not fantastic value for money, and could do with a bigger dining area.
The Kua Rating: 8.5 out of 10
