Category Archives: Going Out

Curry Club

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At work there is this club called the Curry Club. So, every so often (perhaps monthly) the club will get together as a group and go out and grab some curry. Speaking to a few people at work the club seems to have a reputation for being a bit cliquey because its a bit of a mystery how one gets membership. At any rate I kind of gate crashed tonight’s apparently 55th or 56th event thanks to Sir Jules getting me on to the list. After we lost some people after leaving the pub we were still left with a good size group of around about 30 people.

Tonight’s resturant was Tandoori Nights at Holborn. It was clear that the restaurant struggled with managing the size of our group. We were spread out on three tables and getting our orders in was pure havoc. To their credit though they didn’t make too many mistakes and although our table always got our food last – we did get it all eventually if a little later than the other tables! The curry was pretty yummy when it came and I was stuffed after a starter, curry, some rice and of course a naan. The price tag was pretty hefty at the end but that probably had more to do with the bottles of wine and beer on the table rather than the food. It would be interesting to visit as a smaller group or even as a couple to see if the service, food and price tag compares with tonight’s experience.

As for the Curry Club experience. It was certainly … interesting. Though you could sense the separation between the regulars and the not so regulars based on who sat at which table we still had a lot of fun – even if we didn’t really mingle too much (hard to do in a restaurant really!)

A day around the Thames

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So sometimes you have to take the time to explore your own local neighbourhood. London is a pretty big neighbourhood and its been a long time since I’ve walked along the Thames so after a mammoth feast at yum-cha I thought it would be a good idea to join my bro for a bit of a walk.

The great thing about London is that you can walk practically anywhere very easily. Its pretty much flat all around and you are guaranteed to see something interesting in your travels, especially around South Bank where there is always something going on.

For example, until Feb next year (2007 – not long to go now!) Gorillaz co-creator Jamie Hewlett has a set of amazing murals up on display around the Royal Festival Hall. Jamie actually won the ‘Designer of the Year Award’ for his work in animating and creating the Gorillaz’s alter-egos. I especially liked this mural where in the upper right corner there is the Grim Reaper but he looks like he is just hovering in the background or is being seen in a reflection.

Another thing that might take your fancy is the current Unilever Series exhibition by Carsten Höller, titled Test Site, at the Tate Modern which consists of five slides in the Turbine Hall. The work is a “playground for the body and the brain”.

Although tickets for the slides are free they are timed and only available on the day. And as everyone who knows about the slides wants to slide down them you aren’t guaranteed a ticket if you arrive late in the day. If you can’t get on to the slides on Levels 3-5 slides I think the one on Level 2 is available on an as comes basis – but who really wants to slide down that when you’ve got gigantic ones you can get on to!

Apparently Höller has undertaken other projects including a machine that hoists the user through the air (Flying Machine) and a room full of Frisbees (imaginatively titled the Frisbee House) so this is not his first attempt at crazy. Just kidding! When I said crazy I really meant fun. We arrived too late to consider trying to get a ticket but to be honest I was more worried about getting to the end of the slide and then flying off to who knows where in my helmet and burlap sack! What a piece of comedy that would have been.

Leaving South Bank we somehow found ourselves near St Paul’s Cathedral where there was a very strange and unexpected Fun Fare happening. It felt a bit eerie to be honest but people seemed to be enjoying themselves!

Road Trip Girls’ Catch Up

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So, straight after coming back from Paris I went out to dinner with some of the girls, Kim, Justine and Rita, from the group that went to Devon. It was cool to catch up with them and to hear how they were going – and it was nice of them to wait for me to make it in. The thing that a lot of ex-pats find when they come to London is that most of the people you meet on tours and such will be fellow ex-pats and if you stay in London long enough you find that the people you do meet from back home will soon enough return so its always nice to meet new people and stay in touch with them even if you don’t see them all that often. As usual when we get together we all had a great time and as always the night extended way longer than we thought it would. I’m going to be one tired girl tomorrow or is that today?!

A new London entry

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Tonight we welcomed yet another person (Mel) from work back home to London. As tradition dictates we all met up at the Porterhouse for a bit of a catch up and lots of laughter. I don’t know if it was something in the drinks but tonight Nick had quite a few of us in tears at some of his stories.

I had heard a lot about Mel before she came over and she me but we’d never actually met before. Kind of wierd but it still felt like we had! Anyway, she sounded pretty excited to be here and before night’s end had already planned the next get together – clubbing on the weekend! Such a shame I will be in Dublin … 🙂

Connie Turns 30!

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The birthday girl and meThis week Connie turned 30 and to celebrate we all trooped down to Galvin at Baker Street. Galvin is billed as a French Bistrot De Luxe with the restaurant boasting using the best of British and French regional produce in its seasonal menu.

Run by two classically trained Michelin-starred brothers – Chris and Jeff Galvin – you would expect to be paying through the nose to eat at such a restaurant. Especially when you see how classy the restaurant appears to be when you first walk in and the numerous wait staff dotted all over the small space. Instead to our surprise the three-course set menu for lunch cost a mere £15.50 (with dinner being only £2 more.) The Galvin approach to the restaurant is to keep things as simple and as low-key as possible and never was this more evident than in the way the booking was handled. When Connie first rang through to book the restaurant it was one of the Galvin brothers who actually answered the phone and he was in the kitchen cooking at the time! Its nice to see that they are relaxed enough to answer the phone when needed.

Our food was absolutely amazing. It was all kept very simple but clearly the ingredients were extremely high in quality. The Table 2 portions were just about right and I only just had enough room after my three courses to indulge in the birthday cakes baked especially for the two birthday celebrants by the chefs of Galvin.

I have absolutely no hesitation in recommending Galvin. If the restaurant was let down at all it was by their wait staff who just couldn’t seem to handle our two tables – there were probably about 22 of us and about 6 of them so I’m not sure how they could constantly keep getting our orders wrong. The funny thing was that it was always the same few people who kept getting the wrong dishes! Despite the mix-ups we all had a really great time. We had so much fun that we hadn’t even realised we’d been in the restaurant for about 4 and a half hours!

A day spent in around town

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So a plan of checking out ski clothes ended up being a day spent around town eating, enjoying the sun, some checking out of ski clothes and then watching other people run their guts out.

The eats. Good dim sum is hard to come by in London it seems. Laureate is an old standby that I like to go to for their consistently good quality food, generally good service and pretty much fair price. And not to make an undiverse comment or anything but its always a good sign to walk into a Chinese restaurant to find it is filled with Chinese diners. I think Sandra was a bit surprised to find that when we walked in at just before 12 today she was the only white person in there. Again not to be undiverse but its fact!

Laureate offers a good diverse selection of dim sum so there is something for everyone. In an unusual move, unusual because normally I am so stuffed with eating our mains I have no room, we went for two dessert dishes. A yam and tapioca dish (which you can see Sandra enjoying to the right) and a mango puds dish. Both of these are pictured to the left. Both were actually pretty tasty dishes and though Sandra did seem to enjoy them both she somehow convinced herself in the middle of eating it that she didn’t like the yam and tapioca dish after all. We still aren’t sure how she did that. Maybe it has something to do with the fact that “[her] mum makes the best tapioca dessert in the whole world.”

The shopping. After stuffing ourselves slightly at dim sum we headed off to a couple of ski shops in Covent Garden. Now, unless you’re a serious skiier that will definitely be hitting the slopes all season long it doesn’t seem reasonable to spend a kazillion dollars on buying ski gear that you will wear for 5 days only. Yes you may try to convince yourselve that you will wear it “the next time” you go skiing .. but seriously when that time comes around again I’m sure you’ll be wanting the latest season gear anyway! We started off at the Mountain Warehouse which was a discount store that Sandra found online. Its not top of the line gear but it’ll get you through a ski holiday and the prices are fairly reasonable. I was most impressed with one of the shop assistants who, rather than bully us into buying expensive items we didn’t need, gave very good advice on what to look for in ski gear and actually told us to come back in a few weeks time when more ski gear would be coming in. We did try on some ski pants and jackets for sizing and you can see Sandra to the right in a dead sexy pair of ski trousers. Yowzer!

It turned out that going to the Mountain Warehouse first was a bit of a mistake as when we went up the road to the North Face and Ellis Brigham the prices in there seemed utterly ridiculous instead of just being a touch on the expensive side. Didn’t stop us trying on some really cute ski jackets and caps but we were definitely not going to be sourcing any of our ski gear from either of those shops unless they have a giant fire sale dropping prices by at least 60%! Well, that’s how I felt anyway.

Looking cute in our ski jackets was hot and hard work 🙂 so next on the agenda was a drinks break. Why is it when you want a shop to get a nice icy fruit shake or milkshake you can never think of a good one to go to? So, sadly (ha ha) we ended up at Ben & Jerry’s in Leicester Square. A milkshake was just the ticket. It seemed a bit strange to mix two potentially obscure flavours but somehow it worked. We took our shakes down to Trafalgar Square to enjoy what was turning out to be a fabulous day. The sky was so blue and I even had time for a bit of cloud gazing spotting a horse in the clouds. Or something horse-like. Or not. You may have to use some imagination.

You must surely be wondering by now where we get to the watching people run their guts out stage? Okay maybe not but here it is anyway. We walked from Trafalgar Square through crazy Piccadilly Circus up Regent Street to Nike Town and found that they were having a Nike Festival of Air. It sounds much more dramatic than it actually is and its all about promoting a new range of Nike Air shoes. Part of the Festival is to “Run on Air”. Basically, they have these three treadmills set up and the challenge is to run for as long as you can at the average pace that Paula Radcliffe runs a marathon. This average pace ladies and gentlemen is a “slow” 11.6 miles an hour. I joke you not. Holey dooley! I can’t even run at 11.6 kilometres an hour let alone do it over 26 miles! The longest time every day wins a pair of the new shoes and the longest time at the end of the festival (Thur, 28th Sep) gets a one-on-one training session with Paula Radcliffe. Not a prize to be scoffed at.

So, anyway, we watched a few people try it most of them averaging about 1-2 minutes at that pace and some finding it so fast they literally flew off the back of the treadmill. Okay – that was just one guy but still. You can see in the pic to the above right the guy in the middle is already struggling and they are only 3 seconds into the run! He lasted maybe another 20 seconds and the other two didn’t last much longer – I think the girl went over just a minute and the guy on the left maybe two minutes. When you see how fast their legs were going you realise just how fast Paula runs in a marathon. Hurts just thinking about it.

And then along came Mr Marathon. Otherwise known as Ryan McKinlay. Now this is one guy intent on winning the grand prize. According to the Nike Air Festival website before today’s performance he had already clocked 25 mins 30 seconds and 32 mins and 31 seconds in at least two previous attempts. (He may have had more attempts but they are the ones currently in the top 5.) So, before Mr Marathon started his run today some other guy, Chris Kantos, held the record at 35 mins and 31 seconds.

Mr Marathon proved he was up to the challenge and more. The pic to the left is him at 28 minutes. Still looking really easy, still relaxed, giant strides, and close to the front of the treadmill. I was getting tired just watching him. Another 22 minutes (!) later we thought it was all over at 50 mins. Seemed he had something to prove though as he pushed himself that little bit further. Record: 51 mins and 3 seconds. That is going to take some beating. If you’re keen to try – you have until Thursday to do so!

NEWS FLASH: Young Man Turns Old … er

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In a stunning series of sightings today a young mystery man, accompanied by two young ladies (well, one very young lady and one not so young lady), was spotted celebrating turning old … er in numerous spots in and out of the city. Lunch diners at the Soho branch of Wagamama’s were delighted to be sharing their table space on this special day with such a daring young man. Many diners were heard expressing their admiration for this now older man’s courage in openly admitting, by a very strange badge pinned to his lapel, his turning 30.

Sweeping down New Bond Street on the way to Trafalgar Square, zooming past all the luxury shops, the mystery man found time on this most amazing of days to stop in to admire Damien Hirst’s 35ft-tall, 13-and-a-half-ton The Virgin Mother statue at the Royal Academy of Arts. “It’s a darn big thing but I’m not sure its all that attractive” he said of The Virgin Mother. “It’s a little disturbing actually” he later added. Its probably fair to say that he wasn’t the only one thinking this – its not every day, after all, that you are confronted with a giant metal version of the insides of a pregnant woman.

The visit to Trafalgar Square to check out the Trafalgar Square Festival was a little disappointing but in a show of real spirit the mystery man took this in his stride, scattering pigeons every which way, as he determinedly made his way to King’s Cross Station to bravely board a train heading to the, *gasp*, ‘burbs of Gordon Hill. At King’s Cross Station, with some time on his hands, a quick visit to Harry Potter’s Platform 9 ¾ was on the cards. Unfortunately time appeared shorter that it was and his luggage cart made it halfway through before his train was called so the cart had to be abandoned for the train.

Arriving at best mate Neil’s house deep in the ‘burbs of Gordon Hill the mystery man was pleasantly surprised by a little sponge cake which bore a picture with an amazing likeness to his looks from waaaaay back in the day. “Look at my hair!” he exclaimed when he first saw it.

All evening friends of the mystery man were heard to comment on how young he looked. “You look pretty good for your age, you look more like a 29-year old than a 30 year-old” was definitely heard in passing more than once. Unfortunately all attempts by the two ladies for the dirt on the mystery man failed with his friends. Most likely as he held all their secrets and had more dirt on them, than them him!

In the end a very pleasant day and evening was had by all, even if the BBQ didn’t quite come off, and even if the mystery man will be feeling it (the effects of drinking) for days …. Guess that’s what happens when you turn 30!! Happy Birthday Sir Jules!

Party Bus!!

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I am soooo getting too old for all this partying every night! I know that I shouldn’t really complain but yesterday I really wasn’t up for getting on to Ren’s party bus. We met surprisingly early (5.30.) Probably cause we were getting some chow first before heading to our first venue by 8. Not sure if its because the days are so long here but it felt strange to be partying so early in the evening. The party bus is actually a great idea – just make sure you try and get a bus which will let you choose some good tunes. So, the plan was to hit about 4 spots in and around town after our meal. Ren did try and choose venues that were far apart so we actually got a chance to party on the bus. We drove through central London (as in Oxford St and Trafalgar Sq) quite a few times and I could tell that the people out on the street were extremely jealous (ha ha) of the great time we were having on the bus.

Anyway, here are some pics from the night:

Jongleurs

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Take 1 Jongleurs is one of the biggest and well-known comedy clubs in London, if not the UK. Jongleurs is actually a chain but I decided that we might as well go to the sight where the first Jongleurs club was set up – in Battersea. Surprisingly last tonight was an easy night to get together a few people to come along with me. Even better was the discount that we were able to get on entry – from £16.50 down to £9. Not bad for a few hours of comedy.

Take 2 To be honest I didn’t know what to expect. All we knew was that doors closed at 8.15 and the show started at 9. I personally expected maybe an hour or an hour and a half maximum of comedy and instead the whole thing finished at around about 11.45! There were five comedians and a compare and the compare was a laugh all by himself so we basically got six stand up acts – all of varying quality and all quite distinct and different from each other. I can’t remember all Disco 1 their names but I do remember one guy had a lot of props – hilarious when he dragged out his little speak and spell. As for the comedy that was actually delivered tonight – well, it was okay if not the greatest thing I’ve ever seen.

There were nearly 20 of us there for the show and I was a bit worried about how everyone would get along with a mixture of work people from here, work people from home, my brother and some other friends from back home. As expected everyone pretty much stayed within their groups but I hope they all enjoyed themselves. At the end of the show many were not game enough to stick around for the disco but Einstein and Sir Jules had no choice as Sir Jules and I were Disco 2 staying at Einstein’s house that night! I had a good laugh at the cheesy music they played for the disco and some of the dance moves on the floor.

Disco 1Oh, on a side note Jongleurs also serves food (generally they try and encourage you to finish this before the comedy starts) and drinks – mainly in jugs and buckets of bottles, though you could get singles too. Their cocktails were okay if slightly skimpy on the alcohol though clearly different bartenders mixed different levels of alcohol into each of the five jugs (or was it six?) that Einstein and I shared between us.

Overall Jongleurs was a fun and entertaining experience and a great way to spend a Friday night with a bunch of good people.

Some of the comedians:

World Cup Final – A day of activity

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So, the day of the World Cup Final dawns and its a France v Italy final. Good for the French and Italians in London but not so exciting for the Brits. Still, its not everyday there is a World Cup Final so we made plans to meet and watch the match anyway. Clearly the pubs weren’t going to be overrun with English supporters so we had no worries about rocking up an hour or so before the match and still grabbing a seat. As a result we had the whole day to find something to do.

The weather was slightly on the dodgy side but we decided a bit of Pitch n Putt wouldn’t go astray. A quick search on google and we had a venue: Queen’s Park. I was surprised to find that Queen’s Park isn’t all that far from home and after about 40-45 minutes of walking (not walking all that fast either as I was on the phone most of the time so was a little distracted) I arrived at the tube station where I met up with Sir Jules and Einstein. The park itself was only a short walk away from the tub.

Having read that the park is about 30 acres I thought finding the Pitch n Putt was going to be a bit tricky but it was actually relatively straightforward. In fact, in combination with the tennis courts it takes up about maybe a quarter of the park so its fairly hard to miss. The course itself is 9 holes with the longest hole being about 80 yards – so not too big. They make it easy to “tee-off” as well as each hole starts on top of a platform and I’m sure that this also saves replacing a lot of grass. Pitch n Putt was great entertainment and its just a shame the course wasn’t a little longer or an 18 hole one as we got through it pretty quick smart – despite not being the greatest golfers – and luckily for the other golfers on the course I didn’t hook/slice the ball too much as usually happens. Scorecards are here.

We thought we were going to be hours out on the course but, due to a combination of our clearly superior skills (ha ha) and size of the actual Pitch n Putt, we ended up finishing in just about an hour and most of that time was waiting for the group in front of us to finish. As a result Einstein thought a bit of practice on the boulles would be good.

After looking for what we thought was a lawn bowl green – what we found instead was a square of dirt. Turns out we were playing Pétanque (ironically a French game) instead. Its kind of like lawn bowls except you sort of toss (instead of roll) metal balls like small shot puts (instead of a bowl) at a small wooden ball, which to my amusement is called a piglet, (instead of a white jack) trying to get as close as possible. Strange game though I’m not sure how long it would keep me entertained on a normal day – even today it kept our attention for, oh, about fifteen minutes. There must be something redeeming about it though as about 17 million people in France apparently play it, most notibly during their summer holidays.

Next stop – something to soothe the beasts in our bellies. Being a Sunday it was the perfect day for a Sunday roast dinner. Sir Jules had found a nice pub for us to try out near Marylebone but unfortunately it was a no food day. Can’t understand why but perhaps some pubs find it easier to serve drinks only on a day like today (being the World Cup Final) or perhaps no food was being served due to there not being that many people around. Still, their loss was another pub’s gain and we found a good pub with a really nice Beef Roast and two TVs to watch the Wimbledon Men’s Singles Final on. Surprisingly after our roast we still had a couple of hours to fill before the final started at seven so it was off for a bit of ten pin bowling at the Trocadero.

Coming out of Picadilly Circus it was clear that the French and Italians were definitely out to enjoy their day of glory. You couldn’t turn anywhere without seeing someone draped in the blue, white and red or the green, white and red and of course there was much singing and chanting. But back to the game later.

The bowling at the Trocadero was okay. The lanes seemed a bit shorter than I’m used to so as Einstein commented it seemed a lot easier to hit the strikes and spares. Well, easy for her to say since she (and Sir Jules) scored well into the 100s. I did get a spare or two I think but still a pretty dismal effort in the light of everyone else’s peformance. I will say something about the bowling at the Trocadero and its that they were playing fab music. Well, for the short period we were there at any rate. A quick stop at the 2p machines, of course, and then it was back to Marylebone to find a pub to watch the final in.

I’m not going to say much about the game itself because it was boooring. Except for that one moment that everyone’s talking about when Zidane head-butted that dude that had seemingly been giving him a nipple cripple. THE funniest moment in the football ever and I’m sure a moment that will be replayed over and over. Yes Italy went on to win the game on penalties and yes, my neighbourhood was celebrating into the wee hours of the morning (much car-honking and I think it was Bolero or something played REALLY REALLY loud.) I was disappointed to see them win but then again at least we Aussies can now say we were beat by the World Cup Champs.