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Try to pretend you don't want one of these tweed caps.

Dr John Hawkins

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Recent Entries:: An Array of Antiquities, both Domestic and Exotic
Grumbles
Leaving Do
Start of Q4
Belgravia Pub Crawl
Busy
...and a Jolly nice Sunday too
A Jolly Nice Saturday
Friday
A British Restaurant
Dunno
Chap from the US
Back to London
The Bear
Abergavenny Food Festival
Horrible Sayings
Working Late Again
Peer Reviews
Working Late
Entertaining the Japanese

An Array of Antiquities, both Domestic and Exotic: [Saturday 4th October]
Chie wanted to go to the Portobello Road market today, so we headed out around 11ish, got the tube to Notting Hill Gate, and then had a wander up Portobello Road from there. As always it was a bit overcrowded which was somewhat off-putting, but we did find a couple of the antiques shops quite interesting - particularly the ones selling old maps and engravings.

We continued right to the end of Portobello road, where it turns onto Golborn Road, and yet more street markets and interesting shops/cafés, but this time with a distinctly Middle Eastern flavour. We had lunch at Maramia Café on Golborn Road - we had their Middle Eastern answer to an all day breakfast - falafel, a fried egg, some very tasty savoury pancakes, another kind of vegetable fritter type thing all served with hommous salad and pita bread (excuse my ignorance - I am embarassed I do not know all the proper names for these foodstuffs). This was extremely tasty, very satisfying, and frankly under priced at a mere £4.95 for a very varied and filling plate. The staff had charisma by the bucket full, and reminded me of my fellow Lebanese research students from the latter part of my PhD. I would definitely go back again if I was ever in the area, although the one thing that might put me off is that their website suggests David Cameron is a regular. Hmmmm....

After lunch we decided to head back into the city centre, but weren't really sure what exactly we wanted to do.

We got the tube to Holborn with the intention of popping in to the British Museum, and on the way there we walked past the recently re-opened Princess Louise. I couldn't resist popping in for a quick half so we could admire the newly refurbished interior. I had often heard about this pub, as it is just on the border of the area in which most of my favourite pubs reside, but I had never actually been in before. I was very impressed - as part of the refurbishment they have apparently re-installed the original compartmentalised layout, presumably a Victorian idea in order to allow the patrons to be somewhat more discreet. Whilst this does slightly impair the view of some of the splendid original Victorian features, I think this kind of layout is probably now unique in London, although presumably was at one time commonplace in the Gin Palaces of old. I found it quite fascinating, and I shall definitely return to this delightful restored pub - very much another feather in the cap for the ever wonderful Sam Smith's.

We then popped briefly into the British Museum - one of the nice things about living in London, and admission to many of the museums being free, is that you don't feel like you have to do the whole thing every time. So we were only there for about 20 or 25 minutes - I really wanted to see the Rosetta Stone, which I had somehow missed on previous visits, and Chie wanted to show me three Greek statues of which she was rather fond.

The rest of the afternoon then devolved into an inevitable bout of shopping, although thankfully it wasn't all clothes, and we managed to fit in a visit to our favourite Japanese food shop - Rice Wine.

For dinner we made kimchi nabe and I watched a couple of episodes of Monty Python, although I guess the week was catching up on me as by 10:30 I was falling asleep.
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Grumbles: [Friday 3rd October]
There is an odd little backstreet not too far from where I live / work which has a few restaurants on it, but I had somehow always been a bit dubious about. I'm not sure exactly what it was - perhaps that it was just off Belgrave Road, where there are lots of "cheap" hotels for tourists, and so I had somehow imagine these restaurants mainly catered for that market.

Recently we had taken the plunge and tried one of them - Chimes - which turned out to be surprisingly nice (particularly the very interesting drinks menu). So emboldened by this we thought we'd give another one of them a go this evening - a place called Grumbles, just across the road.

It's a sort of bistro type place, with a style of food you might call "continental" (i.e. vaguely French, but also a bit Italian etc) or possibly "modern British". It was actually very good. It had a nice cosy ambience, the staff were friendly, the prices were quite reasonable, the menu was thoughtfully put together, and the actual food was tasty and altogether really very satisfying.

We shared a halloumi and asparagus salad to start - this sort of thing is right up my street, the halloumi was perfectly cooked (crispy but not dried out) and the salsa verdi with which they dressed the halloumi was succulent and very well balanced - the seasoning was just spot on.

For our main courses I had a wild mushroom risotto which was rich and satisfying, and Chie had a fish cake which apparently she liked too. Oh and in the interests of pointless extravagance I ordered a bottle of Perrier Jouet to drink.

We even had desserts - which I don't often do in restaurants - Chie had a very good bread and buter pudding, and I had an equally nice chocolate and brandy mousse.

All in all something of a surprise hit - I would definitely go again.
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Leaving Do: [Thursday 2nd October]
We'd had another intern working with us the last 3 months, and this week his internship came to and end so he invited us out for a couple of drinks. I hadn't really had much involvement with him in the time he'd been here, but I think he had done some good work for us, so it felt important to take part in giving him a bit of a send off.

We actually revisited one of the pubs from Tuesday's Belgravia Pub Crawl - The Nag's Head - although we caught it earlier in the evening today, and it didn't really have quite the same atmosphere. Just a bit too busy perhaps.

So I then proposed we go for a wander and try to find a different pub, and wandered into Knightsbridge, ending up at the Paxton's Head. It was OK I suppose, but a tad soulless by comparison, and in hindsight I wondered if we might have been better off staying in Belgravia.

The whole evening was a bit of a damp squid really, I felt a bit sorry for our intern - only me and two others (from a team of around 15) actually came along in the first place, and somehow we were all in a bit of a drab mood. So we called it a night not long after 9, and I decided as it was a pleasant enough evening I would just walk back home.
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Start of Q4: [Wednesday 1st October]
So it's October already then! Which means Q4 2008 is now under way too.

We've had a bit of a reshuffle at work and officially as of today I have a slightly different role, albeit still very much on the same project. The team we have in London, which was previously divided into two sub-teams, has now been re-organised into three sub-teams. I'm still a "technical lead" but now leading a different team, which probably will have a higher profile within the rest of the project in the various offices we have dotted around the US. My team is entirely focused on delivering solid tangible features, no vague waffley open ended academic meandering, which I am rather pleased about. We'll be 100% all about Getting Stuff Done (TM).

I made sure not to stay too late at the office so I could get home and cook for Chie, who was a bit poorly and had taken the day off work (nothing serious, just a cold). Having not really done much cooking recently I decided to push the boat out a bit and make a lasagne. It was jolly nice as always.
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Belgravia Pub Crawl: [Tuesday 30th September]
Given that my office is on the edge of Belgravia, I had often had the suspicion there must probably be a few nice pubs dotted around in that area, but somehow had never really got around to going exploring for them.

So this evening I decided on a whim to do just that, and was pleased to discover a few people from my office were willing to join me in this venture.

So off we headed, on a carefully planned route that was effectively circuitous around Belgrave Square:

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Horse and Groom. Really attractive from the outside, a charming frontage tucked away down a cobbled mews (as in fact pretty much all of tonight's pubs were). Inside however I was surprised (and a tiny bit disappointed I must admit) to find quite modern decor, including a TV in the corner. They had Asahi on tap, which always provides me with mental turmoil in old pubs like this - on the one hand I love Japanese beer, on the other hand though I suppose it does somewhat detract from the traditional atmosphere. Oh well, not a bad start. They

The Grenadier. Another charming little pub tucked away down a mews. Reviews I'd read on the web had me anticipating this place was going to be a bit snobbish, full of retired old colonels - nothing wrong with that per se of course - but of the variety who didn't take kindly to the constant streams of tourists visiting their local. I didn't actually find any of that in practice though, and the woman behind the bar was really quite friendly. She even smiled a bit. It was obviously a popular little pub, and despite the entire interior being the size of a lounge you might find in a relatively modest house, they managed to pack in a lot of people. Somehow we actually got a table which was rather nice. Probably my second favourite pub of the evening.

The Nag's Head. Surprise hit of the evening. I'd actually heard of the previous two pubs previously and had wanted to visit them for some time, whereas this one was only really added to the tour to help complete the route. However, the general consensus seemed to be that this was everyone's favourite pub of the four we visited. Yet again, it was tucked away down a mews, perhaps the frontage was a little less decorative than the previous two, but inside it was delightfully eccentric. The sort of pub that has all sorts of random oddities stuck to the walls, hanging from the ceiling, and so on. The staff were very nice too - very welcoming indeed. I think we arrived at this pub at just the right time, probably around 9 or 9:30, by which point the bustle of the after work crowds had thinned down a bit, and there was still a gentle hum, but it wasn't too crowded and we were able to find a table with relative ease. I love pubs when they're like this.

The Star Tavern. The final pub of the evening and yes, you guessed it, tucked away down a mews. Again, an attractive frontage with hanging baskets and everything, although this was definitely the largest of the evening's pubs and so it achieved a somewhat different effect. Inside it was again quite distinct from the first three pubs, which could all be characterised to some extent with words like cosy, charming, characterful or perhaps quaint or - dare I say - twee - meant in the kindest possible sense of course. This however was more of your clean, relatively uncluttered Victorian brewery ran pub (it was a Fuller's). Perhaps almost verging on the grand side (it had quite a high ceiling I recall). That is not to say it was unattractive, but having been rather spoiled with the bucketloads of character to be found in the previous three establishments, I found this one harder to warm to. Still, a perfectly nice enough pub in it's own right, and not a bad end to the evening.

I thoroughly enjoyed tonight's little expedition, have discovered some cracking little pubs not too far from the office, and it was also great to have a decent attendance from people at the office without any real advance planning or anything.
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Busy: [Monday 29th September]
Had stuff at work which I was trying to finish off before the end of the Month (actually, the end of the quarter) and so was really quite busy today.

Back at home Chie made dinner - we'd picked up some interesting ingredients in Chinatown at the weekend, and so we had ho fun noodles with bean curd in vegetarian oyster (actually mushroom) sauce.
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...and a Jolly nice Sunday too: [Sunday 28th September]
Another nice and non specific day much like yesterday. Chie and I decided to head out to do a spot of shopping in the afternoon, and as the weather was pleasant and we weren't in much of a rush we chose to walk again.

On the way to the centre we took a slightly unusual route and passed through what we eventually realised was part of Westminster Abbey. I think that part is called The Sanctuary, and at least some of that surprisingly large complex appears to be some kind of school. It was all rather enthralling, amazingly oldey worldey, and great for something we really just wandered into by accident.

We had lunch at my favourite Mexican restaurant - Cafe Pacifico, near Covent Garden. Whilst Chie's choice was a bit ropey, I went for the usual thing I order (the Quesada Grande) which was very nice indeed. After quite a boozy week I decided I probably ought to lay off the alcohol, and so instead went for a non-alcoholic cocktail, which was surprisingly quite nice, albeit containing a bit too much crushed ice.

After lunch we embarked on a spree of shopping, Chie bought some Anya Hindmarsh shoes, and I rather adventurously bought a jumper and a shirt in Gap. I was recently complimented at the office (by my manager) about how I didn't dress at all like a software engineer, which I rather liked, and so I have been spurred on to update my wardrobe further still, albeit, as mentioned, not particularly adventurously.

We meandered back by way of Chinatown (popping into what has now become our "usual" Chinese supermarket for a few odds and ends), and from there on to Piccadilly and St. James's. In fact we ended up walking all the way back home, and again I was in awe of all the fabulous buildings tucked away down otherwise unpromising little side streets.

We stopped for a coffee at what looked like a new Pret on the way back, as both of our feet were hurting. That was surprisingly nice too (not the coffee in particular, but just the little break aspect of it).

In the evening I made a slightly unsuccessful meal - some strange "vegetarian steaks" I had got at the Chinese supermarket earlier, served with some peas, julien carrots, and polenta with truffles (because we didn't have any other staples in). It was one of the two remaining truffles I had from the batch I bought a few weeks ago, and by this point it had definitely lost most of its' flavour. Oh well.
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A Jolly Nice Saturday: [Saturday 27th September]
Really rather a lovely day today. We seem to be having a bit of an Indian summer this September, albeit only at the weekends. Which is ideal really - it can certainly be frustrating if it's a weekday, and lovely weather, but you're stuck in the office.

Chie went off to see her friends in Maidenhead in the afternoon/evening, leaving me to my own devices. I did a bit of work initially, and then decided around 3ish to head out and get a financial errand out of the way (changing some Japanese Yen into pounds). This took me to Oxford Street, and whilst I got a tube on the way there (wanting to arrive before the banks closed etc), on the way back I decided to take a slow meandering stroll.

I walked down from Oxford Street, through the back of Mayfair, across Piccadilly into Green Park, and from there past Buckingham Palace to Victoria. I really enjoyed this walk, taking in a lot of back streets I hadn't been down before, lined with some really lovely buildings. London is just great for this sort of thing.

As it was a bit hot I decided to pop into my office on the way back home for a quick drink of water, and to tie up some bits of work. As it turned out, the American collleague who was visiting our office this week was also there on a similar basis. After an hour or two pottering away on work related stuff, we had a quick chat and decided as we were both at a bit of a loose end we should go out and get something to eat and drink that evening.

So we had another jolly nice stroll out from the office, through Green Park, across Piccadilly, along Saville Row, over Regent's Street and into Soho. I decided in the interests of being a bit different we should go to St. Moritz - the Swiss Restaurant - and luckily they were able to squeeze us in for an early sitting. It was delightfully twee as always, and I very much enjoyed having almost exactly the same meal as I had last time - ragout aux champignons sauvages to start with, followed by a rosti with cheese and vegetables for my main course. Jolly nice.

After dinner we ventured to a couple of my standard central London pub haunts - the Lamb and Flag, followed by the Coal Hole on the Strand. Both very nice as always.

I really enjoyed today, one of those completely unplanned days out that makes me realise I do actually really like living in London.
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Friday: [Friday 26th September]
Don't really remember that much about today.

I think I went along to the usual end-of-the-week beer and pizza thing, and I recall returning to my desk, where I had a wee dram with a colleague who had recently ordered a load of wine and a bottle of whisky from the Wine Society.

Went back home after that, and Chie made dinner - a vegetarian ma-po tofu and a very interesting soup with hakusai (Chinese leaf) and some spicy Chinese pickles we'd got in Chinatown a while back. All very nice.
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A British Restaurant: [Thursday 25th September]
Two American colleagues visiting from the US. Took them to a British restaurant - Bumbles, near Buckingham Palace. It was quite nice.
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Dunno: [Wednesday 24th September]
Don't remember today either.
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Chap from the US: [Tuesday 23rd September]
One of my favourite colleagues from our US office was visiting this week, and tonight we took him out for a couple of drinks near the office. As we also wanted to factor in a bite to eat, we decided on a nearby "gastropub" - the Thomas Cubitt - which, whilst a tad on the snotty side, does at least do reasonable food, and was able to provide us with a table.

I had the veggie burger, which came with fries, served in a tiny little metal bucket. I've seen the same thing in a couple of magazine photos recently, and presume this to be all the rage in London's dining establishments at present.
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Back to London: [Monday 22nd September]
Got a lift into Newport with Robin in the morning, and then got the train from there back to London. Chie came with me to my office for a spot of lunch.

Stayed at the office quite late in the evening to make up for my late arrival (although having spent a few hours over the weekend finishing off my performance reviews I hardly think I was that much in debt). Chie was out in the evening for a nomikai with some people from her company.

I got back some time after 9 and decided I fancied some poor man's Boston Baked Beans, and so modified a tin of regular broad beans with molasses etc. It was actually quite nice.

I then spent the remainder of the evening watching Monty Python (a few episodes from the TV series).
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The Bear: [Sunday 21st September]
Had lunch at the Bear in Crickhowell with Vera and Robin, which is becoming a bit of a tradition. It was very nice as always - great food (albeit that my dish was a tad insubstantial) and a fantastic interior to soak up the atmosphere of.

Spent the rest of the afternoon and evening generally relaxing back at the house.
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Abergavenny Food Festival: [Saturday 20th September]
Spent the daytime at Abergvenny Food Festival. It was quite interesting in places (I liked the cheese and wine area), but a little disappointing in other places - a lot of it was very meaty (as these sorts of things often tend to be), and I was quite disappointed there wasn't a wild mushroom in sight, especially considering the time of year.

Inspired by this we had a somewhat gourmet meal back at Vera and Robin's in the evening (although we ended up buying most of the ingredients from Waitrose), including a whole artichoke a la vinaigrette, a spinach and feta tart, and some very nice baked mushrooms (even though I do say so myself).
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Horrible Sayings: [Friday 19th September]
We had decided to go to Abergavenny this weekend, to visit Vera and Robin, and also to go to the Abergavenny Food Festival.

To beat the rush Chie and I both left work at lunchtime today and headed over to Paddington to get the train to South Wales. Thanks to my 3G dongle thingy I was actually able to get a bit of work done on the train as well.

Arrived at Vera and Robin's house not long after 5, and then had a very pleasant and relaxing evening.

The highlight of the evening was Vera producing a piece of paper entitle "horrible sayings". She had enumerated a set of all the phrases that are commonly used on TV which really annoy her. Top of the list was "over the moon" and another high ranking contender was "ticked all the boxes".

It was quite splendid.
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Working Late Again: [Thursday 18th September]
Worked late again this evening in the knowledge that I'd be leaving early on Friday to go away this weekend, and I had rather a lot on my plate. Didn't get home until some time after 10.
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Peer Reviews: [Wednesday 17th September]
It's performance review season at work, which means we're all required to write peer reviews of the people we work with on a day-to-day basis. It ends up rather a long and tedious process, and fraught with moral wrangling, but I do also believe it's fundamentally the best way to do this sort of thing - you get a much more balanced opinion and it's a lot more democratic.

To get this done I decided to work from home today - which was doubly a good idea, both as I needed a solid block of time uninterrupted to get this done, and it's also rather awkward to write constructive criticism about someone when they're potentially peering (almost a pun there) over your shoulder.
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Working Late: [Tuesday 16th September]
Apparently I was in a bit of trouble with Chie this morning as Niimi-san was somewhat hungover after our mini pub crawl the previous evening. Not really clear to my why this was my fault, but there you go! I seemed to be able to make amends by inviting our guests to my office for breakfast.

In the evening, Chie entertained our guests (I think she took them to a musical, followed by a meal in Chinatown) whilst I stayed in the office and worked late as I seem to have rather a lot on at work at the moment. I didn't leave the office until around 10 o' clock.
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Entertaining the Japanese: [Monday 15th September]
A couple of Chie's Japanese friends came to stay with us for two nights from tonight. Mami-san was a high school friend of Chie's, and she also brought along her husband Niimi-san. Oddly enough they actually live in France at the moment, which made their flying visit to England seem slightly less ridiculous.

To my pleasant surprise, Chie actually proposed that we take them on a bit of a tour of London's pubs for their first night - I suppose it is something very English indeed, for which there isn't really an exact parallel in France (or Japan for that matter).

So we kicked off the evening at the Black Friar, where we also introduced the couple to the delights of English food (they were surprisingly less repelled by the concept than I had anticipated). After that we then did a standard tour of my favourite pubs around there, including the Old Bank of England and the Cittie of Yorke. Despite some slight protests from Chie, we finished up the evening at the Whisky Society.
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