It's an Exciting World

Amazing Weather

The weather this week was amazing, so I decided to try the folding chair work style a bit more. It turned out to not just be relaxing but it helped with concentration and getting work done. There is something about having people walking by, as well as not having the kitties trying to sit in front of the screen or on the keyboard that allows for better concentration.

Monday was a nice day, and I wanted to finally walk the Regents Canal out to Hackney Wick (where I started the Lea Valley hike from). I left from the flat and walked along the canal to Victoria Park and got to see all the interesting gardens and structures they had put up there including a part of the old London Bridge (cicra 1760).

At choir that evening we sang the Jump Up Superstar song, and it was hard to follow along with the music, so I redid the pdf to not have repeats and codas and multiple lines of text. Having the tablet to read the music from makes adding more pages not as big a deal.

Tuesday I had Zaheer over for the Untitled Goose Game. It was a ton of fun and had been long enough since I’d played it that I’d forgotten most of it. I’m really looking forward to more coop games on Tuesdays with him.

Wednesday was a bunch of volunteering. I did my first session as a Camden Digital Champion, but wasn’t able to fully help the one person I met with that day. It was still a good introduction to the work and what it would be like going forward. I signed up for seven weekly sessions after that, so I’ll be getting some good experience as a Digital Champion.

Wednesday evening I went to help with some try divers at the pool session for BSAC. I got the gear setup for them and then took it down afterwards. There were 11 divers in the pool, so it was a busy evening. I chatted with Gokhan while all the divers were going, and it was a chill evening overall.

Thursday I went to hang out with Gokhan at his work around 6pm, and we grabbed dinner together and talked about AI. We grabbed some burgers before heading to Southbank Center to see Romana perform. The music was great for the performance, but the singer wasn’t the best, and the dancers were interesting but strange. After the performance Steph got back from her work trip, and I hurried home to spend an hour with her.

Steph work up early on Friday and left for another cave diving trip. A few friends took the day off on Friday and we met in Regents Park to go to the new Queen Elizabeth II garden. It was made with a lot of reclaimed cement, so was dry and desert feeling. It was neat to see, and then we found a nice shady spot to picnic. Nathan and I threw the frisbee a bit, and then the others left. I chose to pop out the computer and do more working from the folding chair. It was productive and I made a silly game using the new vibe coding game engine I’m working on. It turned out pretty well I think: https://www.theplaymachine.com/play/autobattle

On Saturday I went to Little Venice for Maggie’s birthday party, then on Sunday we had the book club meeting. It was a great discussion on aging, and I got a lot out of the book Successful Aging.

London Weekly 175

May 7, 2026 0

A Lovely Week

Steph organised a night out with her parents and we went to Fallow, one of her favourite restaurants, then to The Phantom of the Opera. I enjoyed seeing it, and it had some amazing costumes. The set was also really well done with the candles coming up and the fog for the underground lake scenes. Her parents seemed to like it and generally seemed to like their trip to the UK. They are thinking of coming again soon.

Thursday I went to a folk band performance in St. Pancras Old Church. The music was a lot of fun and there were parts that we sang along to. It was during a tube strike so not everyone was able to show up. The venue was also neat, as I hadn’t been inside that church before.

Friday was so lovely I had to just get out on a hike nearby. The tube strikes meant it was difficult to plan, but I just checked in the morning and found a good starting point in Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park. I started there and went north along the River Lea and the canal by the same name. I ran parts of it when I was feeling it and the scenery wasn’t as nice. There were still many flowers in bloom including a few amazing wisteria vines. I also saw a lot of cootlings, gauslings, and ducklings. I saw some swans, grebes, and cormorants, but no babies for them.

Here is the path I took (link), which was about 24km.

Sunday was back to Choir with Mercato Mayfair performance/rehearsal. I had a great time, and we did a lot of songs all the way through. We will need to put some time into learning Jump Up Superstar, but that is for Monday.

London Weekly 174

April 28, 2026 0

The Lees Arive

Monday I had choir people and Giulio over for karaoke. It went much better this time, but at some point towards the end of the night a playlist managed to get added to the queue. I’ll refine it more for next time, but it went pretty well. The food also went over better than last time as I had more prepared and dipping sauces. Tia, Raiad, and Paul tried the reaper hot sauce from Paultong and it took them by surprise at how spicy it was. Kyoko brought some amazing fresh mochi, which was delicious.

The next day I decided to work outside in Regent’s Park. I just took my folding chair and found a lovely spot under some trees. It was a little chilly, but I’ll do this on any nice day. I just need to make sure my devices are fully charged before heading out.

Wednesday I took as a long fast day, so I did a 36 hour fast. I like to do these every now and then to help reset.

Steph and her parents got into town on Friday, separately. Steph got back from her 2 week cave diving trip in France. Her parents arrived from their trans Atlantic cruise. Her dad got sick on the cruise, but he had mostly recovered by the time we saw him. We then went to dinner at Indian Lounge. The samosas were bad, but the rest of the food was decent.

Saturday was relaxing. Steph had dinner with her parents while I went to a choir birthday party. It was Hitchhiker’s Guide themed. I went as Agrajag, an obscure character from the later books. Some people got it. They had a fun set of activities, including a bad poetry competition (based on the Vogons) and a task to find people that were assigned to the same set of aliens as you were. The night was fun and I enjoyed chatting with everyone. I stayed for the blowing out of the candles, but left when it become dance time, as that isn’t my cup of tea.

Sunday we met the Lees at their hotel, and then walked to the Canal Museum together. We took the canal boat through the tunnel, which is something I’ve wanted to do since we got to London. I’ve just been saving it for doing with a group that came to town and would want to do it. This worked out perfectly as we could point out our flat from the tour and the weather was amazing with the trees blooming. The tunnel was interesting, and the canal boat ride was nice.

We then had them back to our flat, and I grabbed some soup, sandwiches, and scones from Waitrose. It was a nice spread, and makes me think the subdivided sandwich route could be a good idea for hosting. We had a lovely lunch, then Steph’s parents went back to their hotel for a nap.

London Weekly 173

April 21, 2026 0

Out and About in the UK

I started the week with a games night. I made some cheddar marmite rolls and picked up lots of different easy to make finger foods. I’m still figuring out the right mix of things to have to eat and drink, but I’m getting closer each time I think.
It was great fun, and we played some codenames. A good number of choir people showed up. We had Abi and her partner David, Audun, Alex3, Bella, Mairi, and Raiad. We then played a round of a karaoke based game where you had to burst into song that contains a given word as a lyric. It was surprisingly hard and fun. Audun cleaned up. The hardest part was knowing the lyrics before and after enough for people to accept the submission.

We then moved to the other table and set up for Secret Hitler. Alex did a great job replacing the app, and giving a rousing intro to the game. Then we had a game of the fascists winning and game of the liberals winning.

Tuesday I jumped on the train to Cromer with Lata. She organised a hike through the forests and along the coast near Cromer. I handled the specific paths, we took over the first two days. We arrived without fuss, checked in, and headed down to the beach to just get our feet wet. The water was just over 8C, so quite cold.

The first route was 13km. We set out for Felbrigg Hall, with a nice loop out through the woods and fields, then back along the coast. The hall was idyllic and the hike to and from it was lovely. The tree lined Victory V was a lovely place that felt like a parade ground. We didn’t go inside the hall, but walked all around it. We saw lots of lambs that were only a few weeks old hopping around, as well as deer and pheasants.

https://www.scribblemaps.com/maps/view/Hike-7Apr-2026/P1YNMVEypV

The second day was 24km. We started by heading back the way we came from day one, then headed for the forests. We chained together all the public foot paths through the forests and along the tracks so we only ever had five minutes at most walking along a road. There was only one point that I messed up and had us on a road instead of on the parallel path, but I couldn’t find the entrance for it. We went through a number of estates, nature preserves, and forests. It was such a gorgeous day, and the mustard fields in full bloom were amazing. There is an old style steam train that goes between the coastal towns here and I got a picture of it across one of the mustard fields. We went to Sheringham Park and sat by the temple there for a bit to have a snack. We eventually made it into Sheringham proper, after hitting the coastal trail and walking for an hour. We had a lovely lunch overlooking the water there, and saw people swimming, which inspired me. We took the coastal trail back and saw many many mobile homes that had been set up as holiday homes. Besides the lack of a good grocery store or restaurant near them it was a great little spot. We chose to walk barefoot along the coast for the last hour, and it was amazing. We had to avoid the rocky bits, but it wasn’t too difficult and the water on the feet was refreshing after all the hiking. I decided to quickly run into the water, and didn’t even put my head under, but got up to my chest. We then quickly ran up the cliff and got cleaned up before heading to dinner.

https://www.scribblemaps.com/maps/view/Hike-8-Apr-2026/lCOOGhzj14

Lata got so unlucky with the food on the trip. The lunch in Sheringham was supposed to have the famous brown crab for the region but they were out. The restaurants we checked each night were already booked up, despite it being early season on a weekday. We found places eventually, but they were out of the dishes she wanted. Then when going to the ice cream parlours, they were out of the flavours she wanted.

The last morning in Cromer we hiked up to the lighthouse, which was a nice and short hike. We had some extra time to kill before the train so we went on a quest to find a Cromer crab sandwich. The first place didn’t have them, but the second we tried did. I got a takeaway crab sandwich and it was pretty good.

I had a great time overall, and would love to do more UK hiking trips. I might even do some backpacking trips this summer.

I got back to the kitties, who had been looked after by Stacie. They were happy and not as clingy as when left alone for two days. I had a day at home, then on Saturday I went to Bedford for a chorister’s 40th birthday, Alex3. It was amusing to me that it was a sleep over at his parent’s place. They weren’t there, but I did get to meet his older siblings. We played some board games, and then the main event was capture the flag in a nearby park using nerf guns. I had an amazing time. The trains between London and Bedford were all messed up so I caught a ride back with Abi and David, who live just across the canal from me.

On Sunday I decided to head to Kew Gardens and walk around for the day there. I’ve been to Kew Gardens before, but only at night in the winter for the light walk. This was a hugely different experience, and everything was in such amazing bloom. Well, almost everything as the Wisteria looked like it still needed another week to bloom. I walked around for several hours, and got a little lost, but that is fine as I was just looking around and picking a direction to wander. Once I had gone through everything I headed back home.

The canal and streets around King’s Cross are also looking gorgeous with trees bursting with flowers. I love the look of the tree lined streets where they meet in the middle. Add to that the trees are overflowing with flowers and a double decker red buss driving down the middle and it is a picturesque sight.

London Weekly 172

April 15, 2026 2

Belgrade

I took a trip with Stacie to Belgrade. She was between flats and decided that there was no reason not to just travel to arbitrary new places around Europe to see them while she didn’t have a home base instead of couch surfing or getting expensive temp housing. It was a better trip than I was expecting, as I didn’t really have any expectations going into it. We met in the airplane as we were flying to Serbia. We got in on time and we ran into a small hiccup getting out of the airport. We tried a number of apps to see if we could get ride shares to the city centre, but they wouldn’t work. I assume that is because those apps didn’t have any drivers in Belgrade. We wanted to go quickly so we just got in a cab and went straight to the city centre. We only got a little ripped off, as the fair on the way back to the airport was 3000 vs. 4200 on the way to the city. It is always off when the cabs collude to quote a number and don’t use the meter.

Once we got in, we got situated in the hotels. Stacey got her solo room in the hostel and I took a bit to find the right place. I booked on Priceline, but it was more like an AirBnB with the flat being run by a single person who I had to contact on WhatsApp to get the code. It took him about 45 minutes to respond, but I eventually got in. It was a surprisingly nice place and amazingly central.

We had a hard time finding a restaurant that had space, as the first three we tried were full. We found a place on the same street as our hotels and had some real Serbian food. It was also the nicest Serbs we ran into on the trip.

The next day I got up and wandered the neighbourhood for most of an hour before Stacie got up. She just got back from CA so was jet lagged.

We Walked the fort, which turned out to be an amazing free park with so much interesting history. They also had some clearly arbitrary statues, the most arbitrary was ‘Victor’ the nude man holding a sword and bird. It said they put it there because the residents didn’t want it in the city. Somehow that led to it having pride of place at the fort. There were lots of artworks spread around the fort, and many different eras of construction. Most was built in the 1700’s and 1800’s, but the fort started with Roman construction in the first century AD.

We made our way down from the for to the Sava and then walked out to where it meets the Danube. The meeting of the rivers is interesting because the Sava is a muddy river and the Danube’s waters are much more clear. Where they meet is a distinct line. It is especially interesting as the Sava enters the Danube as the Danube splits around an island. So the water coming from the Danube towards the Sava side just stopped due to the strong flow from the Sava, creating a lake like surface next to the roiling muddy water. We walked along the Sava until the construction stopped us. Then headed into the city.

I was happily surprised at the number of parks and tree lined streets. The old parts and new parts of the city were gorgeous. The socialist era parts were utilitarian and a stark contrast. We walked through a few of the larger parks, then went to find a place to drink. We stopped off at a brewery, then a piano bar before heading to a dinner at a place Stacie had reserved.

The restaurant was unique in that we sat at a bar for dinner and had a screen behind the bar playing Cinderella as a ballet with the stepsisters in drag. It was amusing for sure.

We pretty much called it a night after that. The next morning I stayed in and got some things done. We met at 10am again, then went to a museum that caught my interest, the Ethnographic Museum. The primary purpose of the museum was to show the way of life of the people in that area from 1700 to about 1940 it looked like. It reminded me of The Museum of the Home in London with the different rooms setup to show what a typical house would have looked like. We also noticed that they were using a lot of AI in their new exhibits. The two main uses were to have talking head characters that would tell stories. The both generated the characters and generated the videos of them talking, and it looked like HeyGen to me. Then they also had used AI to take historic photos and turn them into colour videos. It was fascinating to see that tech used in a public museum, especially since they were using what looked like 2 generations ago of the video models that aren’t that great.

We then walked the river again and got lunch at a nice place on the water with great views of where the Sava meets the Danube. We walked the river, and took the bridge across to walk along the other bank. It was a giant park and surprisingly nice. They were also doing a lot of construction to improve the riverfront on that side, and the place I had thought we might rent kayaks from was also under construction and didn’t have any floor. We also pointed out some of the construction renders had AI generated layers on top to show the people and trees.

We walked to the botanical garden, which again was surprisingly nice. Then went to dinner on the riverfront. We were running a bit late so I had to leave shortly after the food came out.
I made it to the airport just a little behind, but the customs e-gates were down, so the line for customs was crazy long. After getting through customs I was able to join the book club discussion for an hour and a half before the flight. I regret not being able to participate in the discussion more. I’ll follow up with people on the discussion for sure.

The flight back was otherwise uneventful, which is the best I can say about flights.

Overall what made the trip worth it was the time to talk to Stacie. She is intelligent and knowledgeable about the parts of startup life that I have no idea about. I also love her funny and down to earth takes on life.

April 5, 2026 0

RS1 Choir Performances

This week was the first major performance for the Ready Singer One nerdy choir that I was able to participate in. It was great fun and I think went really well with a full seating for the Crypt on the Green. Each section of the choir had their own performance, making it about 50 people per group. I loved it and also really enjoyed showing up to the Tuesday performance to listen. It makes me happy to be a part of such a fun and friendly group of people.

My group performed on Monday, and I appreciate that Lynne and her friend, as well as Steph and Roxanne and her husband came to see the performance. It started pretty late, so we didn’t stay at the pub too long afterwards.

Friday I was getting ready for a last minute trip to Belgrade, because why not, and Stacie invited me along.

London Weekly 171

April 5, 2026 0

Lates

I did my multiple choir rehearsal again, and had a great time. A number of the other Monday basses joined me, so we ended up a little bass heavy on some parts, which was amusing because that almost never happens.

Thursday evening we went to Lynne’s choir performance in a gorgeous old church. We stayed for the first half, but then had to sneak out to go to the Science Museum Late where my choir was performing. We made it just in time for the final show, and Steph got to see all the Star Trek memorabilia while I enjoyed the museum.

Friday afternoon I went to Maggie’s dance recital, which was a lot of fun. I met up with Nathan there, and he was still wearing his sparkle makeup from the Thursday late, which was amazing. After the recital went long, I joined Steph at Chotto Mate, a nice Japanese restaurant that has been on the list for a long time. Then we went to the British Museum Late, where we mostly went to the Samurai exhibit. I tried to go to the Geek Orchestra performance, but the room was overfull so I was unable to listen or watch.

Zaheer and Zahira invited us to join them and Flick to watch Hail Mary. I really enjoyed the movie, although they did the movie magic for a nicer ending in multiple ways that somewhat undercut the more interesting messages of the book. We went out for Italian afterwards, although Steph and Flick went home instead.

That evening, Steph and I went to an immersive cocktail experience called Avora, which had a story similar to Avatar. It was fun, and I appreciated the time I spent with Steph there. It can be good to get away from the devices and just be present for a bit.

London Weekly 170

April 5, 2026 0

All the Singing

I continued the RS1 singing trend from Saturday Karaoke and Sunday Mercato to go to Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday rehearsals for choir. It was great, and the last few weeks of the session are my favorite, because we mostly sing through the whole repertoire. I love doing the full songs with all the parts, but recognise we do need to do the note bashing at the start.

I also spent as much time outdoors as was reasonable. I ended up taking the camping folding chair and finding nice places in different parks or by the canal to sit and work, tethering off my phone for internet. It worked amazingly well, and I plan to continue the trend on nice days.

Tuesday before choir I went by some museums. The garden museum was ok, not great. But the Imperial War Museum was interesting and had sections on WWI WWII and wars of the Empire. It was surprisingly open about all the wars the UK fought for the Empire, although it focussed on many of the smaller less known ones.

On Thursday I played a game with RS1 people at Jamie and Liz’s place. It was about politics and having a kingdom decide who will next rule it. We played two rounds. The people made it fun, but the game itself was somewhat limited in scope and interest. Not many decisions, and the ones we made weren’t clear or didn’t have much consequence.

Saturday I went to a RS1 birthday party that was 101 Dalmations themed, and it was fun. They had karaoke going in the basement of a pub that was pretty close to our place. I didn’t stay long, but had fun while I was there.

Sunday was Zaheer’s birthday, and I joined at his place for the party. He was ambitious with wanting his computer to run XBox and Switch games, with different controllers connecting. It somewhat worked and we played a few rounds of Halo. Then we did some karaoke and had a few shots.

London Weekly 169

April 5, 2026 0

Start of London Spring

After getting back from Budapest, I had a relaxing week of the London spring. It was amazing to see all the cherry trees blossom. They take about a week each, and stagger for a little over a month. There are two streets nearby our place where one blooms at the start of march and the other at the start of April. I think the one that blooms earlier gets more sun, and the one that blooms later has older larger trees as well. Some of them are a vibrant pink, while most are white. Their petals create small drifts along the street that I love to see and sometimes I’ll grab a handful of petals and toss them in the air.

Monday was rehearsal with RS1, and we learned the last song for the term.

Tuesday I went to Moulin Rouge with the TodayTix last minute tickets. It was pretty good, and they did a really good job with the Jukebox musical style in the same vein as the movie. They had a lot more songs they sprinkled in that worked really well with the story telling.

Wednesday I did a gear check on all my dry suit equipment, since I finally got all the different parts I needed together. It worked really well, and I just need to get a bit more lead weights to have everything I need all together, although I only need the lead if we do lots of dives without having ready access to a dive center. It was also nice to hang out with the dive club after the pool session.

I stayed in Thursday and Friday, but on Saturday I had people over for Karaoke. It was a good mix of people with some from dive club and some from RS1 choir. I need to work on my queueing system for next time, but I still think the youtube system is the way to go.

Sunday was a Mercato Mayfair performance, and it was nice. We did a bit of learning new songs for the Star Trek late at the science museum. The “I’m the X” song is nice, but I don’t really care for the Klingon Warrior Anthem. I don’t think it is meant to be something that is liked anyway.