It's an Exciting World

This week I did a lot of presenting on AI. I had some interviews as well as presenting to a few community groups both online and in person.

Monday was a great day for choir as we got to rehearse in the crypt, and it was Giulio’s first day of choir. I’m glad he is joining as I think the choir is better for him compared to WEMC and I’m glad to have him around.

Thursday evening Steph and I got on the Caledonian Sleeper from Euston to Inverness. It was a fun trip to take, although probably not worth the cost. I slept better than I was expecting, but the room was more cramped than I was expecting as well. The dining car was really nice, and I enjoyed seeing the Scottish landscape go by in the morning as we were coming into Inverness. Steph worked the day in Inverness while I walked along Loch Ness, then walked up the River Ness and went to the Inverness Castle. The castle was ok. It was historic but had been redone repeatedly, and most of what is really visible is modern. The displays were also mostly modern with some nice light mapped presentations and some contemporary art.

We took an evening train to Thurso and stayed the night there in preparation for the ferry to Stromness the next day.

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Monday I spend the day in Regents Park with Steph, and then she headed home and I went to RS1 choir rehearsal nearby. It was a lovely day to hang out in the park. The rehearsal was a lot of fun and it was in one of the more open spaces with a lot more people than normal since the Tuesdays group was there to get ready for a performance that week.

Tuesday I went to Zaheer’s place and we played a game that was strongly inspired by Goldeneye on the N64. It was well done, but hard. We were able to get through the first two levels, but only on the easiest difficulty. He ended up having to work that evening, so I headed out a little early and decided to walk along the canal to get home.

Wednesday I went swimming with Steph at the BSAC pool session, then we went to the pub afterwards. I was tired out from both power pump and the swimming. It wasn’t enough people to really have the meeting.

Thursday Steph and I went to Hampstead Heath to work from there. We found a good viewpoint and setup our folding chairs. The ground was a little squishy but we settled in and had a great view. We also had a few magpies that were hanging around and being fun to watch.

Friday we went to Bridge Command. I was the captain, but Steph got stuck with Lasers. She wasn’t needed to do much, but we did pretty well on the mission. There were some experienced people who were more or less running the game. The new player who was on Engineering did amazingly well. The new format they have was interesting, but not better than the previous missions. It was more focussed on battle, and there didn’t feel like as much to figure out or decide on.

Saturday we met Zaheer and Zahira in Greenwich to go to the observatory and the Ranger House. I enjoyed going through the museums, and also enjoyed the nice gardens around Ranger House. It was great to hang out and chat with them. I enjoy the take Zahira brings with her legal focus, and Zaheer and I can talk AI for ages.

Sunday I went with Steph to Hedonism Wines for a wine tasting. We had a good few wines, and I focussed on the strange and unique ones.

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I did very little this week besides having Zaheer over on Tuesday to play some Assassin’s Creed Syndicate. It was fun looking around London in the game.

On the weekend I took Saturday to go to Rochester Castle, and then walk along the river for a while. It was a nice day, so I took advantage and got some outside time before fall really sets in.

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On Monday Sean invited me out to an escape room. It was decently well done, but most of the challenge was in finding the objects hidden behind things.

Tuesday I went to work from Regents Park, because it was so nice outside. I got a lot done and enjoyed walking in some parts of the park I hadn’t been around before. Wednesday I worked from Pancras Square Library.

I went back for some volunteering on Thursday as well, and went over time by about an hour as there was a bit of a line and I didn’t want to leave them hanging.

On Saturday, Zaheer and Zahira came to Kings Cross with two of their friends from Texas. It was great hanging out, and I finally went inside Word on the Water. It was pretty much as expected, and I was a little surprised by the number of books that I had already read out of their collection.

Since we didn’t get to do our dive trip due to weather, we chose to have a last minute day trip to Cambridge. We missed our train on the way out because the Victoria line was suspended going north from Kings Cross. We managed to catch a train about 30 minutes later, plus some taxi and uber we made it to our punting tour just on time. It was neat to see the colleges and go around town. Steph and I agreed that the downtown was nicer than Oxford, with a cuter small town vibe. We walked to see the apple tree that was grown from a cutting of the famous Isaac Newton apple tree in front of Trinity College. For lunch we had a garden afternoon tea by the river, which was a lovely location, but the food was just ok. We then did the tour of the Kings College Chapel, which was impressive. We finished out the tour with a stop by the Fitzwilliam Museum and botanic garden, and a stop before the train at a Mexican restaurant MEXUK.

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On Monday I went to Zaheer’s to play some games and Zahira made some delicious food as well. Zaheer cooked a delicious kabab and Zahira made a tasty salad. I appreciate their efforts and ability to cook. We played a few different games, some StartCraft II and a top down coop shooter on rails.

Tuesday was our anniversary and we went to a restaurant in Islington that had been on our list for the longest time, The Tamil Prince. It had really good roti, and is somewhere we’d like to go again.

Wednesday Steph and I went to a Jian Bing restaurant. Jian Bing is a type of food that I had in China and really liked; it is a crepe like pancake wrapped around lots of veggies egg and a crispy starch. The one here was different, but still good.

Thursday I went to volunteer at Swiss Cottage. It was a little slow, but that is fine as I was able to get work done on my computer for most of the time.

On Saturday there was a big picnic in Regents Park for Eden’s birthday. I enjoyed spending the time with everyone there, and hung out for about four hours.

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It was another dry week with gorgeous weather, albeit overly hot. I worked Tuesday from the British Library, and Wednesday from along the canal in Angel.

Wednesday, Steph and I enjoyed watching the partial eclipse from the balcony. I got a good setup for a pinhole projection.

On Thursday, Steph took a cool stop into the theatre to see the new Spiderman movie. It was great and we enjoyed being out of the heat.

On Friday I went to work from Regents Park, and enjoyed it.

Sunday was a Mercato performance with Ready Singer One. Then that evening Steph and I went to Bone Daddies for some great Ramen. We stopped by some arcades afterwards and played an interesting variant of air hockey. We played some pinball, then headed back home.

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It was a hot week in London as the drought continued. The weather was nice to be outside in the mornings, and a little to hot in the afternoons and evenings. It was difficult to sleep some nights due to the heat.

Monday I donated blood, which was pretty easy. Then I worked outside for part of the day.

Tuesday Zaheer came over and we played some Good Job. It was a lot of fun. We jumped around in the levels until eventually the game froze.

Wednesday Arya arrived, then she and Steph headed to the caves.

I was originally supposed to start back at Meta this week, but due to their layoffs they weren’t able to hire me. Instead I met up with some people about what could be next. Stacie and Aaron were the main two and they each had their own things going on. I’ll try something again with Aaron and see how it goes this time.

On the weekend I spend Saturday at the RAF museum, which was larger and denser than I was expecting. It is another one of the amazing free London museums. They had six hangers that were packed full of all sorts of planes, some of which they had to take the wings or other larger parts off to fit them in with the other exhibits.

Sunday I went ice skating with the choir folks, at Becca’s invitation. It was a lot of fun. My time roller blading growing up helped me a lot in being able to ice skate well, and I was probably the best out of the group. Afterwards I walked down to Hyde Park with a meal deal for a nice dinner outside under some trees.

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Monday was a sick day this week, but I was better and back at it on Tuesday. I went to do the Digital Inclusion volunteering, then joined Pavel, Anel, and Steph at the Royal Academy of Arts. They had their Summer Exhibition, which isn’t just showing art, but also selling it. It was interesting to see what is considered the best art of London currently, and the prices that go along with it. Some of the paintings and sculptures were reasonably priced, but some where absurd. That evening was a triple choir rehearsal, and then we had a fun after rehearsal trivia game that was fun.

Wednesday I worked from Pancras Square Library, then Steph and I went to Hampstead Heath to pick some blackberries. It was a lovely walk around the heath. Friday I worked from the British Library.

Saturday I did a hike from Brighton to Eastbourne, about 30km (24m). It was a full day with getting on the train to Brighton at 7:40 am, then walking along the beach for several hours. The sun was intense with zero shade for most of the hike. It wasn’t even that nice of a hike for the first two thirds, since it was more boardwalk and concrete and rock. The change came when I forded the Cuckmere river. The last third was along grassy cliffs, at the Seven Sisters. That was a lovely hike. There is a lighthouse there that I would possibly want to stay in that is an BnB. I got on the train home from Eastbourne around 8:33pm and was sore from the hiking.

Sunday was a chill day doing some chores around the house and recovering from the hike. In the evening we have a short but nice book club discussion on Vespertine. It is one of the better done YA novels, partly because there isn’t really any romance in it and partly because of the great world building.

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This week was lovely in London. I spent a lot of it outside either on the balcony or going places and working from there.

Monday I went to Cheshunt, where I last left off on the hike of the Lea Valley. I did a circuitous route, with a number of stops along the way with my folding chair and just working from the trail. I grabbed some food at a pub that was right on the canal, and then caught the train back from Broxbourne. I went to choir and we sang through Jenny of Oldstones, which is the baritone ‘solo’ for all the baritones.

Tuesday I went to work from the British Library, and got a lot of good work done there. Thursday we went to the Luminescence show at Westminster Cathedral, which was really good. It had a live choir and the mapping was by far the best I’ve seen for projection mapped spaces.

Friday I had Paul from choir over, and we just chatted a good bit. I had about 7 people planned to come over for karaoke, but 4 our them backed out last minute and two were no shows. I should plan more in advance for these events.

Saturday I decided to hike Regents Canal, but the part I hadn’t before. I hiked from Paddington to Alperton, which included the canal overpass over the freeway. It is strange to see the water going over the freeway.

Sunday was chill and Steph got back from her caving trip. We ended going out to Hoppers for some relaxing dinner and drinks. It is the perfect weather out this week, but I fear next week will be extra hot again.

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