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.
Started this week with a nice Choir rehearsal on Monday.
Then on Tuesday I was invited to the House of Lords to help present on the Camden Digital Inclusion efforts as part of a larger presentation on UK digital efforts. It was interesting to see what their specific goals were and how they were defining success on such a broad and hard to define area. I was able to talk with some of the other stakeholders there and enjoyed it.
Thursday evening, Steph and I headed to Paris. We got in pretty late so just went straight to the hotel, which was really nice. We stayed in a hotel we had been to before, but Steph got an especially interesting futuristic room. It had AC which we turned way down and really enjoyed as sleeping over the past week in the heat had been hard at home.
Friday I joined Tina and Amit going into the Paris Catacombs. It is the old quarries that were used to build the structures around Paris, and they are insanely extensive. In the mid 1700’s they were getting to be too extensive and some started to collapse so they began to just prop them up and monitor all the excavations. Then they decided to move many of the bones and cemeteries down to this one section, which now houses millions of people’s worth of bones. Each section is from a specific cemetery and the walls are built of the larger bones with the smaller ones piled behind them. It was interesting and the presentation of the whole space was really well done with location based audio clips. It was also a hard set of tickets to get as the tickets go on sale one week ahead of time, for each time slot.
Afterwards Tina had to run to get to a rehearsal for her dances, but Amit and I were able to wander some more. We walked up to the Luxembourg Gardens and sat and talked next to a really fancy fountain. It was a lovely walk. We then met up with Tina near the Eiffel Tower. We walked the park, then decided to climb the stairs up. You can only go about halfway up by the stairs, and we were happy with that. The way down was much faster. We went back to the hotels for a quick rest, and AC. Then we met for a really nice dinner with Steph, Amit, and myself. With Tina heading off to a gala. Then after it got pretty late Amit went climbing while Steph and I got another really nice night of sleep in the AC.
Saturday we grabbed a quick breakfast and met Tina, Amit, and Karen at the Dior museum. The women went through the museum while Amit and I walked around the Champs De Mars. We met them and went to a place that served Parisian cuisine. Then we went to the Jardins du Trocadéro across from the Eiffel tower. We went back to our hotels for a rest then met for dinner and drinks. At the end of the evening we got ready for a very early train back to the UK.
We got back and I quickly made my way to Merkato Mayfair to sing with choir. I got there late, but still had a great time. We went for a picnic afterwards, which was lovely. Steph and I went to see the Odessey that evening, and it was a great show to see in theaters.
I had another choir heavy week, with Monday evening at the Witches of Eastwick performance that Maggie was in. Then on Tuesday I met with the other Digital Champion volunteers before heading to play games with Zaheer. We had a great time playing some LLM based games. The first was one that I’ve been looking at for a while called “Suck Up” where you are a vampire and have to convince the people to invite you into their house.
Wednesday I went to choir rehearsal and it was sweltering. I was happy that we are doing a Baritone focussed peice, which is pretty rare.
Then on Thursday we had the Ice Wharf AGM and went over all the specifics of Ice Wharf and I got voted onto the Board. I’m looking forward to doing the work, and making the flat complex stay as amazing as it already is.
Friday morning, Steph and I jumped on a train to Brussels. It was convenient to just head to St. Pancras and take the train across. It wasn’t cheap, but it was pretty easy.
Friday in Brussels was mainly on my own as I went to the Sewer Museum which was fascinating and I got to walk along the underground river that goes through Brussels. Then I went to the Musical Instruments museum which was an amazing building with so many amazing instruments from all over the world. They had a guide that would play the sounds that the instruments would make. I had calls with the family, and then met up with Steph after she finished work. We went to dinner at a decent fry place and then grabbed a beer at the Delirium Bar.
Saturday was a bunch of the Art Nouveau houses and museums: Hotel Solvay, Horta Museum, Maison Hannon. We started the day with really nice Belgian waffles. They were really good, with only Tina’s waffles being better. I managed to spill the powdered sugar all down my pants and looked a mess most of the day. Hotel Solvay was by far the most impressive art nouveau house. It had so much going on and it was all flawlessly integrated together. The best example of that was the stair banister coming down and turning into a wooden vine that entangled with the ironwork lamp next to the bottom of the stairs. The whole house was like that with the forms flowing together and meeting the next section of wall or ceiling with organic shapes. They also had a bunch of stained glass that wasn’t exterior windows, but some were ceiling lighting systems and some were interior separation.
After the art nouveau houses went to a nice park, then split up. I continued to the Train World museum, which was pretty nice. I went through the museum and then met Steph for dinner. We ended the evening at Beer World, which is in an amazing building, but so strangely kitchy and touristy. It is also clear that they were really stretching to fill up the space they were given for beer world. It was a somewhat surreal experience.
Sunday we slept in then went to the military museum. It was the opposite of Beer World, where it was big, but full of all sorts of objects and information. It also was clear that it didn’t have as much recent funding as Beer World as it needed a lot of work and it didn’t look like it was ongoing. The exhibits were still amazing with the planes and helicopters. I liked the info on the antarctic expeditions. I also liked going up onto the roof of the big arches. It was a well done museum. We didn’t do much with the last few hours in Brussels besides wander the downtown a little. Then we jumped back on the train to London.
Not too much going on this week. Monday was choir rehearsal.
Tuesday Steph and I went to a fancy party at Fortnum and Mason for her wealth management group. The food was decent, and the drinks were good. We didn’t stay long. We weren’t the youngest couple there, but I think only one couple was younger.
Then on Wednesday I spent the evening doing StartX interviews. Thursday I tried to volunteer, but I showed up to give a presentation on parental controls and nobody showed up for the presentation.
The weekend was pretty chill with Felicity’s BDay in Greenwich and then Book Club on Sunday. The book had a moderate amount to talk about, but wasn’t the best conversation book.
This week had Monday as a rehearsal, then Tuesday I performed in the big band concert with Ready Singer One and Geeky Beats.
The volumes weren’t great for the band vs. the choir. The band couldn’t really get any quieter and there’s no way to properly mic 100 singers, so it will just have to be worked on more if we do a concert together again. That said the concert went really well and I had a great time. We were at the Actor’s Church in Covent Garden (also known as St. Paul’s Church). This is one of the venues that I see as part of the heart of London and I was really happy to be able to perform in such a venue. I was all the way in the back, which can be challenging as it was really hard to hear any of the other singers. I ended up just watching the conductor like a hawk to keep in time, and it all worked out.
Steph was out of town pretty much all this week. She went to Zurich for work and then came back for a day before heading off to go caving.
On Saturday I went to Zahira’s birthday party. I’m feeling like an old man when I leave social groups around 10 to make my 10:30pm bedtime, but it is something that keeps me sane and moving forward. I also get overwhelmed by the noise and socialising in many of these setups.
Sunday I volunteered with the Canal and River Trust to clean up the tow path from Kings Cross up to Camden. We only had around 5 people there, but it worked out great and we did a lot of cleaning. There were some strange things that we found, but overall it was just lovely to be outside and cleaning up.
Monday I had rehearsal, and then Tuesday we had Zaheer and Zahira over for games. We played Mario 3D world, which is was Zahira’s first time really playing video games. It was a challenge at first, as the controls aren’t as intuitive as some games. I think next time we’ll do more of the party games to make it smoother.
Wednesday I observed a board meeting and confirmed that I would be joining the Ice Wharf board. It will be interesting and a challenge to help keep the flat complex going. This would be similar to an HOA kind of group in the US.
Thursday we had Diana and one of her friends over to talk about AI and games. It was good to see her and I really hope her new job goes well. The weather has been nice so I’ve also gone out to work outside a few times this week.
Jamie from Choir had his birthday party with the theme of Diva karaoke. It was fun singing, but we were in an upstairs room with almost no ventilation so it was ungodly hot. I did the duet Suddenly Seymour with Eden, and it went great.
Steph and I had a great time making some glass flowers while lamp working. I made one big one and she put together four smaller ones in the time we had.
Sunday was a Merkato day, and I went to sing as one of the last rehearsals before the big band concert. It was great as we ran through the songs quickly, but we did each one twice. The second time for each was mixed parts so I got to hear the other sections more and I really enjoy that part of the singing.
We also did a US states draft for the latest season of Jet Lag The Game. I think we got a good set of the states, and I think we took more factors into account than the other teams when drafting.
I had two rehearsals this week for choir. The first, on Monday was a typical rehearsal. Tuesday however was the rehearsal with the big band for the concert. This was interesting, especially getting to see how another director handled us and the band. There were some changes for taste, and some changes to help us work with the band better (because they are so loud). It was also great to have the entire choir together for a rehearsal.
Wednesday I spent the evening with Steph and we started A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms. The show was great and we went through all six of the episodes within the week.
On Thursday, I met up with Marissa. Her meeting was running late so I just wandered around the V&A for a while and got to see all the parts I’d skipped over in the past. Then I met up with Steph to go see The Devil Wears Prada 2 together at Everyman. It was an enjoyable date night.
Friday I went to Becca’s birthday drinks and then packed for our weekend trip.
We headed to the Peak District, basing ourselves in Castleton. We started with Mam Tor, and it was an insanely windy day. In some spots on the peak it was hard to stand, and the wind was blowing hard enough to give Steph an ear ache from the pressure difference of the wind rushing by her ears. We got down off the ridge and it was much better. Then we went to the Roaches and Lud’s Church. While we were in Lud’s Church it happened to have a trail race start and the people running through. It was incredibly muddy at the bottom, and they all were splashing through the mud while we waited in the narrow sections. Lud’s Church is a neat canyon in the rock. While short it is pretty. We grabbed some ice cream and sat on a hill before heading to the YHA where we stayed in a pod. We went to town in Castleton for dinner, which was surprisingly good. Then we had a fire, but the wind was all over the place and we did a silly shuffle around the fire to keep out of it.
Sunday we went to Chatsworth house and grounds. It was more impressive than I was expecting. The house was large and we got to see most of the inside as well as spending a few hours walking the grounds. Their hedge maze actually had a through path, where most hedge mazes are in and back out instead of through. The flowers were out in force, and the fields of wildflowers were especially nice to see. I like getting close up pictures of a type of flower with many others of that type in the background and somewhat blurry. We headed home and had time to finish the Dunc and Egg series.
Monday was choir rehearsal but at the Welsh community centre instead of the Russian community centre. This time we worked on a really hard Japanese song that is both fast and has lots of tricky rhythms and notes. Tuesday I went over to Zaheer’s place and Zahira once again made a delicious dinner. We played more of the Hell Divers 2 game, but after that I think I’m done with it. It was good, but just became so repetitive.
Wednesday I went to dive club. Diana got a new job, which is amazing for her. I think she’ll be able to grow in the role. The only problem is it is outside of London, and depending on where they end up living could be hard to get to for us.
Thursday I went to Eden’s musical showcase in the same place Maggie did her dance performance. I really enjoyed it and Eden rocked the dance. They had the best facial expressions and crisp dance moves that clearly had intention.
Friday I volunteered at Castlehaven again, and then that evening joined Stacie and her friend Sal for a night at the zoo. We got to see most of the animals, with some already being in their enclosures to sleep. The nocturnal animals like the bats and sloths were more active than they would have been during the day, which was neat to see.
Saturday I went to Shantify, which is a juke box musical with all the songs changed to sound like sea shanties. It was amusing and had a bit of a story to it. It reminded me a lot of Choir of Man, which I also liked.
All day Sunday I went to Sitz, which is where you learn and then perform a full musical in a single day. We got a really great one that was a ton of fun to perform. I was in the choir of about 120, with an 80 person orchestra and 12 really good leads. We had one of the original orchestrators there to listen and he was really impressed. They have a rule of not saying what it was, as that is part of them getting the rights to perform it.
This week I tried to spend a lot of time outside, as it was gorgeous out.
Monday was a little too hot, when we went to watch the Queen’s Joust at Leeds Castle. It was a lovely day to go out, but it would have been better to spend it in the shade. The grounds were lovely, and there was a lot of shade, but to watch the joust we got up next to the tilt and that was full blazing sun. We had excellent seats, and picnicked while they were between bouts. We got there just in time to see the awarding of points for the melee. Then they had a break before the second to last jousting event. They had two rounds to the joust. First they had riders do accuracy and skill challenges. Challenge one was looping rings on the lance. Challenge two was cutting heads of cabbage. Challenge three was hitting small targets with the lance tip. Challenge four was grabbing a purse of coins and then dropping it into a chest. Then the last challenge was tilting against a target and seeing how many times you could make it spin. These challenges were close, and the Norwegian woman won the skills section.
The actual joust was next. They had one knight each representing France, England, and Norway. The France and England teams were much more experienced, as they have been doing these competitions for several decades vs. the Norwegians doing it for several years. They also had the team captains for France and England participate. They did every set of jousts between the three, and they did that three times. England won by a single point on that round, which set them up to win the entire tourney. I recorded the first few rounds, but then my phone overheated and couldn’t record anymore.
We didn’t stay for the last round of jousting, as it was so hot and Steph and I wanted to get back earlier for a live podcast recording of Betwixt the Sheets. Some of Steph’s favourite historians do a podcast on how sex and women were regarded throughout history. The theme of this podcast episode was how dick pics (and art) are one of the most common and ancient of human art. It was good fun and the hosts are funny to listen to.
Wednesday afternoon I took off and went hiking in Epping Forest. It was a nice walk, but nothing special about the forest. I did really enjoy picnicking for dinner in a field of flowers. The hike was about 14km that I did in about 3 hours.
On Friday I did a presentation for Camden digital inclusion on parental controls, then I went to Castlehaven to do the one on one help. After I got back home, Steph and I drove down to Weymouth.
She went diving for the weekend while I went hiking along the Jurassic Coast. On Saturday I went west along the coast to Abbotsbury Swannery. The trail was a bit overgrown, which wouldn’t have been a problem except that it was nettles that had overgrown the trail in some spots. The swannery had over 1000 swans there, with about 200 signets. They had pens for the couples that were nesting, so that they could have a dedicated area and not fight each other for space. There were some other birds there as well, but mostly swans. They had a few major areas that were full of the swans and lovely to see. I also did their wildflower walk and hedge maze while I was there. The hedge maze was smaller than some I’ve done, but really well made, and of course in the shape of a swan. I caught the bus back and then walked the beach for a bit before heading to the hotel and joining everyone else for dinner.
The second day I was tired, but made it east from Weymouth to Durdle Door, a large rock arch in the ocean. I was soooo tired from that hike, and the grade on some of the sections just west from Durdle Door are absurdly steep. It took me an entire week to recover from these hikes, mainly from the knee joints being roughed up from the steep sections. We made it back to London and cuddled the kitties that evening.
It's an Exciting World 