dgeisert

A Normal Week

London Weekly 90

Wednesday I went to SIX with Grace, Carla, Radha, Jessica, and a coworker. Grace, Carla, Jessica and I went to Seven Dials before the show. I had a great time, and was glad I was able to fill the seats that people backed out of at the last minute.

Wednesday I met up with a person who makes terrariums in London. They posted their terrariums on Instagram and they are gorgeous. I got one that is more of a wall, and another that is a semi-aquatic one that has duckweed. They are so nice.

Thursday I went to meet a cat in Highgate that I’ll be catsitting named Henry. He was a cute long hair that was really friendly and enjoyed head scratches, but didn’t want any pets along his back.

Saturday was pretty chill, as I didn’t do much at all. Sunday however was a full day. I met Irene and Radha at the sound studio. It was an amusing setup, where they had a sound booth studio on a busy street, and the underground went below it as well. Every five minutes I could feel and hear the deep rumble from the passing trains. It was not the right place for a sound bath studio. There was also very little in the way of guided meditation and the sounding bells were played pretty softly. I was relaxed, but it wasn’t the full sensory experience I was hoping for. Then we went to dinner in Shoreditch.

September 9, 2024 0

Hack and Book Launch

London Weekly 89

Monday we took the train back from Edinburgh. It was a nice train ride and I stopped by the office afterwards. Irene was in town and she organized a dinner at Coal Office which was amazing. We finally met Radha, as well as Cyn, one of Radha’s other friends. The dinner was lovely and the conversation was lively.

Tuesday after work Irene, Steph, and I had dinner at Hoppers, which was amazing. Then Irene and I headed to Wicked and met Andrew at the theater. I really enjoyed it and there was a lot that I’d forgotten since I’d seen it over a decade ago.

Wednesday was the start of the XR Hack hosted at PwC in London’s Embankment station. I had a great time, but over the three days of the hack I was mainly dealing with all the hardest problems from each team, which made it an intense three days. I was impressed with the teams I was helping and the person I was most impressed with won best hacker, so that was great to see.

Wednesday evening Nancy and Punit were hosting a dinner and I joined them, Irene, and Andrew. The food was amazing, as usual with their cooking. We played around with some of the AI tools, then played a round of a party game. Atlas woke up, and it was already pretty late, so I headed out.

Friday was also the book launch party for Radha, who uses the nom de plume of Anat Deracine. The party was amazing, with book signing, readings by the author, and great people to talk to. I really enjoyed the conversations and hope that the people there will become friends. I did drink to much…

Saturday was a lot of hangover recovery. I listened to books and slept in. Then I cleaned the apartment top to bottom. Steph got back that evening and we spent time together, watched some Alone, and relaxed.

Sunday was more relaxing. I went to afternoon tea at Cake and Bubbles with Steph for our anniversary. Then we walked around Covent Garden for a bit and got some food to go. I decided to take a hike around Hampstead Heath to pick some blackberries, and it was FULL of blackberries. I ate my fill and then some. Book club was nice, and we had a great discussion on the book. It went in some unexpected directions, which I enjoyed. I tried to watch Moulin Rouge at the King’s Cross canal screen, but it was packed, so I watched the first bit over some shoulders, then headed back to cuddle with Archer.

August 19, 2024 0

Edinburgh Fringe 2024

The week started off with some Camden Fringe, in Islington. We went to a fun act of improv. They took Steph’s suggestion for a Greek Myth of “Why do platypuses exist?” It was decently well done, but the venue was amazingly hot the whole time, so it was harder to enjoy. I can’t imagine what it was like for the actors under the spotlights.

We got on a train Early Wednesday for Edinburgh. We had a nice lunch near the train station, and hung out in the park for a bit before heading to the Airbnb to check in. We saw the AI Improv again, and it hadn’t changed much, which disappointed me. I still enjoyed it. We saw two cabaret acts that evening The first was more lighthearted, and the second was more impressive.

Thursday we saw the show that Steph’s friend Michelle was in. It was a really touching and lovely show, and we went out to lunch afterwards with them, and it was great. We then saw an a capella group that was good, but not as good as last year. To be fair last year we saw one of the best in the world. I then saw Avenue Q, and it was amazingly well done.

Friday we had a lovely lunch, and then Steph and Michelle did some martial arts training in the Meadows. After training Steph and I went to YUCK circus which did a great job and had some good social commentary and meta commentary to go along with the show. We then met up with Michelle again to see La Clique, which was just as amazing as last year, if not more. They were checking ID at George Square before the Disney Villains Drag show, and Steph had forgotten her ID so we couldn’t get in.

Saturday Steph hung out with her sparring partner and I went to the sing-a-long show, which was a lot of fun. We had done two of the songs in choir, so I knew them really well. I was a little surprised by the song selection, as the show seemed targeted at kids, but the song selection was not. After that I did a short hike up Arthur’s Seat. The show 44 Sex Acts In One Week was much better than we were expecting. They had a large set of objects for doing the foley sound effects. It was really fun to see what they used for each sound effect. The show was hilarious with great character development, and story.

In the evening we went to a show called Ask a Stripper where two strippers did a quick strip then sat in the nude while taking questions about their careers. One of them had the strongest Scottish accent I’ve ever heard in person, and she went by the mononym Morag. It was an entertaining show for sure.

Sunday we had afternoon tea, then went to see a standup routine by Anna Akana called It Gets Darker. The comedy was dark, but well done. It was hard to laugh at points, despite the punchlines being delivered well. She did a little crowd work, and hyped Asian women, having them raise their hands. Then asked which ones were here with their white boyfriends, and that left just me and Steph. She then saw that I was in my Captain America shirt.

That evening I went on my own to a VR Musical. I was really impressed with the tech, and the MC did a really good job. The players were all over the place and didn’t really know how to use VR that well it seemed.

August 18, 2024 0

Singing and Diving

London Weekly 87

Monday was amazing, as Craig had organized an outing to a karaoke bar with some people from Choir. It was mostly the baritones, which made some of the times we tried to sing the choir songs a little awkward, as the parts were way out of balance. I had a great time and sang a new song for me, Hallelujah.

Steph and I spent a lot of time this week working on a visa application for the UK for Global Talent. It is a shorter clock to UK ILR, and not Meta dependent. Hopefully we can get it and won’t have to worry about needing to leave unless we want to.

Saturday was my first day diving in the UK, at Wraysbury. It was better than I was expecting, as they had a lot of interesting wreckage in the reservoir. They had a few cars and the front section of a large cargo plane. I enjoyed the one dive, but it wasn’t worth doing another, especially since Steph was going to do some cave training. We went with Simon and Gabi, who were great people to chat with.

Sunday we took a walk along the canal to an ice cream shop, then went and got some more plants for the apartment.

August 10, 2024 0

Covid Week

London Weekly 86.

I did very little this week because I got COVID. Steph got it a few days before I did.

One fun thing we did was I ordered a bunch of small things online, including wall decals. We put the wall decals up all the apartment. It was a bunch of plants on shelves or hanging. The best ones have a cat in the middle of the plants. They make me happy to see spread around and I’m really glad we did that. We also put up a bunch of butterfly magnets on our windows in the living room. They add a nice splash of color.

I also got some new shoes and a new backpack.

I was feeling a bit better Friday so we went on a walk outside, while I still wore a mask. I was much better Saturday and Sunday so I walked along the canal without the mask. It was also perfect weather over the weekend. The blackberries were starting to come out, but the one Steph tried was still quite tart. I enjoyed relaxing with the kitties while getting better, and listened to a lot of books.

August 10, 2024 2

Kim in Town

This week my sister Kim and niece Grace were in town. London Weekly 85.

Monday morning I met them at the train station and brought them back to the flat before heading to work. We took it easy Monday, with a short stop by the British Library and dinner at Nando’s.

Tuesday they went to the British Museum in the morning and then I took the afternoon off to go to The Eye and Buckingham Palace with them. I had to run back after that for volunteering at StartX.

Wednesday they went to the Natural History Museum, V&A, and the British Museum again. We met them in Hyde park for a picnic dinner.

Thursday I took off work to go to Hampton Court Palace with them. We had a great time at the palace, and Grace especially loved the kid’s playground.

Friday was a chill day and we had dinner at Dishoom right before the rush. They went to Camden Market and played in the fountains during the day on Friday, which was the perfect day for it.

Saturday they came over to hang out a bit, and do some laundry, then we went to the V&A again and had some tea in Kensington. The Piccadilly and Central lines were down for engineering work, so it was a little hard getting around.

July 28, 2024 0

WSG Caving Weekend – Abby Music Room

Steph and I did a weekend at Caerllwyn with the younger members of the Westminster Speleological Group. We decided to do the cave Agen Allwedd (Aggy). Steph and I got in on Friday morning, and then she went off for a cave dive while I spent the day at the hut working on trip planning. I got a lot done, and was able to hang out with people as they got in.

Saturday we went to White Hall and hiked out to the entrance of Aggy. We had a group of 6 going to the Music Room (Nas, Jack, Roshan, Will, Steph, and I). It was a gorgeous hike, taking about 45 minutes. I started to overheat from it, as we were in our full cave gear. The entrance was pretty tight, but once we got to the main passage it opened up a lot and was a massive tunnel. We got back to the music room and saw the clay sculptures and music left out in it. On the way back we stopped by a gorgeous chamber called the Earth Chamber. It was a domed room with brightly colored striations in the rock. At the end of the main chamber we took a while to find the exit, but then we made our way out through the tight bits once more. I had a great time and got some great pictures of everyone.

After caving we had a cookout, with Nas grilling a bunch for everyone. The other group didn’t get back until around midnight, when I was already asleep.

July 14, 2024 0

A Busy Week

London Weekly 84

Monday I didn’t do much besides work, and Tuesday was much the same. I did go to the different offices to give presentations, which was a nice change of pace. Wednesday I made it to the last night of choir for the term. I signed up for next term and am looking forward to it. Craig and Sergio were there so I got to say hi to both of them.

July 14, 2024 0

Amsterdam with Tina

Steph and I took a long weekend in Amsterdam where we met up with Tina. We started early Friday morning with a train ride on the Eurostar. The train went through Brussels, to Antwerp, Rotterdam, then to Amsterdam. We had to get to the station about 45 minutes early to go through customs, but it wasn’t bad at all. We got to Amsterdam around noon.

We started out with the Canal Museum, which talked about the expansion of Amsterdam and the construction of the city how it is today. It was really interesting to hear and read about. The garden behind the house was also gorgeous. We then checked into the hotel and waited for Tina to arrive.

We went to dinner the first night once Tina got in and walked around the flower market before getting to a nice Indonesian place. It was really tasty and I enjoyed the variety of food. They had a plate with all sorts of dishes. We walked into the main park near where we were staying, but didn’t get very far.

The next day we grabbed breakfast at a cute little coffee shop before heading into the city a bit. We made our way to the Centraal Station and hopped a bus to a small town with lots of windmills, Zaanse Schans. It was an adorable area, and some of the windmills are setup to still run. We saw the sawmill moving, and got a demonstration of the mechanisms. We also go to tour the dye mill, and oil mill.

The town was adorable, and we toured through the cheese maker, the clog maker, the carpenter, and the weaver house. The whole town was adorable, and the weather was perfect.

We got a crowded bus back to Amsterdam, which took a long time due to traffic. We headed back and grabbed some frites. Steph and I had an amusing evening making AI music about Archer and Lana.

The next day we went to the Rijksmuseum. We grabbed breakfast at the cafe there, then wandered the museum. It is pretty big, but something that only takes one day. We made it through all the exhibits we cared about by the mid afternoon, and then headed back to the hotel for a rest. Tina wandered separately from Steph and I, but her interest was still captured by the same pieces. The monk meditating with an engine, the teapot split in two, the library, the angry swan, and the model ships.

We had a late lunch at the Carousel, a themed restaurant that had pancakes and waffles, which were delicious. We all had a bit of a food coma after that and relaxed at the hotel for a bit. Dinner was at an Algerian spot Stpeh noticed while we were walking around and it was interesting and tasty food.

Monday morning we had coffee with Tina and then said our goodbyes. Steph and I headed to the royal palace, which originally was the Amsterdam town hall. It is a gorgeous building, and it is a shame it isn’t a public building anymore.

Our train was delayed so the trip back to London didn’t go as smoothly as we’d hoped. We caught the later train back to London.