It's an Exciting World

Steph and I decided to take a weekend in Budapest, mainly so I could see an immersive theatre show, but we still made a full weekend of it.

I got in Friday late afternoon, and wandered Margrit Park in the afternoon, then went to the show Walk My World. It is in the style of The Burnt City and Sleep No More. The set was extensive, and not as detailed or cohesive as the sets by Punch Drunk, with most rooms being somewhat independent of each other instead of connecting through. This didn’t take away from it much, especially with the addition of the acrobatics. They had all sorts of rings and ropes and poles for doing dozens of types of acrobatic performances. They also had a giant robot arm, which was incorporated well into the performances. I thought I’d found all the rooms on Friday night, but I was very wrong. I still got to see so many performances and the finale was spectacular. I’m especially happy to see this kind of performance being done in more places. I’d say it was more entertaining but slightly less immersive compared to The Burnt City. I liked The Burnt City more, but that just means Walk My World is my second favourite piece of entertainment of all time. Were it in London I would be going at least twice more.

Saturday I went to meet Steph at the train station as her sleeper train from Zurich came in. We dropped her stuff off at the AirBnB, then walked down to the Central Market. It was an impressive building, but seemed a little odd with all the small stalls built in the massive structure. We got a fried bread with lots of toppings, and it was delicious, but hard to eat.

We then went to the Light Museum. It was an art gallery, not a museum, and they clearly ran out of light based things and had a few artists just put objects on display. They had some really amazing light based art. I was disappointed in one of the exhibits because it was supposed to be an apparently static water drop in a strobe light, but the drops weren’t calibrated to the strobe frequency, so it didn’t hit the effect at all.

We walked by the parliament building, then up to the castle. We went through the entire castle museum, which was way bigger and more interesting than I was expecting. We then walked through castle district on the way back to the AirBnB before dinner at an amazing little restaurant, Mandragora, on the way to the theatre. Steph and I went to Walk My World together, and I realized just how much I had missed from the first night. I found at least 10 new rooms and 3 new acrobatics apparatuses. I know I missed at least one other, but suspect there were several more I missed. If it has a long run, I may return.

Sunday we checked out of the flat, and got a breakfast of a Kreme, which is like a custard sandwiched between two puff pastries. It was tasty but hard to eat as we couldn’t cut the puff pastry without squishing it. Then we took the cute old subway line, which has only 3 small cars and tiny platforms to the park. We had a nice lunch at an art nouveau / art deco restaurant, Gundel. After lunch we made our way to the Rudas Spa. The Turkish baths part of the spa was my favourite, with old stone and gorgeous lights in the roof. We spent hours switching between the hot baths and saunas before I had to leave for the airport. Steph stayed at the baths for a few hours longer since she was catching a train instead of me needing to get to the airport.

The first signs of spring are coming out around London with daffodils and hyacinths starting to bloom. I’ve been buying a hyacinth a week at Waitrose because they smell so good and I love their flowers. The cherry trees are also starting to bloom, so I’ll want to go to some of the great cherry tree walks in Hyde park next week or so.

I also did a lot of singing with RS1 choir this week. I organised a nice dinner at 7 dials market on Monday, with eight people joining for dinner. I’ll do that again when possible. I also went to the Tuesday and Wednesday sessions since we were doing run throughs of the songs so far. It is always more fun when we sing many of the songs all the way through compared to when we note bash. Note bashing is needed, but I’m not going to do multiple days of note bashing the same songs unless I really need it.

I also went to two museums this week that had been on my list. I went to the Transport Museum and the V&A East Warehouse. They were both fascinating, and well worth it. I’m going to these on weekdays during the day, so they should be less buys than normal, which helps a lot. I’ll have to make a larger list of museums that I want to go to and work my way through it. This is somewhat related to my newest project, which is for events around London: Another Like That (anotherlikethat.com).

On Friday I hosted a lunch at Caravan in Kings Cross for the StartX people in London. Only four came by, but it was still a great chat. The four people I get along with best were there.

Friday evening, I went to Giulio’s place for karaoke and games. It was fun to talk to everyone there, and we did some songs in other laguages that were challenges. Giulio also happened to know the piano part for Lumier, one of the video game songs we are singing in choir. I tried to sing along, but I know the bass part for it, and his arrangement was slightly different than the one I know. It mostly worked.

Saturday Steph got back and we lazed about for the day. Then on Sunday we went to the Dive Show near Birmingham. I got my last few things for the dry suit setup I needed, which were a hood and boots. I’ll set up some time to try it out and join on some trips this summer to the channel. We also signed up for Scapa Flow, which has been the next big dive site I’ve wanted to go to. It is north of Scotland in the Orkney Islands and has many WWI and WWII ships that were scuttled there.

Sunday evening we had a book club discussion on Everything is Tuberculosis. It was an interesting discussion, although not surprisingly low attendance for it.

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This week was pretty calm, due to it being Christmas week.  

I was able to get a quick lunch with Stacey, who I always enjoy talking with.  She is doing exceedingly well for herself.

We had people over for Christmas Eve during the day.  Zaheer, Diana, and Gokhan came over and we had a great meal and chat.  We opened some gifts and popped some crackers.  It was nice to have them all over.

The next day we joined a few neighbours in the courtyard, but it was quite cold and windy, so we quickly retired to our rooms.  Steph and I then went to Teddington to see Jose and Diana.  They were quite busy, so we didn’t get too much time with them to chat.  I gave them their small gifts, and then we headed back home.  We had drinks with Elizabeth and chatted.  She’ll be moving and the actor is going to be buying the flat below us and doing some construction to join it with their current flat.

The rest of the week was just relaxing and not doing much of anything.

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I got to spend Thanksgiving with my family in Atlanta. We were able to have some great fun while there.

Tuesday Dad, Jeff, and myself made a friction fire. It was harder than we expected, but after about a dozen attempts we got it working right. Dad had all the right wood and we didn’t have a bow so it was just holding the string taught and running it back and forth. Jeff took us to a nice Mexican restaurant for taco Tuesday, and I got to see the whole family for a lovely dinner. Grace, Kim, Jeff, and I also did an amazing experience that wasn’t quite an escape room, but it was lots of puzzles. We did a laser maze and some cooperative Simon.

Thanksgiving dinner was delightful and chaotic, and I greatly enjoyed getting to play with Elise and Audrey. They are so much fun, and they tired me out.

Friday morning I headed to King’s Cross Station to go to Fringe.  I met Sergio and Craig at the station, as they were taking the same train as I was. The train happened to be on platform 4, so I got a picture where the Harry Potter filming actually happened. The train was easy, with a direct route to Edinburgh.  We got in around 1pm, and headed straight to the dorms.  We had to wait a bit beforehand, and I got to hang out with some of the Manchester group at a pub before checking in.  The link to check in was way too long and they were being very slow about checking everyone in.  I got the key, changed, and then found Jamie, my roommate, to let him into the room without him needing to wait another 30 minutes.

We got ready and headed straight to Brewhemia.  The stage was in the back section, which was still quite large.  We could only fit half the group on the stage.  It was so cramped with the call time being a little too far in advance of the actual show.  We did the warmup in an emergency exit hallway, and then went on for the show.  The men were on stage with the women spread around the balconies.  The worst part was that the musical director was only visible from the waist down for the women in the balcony, so for their parts he would squat and turn around to direct.  It looked absurd, and nobody could really hear the music well.  Despite that it was a great time.

After that I headed back to the dorm for the StartX AI Roundtable.  After that I went to a show called Score where three dancers were hooked up to electrodes that would cause their muscles to contract.  The dancers did some of the movements on their own, but also had the electrodes fire in sync so that their movements were coordinated by the tech director.  It was strange and went on for four times too long, but was still fascinating.  I was too tired to go to some of the later shows, so went back and got sleep.

The next day we had breakfast then headed to the church for the first of three Saturday shows.  I got there very early, and then everyone showed up for a great performance.  It was hard to hear the music again, but this performance was the only one with dedicated space for us, and a ticketed audience.  There were over 200 people there, and I was amazed at how many came to see us.  We did really well, and then we split up to grab some food before the second performance.  We hung out in the park under the castle, where the second and third performances would be.  We did one at the Scots memorial, then another at the band stand.  Both went really well, and we had more practice and better layouts, getting to take up more room and make a big arc around the musical director.

After the two shows I quickly went back to change and made it to the “I wish my life were like a musical” show, which was really funny and had some amazing singers.  Then I had drinks with some of the Manchester people again before heading to Arcade, which was supposed to be an immersive experience, but wasn’t all that immersive in my opinion.  It was darkness with a choose your own adventure audio story. I again called it a night early by Fringe standards, but a normal night for me.  Sunday I had breakfast then went to two shows, “Side Quest” and “Behind.”  They were amusing, but neither was great.  Side Quest was an audience suggestion based adventure story, and Behind was a woman’s stand up comedy routine vaguely based on how she saw her sex life like Henry VIII’s sex life.

The train back was much longer than the one there, as I took the westerly route.  It worked out, but the wifi was even worse than on the way up.

I really appreciated the chance to perform at Edinburgh Fringe with the choir.  It was amazing, and I really liked having the same group to perform with several times in a row.  It was a lot easier to talk with other choir members, and the time between shows was especially good for allowing for chatting.  I also heard more varied voices than usual.  Some great, some decent.  There was one baritone that kept singing an octave down, but it worked out.  I’ll be taking at least one term break from West End Musical Choir, and we’ll see if I want to rejoin in the spring or not.

Weekend of London week 137

Karaoke on Monday with Craig and people from choir was a blast. I left early as I was getting tired quickly, but I still really enjoyed myself.

On Tuesday we went to Walthamstow to have lunch with Punit.

Giulio and I had dinner together then went to choir for the first half of When I Grow Up from Matilda.

On Friday, Steph joined me for breakfast at the congee bar at work. I really enjoyed the discussion with the StartX AI group in the evening, and signed up to do a presentation on video models.

Saturday, Steph and I went to the Taskmaster Live Experience in Canada Water. It was fun, and I felt really good for figuring out the only real puzzle. I ended up winning a golden rubber ducky for being ‘the best of the worst.’ I was happy with it, but don’t need to go back and do the other one. We stopped off afterwards for lunch at the Borough Markets and ate at Mei Mei. I got the duck dish, which is similar to the meal deal I get at Waitrose, just way nicer.

Sunday was chill, and I was sick, so not much beyond book club.

Overall not too much going on this week, but I did make a new music video.

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I had an amazing week for London Weekly 105.

Monday I got to perform with the choir at Trafalgar Square. We did a number of Christmas songs, along with the Hercules medley. I really enjoyed seeing everyone else from the choir, as well as getting to perform with them all. This was my only performance for this term, and I technically shouldn’t have done it as I didn’t make the dress rehearsal and I missed three weeks of normal rehearsal. I did a lot of extra studying so I felt good about the content. I was also able to get a nice hot chocolate at the Christmas market beforehand and I got Steph some chocolate covered marshmallows afterwards.

Tuesday I went to the show “Hold on to your Butts,” a Jurassic Park parody. It was fantastic and did a beat by beat parody with great callouts for where the film made no sense. I went with a few people from work including Giulio and Cristina. Steph wasn’t feeling great so she skipped.

Wednesday we helped out at the Lifesavers course acting as casualties. Steph and I got dragged around the pool, and had a good time. We showed off some of our Red Sea dive trip.

Thursday Steph and I walked around King’s Cross area looking at the lights and stopping by Canopy Market and Lower Stable Market. I got some great pictures of Steph, and we ran across a company handing out free drinks called Mixton. We also had a nice stop by St. Pancras Station to see the Wicked ‘Christmas Tree.’

Friday night Steph was making some clotted cream to go with the blueberry scones I was going to make Saturday morning. Here is the amazing recipe from Steph.

The scones turned out great and Saturday I took them to Atlas’s birthday party. There were a number of young kids there, and I had good conversations with everyone. Steph wasn’t able to join as she was too sick and didn’t want to spread things. I did take some food back to her, as Nancy and Punit were leaving for Canada on Monday.

Sunday was a chill day with a visit to the National Gallery’s special exhibit on Van Gogh. They had over 50 pieces by Van Gogh there, including several different mediums. We hung out by the Trafalgar Square Christmas market afterwards and had some hot chocolate.

This week was a great taste of why I love London. It had a show, a museum, choir, dive club, markets, interesting and pretty things in public spaces, and getting to spend time with friends. I also loved that on my walks to work I see coots, Canadian geese, Egyptian geese, mallards, morehens, cormorants, seagulls, crows, and magpies. I am amazed every day at the vibrancy of the place despite the constant grey weather.

I had a really chill week for week number 97 in London. This week was spent close to home taking care of things. On Wednesday we took the kitties to the vet to get them checked up. They are doing well, and I just need to brush their teeth more often.

Giulio joined me for choir on Wednesday, which as great. We went to the pub after with the choir as well and it was great talking to everyone there. I really enjoy talking to people in the choir because they aren’t in tech. It is a breath of fresh air and I get to hear what non techies lives are like.

I ran into the canal cats a good bit this week. There is a new Tortie and the Orange Tabby near Kaki was out and about again. It is also truly turning to fall this week. The trees in the courtyard have gone golden. They are gorgeous, but in a few days they will be bare. Other trees are turning as well, some golden, some red. It is a pretty if dreary time of year.

Saturday I ran errands in the morning then we went to dinner with Ricardo. We then went to Camden and tried to find some live music, but the only major show was sold out. We got a Guinness at a pub and then walked along the canal back to King’s Cross.

Sunday Steph organized a trip to Dover Castle. We had a few detours along the way, but made it there and then toured the castle. It was a pretty quiet day, but the weather was perfect for it. The castle is big, and has a ton of history. They also did lots of period pieces to show what it would have been like in the 1200’s. We walked down to the beach and had dinner by the water.

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I did a good bit of singing this week, between Karaoke on Tuesday and Choir on Wednesday. I really enjoyed both. The karaoke was only four of us, Xiaomeng, Giulio, Baha and myself. I found a new team at Meta, and resolved some of the big unknowns I had hovering over me.

On Sunday I took Steph to an afternoon tea at Whiskers & Cream, a cat cafe. It had some really cute cats that were really chill. There were a lot of children that weren’t terribly nice to the cats, so mid visit most of the cats were taking sanctuary in the high places around the cafe.