Monday we got dinner with a friend of Irene, George. He’s a professional pianist and has had some interesting life stories. He was great to talk to and I really enjoyed hearing about his travels and challenges. He had to get to a meeting but we got a traditional English dinner. Then went to The Three Tuns, an adorable traditional pub, and had a drink.
Tuesday morning I went on a lovely run through Reagents Park. I did most of the park for a total of about 3 miles. There were so many tulips and trees in bloom, it was gorgeous.
Wednesday I made it to dive club, and it was absolutely packed. We even ran out of chairs.
Krista and Bonnie were in town on Thursday and Friday. They are Steph’s family from Hawaii. We went with them to dinner on Thursday at Marketo for Ethiopian. Then we had breakfast at Dishoom on Friday. Saturday was a stop by a few of the more major museums: Natural History Museum, and the V&A. They left early Sunday morning.
Sunday I spent time with Steph, and we walked around a bit in the neighborhood near us. We spotted a few gorgeous Wisteria vines, and I’m looking forward to going to the Albion in a week when they are fully blooming.
We spent a lot of time with Grace this week as she had us over to Google for lunch. I really enjoyed just hanging out with her, Carla, and Steph. We talked about the last minute tickets for musicals and resolved to get some the next day.
We chose Back to the Future the Musical as the target. I got on at 10:02 and all the tickets were already in baskets, but with the 10:05 re-up I was able to get tickets for myself and Steph. I enjoyed the musical, despite it not being great. The car scenes were one of the best parts, and the special effects were amazing.
We played some V-Rising with Michael and Michelle, and really struggled with the bosses in the new area. Since they heal and summon it can be really rough if we can’t beat them quickly enough.
Saturday, Steph and I went to Camden market for brunch, then tried to go to the Camden Garden Center. Lots of the roads were closed so we wandered a bit before getting there. I got some plants to replace some that hadn’t done so well in the outdoor planters. I’ve been really surprised how well my indoor planters have done. I then went to grab a new library card for Islington, but was somewhat disappointed by the selection in the free apps. They had a number of books on CD, but not many in the Libby app.
Sunday we went over to Nancy and Punit’s to watch the end of Physical 100. It was a great show, and they had some amazing cooking. We even spent some time on their roof when the sun came out.
Overall this week the weather was starting to get actually good. The wind really picked up, so it wasn’t quite warm enough to not wear a jacket. I let the kitties out onto the balcony, which they enjoyed: so many smells.
Monday was a holiday, and Steph went to dive to check out her gear with a cave diving buddy. I stayed in for the day. Monday evening we went to TINA, the musical, with Grace and Carla. It was surprisingly good.
Tuesday evening I performed in St. Pancras Station, which went ok. There weren’t many people as it was a rescheduled event with a changed location. The first round was rough, but the following three went pretty well. It wasn’t nearly as cold as the December performance.
Wednesday evening was with dive club. Thursday was StartX, and then drinks with people from work who were in town.
Steph was off cave diving for the weekend. I had the performance on the steps of St. Paul’s Cathedral. In the video I’m just to the left of the musical director. After the performance I went inside, into the crypts, and then up to the roof. It was amazing. The choir was practicing while we were there and it was a gorgeous sound.
That evening I got rush tickets to see Frozen, the musical. It was very well done, especially with how they displayed the magic. The child actors were phenomenal, and the extra songs they put in for the musical were fun. As expected it was full of kids, but they weren’t that disruptive. There was one kid near us that kept saying “Oh no!” at the bad guy reveals. It was cute and everyone laughed.
Sunday was chill, and I played some Monaco with Grace, then Steph got home and we had book club.
Monday evening I went to Guys and Dolls with Craig. We got the immersive seats and it was really fun. They were moving in and around us the whole time, and a few people got pulled up to the stage during a few of the numbers. The whole thing was fantastic, but Steph’s criticism was very valid. The guys were terrible to the women and we seen as redeemed and great by just agreeing to marry them. They had no time to show they had changed their ways.
Tuesday I was supposed to go to Liverpool St. Station for a choir performance, but it got cancelled. I ended up going out to Beer + Burgers with Sagar, David and other people from work. I really enjoyed chatting with all of them.
Wednesday evening I went to the King’s Cross choir for the final performance. We got a recording, but the audio isn’t the best.
Friday and Saturday we played Frosthaven. We got into a set of linked scenarios. We had our first characters retire at the same time. Steph went for the Crashing Tide crab character, and I decided to do a new Boneshaper, but with a different set of cards.
Friday we went to LEGO: the Art of the Brick exhibit. It was pretty fun, but it was one note on many of the monochromatic people. We grabbed drinks with Grace and Carla before then, and it was nice.
Saturday evening I joined some people from Choir at Overtures, the musical sing-a-long piano bar. The evening was great. I was especially amused by the choir singing all together on arrangements that weren’t the official arrangement, and the people playing the music got very confused. We were so confidently wrong.
Sunday, Steph and I headed to Richmond Park, the largest park in London which has a big herd of deer.
This week was the final week for learning songs at Choir. We finished up with a few really fun songs, but I only made it to Liverpool St. on Monday. Tuesday I went out with coworkers to the pub and had a great chat with some of the people visiting from the US. I left when the quiz started up.
Wednesday was just a late day at work, but I goofed off most of the week, so it wasn’t so bad.
Thursday was just a quiet evening in, and doing a lot of chores.
Friday, Steph had set up a dinner of okonomiyaki at Abeno near the British Museum. It was delicious, and we tried some ingredients we hadn’t had before. One was a mixture of seaweed and yams that turned into a sort of gummy.
Saturday I went to a HIIT class and then a dance cardio class. I really enjoyed the dance cardio, but it wasn’t nearly as hard as the HIIT class.
Then I had the dress rehearsal for Choir. It was a great time, but I don’t know this set of music nearly as well as I knew the set from last year. I’ll be doing fewer performances as well.
Saturday evening we played some V Rising with Michael and Michelle. We started adventuring in to the new biomes, which have some really hard enemies.
Sunday was pretty chill, and we played some Frosthaven.
We got back from Tromsø, and got right back to work. The building I normally work from was closed due to a massive plumbing issue, so we went to the office just down the street. I brought some of the Norwegian candies that we picked up. We also got our new assignments at work, more or less. I made it to Choir on Wednesday, but I was dead tired afterwards. We still made it to dive club, and multiple people were passing around candy, so I got a bit of a sugar rush to carry me over.
Thursday was Pi Day, which is an American thing because of the way we write dates. Steph got a few tasty pies from a nice pie shop for us to celebrate.
On Friday we had an amazing night out with Carla and Grace. They suggested going to the Seven Dials Market, which is a food court in Covent Garden. It is a really interesting place, and has a great atmosphere. After that we walked over to the Artists’ Church and saw a performance of some musicals music performed by a string quartet. I really enjoyed the evening.
Saturday Steph and I joined Nancy and Punit at Duck and Rice for lunch. It is an amazing Dim Sum place, and brewery. We then toured a lot of the art galleries in Mayfair. It was interesting to see everything, but I like the student galleries in Central St. Martens more.
It was the start of spring in London for sure. The trees that line the lanes near our place were all blooming in massive floral displays. I really like how colorful and vibrant London gets in the spring.
Steph and I hopped the train to the airport where we were able to get in the lounge after waiting in line for a bit. The flight was mostly uninteresting, but we did see some aurora from the plane. It was hard to see out the window, and we didn’t have window seats. The woman in the window seat was nice enough to take a picture with my camera.
We got to the hotel, and it had an uneventful Friday. We went to the sauna in the marina, and that was really nice. The sauna has a huge window that looks out across the fjord at one of the mountains. I took a dip in the fjord, as did Steph. It was amazingly cold, but bearable with a pop back into the sauna.
Saturday we took the morning going dog sledding, which was amazing. The dogs were friendly and hilarious. There was a French couple who were guiding for the winter who showed us how to drive the sled. They let us drive the rear sled where the dogs followed the sled in front. It was still amazing to get to control the sled. The dogs loved rolling in the snow whenever we stopped.
That evening we took a bus to see the northern lights. It was cloudy in Norway so we had to drive through Finland and then cross a frozen river on foot into Sweden to get a good viewing spot. When we arrived we got a brief glimpse of strong activity that calmed down after about 30 minutes. Then we sat around a campfire and had some stew before heading back.
Sunday we went to the Polar Museum. It was mostly about hunting, and very rough living. They had lots of sexist views of women portrayed there, without disclaimers. They also had a full life sized diorama of baby seal clubbing, but that one had the disclaimer that they don’t do it anymore. It was a really morbid place.
Sunday evening we went to the Reindeer ranch kept by a group of Sami people. The Sami are the indigenous people of the far north of Scandinavia. The reindeer were cute, but some were pushy, and used their antlers to push you if you didn’t give them food quick enough.
We mainly stayed in for Monday and Tuesday, as it was still cloudy and we’d done everything we came to do. Wednesday we had a very early morning flight back.
I started the week by seeing a musical that one of the choir directors composed: “Bette and Joan and Baby Jane.” The music was pretty good. They didn’t have stage directions yet, so it was somewhat like a reading. Despite the lack of stage directions it was pretty good and I enjoyed keeping up with the characters. I was almost tempted to go look at the source materials, but decided against that after one of the other choir members did and reported that, while good, it was really disturbing.
Tuesday was another outing with Ice Wharf for the pub quiz. Steph joined this time, and the team had grown considerably. I think we’ll need two tables next time if the trend continues. We ended up leaving early as Steph had to prepare for her training. She also got some fancy caviar and we decided to give a tiny bit to Archer and Lana. Archer didn’t care, but Lana seemed to like it.
Wednesday was the usual choir then dive club. Dive club was pretty calm, but we got to talk to people a lot more. Thursday we headed to the airport for our trip to Tromsø, Norway.
Monday I went to Liverpool Street for Choir. We were singing “The Lusty Month of May” which I don’t much care for, but it will take a lot of practice because it is a very difficult song. As I was leaving there was an adorable fox on the lawn outside the church. It was very relaxed and healthy looking.
Tuesday was a late day at work as there were a number of meetings with the US. I had a number of good calls with StartX groups as well. Steph and I went to dinner at a Thai place nearby that was really good, Rosa’s Thai. We will have to go there again.
Wednesday during the day the re-org at work finally took shape, and I learned that my team was staying in the UK, while the team that sits next to us was being asked to move to California. Wednesday evening was the King’s Cross choir, singing the same section of the same song, but it was good practice. I then went to dive club and had good conversations.
Thursday was StartX again, and then dinner at Little Georgia, which was delicious. We then went to Lucky Voice for some karaoke. It was interesting that most of the team wasn’t really up for singing. I did a few songs, and we had a great time of it. I had a bad hangover on Friday from the tequila shots we did at karaoke. I saw another fox near the Chapel Market area on my way home Thursday.
Friday I finally managed to go to overtures, which is a piano bar in SOHO that does musical theater sing alongs. I wasn’t nearly as studied up as I should have been, as I only knew a few of the songs they played. I’ll be going back at some point, but I’ll listen to a lot of musical theater songs before then so I can have more of a chance of knowing them.
Saturday was super chill, and I did a lot of chores. We had book club in the evening and then played V Rising with Michelle and Michael. We beat the butterfly woman in the Glade, but it was tough. Then we lost once to a necromancer, and finally went back to barely beat him the second time. Michael was the only one left alive at the end of that fight.
Sunday we did a little shopping at the Chapel Market, and got kitty stuff for when we are away. Steph also founds some interesting goat cheeses for me, one smoked and one pickled. She also got a cheddar and marmite roll, which was surprisingly tasty. I found that Uniqlo has some pants that might be good replacements for the ones I have now that are getting close to being worn out.
We then went to see Dune with Nancy and Punit and grabbed pizza afterwards at one of their favorite places.
It's an Exciting World 