It's an Exciting World

This week we started back to Ready Singer One choir. I went on both Monday and Tuesday. It was difficult this week since it was tube strike week, and the entire Underground and DLR were shut. If it was just that happening then it would have been fine, but when the tube shuts, people use the buses and drive instead. This makes the roads so much worse and the busses unreliable.

Monday and Tuesday I went to choir. I had such a great time, but it isn’t like West End Musical Choir, as each choir is focussing on a different set of songs each week. So it isn’t strictly extra practice on the songs that I need to practice on. It was great to learn more of the songs that I hadn’t learned yet. I’m sure it will be useful.

I still managed on Monday and Tuesday, but Wednesday I tried to walk and it really didn’t work out as it rained pretty hard for about 15 minutes and I got soaked. I made it to the Cursor hackathon and got 4th out of about 60. I had a great time and made a fun little game of party building survivor-like game.

https://dgeisert.itch.io/cursor-party

Thursday was amazing and I went to Liz and Jamie’s place for games. We played two rooms and a boom, and the social deduction part was great. Nathan had such a good play when he made the bomb and president fall in love, but I caught on and separated them at the last second.

Then we played the game where you have to communicate concepts in three rounds, first Taboo style, second with a single word, third with charades.

Saturday Steph and I went to the Bake Off Extra Slice filming and got to be part of the studio audience. It was a fun time, but a long day. We got there around 1pm and it took until 8:30pm.

Sunday morning was the Merkato morning performance. It was so nice to sing with everyone. I brought some of my blueberry scones to share, and I think people liked it.

My parents got into town in the afternoon and we spent most of the afternoon and evening together. I got to hear all about their trip, and they told me about the cities and buildings they got to see on their river cruise.

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I got lot done with work this week, but didn’t get out much. I went climbing twice, once with Punit at Yonder and once with Zaheer at Bethwall Green. I’m really enjoying the climbing.

On Thursday, Steph and I went to King’s Place for a live recording of a podcast episode of Betwixt the Sheets with one of Steph’s favorite historians. It was a great time, both informative and funny.

We got some small bits of furniture delivered, and replaced a few of the bits that weren’t working as well as we’d hoped.

Steph and I are loving the new flat so much. Just being able to look up and see the canal while working or having lunch is a dream.

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Monday there was an amazing opportunity with the Ready Singer One choir to sing at Outernet in Tottenham Court Road station. The launch of the latest Metal Gear Solid game was being advertised there and they asked us to do our choral rendition of Snake Eater. It went surprisingly well, as the acoustics of the space were unexpectedly good. The audio track we used was slower than what most of the pianist typically play, but we managed. It was a lot of fun, and we did it twice just because.

After the impromptu performance, we had a picnic. It was originally supposed to be in Regents Park, but we swapped to Soho Square Gardens since we were already there for the performance. I had a great time, and for a bit I was the only one with a nice picnic blanket. The ground was damp, so sitting and spread space was at a premium. I got to chat with so many of the RS1 group and I really appreciate getting to know them better.

The week was pretty chill, and we are really getting used to the new place. The mornings are so lovely with the canal and sunlight. There is a fox that has started sunning itself just across the canal in a little garden. It is so neat to see it there for a few hours each morning. I think this is the mother from the kit of foxes that were in that garden before.

The kitties are getting used to the space and seem to be really enjoying it. Especially the canal. Both Archer and Lana sit out on this balcony far more than they did at the previous flat.

I also went back to Yonder again this week, just me. It is nice to be able to take a break and just go climb a bit. I’m also able to do a few of the v4 routes, so I’m progressing slowly.

We had Zaheer and Zaheera over for dinner on Friday. I really enjoyed the time with them. Zaheer is in RS1 with me and his wife Zaheera has a lot in common with us as well. I hope we can do more together, and get into things that they like more as well.

We finally moved out of the previous flat. I took the garden furniture back to the balcony there, and we got the last bits out and cleaned it. We still need to hand over the keys, but that can happen whenever. It feels good to have that out of the way now.

Nancy and Punit had a going away party on Saturday. There was a mix up in communication so we showed up several hours late. The blueberry scones were a hit as always. We didn’t stay long as most of the party was around the children, and the space they have to host in has a strong echo making it hard to have a conversation. I’ve been worried about that with our space as well, so we are going to be getting sound absorbing ceiling tiles.

Steph and I had a great time on Sunday going to Bridge Command again. Steph was the captain and I was helm. She did a great job guiding use through the scenario, and we were able to take out some pirates without any real damage to the ship. It was a lot of fun and we are having a blast with the Bridge Command experience.

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Over these ten days I did some very British things, like fancy afternoon tea, visiting the Tower of London, and going to the BBC Proms.

Lynne invited me to go to the BBC Proms performance in Royal Albert Hall. It is a gorgeous building, but clearly not built well for the kind of performance we saw there. I’m not sure what kind of performance would actually work correctly in that space. The space itself was amazing, with a big ring of balconies around a central arena like space. The first two pieces were strange and new. I didn’t care for them, but could appreciate the skill it takes to play something so anti-melodic. The timings and pitches are so much harder when they don’t flow the way one would expect. We grabbed drinks at the half and the second half was much more typical of a symphony, and more to my liking.

Saturday Steph and I did another round of Bridge command. It was with a smaller group, only 5 people, and we had a few new people. I think it went really well. We were a little slow at points, but the crew came together well, and as far as I could tell we did really well overall on the mission. It is interesting play acting the diplomacy when I don’t know the lore all that well, but I still had a great time of it.

After that I met with Zaheer and Zaheera in Green Park for a picnic. I really enjoyed the picnic, and talking with the two of them.

I got home and prepared for the neighbours coming over for our third and final housewarming. It was really nice, and I think they all enjoyed the codenames game. I had a great time hearing all the gossip of the complex and learning all of their thoughts around the UK and King’s Cross area.

Sunday I did anther performance at Merkato Mayfair. It was a great time as always. I love singing there as the pressure is really low, but the challenge and friendliness of the group is amazing. I had such a great time, and really look forward to these performances.

Then we met Nancy and Punit for a late afternoon tea at Sketch. They had a gorgeous room and the bathroom was the most unique I’ve ever been in. The food was good, but nothing too special, and I really enjoyed getting to hang out with Nancy and Punit without Atlas there.

Monday was our 7th anniversary and we went to Fallow, which is one of the restaurants Steph likes to watch Youtube videos on. It is also one of the best in London, and we had a great time watching them cook from the Chef’s counter.

Tuesday I took most of the day off and met Jose at the Tower of London. We went all around the tower, and did almost every exhibit. The only one we missed was one I didn’t really care about. The crown jewels were amazingly sparkly with so many large stones. I was most impressed by the armour collection, especially the ones that actually belonged to kings. Jose and I had a lot of great conversation while there and I look forward to spending a few more weekdays with him when he is off.

Wednesday I finally made it to the new pub for dive club. It is a nice meeting room on the third floor of a pub. The karaoke room is just above, so some day I might stick around or show up early and do some karaoke.

Thursday I met Xiaomeng at Meta for lunch. It was great to see him, and I got to randomly see some of the other people I worked with as well. It was really nice. The fire alarm went off, so we headed back to my place and I showed him the new flat.

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Monday evening I had some of the choir people over for games. It was a ton of fun, and I hope to do it more often. We played Codenames, Drawful, Murder Trivia, and Quiplash.

I made it up to Yonder on Tuesday and Friday, but most the rest of the week I was working on the flat or moving things over. We moved the kitties on Tuesday evening, and they were expectedly unhappy about being moved. Lana was hiding behind our clothes for the longest time.

Friday we also hosted a housewarming of people from Dive Club and other social acquaintance. I really enjoyed having people over, but I want to do something about the noise in the flat. It can get really loud since we’ve streamlined so much of the curtains and lighting, so there isn’t much around to absorb the sound. The housewarming gifts were also really nice, and greatly appreciated.

Saturday we had Nancy, Punit, and Atlas over to watch the end of the series we were drafting together. We ended up both losing when the team neither of us picked won the whole show.

Sunday, Steph and I went to Chess Valley to hike. It is an amazing area for hiking, and has sooooo many blackberries everywhere. I gorged on blackberries and the hike was also great. We really lucked out on the weather.

The flat is almost together. We have a few deliveries next week and that should be it for all the large furniture.

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This week we really started putting the flat together. My hands were aching from all the screwing and pressing the furniture together.

Monday we got the first round of IKEA in. On Tuesday a lot of the furniture we got on Amazon came in. Wednesday was the dining room set and TV stand. Thursday was the second round from IKEA. Somewhere in there we got internet and a mattress.

I also had people over for the first time on Wednesday, for the second London meetup of N1AI that I’ve hosted. The first was mostly my AI interested friends and Nicola in the old flat. This was a great group, and we got to discuss a lot about how we would want to work together. We all did introductions socially and professionally, and that took up pretty much the entire evening. I enjoyed meeting everyone and hope to work with them in the future.

Friday we met Lata at Mestizo for some really good Mexican food. We also picked some up for our housewarming party.

On Sunday I joined one of the other Ready Singer One choir members to see My Neighbor Totoro again. It is such a great show, with amazing puppetry. Also, I had a really good book club discussion for Embassytown. It went all over the place, but the book really provides a lot to talk about. I would highly recommend it, especially for discussion groups.

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This week was pretty chill. I tried to work from the Wellcome Collection, but they are closed on Mondays, so I worked from the British Library instead. That has been a great place for getting work done, but you have to show up in the first 30 minutes of it being open to be able to get a desk. Tuesday i was back working and climbing at Yonder. Then Wednesday was the start of my cat sitting Henry again. He is a cuddly cat when he wants to be, and he’s really taken a liking to me.

Friday I went to see Jurassic World with Radha. The movie felt like it was a formula, but put together in a strange way. They had so many strange and stupid decisions. Steph just happened to be diving in a cave that has Dinosaur statues around it, so she sent us a highly appropriate picture.

Sunday I had a great time at Merkato Mayfair singing with Ready Singer One. I really enjoy the time spent with that group and am actively trying to do more with them socially. In the afternoon on Sunday Giulio and I went back to work on some video editing. Otherwise it was a pretty uneventful week.

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This week was just a normal week. I managed to get a build out to people with my application working, but it was too intensive to install, so they didn’t get around to it.

Over the weekend I had a great time. On Saturday I went to Hampton Court Palace with Steph and Diana. Later int he day Anel also joined us. The transit was having issues as it was raining quite a bit the night before and that morning. Add signalling issues at Waterloo and you get a lot of people not able to get to the palace reasonably. Luckily Steph and I hopped on a random train heading West and it happened to be going to Teddington. We stopped in on Jose and Diana at the Teddington Arms, and they had a rugby match on, so it was packed. We hung out there for a bit hoping others would be able to join, but they turned around at Victoria. We then walked through an amazing park full of dear to get to the palace. It was a lovely day once we got there, and it mostly stopped raining. We saw the end of the first joust of the day, then met Anel and wandered the palace for a little while. We went to the chapel and then went back out to just miss the end of the falconry show. We saw the entire second joust and it was good fun. Since it was raining earlier in the day it wasn’t packed at all. The joust was the playful and scripted kind, which is ok. I like it when they are competing more, even if it isn’t full tilting.

Sunday we met Roxanne, Alex, and Amy in Vauxhall for Bridge Command. Bridge Command is an interactive set where you act as a crew to a starship, like in Star Trek. I had a much better time as an engineer, and I ran around the ship fixing things. I also got to help with an injured crew member, and got a medical accommodation. I had a great time, and so did everyone else. I look forward to going back.

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