It's an Exciting World

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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I got back and had lots of meetings with many people and groups about getting into my AI startup work.

There was still plenty of fun to be had. I got to do another performance/rehearsal at Merkato Mayfair with Ready Singer One. Steph came at the end and we walked a little around Hyde park, but there was a big concert with lots of people in cowboy hats. We ended up wandering to the Wellington Arch, which was way bigger inside that I expected. We also bought a lot of the English Heritage mead while we were there.

I did my typical club meetings of two choir rehearsals and getting drinks at Holborn BSAC. I made it to Yonder to do some coworking and climbing, which has since become a weekly thing.

Saturday we went to Hammersmith for The Empire Strips Back. It was a good show, although I liked the one in SF better. The British audience was also way less enthusiastic, but that is fitting for the Brits. Sunday we went to the Docklands Museum of London, which had an exhibit on mudlarking. It was decent, although I’m not sure if I prefer that one or the one in the Tate Modern more. After the museum we went to Roe, a restaurant that Steph has been watching youtube videos about. We had an amazing Sunday roast there.

The next week I was again going to my clubs, but only Ready Singer One was meeting for choirs. Dive club happened on Wednesday, and I met up with Punit at Yonder on Thursday. I took Steph to a cute Japanese cafe where they have the egg sandwich that she likes with the egg showing in the middle. It was decent, but the flavours weren’t as strong as we’ve become accustomed to.

George and Paul were in town over the weekend. We had to stop by Coal Office, but didn’t get much to eat there. We went to Fallow with George, and had an amazing lunch there. It is the same owners as Roe. Then we walked all the way back to our place, since there were some issues with the mass transit. The walk was long, but nice. We met Paul at a pub, and then we went to a Greek place for a late dinner. It was really good seeing them, and it felt a lot like old times. It makes me realise that I don’t miss California at all besides the people that we had great friendships with there. Those people I miss a lot.

During these weeks the renovations on our new flat progressed well.

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This week was really chill, with Steph in Zurich. I did a lot of work, and met with a lot of people again. I am finally getting into making product instead of networking and that change feels good. I need to be careful to not get too focussed on product so I can continue on the company growth route.

The rest of my free time was spent coordinating on renovations to our new flat. I’ve really enjoyed sitting on the balcony over the canal. I look forward to living there.

I went to both choir rehearsals, and really enjoyed it.

Otherwise not much going on.

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This week I had a few days at Yonder to do climbing and coworking. It is a really nice setup with the first two floors being a climbing gym, then the third floor as a coworking space. I met Punit there and we climbed together.

I went to both choirs this week and really enjoyed the songs we were singing. I’m looking forward to performing with them. I joined for drinks after with the games choir and talked more with Zaheer.

Over the weekend I went to the open parks in London. I met Zaheer at and we stopped by 5 amazingly nice gardens: Belgrave Square Garden, Wilton Crescent Garden, Eaton Square Garden, Chester Square Garden, and Queen’s Gate Garden. It was raining some that day, but we found good spots to stay dry for the most part. I also really enjoyed talking to Zaheer abou the future and how AI could impact things going forward. I really enjoy talking with him, and appreciate that he doesn’t get bored by it.

Sunday I went to the Teddington Rubber Ducky Race with Diana, Jose, Zsofia, Anel, and Pavel. Anel and Pavel showed up towards the end, then we had an amazing Sunday roast and Pimms at the Teddington Arms where Jose is the manager. We hung out in his flat afterwards, just above the bar. I had a great time with that group, but needed to get back home early to meet Steph as she came back from her cave dive rescue training course.

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