This weekend was the occasion of Louise‘s birthday, and as such involved lots of food, drink and well no small amount of general fun times. She had a couple of days off work, and I think has partied on each and every one of them.
On Thursday night (the night before), Louise went to visit friends and so I was left to fend for myself, something I am becoming increasingly bad at. Still, I got in some food and some wine, and having eaten, was going to watch movies. As it happened though, a quick exchange of emails saw me heading out to BrewDog in Shepherd’s Bush with a friend for some beer. It was a first visit there for both of us, so we had little idea of what to expect. However, the beer was good, the atmosphere lively and fun, and the train home, the last! I say home, but in the end it only got me to Edgeware Road, and I had to get a bus from there. Got home OK though, if a little late.
I woke up late on Friday morning, but seemingly in plenty of time to meet a late Louise who’d been delayed partly by our wonderful rail services, partly by laziness, partly by bacon sandwiches and partly by… well by things I probably shouldn’t be speaking about in public, let alone putting onto my blog. Whatever it was she was up to, it left Louise worn out and she was sprawled on my bed most of the afternoon drinking green tea.
Anyway, after doing all that needed to be done, we got ready to go out for Louise’s birthday meal.
The group of us (Moira, Isi, Louise and I – nobody else showed up) met up at Penderel’s Oak as we usually do on such occasions, and made our way over to Kimchee to eat. There was a long queue, so we went downstairs for some nommy Korean cocktails with lychees in them. There were some photos taken, but I didn’t like how I turned out in them (everyone else looked great), so I’m not putting them here. You could probably find them on the relevant Facebook pages should you look. When it arrived, the food was as wonderful as expected, and was enjoyed by all present.
From there, most of us moved on to the Belgo
on Kingsway, an awesome Belgian bar of our acquaintance for a beer to finish off. However, the noisy crowd of lawyers (or law students, it was hard to tell which) made Louise feel uncomfortable, so we left after just the one and made our way home.
Saturday was more relaxed. We played video games and apart from groceries we didn’t really go out much. I didn’t have a lot of luck with KSP, but did some, and took a few photos. I think the worst part was that after landing a few colony modules on Minmus, I landed the crew ship too far away and then, while flying a kerbal over to it, managed to fly straight into a module and knock it over, making a mess of the whole thing. I also managed to crash a rover, break the landing/return module and a few other things. I did however, earlier manage to get some of my Jool expedition (of which a test flight was in my last post) out into 2000km orbit of the green gas giant, and am getting a kethane miner into position. I crashed the rover on landing it though so another try before there are photos of that. I believe that Louise had rather more success.
On Sunday, we were meeting Louise’s parents for lunch, and we headed out to Holborn to meet them, and went to Pizza Express in the old dairy next to the British Museum, where hot Calabrese† pizza created by Francesco Mazzei, and cold Pino Grigio wine were the order of the day.
Once we had finished eating, we wandered around the museum itself for an hour or so to see the exhibits. And then, after Louise’s parents had left, Louise and I went back to the same Belgo we’d visited on Friday when it was less busy for a couple of beers before going back to mine to relax and watch movies. As it happens, my flatmate had a copy of The World’s End, which we giggled at like mad things. Of course, there was cake and yet more beer, which kind of increased the giggles by an order of magnitude.
On Monday, while I was getting back to my job seeking, Louise was migrating her own blog, and setting up a Minecraft server, which I’d probably take a lot more interest in if I was the kind of person to enjoy Minecraft. Still, it can be fun to watch her play even if I’d not really want to play myself. Louise does make it tempting though. This evening, we’ll make a chilli together so that will be, at least in my opinion, a lovely end to a lovely weekend.
† Spicy Calabrese sausage D.O.P, hot soft n’duja sausage, finely chopped red chillies, roquito peppers, red & yellow peppers, mozzarella, rocket, pesto, oregano, Gran Moravia cheese