Things I did last week.

[kake]

On Monday I visited Upminster, the very end of the District Line! I had lunch at La Grolla, a decent enough Italian restaurant. I also popped into Swan Books, the Essex Yeoman, and the Crumpled Horn; and then I took a photo of the windmill. I'm still not certain what Upminster's hidden gem is; possibly it's Swan Books, which had a book about Romford pubs that I nearly bought for ewan.

The excitement did not end there! I headed back towards East Ham on the District Line, with the intention of trying another of the Indian cafes on the High Street, but realised en route that I could stop off at Barking and go to Chennai, a South Indian cafe/restaurant in the same chain as Lewisham's Madras. I enjoyed the food at Madras when we went there, so was expecting good things from Chennai. The food was just fine here, too, as it turned out, though the staff did seem quite bemused by the presence of an actual customer.

Then I went to choir. It was awesome, as choir always is. We're singing Bach's St Matthew Passion in March next year, apparently. It takes three hours to sing, but this is a nice, sensible, relaxed choir, so we'll be stopping for dinner in the middle. I approve.

On Tuesday I went to the Isle of Dogs! I visited the Pepper Saint Ontiod, in the company of ewan, and then headed around the dock for dinner at Byblos Harbour. On the way back to the Tube station, we popped into the North Pole to satisfy Ewan's curiosity. Or perhaps his completism. Or perhaps just to have some beer!

On Wednesday I took some photos in Hammersmith (and briefly popped into the Ruby Grande to shelter from the rain) before heading over to Richard's place to spend many hours playing Rock Band.

On Thursday I took advantage of being in West London, and went to London.pm sushi at Makoto, then headed down to Brentford to take a couple more photos and drink beer at the Magpie and Crown and O'Brien's. Finally I headed up to Northfields to meet aca and many others for tasty South Indian/Sri Lankan food at Papaya.

On Friday, Saturday, and Sunday I did loads of bugfixing and stuff on the Discworld MUD. This might be considered slightly overdoing it — but on the Friday I moved from the Ramtops domain to the Guilds domain (where I will be working on witch stuff), and it was all very very exciting, and very hard to stop doing stuff. (superpitching — this is the geeky thing I mentioned.)

Comments

[sashajwolf]

The SMP is my favourite choral piece ever. Are you singing it in English or in German? (I prefer the standard English translation, which is difficult to find as a recording, unfortunately.)

[kake]

We're singing it in English. I'm very slightly relieved at this, since I've forgotten how to speak German.

I should buy a recording at some point, but I have no idea how to choose one!

[ewan]

What?? There was a book about Romford pubs? Oh I must now go and visit Upminster... (There's an aged book all about pub and inn signs in Quinto, in the antiquarian section, but it's £30 so I didn't buy it. Seems a bit steep.)

[kake]

Oh, oops, I forgot you are ewan on here and not hoshuteki — I have fixed the post.

£30 is quite a lot for a book, yes... perhaps put it on your birthday wishlist?

I'd be happy to revisit Upminster; it's surprisingly easy to get to. I'm wondering if the pubs near the Upminster Bridge end would be more interesting.

[ewan]

Yes, a visit to Upminster would be good. Are you still doing choir on Mondays. If not, any day would be fine really, depending on when is good for you.

[kake]

Choir has only two Mondays to go before we break for the summer :( I am very sad — why must it run in terms?

However, I'm planning to keep up the habit of going to East London on Mondays. I'm meeting up with sashajwolf on Monday 20th, but any Monday after that is good for me. If you're thinking of making a day of it, we could perhaps have Indian veggie lunch in East Ham and then proceed to Upminster.

Oh — also, I'm thinking of doing catch-up Tube Walks on Thursday this week. Would you be interested in meeting for lunch somewhere convenient between your work and Edgware Road? If so, how far is too far for you?

[ewan]

Anywhere in between me and Edgware Road is fine by me. Marylebone High St area would probably be best, but I can easily get on a tube so anywhere really.

And I can do any Monday really, so if we pick one (27th?) I can put it in the diary. I'm a bit busy at work, but I reckon taking an afternoon off would be quite possible.

[kake]

So many untried (or not-recently-tried) options in that area! We could see if Tomoe can cope with vegetarians, if you feel brave... or possibly L'Autre Pied has a non-exorbitant lunch offer... Woodlands needs a proper review too... the Marylebone Creperie might be our best bet though.

And yes, let's make it the 27th for the East London adventure! I'll post tomorrow and see if anyone else wants to come along.

[ewan]

I think I'd be most interested in L'Autre Pied. It looks like a 2 course set lunch would be 17.95, but we might need to book? I'm not really a huge fan of crepes, and Woodlands looks a bit so-so, so second choice would probably be Tomoe.

[kake]

Let's go for L'Autre Pied then. Their online booking system says we can have a table at noon or 12:30pm — I'd prefer the latter, if that suits you.

[ewan]

Any time is fine. Book for 12:30pm and I'll see you there tomorrow!

[kake]

Done!