Adventures with Kake

On Monday I had an East London adventure! I started off fairly centrally, with lunch at Rochelle Canteen in Shoreditch, then wandered eastwards, taking photos for RGL along the way. I'd intended to stop for a break at L'Oasis, but it was closed (I found out later that it's closed for good), so I went to the Wetherspoons instead for a 30p pint of lime and soda.

Next, I got the Tube up to Upton Park, where I wanted to hunt out the Quality Foods branch I'd heard about. I found what I thought was it (and later confirmed the address was right), but it really didn't look too brilliant so I didn't bother going in. Maybe next time. Instead, I wandered across to East Ham and had a decent enough dinner in Thattukada (RGL review coming soon) before getting the Overground to Leyton for choir.

I have forgotten what I did on Tuesday and Wednesday. Probably just work.

On Thursday I went on a Metroland adventure! First of all, I went to Willesden Green, intending to have lunch at Sushi-Say, but alas it was closed. So I went round the corner to check out Taste Malaysia, but it was also closed. I ended up having a not-entirely-satisfactory fishcake in the Queensbury. But then it was back on the Jubilee Line, to change to the Metropolitan Line at Wembley Park, to change to the Chesham shuttle at Chalfont & Latimer.

And then I was truly in Metroland. ewan has described Chesham on RGL as “a bucolic village in Buckinghamshire, far outside London and only connected by the Metropolitan Line”, which is a fair enough assessment. The main reason I was here was to visit the Queens Head, a Good Beer Guide pub which needed a proper RGL review, but my research had also revealed the presence of a bookshop (which I browsed around in but didn't buy anything from). Not only that, but on approaching the bookshop I spotted a couple of pubs, the Misty Moon and the Cock Tavern, which I of course had to try out. Then on the way to the Queens Head, I saw that the George and Dragon had reopened, so I had to go in there as well. By the time I reached the Queens Head, it was getting late, and a few sums revealed that there was no way I was going to get to Waterloo in time for the book group meeting I was supposed to be going on to — so I sent ewan a quick SMS and headed back to Willesden Green to meet him for dinner at Sushi-Say (who initially said they couldn't fit us in since we didn't have a booking, but relented and squeezed us in anyway when we made it clear we were prepared to wait).

On Friday I did some work and then cooked saag and prawn patia for dinner.

On Saturday I overslept and missed the Tube Walk (but I did really need the sleep). In the evening I made saag aloo with the leftover saag from last night, and also did baingan ka bhartha to go with it. Then I killed my laptop by knocking a glass of wine all over it. Argh.

On Sunday I mourned my laptop and ate pizza from Cucina.

On Monday I went to choir! It was the first rehearsal after the summer break, and it was great; also good to see techiebabe again.

On Tuesday I went on the first leg of the New Good Beer Guide Pub Crawl, visiting the White Swan in Whitechapel, the Hamilton Hall in Liverpool Street Station, the Hand and Shears and Fox and Anchor in Clerkenwell, the Museum Tavern in Bloomsbury, the Courtfield in Earl's Court, and the Leinster Arms in Bayswater. ewan, shermarama, superpitching, mjg59, and wildeabandon joined in at various points along the way. We'd intended to eat at the Leinster Arms, but they were running short of food, so instead we went to Kiasu for Malaysian food.

On Wednesday I did the second leg of the New Good Beer Guide Pub Crawl, starting in Harrow-on-the-Hill with lunch at the Castle. While waiting for the bus to take me to the station ready for the next pub, I had a chat with a chap also waiting for the same bus. He told me he'd lived in Harrow-on-the-Hill for 40 years, but couldn't suggest anything interesting to do in the area — a shame, since I forgot to photograph the pub and hence will have to go back some time.

I also ended up having a conversation in the next bit of the journey; having got the bus to Harrow and Wealdstone, and waited 20 minutes for a train, the train got cancelled and I found myself chatting to a lady who'd also been hoping to catch the cancelled train. I never found out her name, but I did find out that she has a pretty similar attitude to life-work balance to me, and her sister is poly. When a useful train finally did turn up, the journey to Watford seemed to take pretty much no time at all, thanks to her company. In Watford, I went to the Estcourt Arms for a quick one, then headed to Watford's other station to get the Metropolitan line down to Eastcote, where I visited the Case Is Altered for some not-very-good food in an almost laughably bad environment, then beat a quick retreat to the Black Horse for a soothing half to get over it.

Thursday saw the final leg of the New Good Beer Guide Pub Crawl, a much more compact affair covering the New Prince (not actually a NGBGP but it needed a review) and the Lamb in Surbiton, the Boaters Inn in Kingston, the Builders Arms and Adelaide in Teddington, and finally the Railway Bell in Hampton. I'd intended to get food at the Railway Bell, but in contradiction to what both the Good Beer Guide and the pub's own website told me, they only do food at lunchtimes, so I drank my pint quickly and ran off to find a chip shop.

On Friday, Saturday, and Sunday I alternately worked and rested, though I did cook a fine roast dinner on Sunday evening, featuring expensive organic chicken roasted on a bed of black pudding, braised parsnips, celeriac stuffing, tamarind gravy, roast potatoes, and a tiny fraction of the frozen-pea mountain from the freezer.

On Monday I went to Wimbledon — not to watch tennis, but to take photos for RGL. I discovered what I think may be London's steepest lime-and-soda price gradient while I was there; £2.70/pint at the Brewery Tap and 50p/pint at the Rose and Crown 115 metres down the road. Then I went to choir.

On Tuesday and Wednesday I mostly did work.

On Thursday I went to L'Autre Pied for lunch with ewan. Unsurprisingly, given it has a Michelin star, the food was pretty good. (I took some photos of the food and would appreciate comments on whether I've over-processed them...)

After that, I did the Tube Walks I missed out on the weekend previously. I was also going to go along Oxford Street and take the photos I've been putting off for months (mainly because they're inside buildings), but it was so hot I couldn't face it. I retreated to the Coach and Horses, which has aircon and reasonably-priced lime-and-soda.

The reason I didn't just go straight home was that later on I was going to the first meeting of the Reading Matters/Savidge Reads book group, on the top floor of Waterstone's on Piccadilly. We're going to be meeting on the first Thursday of every month, and take it in turns to pick which book to read. Kim of Reading Matters wrote up tonight's meeting here.

On Friday I tried to work, but it was kinda hot again, so I pathetically knocked off early and drank gin.

On Saturday I braved the lack of Jubilee Line, and headed east to Leytonstone to have a bit of a sing of the third paragraph of Cornelius Cardew's Great Learning, an avant-garde piece for voices and instruments based on Ezra Pound's translations of Confucius' work of the same name. There were only six of us, but it was actually quite fun.

We're performing it this Saturday, 11 July, at various venues around Leytonstone including the old Woolworths and the Green Man roundabout. Come along if you like — there's lots of other Leytonstone Festival stuff going on during the day, and I will doubtless find myself in a pub at some point.

On Sunday I fixed stuff on the Discworld MUD.

On Monday I had dinner at Vasanta Bhavan in East Ham, then headed over to choir in Leytonstone before nipping to the William IV with ewan for a quick pint of their brewed-on-the-premises beer. The beer wasn't bad; the best of the three we tried was the Amarilla. Posters on the walls taunted us with a not-currently-available own-brewed mild. I do like a nice mild.

On Tuesday mrs_leroy_brown came over for a nice cup of tea and a chat. More than one cup of tea, actually; between us we had earl grey, darjeeling, emperor's breakfast tea, and spiced chai latte. I do like a nice cup of tea.

On Wednesday I went to a wine tasting at the Yellow House, along with bob, ewan, montag, flick, drplokta, and ali_in_london. It was kind of fun, though the pacing of the wine-dispensing was a little off towards the beginning and the portioning was inconsistent. The canapes went very well with the wines though, as well as being pretty tasty in themselves. We also had dinner there afterwards, including a couple of bottles of our favourite wines from the tasting.

On the way home, ewan just missed catching the P12 bus, and the next one wasn't due for another 20 minutes, so he and I nipped into the Stanley Arms for a swift half. It was quite nice in there; no real ale, but the place was clean, civilised, and well-kept. It's now the closest pub to my house, given the closure of the Crown, so I expect I'll be back.

On Thursday I didn't do anything exciting. Just some work.

On Friday I met up with Richard to go to the cider festival at the Goldhawk in Shepherd's Bush. It was not very festivally, but they did have a fair few bottled ciders on.

On Saturday I did some bugfixing and stuff on the Discworld MUD, including putting some code in game that I've been working on for the past few months — a revamp of an old area that wasn't very exciting, to make it more exciting. Go play on the Discworld MUD! And visit the Temple of the Listening Monks while you're there.

On Sunday I did more bugfixing on the Discworld MUD, as part of our regular Bugfix Sunday.

On Monday I went to choir, as is becoming traditional. It was brilliant, again. I decided not to sing in the concert on Saturday, since I've been to exactly three rehearsals and it's a DECADE since I last sang in a choir. People tried to talk me out of this by praising my sight reading, but I still didn't want to risk screwing up. Besides, there are performances in July I can sing in, instead, and I'll definitely be ready by then.

On Tuesday I made stuffed aubergines, tarka dhal, radish salad, and broccoli rice for dinner. It was v.g.

On Wednesday I made veggie chilli for dinner, using 1.5 scotch bonnet chillies in the process. I think I should have used 2.5.

On Thursday I did a catch-up Tube Walk, going from Eastcote to Rayners Lane. When I got to Rayners Lane, I had some tasty Sri Lankan food at Papaya. Then I went to drink beer with Phil and bob at the new location of the Wheatsheaf. Nine real ales including a mild!

On Friday I didn't do anything other than work (well, I did some knitting, and watched the season finale of Grey's Anatomy).

On Saturday I took some photos of the scarf I posted about last week. In the evening doop and I had a takeaway from Super Nova. The "gluten chicken with green peppers and onions" turned out to contain generous helpings of Sichuan peppercorns and dried red chillies, which was a very pleasant surprise. We might have to try eat-in here some time, and see if we can get access to their secret Chinese menu.

On Sunday I did some Bugfix Sunday bugfixing on the Discworld MUD.

On Monday I went to sing with the London Forest Choir. It was awesome. I hadn't sung with a choir since college and I'd forgotten how brilliant it is.

On Tuesday I went out for dinner with bob. Apparently we were having some kind of anniversary or something. We attempted to go to the new location of Cafe East, but they were closed due to having run out of food the night before, so instead we went to Banzi. We then pubcrawled home via a couple of local pubs; the China Hall and the Crown. The China Hall, surprisingly for the area, had two handpumps offering real ale — we didn't stay long, though, as it also had sport on the TVs. The Crown had no real ale but also no sport, and there were people singing! As we were leaving, we saw the landlord having a smoke in the beer garden, and he chatted to us for a bit. He and his partner (wife?) took the place over a couple of months ago; I'd not realised it had changed management. Will visit again soon.

On Thursday I had lunch at a Syrian restaurant in Shepherd's Bush, Abu Zaad. It was OK; I think it would have been better if I'd had company so we could have ordered more of a variety of dishes. I've heard a lot of good things about this place, so I'm happy to give it another chance.

On Friday I realised I had run out of work! So I went to Mama Pho for lunch. This is the new Vietnamese place which opened at the old location of Cafe East, which is the old Vietnamese place we tried to visit at its new location on Tuesday. I had bun bo hue (photo), and it was good. When I got home, I fixed a few terrains bugs on the Discworld MUD. Terrains are complicated.

On Saturday I tried to do some singing practice, but I didn't enjoy it much because I was worried about people hearing me and being annoyed by it.

On Sunday I spent the entire day fixing bugs on the Discworld MUD. (We were having a Bugfix Sunday event. I was logged on for 17 hours. Oops.)