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, Tuesday, and Wednesday I mostly did big piles of work. I skipped choir because I was feeling manky.

On Thursday I went out for dinner with amuchmoreexotic, partly to check out the Brasserie Toulouse Lautrec in Kennington and partly so I could meet his friend Ashok, who is interested in web stuff and data and pubs and all that kind of stuff. Like many of the cool people my friends introduce me to, he is leaving the country shortly; I hope we'll manage to meet up again before then, though. Ben had to rush off early because he's running an exciting Ponzi-scheme game which I am probably too late to advertise now.

On Friday I did, guess, what, some work!

On Saturday I fixed some stuff on the Discworld MUD and then shared a takeaway with bob — we'd been planning to go out for dinner but then the heavens opened up.

On Sunday I missed a Tube Walk due to being unable to tell the time. Bah!

I will try to be more interesting this week.

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 did lots and lots and lots of scanning for unclutter_2009.

On Tuesday I rewarded myself for a four-hour turnaround on a piece of work with some masala tea, then made dry-fried green beans with hoisin sauce for dinner.

On Wednesday I made some home-made tomato juice.

On Thursday I went on a pub crawl.

On Friday I hung out with bob; first we went for lunch at More, a quite promising new restaurant on Tooley Street, then he went to sort out a misbehaving server for work while I went and took some photos in Shepherd's Bush. Then we reconvened at The Goldhawk, where I drank Brothers festival strength perry and learned that they're having a cider festival next month. Later we wandered along to Patio for dinner; I can recommend the herring and apple salad.

On Saturday I had lunch with lozette at Haandi in Edgware, and then we both headed along for a nice stroll in the sunshine with the ever-lovely tubewalkers. Then everyone else went to the pub, while I went home to do some work. (Please do not feel sorry for me; I choose my own work hours, and I'd rather work on a Saturday evening because it gives me free time in the week, when pubs and restaurants are much more pleasant.)

On Sunday our bizarre downstairs neighbours had a party which started at the crack of dawn and continued until about 10am, so I got up at 9 and did even more work. In the afternoon I participated in the Discworld MUD Bugfix Sunday to the grand extent of fixing a single bug, then gave up on thinking for a bit and went out and wandered in a big circle around SE1 taking some photos for RGL.

On Monday I didn't go to choir because it was a Bank Holiday and the Jubilee Line was closed for engineering works, and I was tired anyway.

On Tuesday I was meant to go out for fun, but I was still tired so I went to bed early and watched House.

On Wednesday I went for dim sum at Joy King Lau with Sarah and Lex, then wandered around taking photos for RGL before meeting people for curry at Gaylord. I tried to pop in to the Crown again on the way home, but it was closed again.

On Thursday I made congee for the first time ever, using the century eggs I bought from See Woo on Wednesday. It was really tasty.

On Friday I made aubergine and prawns in XO sauce, and pork and tofu in black bean sauce. Both were pretty tasty. I think I might have to start ordering XO sauce dishes in restaurants... though they do tend to be a bit expensive, since the sauce itself is expensive.

On Saturday I did some work and then finished knitting a scarf that I was making for my sister.

On Sunday I ventured to Southall with doop, ewan and said sister, to go on a pretty enjoyable food walk. We had lunch at Mirch Masala and did a bit of grocery shopping. When we got home I made pani puri and they were ace.

On Monday I made cauliflower-leek soup.

On Tuesday bob got back from Eastercon with a pile of new books, so we did a massive declutter of old CDs, videos, and out-of-date computer books. Then we celebrated with a takeaway from Cafe Nawaz, which was pretty decent for what it was, and well-priced too.

On Wednesday I fixed some bugs on the Discworld MUD (and also did a wee bit of new development, which I can't tell you about until it goes in-game).

On Thursday I made some roasted carrot pate and read my freshly-arrived copy of 42 Magazine. I was planning to make baba ganoush as well, but my aubergine exploded in the oven.

On Friday I made teh interwebs crave fried egg sandwiches.

On Saturday I attempted to watch The Wire with uon but got bored halfway through the first episode due to being unable to understand what was going on. He appears to be hooked, though.

On Sunday I fixed some more Discworld MUD bugs and wrote some new NPCs for Ohulan Cutash. If you're a Discworld fan, or indeed a MMORPG fan, you really should check this out. It's been around since 1992, and has been properly maintained as well as expanded over the years since then. It also has a very good proportion of active female developers, which I believe a lot of people are touting as one of Dreamwidth's plus points.