October 2005 Archives
It feels as though I've been on the go every day for the past few weeks * (well, since H and I returned from Yalta at any rate, which was at the start of October) but today Phil and I had set aside for a mammoth vid & veg session. The extra hour from the clocks changing was an unexpected bonus, and meant that we could have a lie in and still watch all of the accumulated episodes of The Sopranos series 1 (from More Four), and a couple of The West Wing series 5 (playing catch up on a whole series there....), and the repeat of this week's episode of Lost on E4.
Bliss.
Phil and I headed over to Witham this evening for Janet's book launch. Whilst we've got a complimentary copy of A History of Witham sitting on the to-be-read shelf at home, it was the official launch this evening, and we saw lots of people carrying copies - a very good sign!
The party was in a lovely old barn behind the Spread Eagle pub on Witham High Street, and Phil, the tee-totaller, was in charge of the first free drink vouchers and welcoming people into the barn. I arrived about half way through the gathering, but in the remaining hour I was introduced to many of Family Gyford's friends and neighbours, aquaintances and contributors. No one was willing to divulge any embarrassing stories about Phil though. Apart from the one about losing at Scrabble.....
... starting off with drinks in The Bishop's Finger with Matt on Friday evening after one of his visits to St George's hospital in Tooting. He assured us (Cat, Hazel and I) that he wasn't looking at avian flu.... phew.
Next stop was Pho on St John Street for a tasty bowl of noodle soup, with summer and spring rolls for starters, and Beer Lao to wash everything down.
Saturday morning was a lazy affair with newspapers, coffee and croissants before we got our act together for a stroll through Smithfield and St Pauls, over the wobbly bridge to the Tate Modern for a quick look at Rachel Whiteread's Embankment, aka Dougal's sugar cubes, then along the south side of the Thames through Borough Market and on past London Bridge to More London where we paused for a bagel and a coffee before heading back to the Barbican via a typically deserted weekend City.
We took the bus down to Clapham Junction where Cat got to see Hazel's revamped flat and to meet Luke, and after a cup of tea we moved on to a couple of glasses of wine with crisps and The X Factor, which was subsequently (inevitably?) followed by pizza home delivery and another couple of bottles of wine and the Top 100 Horror Films.
Surprisingly, Sunday didn't see us suffering, especially after a tasty fry up rustled up by Luke as we girls vegged out in front of the box - trying to catch up on a year's worth of Hollyoaks plot. After clothes shopping on Northcote Road drew a blank, Cat and I headed north to Kings Cross, where Cat boarded the 14:53 to Leeds, and I the number 214 bus to Chiswell Street.
For the rest of the afternoon Phil and I indulged in a marathon session catching up on the episodes we've missed of The West Wing (the whole of series 5....2 down, 19 to go), accompanied by tea and cake.
Phew! Our one-year overdue flatwarming feels like it has been a great success today. We had lots of guests - family and friends from all parts of Phil and my various worlds - who came bearing lots of bottles and edibles, and the odd small person. No injuries or lost infants and 8 hours of host[ess]ing!
Just don't mention the pizza to Phil..... well, Saturday's pizza practice at any rate ;)
We've got Phil's Bristol mates Tim and Helen staying this weekend, and after a leisurely morning Tim and Helen arrived in time for a late lunch, after which we headed out for our local guided tour, taking in Smithfield/Farringdon, St Barts, St Pauls, the Wobbly Bridge, Tate Modern (where we revisited Rachel Whiteread's Embankment (white plastic moulds of cardboard box interiors, which bear a striking resemblance to giant sugar cubes), Bankside to the Royal Festival Hall - where Phil succumbed to the lure of scaffold-and-sheet-wrapped buildings, lit up by the late afternoon sun (it must be catching) - and then across Hungerford Bridge, then into Trafalgar Square, popping into the National Gallery and then catching the bus from Shaftesbury Avenue up to Islington.
This latter section (i.e. from Bankside onwards) was an extension to the usual round trip, but allowed for an evening in Islington, featuring time for shopping in the Angel centre (or whatever it's called), an early viewing of Wallace and Gromit and the Curse of the Were-rabbit (all the better for spotting Jay's name second in the list of animator credits, and Jay and Fi's baby Felix name checked in the 'babies born en route' credits a little later on) rounded off with a scrummy meal at the habitual Giraffe. Then a stroll home to atone for the feast.
Flatwarming tomorrow....
Gary's leaving drinks/do at Digress: good, bad and ugly.
I had my last HTML for Beginners class at the City Lit this evening, and after 12 hours (OK - I only made it to 3/4 of the sessions, so that's 9 hours...) I feel like I'm getting my head around the basics. I've not the self-motivation learn code from a book, and I'm too much of a novice with the concepts to feel comfortable learning from a website, and I have to say that our tutor, Puneet, provided just the kind of mix of explanation and exercises that suit me down to the ground. I now understand why some commands need a closing tag, and others don't, and why you can string together certain things and not others! Just the ticket for a control-freak, would-be coder.
Next stop, Advanced web design and hosting.
Laura and Ian on Ian's appointment as a District Judge, and Helen and Mark on the safe arrival of baby Lewis.
Hazel and I had a great week in Yalta courtesy of the Voyages Jules Verne package.
As well as discovering the delights that Yalta has to offer, we visited the historic sites of Bakhchysaray and Chersonesus, Balaklava and Sevastopol, drank lots of beer, the occasional (obligatory) vodka and ate lots of deep fried foods. Excellent all round.
Photos on Flickr: Yalta and the Crimea
25 September 2005: Flight from London Gatwick to Simferopol and 2 hour coach journey to Yalta (much more interesting than it sounds!)
26 September 2005: Exploring Yalta
27 September 2005: Daytrip 1: Bakhchysaray/Bakhchisaray Palace, Chersonesus, Simferopol, beer!
28 September 2005: Nikitsky Botanical Gardens, Yalta, Black Sea Fleet choir and dancers
29 September 2005: Daytrip 2: Balaklava, Charge of the Light Brigade, Sevastopol, Pizza, beer and vodka
30 September 2005: A DIY cruise on the Yalta-Alupka ferry along the Black Sea's Crimean coast, passing by the Swallow's Nest, the Livadia Palace, the Alupkinsky Palace and St Peter's Mount
01 October 2005: Last day, strolling around Yalta, paddling in the Black Sea and a final beer at our Hotel Bristol before coaching/flying home