Burger Crawl
Posted: Mon 27 April, 2015 Filed under: BurgerCrawl, Day Trips, Domestic, Food, Getting Organised, London, Reviews(ish), Sociable, Travel Leave a comment »Over the weekend, I took part in a very silly event that I’d discussed and come up with – a Burger Crawl in London.
It started off with a conversation about alternatives to pub crawls – I can’t even remember why it came up – but it seemed like a fun idea.
Originally it was going to be four of us as a trial run, but two dropped out, so it ended up just being one friend and me doing it, but that was fine.
Because it was the first one, and my idea, it ended up being my plan for where to go. So I made the choice that it was going to be all new places, nowhere we’d been before, and all in a similar area of London, rather than roaming all over the place.
As it turned out, it almost started badly. The place I’d picked for the first one – breakfast at Honest Burger‘s place near Liverpool Street – wasn’t open, they only do breakfasts Monday to Friday. So, a bit of a trip on the first hurdle, but we had other places on the list of possibles, and went for one of those instead.
So the final list was
- walking up to Dirty Burger in Shoreditch (with a donut from DumDums to start, as Dirty Burger wasn’t quite open when we got there)
- a coffee at Fix 126 on the way to the next place
- another burger at Blues Kitchen in Shoreditch
- walking down to Brick Lane (ish) for an NYC Torta (a sloppy messy burger-type affair which was ace) at DF/Mexico
- a much bigger walk down to Whitechapel, then a tube to Embankment
- Drinks and a break at Scoff and Banter in Leicester Square
- The final meal bit was the “Gentleman’s Afternoon Tea” at Sanctum Hotel in Soho
- And then walked back up to Euston Station in order to go home.
We did well – much more food and it would’ve involved exploding stomachs – and was a brilliant day with all the new venues being excellent. I plan to return to all of them – just maybe not all in one day again.
Oh – and we covered a fair amount of distance as well, which probably helped in dealing with the amount of food…
There will be more BurgerCrawls in the future – and we’ve had a couple of other related ideas too – but for a first go, it all went really well, and definitely a success.
Resurgence Of Ills
Posted: Tue 21 April, 2015 Filed under: Domestic, Health, Thoughts Leave a comment »Late last week, and into this, the lung-crap made a bit of a revisit.
It’s nowhere near as bad as the full-on Bronchitis of a couple of months back, but it’s been noticeable, with the cough and the lumps of coughed-up green. Over the weekend I did wonder if I was going to have to make a return visit to my GP – not that I wanted to – because of the breathing issues and crackles in the lungs again, but for now that seems to have receded again.
I’m actually feeling OK, and pretty healthy – which makes it even more annoying that this crap keeps on coming back round.
It’s back on the wane now, thankfully. I just hope I don’t get battered by a third round of it.
Overtaking – On the decline
Posted: Thu 16 April, 2015 Filed under: Charm School, Commuting, Cynicism, Driving, People, Thoughts, Travel, Weirdness 2 Comments »Over the last few weeks of driving, I’ve been noticing more and more that other drivers seem to be quite averse to overtaking, even with miles of clear and visible road ahead. I don’t quite know why it is – maybe it’s about how generally risk-averse we’re becoming – but it’s bloody annoying.
I do overtake – so long as it’s safe, and the road is clear. (That should go without saying, but still) But I now seem to be in the minority.
Of course, the irony is that when you’re then on a multi-carriageway road, every single one of those motherfuckers is sitting in the outside two lanes, overtaking fuck-all. But I digress.
The thing is, if you’re behind five or six – hell, even two or three – vehicles who aren’t overtaking whatever’s holding everyone up/back, then my own overtaking manoeuvre becomes difficult, if not impossible. So you just end up sitting there, because no-one else is prepared to do anything.
It’s an odd state of affairs – and sometimes bloody annoying. But there’s not a lot that you can do, except accept that it’s just going to be one of those days…
Edinburgh Trip
Posted: Tue 14 April, 2015 Filed under: Day Trips, Domestic, Food, Getting Organised, Solo Dining, Thoughts, Travel Leave a comment »All told, the Edinburgh trip was fantastic. Thoroughly enjoyed all of it, even though I’m knackered by the end of it.
The travel itself was exceptionally smooth – and all on-time, which made it even better. Coasting past jammed traffic on the M1 (which I would’ve been using otherwise) was a particular high point.
The hotel was great (with the minor exception of a 2am fire alarm on the Saturday night, but these things happen) and everything generally went well.
Over the weekend I walked about 25km around Edinburgh – including being too lazy to wait for taxis and buses, and walking from Leith to the City Centre (and back) – as well as visiting two galleries, which was the kind of thing I wanted to do with the weekend.
Finally, the restaurant was absolutely brilliant. I really enjoyed the entire thing, and really want to go back (as well as going to other similar places) for a different menu and different choices. It also helped that the first person I saw as I went in was Tom Kitchin himself, which I figure is a pretty auspicious start.
So yes – a great weekend, and a great break. More will follow.
Getting Sent Home
Posted: Sat 11 April, 2015 Filed under: Cynicism, News, People, Stupidity Leave a comment »[Posted delayed, while I’m away]
One of my favourite articles this week has been the BBC’s telling of the man who air-mailed himself home from Australia – and nearly died several times over.
It’s a gob-smacking tale – and beautifully written – that makes you wonder at both the desperation to leave Australia, and the sheer madness of how he did it.
I won’t ruin the tale – it’s a good ‘un.
Travel Time
Posted: Fri 10 April, 2015 Filed under: Domestic, Driving, Getting Organised, Public Transport, Thoughts, Time, Travel 1 Comment »The trip to Edinburgh this weekend is also pretty much the first time I’ve taken a long-distance train journey since I lived in Manchester. I was considering driving, but looked at a minimum of six hours each way, as well as the consideration of fuel costs etc., and thought “You know what? Eff that”. (Which is pretty novel in itself)
So I checked out the train costs – the journey’s about 5 hours each way by train, and the ticket price is pretty much on a par (within £10 or so) of the expected fuel costs. Plus it’ll mean I get to read, write, or just look out of the window, rather than being stuck having to concentrate on driving the entire way.
All told, it’s really been quite a sensible decision. I’m not sure how it happened – I normally see a sensible decision and run in the opposite direction. I’ll write more about it once I’m back, and know how it all went.