luckykaa

"Catboy's choice" day.

I had a gift vouycher from my birthday for a Science themed afternpoon tea in at the Ampersan hotel, so this was the opportunity to use it.

So we arrived at the hotel had a choice of menus, mostly similar although the vegetarian option seemed nicver then the non-veggie so I went for that. flickums liked the look of the kids menu. For experiment 1, we made lemonade. The lemon juice, water and citric acid/bicirbinate of soda mixture were placedin a beaker... Well, most of it. I seem to be a bit clumsy. It was tasty but didn't seem all that fizzy. Also it was blue! Ithnk that made it more sciency. For the most part, the food was afternoon tea far. Rolls, quiches, scones etc. the more sciency stuff included a macron with a pipette of sauce that could be squeezed in and freeze dried pineapple and raspberry topping, a planet shaped ice cream cake dessert-y thig and a cake with a rocket ship. We also had a tin with chocolate dinosaurs that could be unearthed with a brush.

This was just around the corner from the Kensifngton museums, so I thought I'd visit. I had a quick look in the natural history museum, but the science museum has always been the one I love. Naturally I look at the space stiuff, before gravitating to the aircraft section on the top floor. It always makes me feel comfortable.

There was a video game exhibition on so I thought I'd give it a shot. To be honest I'm nto always impressed with the special exhibitions they have. The science fiction thing we went to a few years back was a disappontment. This one was not so bad. There was a decent slection and the inherent interactivity of games makes it a lot of fun. Felt the urge to try out some VR games and complete a level of Lemmings.

Returned to the hotel and prepared for the evening entertainment. Agatha Christie's Witness for the Prosecution.

The venue is fantastic. It's the old council chambers of the LCC and GLC so even when walking in has a vibe very similar to a courthouse. Lots of marble and pillars with a big staircase. We didn't want to splash out on jury tickets although it seems that the people who did get a very special experience, being able to vote on gulty or not guilty (although I've  later learned that the vote is actually rigged). The play itself is very good, with an excellent cast of very experienced actors. Very gripping and it ends with the villain going into classic Christie "Evil Voice". Not 100% sold on the resolution though. Seems a bit too complicated a ploy. Still, had a lot of fun!

So, that final bit of Christmas adventure blogging...

There were queues. Annoying queues. Actually only two annoying queues but the first was at the entrance. There was airport style security and we chose the queue with the slow guy. We also chose the queue that kept getting stopped to let fast track people in. Still, we eventually madeit in and looked around. Went to a market where there was jam and pickles available. Very tasty jam and pickles. And they were kind enough to look after them for us.

Next stop - I actually can't remember the order. I think we went for the haunted mansion, because flickums loves haunted mansions. This is where the other queue annoyance happened. Someone decided to just stand in the queueing arae not moving forward. I have no idea why! But eventually the ticket seller left his booth and ushered her along, opening the barrier so she didn't have to go all the way round - but she ignored this.

Still, the ride was quite good fun.

Next stop was the airgun range. I have a pretty good aim. Missed with a couple though. Still, it was enough to win a prize, and we won a reindeer. Needed to choose a name.

The other highlight was the Ice Slide. Something that Flick was not keen on but felt I should give a go. And why not? Who doesn't love hurtling down an ice slide in an inflatable ring?  This was another queue, but it actually moved pretty fast. The ride was well organised and they even had some people in the queue chatting to us which is nice. A scottish lady hellped us choose the name for the reindeer and we settled on Slider!

Had two rides. Flick managed to miss the first one for some reason. All seemed to be based on the honour system because nobody seemed to check if you actually actually had only been down once. I think it might even have been possible to sneak on by pretending to be a spectator. But anyway, it was good fund zipping down the slide.

That was really all we had time and money for - the place was hella pricey - but we had a wander through the Bavarian village, but then decided to leave because we wanted to see people for board games.

And so that concludes the winter adventure!

Well, that was a trip!

The plan was simple - we (flickums and me) would take a train down to London, and cram as much as we possibly can before getting a train back. Unfortunately there were no trains back because of ASLEF. So we drove and parked outside London.

We had a plan to park at Moor Park. Satnav took us to a barrier. Tried approaching. Didn't work. Eventuially decided to go back to Rickmandsworth. Sadly, although there were two car parks, neither of them allowed us to park for several days. We decided to go back to the barrier and try pushing a little harder. Turns out it opens when you get right up to it. Very odd though.

So, we parked. Got the tube to Aldgate and walked to the Royal Learnardo Hotel. A very nicve hotel where we were given a free glass of champagne. Flickums refused, so we checked in and Flick was given another glass of wine. Anyway it turns out this was the wrong place. We wanted the Royal Leonardo Hotel in Tower Hill.

Dropped bags off, and went to Harrods. We wanted to try the Harrods Cafe. We had to reserve a seat so we wandered around the Lower Ground floor looking at expensive chrisdtmas decorations and ludicrously expensive bottles of booze - 18L "Solomon" bottles - I have no idea what the purpose of these is, but if you have several thousand pounds to spend then you can buy one.

We got to the cafe, sat down, and looked at the menu realised this was the wrong cafe. Thios is the bistro and cafge, which serves 3 course meals, and we're not really keen on paying Harrods prices for a meal.

So we found the right cafe, joined the queue and eventually got to eat an ludicrously expensive piece of avacado toast and pached egg, with a ludicrously expensive cup of tea and some lucicrously expenive Coke.

Went to the Toy department. It's not what it once was. No miniature versions of Ferraris and BMWs, or exotic stuff like that. Food hall was a little more interesting but nothing piqued my interest.

It was getting late, so we went onwards, had a look round Hamleys, stopped for Noodles, and then on to see Elf: The Musical. Will go into detail on that one at a later post.

Day 2, started with a masive breakfast. They have an omelette station! And some really nice smoothies! Really rather a nice spread although cold meats and cheese were a little limited. Next stop was Winter Wonderland in Hyde Park - another excursion that requires its own blog post.

Headed down to Bad Moon Cafe (a board games cafe), because it was Pete's birthday and he was playing games. There was a minor table cock-up apparently so we were squished around a table and there was rumblings that we might be kicked out. Turns out we weren't in the end. Played Sushi Go. Played Cash and Guns. Played King of Tokyo. Ate Pizza. Chatted to cool nerdy people!

Evening play was A Christmas Carol and "Ally Pally". Again enough to justify its own post.

Sunday we had a lighter day. Went for a swim. Did a bit detour back to Moor Park to drop bags off at car, and saw "A Sherlock Carol". Then went to pub to see my cousin who I hadn't seen for years! It was nice cathing up but we couldn't stay as long as we'd have liked. We had to get back to the car for the long drive home.

Traffic was fine for most of the way until we abruptly had to stop. Traffic was at a standstill. On the plus side, we were right next to an exit. On the minus side, we were in lane 2 and so had to cross lane one to get there. One car, weirdly, decided to back up and almost hit us...

Flick wasn't comfortable pushing past and onto the slip road, but, with guidance from me about how to push past politely, managed to get across. The other drivers were very nice about it, and opend up enough of a gap for us to get past, and the person on the slip road flashed to let us out. Here's the thing though - most people are actually quite understanding about people wanting to get off and go in another direction. I'm kind of suprised more people didn't do this though. The accident was between the exit and entrance so the sliproad could be used to bypass it easily. Off the exit, back onto the M1, and the road is clear up ahead. Plain sailing all the way home.

I do not want an epic blog post so details will be left to later entries.

However, highlights worth mentioning: 

Hotel was very nice. Especially because we got upgraded to an executive room!

Kudos to Flickums for being terribly brave and pushing past traffic.

So it's another What I Did At The Weekend post.

There was a showing of The Nightmare Before Christmas, with a live orchestra, at Wembley Arena. With Danny Elfman and Ken Page reprising their original roles as Jack and Ooogie Boogie.

So, we arrived  in London. Checked into the hotel. Turns out this was the place where Alan Turing was born. Room was nice although they didn't provide us with bath towels, and breakfast was a bit limited with a cold selection of hot food.

Anyway, we found our way to Wembley Arena. Not too difficult to find. Right next to the Stadium, which is big and easy to spot. Went in, climbed the epic stairs to our seats right at the back. And after quite some time, the show started!

First up was a disney short - Skeleton Dance from 1929 witht he orchestra. And then we had the main show. Movie was projeted behind the orhestra. 5 main singers at the front. Danny Elfman doesn't arrive on stage until his first song. And he sang and it was awesome! Disappointingly, he didn't take off his head at that point in the song. Ken Page gave an excellent performance as Ooogie Boogie, and seemed to be having a whale of a time. And we had Phoebe Bridgers playing Sally in full Sally costume! Encore was Danny Elfman doing his rendition of Oogie Boogie. He admitted he wasn't as good as Ken Page - which is true, but only because Ken Page is so damn good!

Returned to hotel via high street so we could get food. Turns out that it's not easy finding a food outlet with seating late at night.  But there was a long wait for the train home so we ccould at least sit on the platform and eat there.

Saturday, the plan was to meet Pete, see the Science Fiction exhibition at the Science museum, and go see the Winter Wonderland in Hyde Park. Felt that the £20 entry fee was a bit steep so skipped that and went to Hyde park. Where we found that Wointer Wonmderland was ticketed and old out. Had a look at the South Bank market, which was free but very small, and then to the Lego store and Leicester Square market.

The Lego store currently has a mini museum on the top floor. It includes that yellow Lego castle from the 1970s! I have no idea why they never re-relased that one.

Finished up with a trip to Nandos. Nandos has a queuing webapp. It gives a countdown to how long until you get a seat. It went all the way down to 2-12 minutes before shooting up again to 12-24! It then went down to 1 minute, up again and we were about to go in and ask what the hell was going on when the app said we can now go in. And finally I had that damn Orange and Maple chicken I've been after for so long!

Well, that was a busy weekend.

Decided to go to London, to see the War of the Worlds immersive experience - I bought that for flickums  last Christmas. After booking tickets and hotel, I realised - there's also firework night. So I booked tickets for the show at Wimbledon Park.

Arrived. Joined the queue. It was a very long queue.

10 minutes later, the queue moved slightly.

after about half an hour we'd managed to shift about 100 metres an were wondering if we'd ever get in. Eventually though the queue started moving, at a reasonable rate and we got through the gate with people giving the briefest glance at tickets and Covid pass, about an hour after we started. I guess they were being a bit more diligent about this at the start before realising it would take forever.

They waited for everyone to get through the gate before starting the fireworks, which was nice of them.

Fireworks were James Bond themed. There was a nice mix of classics and newer ones with colours themed to the lyrics. Not sure it was the best choice of themes since the tunes are mostly quite slow. I think the "Bond steals the Lektor" theme from "From Russia with Love" would have been a good choice.

Flickums insisted on buying me something. Didn't really want to join the queue for an overpriced Cadbury's instant hot chocolate. Instead she got me an overpriced toffee apple.

It was enjoyable but I think next year we'll stick to Wythenshaw.

As I mentioned we Saw The Lion King.

Decided to go for the VIP "Red" package. This gives us a free drink and access to the Ambassador lounge. I'm all about lounges. So, we arrived, and were told to sit and wait for someone to collect us... We waited a while, but eventually someone collected us and led us through the maze of corridors to the Ambassador lounge. We took a table, and ordered drinks.

Frequent announcements urged us to go to our seats, but we were told that someone would take us there, because we had the VIP package. They did. We were seated with plenty of time to settle and get comfortable.

The show started. flickums was clearly determined to enjoy it right from the start. Never have I seen someone applaud so enthusiastically! I'd chosen seats in the stalls, and had chosen them for good reason. The animals come right past them and onto the stage. And the show was really spectacular. The songs, of course, are quite well known. Scar seemed to really be relishing the role, and hamming it up as a good villain should. The animals were mostly actors connected to sunning mechanical contrivances; no pantomime horses or anything like that. Timon was a puppet, and Pumba was a one of the complicated mechanical things.

And the lighting was sooo pretty!

So, we got to the interval. Sat in the lounge. I liked the lounge. It was quiet, and drinks were already there for us.

We went back. Saw the second half of the show. Lots more things happened. Scar hammed it up some more. Nala gave me some funny furry feelings.

We both loved the show. Well worth it!

I love the used leather clothes store in Camden Stables market.  So many somewhat tatty leather items, most of them cost a tenner.  Well worth the trip up there. 

Met up with a group of crazy Swedish geeks I know.  I've met enough Swedish geeks to consider learning the language.  Craziness is common affliction.  I reckon they just go stir crazy on those long winter nights.  Met them in the Electric ballroom as they were haggling with one of the stallholders.  They seem to be quite fond of Camden.  I think they're regular visitors. 

So we abled slowly to the place I went to, stopping off several times on the way because Camden is full of interesting shops.  It's a bit trendy these days but there are some places that are worth stopping in.  I do like admitring the boots. Not too likely to get a pair of New Rocks any time soon, but they're pretty funky.  Also wanted to stop at the army surplus store.  I want a new vintage rucksack.  One that I can dye black without feeling guilty about it.  They don't seem to be available any more.  10 years ago the army surplus store had dozens of the things.  Considering these are 50 years old, I can't imagine they suddenly ran out; or were they just trendy for a bit? 

Eventually reached the shop.  There's a lot of coats.  I'm slightly choosy about what I want.  I'm after a 3/4 length leather jacket.  Must be black (that's 90% of them), button up (a good proportion of them) must be cut for a guy (that actually cuts it down by aobout 70%), must be my size (surprisingly rare.  I see to be abnormally large for their customer base).  Took a while to find it.  And didn't find it on the £10 rail.  Actually found it upstairs with a £5 price tag. 

The girls wanted to get some kit for costumes for a Wild West party.  This involved a fair amount of them trying on corsets.  I was impressed by their desire to inflict pain upon themselves for the sake of a narrow waist and prominent boobs. 

I went to London and saw tinkerbell1980 and assorted other fiends.  Went to Wagamama.  Helped other people eat their food. 

Something about Tink always cheers me up endlessly.  Maybe it's because she really likes me and there's never any doubt that she means what she says.  Maybe it's just her boundless enthusiasm.  Maybe it's just the hugs. 

Whatever.  I'm feeling a lot happier than I have for a long time. 

Plus Meme time

Ask me my Top Five Whatevers. Fannish or literary or otherwise. Any top fives. Doesn't matter what, really! Fandoms, ice cream flavours, books I might get around to writing one day, physics equations, cartoon moments, explosions, OTPs, ideal holiday destinations, goals for the future, celebrity crushes, books I wish would be made into movies, love songs. And I will answer them all in a new post (or in comments). Possibly with pictures.

I'm working in London.
Many of you types live in London.

Anyone want to do something after work?