Havana to Brick Lane

Firstly to just quickly answer the two questions in the comments of my last post - no, the snow you see in the last post with my footprints in it was gone by midday, and there has been no snow since to try the mountain bike in. Having ridden (if ‘riding’ can be constituted as skidding and sliding) in the snow on the thin tyres of my singlespeed bike and survived, I’d be far more confident on the mountain bike. So I reckon I'd be fine...

Speaking of my singlespeed bike, I’ve just returned from a relaxing day down Brick Lane where the bike has been serviced at Brick Lane Bikes. No booking needed, you just drop it off between 9-11am and they give you a call when it’s ready to pick up. You can’t leave it there overnight either.
So after dropping it off it was time to head along brick lane, which is rather colourful in spots (as you can see in this mural of ‘Mighty Monkey’). I passed the Rootmaster Café, which is actually an old Routemaster double-decker bus with the kitchen downstairs and the seating and tables upstairs, an in the nearby surrounds. I ended up just round the corner from here in Café1001 (see the wall mural). A groovy café where I grabbed some lunch and a coffee and settled into one of the armchairs with the book ‘The Philosopher and the Wolf’. For eleven years a philosophy lecturer and a wolf co-existed (he never really owned him despite buying him as a cub), and this is their story of life together and all the lessons that the wolf taught him. A very interesting read so far with some interesting observations as the two of them were together for almost every minute of those eleven years. Yes, Brenin (the wolf) even attended all the lectures.

Anyway, you’re not reading this for a book review. You may recall (from my last post) the reason for the trip to Camden Market and the white clothing purchased.
The Havana party was a great night out. It began with a few drinks in the pub after work with some workmates - including a couple of rounds of “golf”, before heading off to Tim n Sam’s place for the White party. I had a few detours to find the required entry ticket of a bottle of Club Havana (yep, you’re thinking is right if you’ve just realised where the ‘Havana’ part of the Havana Party comes from). Eventually finding one it was off to the party.
A top night meeting some new folks and catching up with some from both the previous Havana party, as well as the Bushfire Relief Fundraiser. The DJ pumped the music, the lights did their thing while the projector ran James Bond films all night (I don't know) and the Havana flowed. It was certainly well attended, and nearly everyone made the effort to wear all white. Funnily enough, I would have expected at least one tennis player and a few nurses, but there were none. Some arabs and togas, as well as cricketers and just folk in general white clothes. As you can see, part of my effort (below) was the only one with the sunnies and that style of hat. The sunnies went round, but funnily enough (again) no one took the hat, which I honestly expected to lose at some stage of the night (and early morning). And if you have a suggestion for just when I could use the sunnies, hat or white jeans again, then be my guest!

It was a very cruisey and ‘relaxed’ Saturday and Sunday that followed.

Oh, and Congratulations to [you know who you are] for [you know what].
;)

A Little Less Snow

Time for another update of what’s been going on over here. It’s snowed a bit since early the week before last, but nowhere near as much as you’ve just seen. This was from the bus stop on Friday morning last week... (yep, they’re my footprints)

So, since my last post, it’s been a bit of a festival for Row’s farewell from London for the next four months as she heads to trek South America (including the Antarctica). Man, I wish I was going too!!
Anyway, there was a drinks night after work one evening that was a bit of fun with her workmates. I do know several of them already as I’ve played 5-a-side with them on quite a few occasions.
The next event was a surprise dinner at a Mexican restaurant in covent garden, before heading out to a live band night club in covent garden. Like nearly everything in Britain, we had to queue to get into the nightclub, and as you can see (with Marty n Troy on the left), we managed to pass the time in a rather unorthodox way thanks to John visiting an off-licence on the short walk between the restaurant and the club. The band was excellent, and we had a great night as we kicked on until around 3am (or there abouts).
A few days later, and there was a breakfast on Row’s last working day, which was quite good as well, so she certainly had quite a send off before what will no doubt be a fantastic adventure!

On the Sunday after Row’s farewell dinner, it was Tottenham v Arsenal at White Hart Lane - the biggest home match of the season. I got a call before the game from Petter to let me know that he had a spare ticket, so it was off to White Hart Lane post haste to meet up with both him and several other folks in one of the nearby pubs.
A bit of a farce at times during the game as Arsenal had players sent off and also removed due to injury. Some of their behaviour did spoil the match and the ref really should have been onto it a bit more, but it worked for them as the score remained at 0-0. Admittedly their goalkeeper had a brilliant match and was the main reason that they didn’t lose to us.
Back to the pub afterwards for the what turned out to be a fun night with the usual gang as well as meeting up with some visiting Norwegians who were friends of Petter’s girlfriend. I’m not sure how I’m going to manage it, but it looks like I’ve committed myself to visiting Norway in a couple of months time to see Janne and Bente...
As they say: “Always do sober what you said you’d do drunk. That way you’ll learn to keep your mouth shut.” Not that I’m adverse to trying to keep this commitment to go riding in Norway, it’s just that it will clash with another trip I have planned...

Speaking of plans, Friday night was a rather hastily put together one by a friend (and some of her friends). It was a fundraising event to raise funds for the Red Cross and Bushfire Relief. Support was amazing with sponsors coming on board for Belinda & Co. and the night was very well supported. Cousin Zara and Jarrett joined me for this one, and we happily splurged on raffle tickets, but not for the expensive prizes like you might think. Twenty of the prizes were cartons of Vilis pies! Unfortunately, I didn’t win one. I did win a voucher to the Gourmet Burger Kitchen, while Zara did win one of the boxes of pies! (as you can see her delight at hearing her name here!). There were plenty of other raffle prizes, as well as quite a few amazing items auctioned (both silent and normally). The ex-Wallaby coach, Eddie Jones, was the auctioneer for some of the items, including a bottle of Grange (as you can see here on the right). And no, I didn’t bother him for a photo as it just didn’t seem right to do it at such an occasion.
All up £13,500 was raised, which is a little over A$30,000.
Zara, Jarrett and myself then headed out for a bite to eat and ended up in the same restaurant that we’d been in for Row’s dinner. No complaints at that as the food was very good.

Saturday was an early start and a trip to the airport to meet my returning housemate, Paul. Understandably, he needed a little help getting back to our house because he had my mountain bike (MTB) with him as well as his cricket bag. It also meant that the day itself was rather subdued having only had about 3 hours sleep. So with the arrival of my MTB, I am now looking forward to discovering off-road riding here in the UK.

Sunday saw me back at Camden Market with Karyn n Marty. Friday night had yielded an invite to a party next Friday night, and the easiest and cheapest way to sort out the appropriate way to be attired for its theme, was to go through the bargain stores there. [You can find out about the details of the party after we've had it and there are pics.] We started the morning off with ‘brunch’ in a nearby café before heading off into the maze of stalls and shops. Marty headed off to a nearby pub to watch his Celtic football team play Rangers. Like Spurs/Arsenal, the Celtic/Rangers game is the biggest match for those two Scottish clubs. Karyn n I enjoyed ourselves going through the market as we hunted for costume and birthday presents for people we know.
Marty returned after the game and we all continued our trekking of this vast and varied market. Another good day out.

As for the rest of the last two weeks, work has been it's usual busy self, but with the usual pub visits afterwards and a few lunches here and there...

One Day Later...

Well, it continued to snow up until around 9pm last night, but hasn't managed to stay around as long today. The view out the bathroom window this morning...

The same look down the street this morning...

View from the 5th floor at work again...

A couple of extra shots:

Tower of London as viewed from Tower Hill...

You know these few...

But not much snow left on top...

Let it Snow, Let it Snow, Let it Snow...

So while most of you are melting in the 40C+ weather back in Australia, over here things are...well...about 40C cooler. The days and nights getting as low as -3C but mostly staying around 1-2C. Last night (Sunday) this is what outside was like when I ducked down to the shops around the corner...

And this is 10minutes later when I got back home...
Next morning when I looked out the window [note the fox tracks - I saw him, but didn’t have the camera close enough to hand...]
Off to work on the bike, suitably rugged up, but not really knowing what to expect as this was what confronted me...
Certainly not the rather ‘interesting’ ride that it was! Snow, ice, sludge, the works! I’m pretty thankful for my mountain biking experience as I spent plenty of time sliding about. So many iced ruts to navigate that just take your front wheel for a slide. Here’s one of the streets on the way to work - it was safer on the road than on the (rather invisible) bike lane on the left, which you can just make out (click on the image to see it full size and get a better look)...
Some of the traffic...
The view from the 5th floor at work...
My ride home was directly into the direction of the snow fall, which made life rather interesting as it accumulated on my lenses! I took the easy way home too, and stuck to the main roads - not only was the traffic moving at the same speed as me, but the cars leave better and wider ruts to ride in without the re-freeze factor in the back streets. Here's my front wheel once home AFTER giving it a few thumps on the pavement to shake off the ice n snow...
It’s now Monday night and the snow is still falling! I’m not sure if I’ll ride tomorrow as I’d much rather do it on the mountain bike with far wider and knobbly tyres, than the 23mm wide slick road tyres! I may still do it as the views of a snow covered London are impressive (although I won't be photographing much as I'd rather have two hands on the handlebars - hope you don't mind!)Depends if the buses are running or not...