October 2021
Friday, 12 November 2021 13:12![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
iguana
I had a particularly social month in October, meeting up with Samathy and Lex for a video game night and several skating sessions, and seeing Ems and her partner along with Matt in London. I also ended the hugging hiatus which had lasted from February 2020.Completeathon
At the start of the month Samathy, Lex, and I went to a converted shop-front pub in Attenborough where one of Lex's old colleagues was running a video game "Completeathon" competition.
Each team grouped around one monitor that was hooked up to a central controller that started a different emulated game each round. I didn't recognise any of them except for Warioware on the Game Boy in the final round (I think that was the point) and teams were scored on how far they got in the game in a time period, along with a couple of quiz rounds.
The micropub itself was nice enough and served nice mead, but because it was all technically table service, nobody was wearing masks and I didn't feel entirely comfortable with that, even with the door open providing ventilation. I don't think I caught anything.
At the start of the month Samathy, Lex, and I went to a converted shop-front pub in Attenborough where one of Lex's old colleagues was running a video game "Completeathon" competition.
Each team grouped around one monitor that was hooked up to a central controller that started a different emulated game each round. I didn't recognise any of them except for Warioware on the Game Boy in the final round (I think that was the point) and teams were scored on how far they got in the game in a time period, along with a couple of quiz rounds.
The micropub itself was nice enough and served nice mead, but because it was all technically table service, nobody was wearing masks and I didn't feel entirely comfortable with that, even with the door open providing ventilation. I don't think I caught anything.
Hampshire
A couple of weeks later, having taken at least three LFTs in the meantime, I travelled down to Winchester on the train to stay with Ems and her mum for a few days, and finally got to meet Ems' new partner who was also staying over.
We had a nice relaxing weekend, visiting some nice bits of countryside, including some woodland with ancient yews. I took many many photos of Emily's mum's cats. Emily was also sorting out some old clothes, so I have a pile of clothing waiting for me when I next visit and have bag space for it!
A couple of weeks later, having taken at least three LFTs in the meantime, I travelled down to Winchester on the train to stay with Ems and her mum for a few days, and finally got to meet Ems' new partner who was also staying over.
We had a nice relaxing weekend, visiting some nice bits of countryside, including some woodland with ancient yews. I took many many photos of Emily's mum's cats. Emily was also sorting out some old clothes, so I have a pile of clothing waiting for me when I next visit and have bag space for it!
London
We all went to London for a couple of days, primarily to watch Hamilton during an evening weekday showing. The theatre was crowded and barely anyone was wearing masks despite the ushers carrying around signs asking people to turn off phones and wear masks. The theatre was at least requiring vaccination certificates at the door, but I didn't feel particularly safe.
The musical itself was good.
While in London we also had bubble tea, saw pelicans fighting over which of them got to be on the park bench in St James Park, and had bibimbap.
A highlight for me was the Wellcome Collection's Tranquillity exhibition. It was paired with a Joy exhibition, which I didn't think much of, but Tranquillity featured a large darkened room of huge photos of Canadian cedar forests and Yakushima rainforest (I've been there in person!), with a audio recording of those locations playing and some ambient scents too. It was quiet and relaxing, and the few people there were masked up.
We all went to London for a couple of days, primarily to watch Hamilton during an evening weekday showing. The theatre was crowded and barely anyone was wearing masks despite the ushers carrying around signs asking people to turn off phones and wear masks. The theatre was at least requiring vaccination certificates at the door, but I didn't feel particularly safe.
The musical itself was good.
While in London we also had bubble tea, saw pelicans fighting over which of them got to be on the park bench in St James Park, and had bibimbap.
A highlight for me was the Wellcome Collection's Tranquillity exhibition. It was paired with a Joy exhibition, which I didn't think much of, but Tranquillity featured a large darkened room of huge photos of Canadian cedar forests and Yakushima rainforest (I've been there in person!), with a audio recording of those locations playing and some ambient scents too. It was quiet and relaxing, and the few people there were masked up.
AMPDG
AMPDG this month had me cooking! I had to pin a dot on a map at random and then look up a representative food of that country. I ended up with the Democratic Republic of the Congo, possibly due to the fact that it is near the middle of the map! It was really interesting reading up on food culture of a place I really know very little about.
I decided to make a vegetarian variation of Cassava leaf soup, served with fufu. I found somewhere that sold frozen cassava leaves, and substituted the meat for smoked tofu.
I was quite nervous trying the dish, since cassava can be poisonous (with cyanide, no less!) if prepared incorrectly. I'm pretty sure that process was done in preparing the goods to be sold, but also made sure I boiled the stuff for a good long time.
The stew had a nice flavour, that reminded me of something I couldn't place, and the fufu was pretty bland, unsurprisingly, and was like handling slightly dried out playdough. The idea is to take a blob, make a basin in it with your thumb, and scoop up the soup (or anything else) with that. I found that gave slightly too much fufu per soup, myself.
AMPDG this month had me cooking! I had to pin a dot on a map at random and then look up a representative food of that country. I ended up with the Democratic Republic of the Congo, possibly due to the fact that it is near the middle of the map! It was really interesting reading up on food culture of a place I really know very little about.
I decided to make a vegetarian variation of Cassava leaf soup, served with fufu. I found somewhere that sold frozen cassava leaves, and substituted the meat for smoked tofu.
I was quite nervous trying the dish, since cassava can be poisonous (with cyanide, no less!) if prepared incorrectly. I'm pretty sure that process was done in preparing the goods to be sold, but also made sure I boiled the stuff for a good long time.
The stew had a nice flavour, that reminded me of something I couldn't place, and the fufu was pretty bland, unsurprisingly, and was like handling slightly dried out playdough. The idea is to take a blob, make a basin in it with your thumb, and scoop up the soup (or anything else) with that. I found that gave slightly too much fufu per soup, myself.
Hallowe'en art
I decided to reuse a canvas that had gone wrong to make some pumpkin art rather than carving an actual pumpkin this year
Quite pleased with how it turned out!
I decided to reuse a canvas that had gone wrong to make some pumpkin art rather than carving an actual pumpkin this year
Quite pleased with how it turned out!
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Date: 2021-11-12 14:07 (UTC)