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iguanaA few days after Hallowe'en was Bonfire night, where Emily, her friends, and I went to Roundwood Park in North London to watch the firework display being put on there. It was a really good display, set to music and accompanied by a laser show, which I'd never seen before with fireworks but complemented them well. On the way back home, we found ourselves with a tube carriage to ourselves, which is apparently the cue to break out into spontaneous Queen karioke!
The next Saturday I met up with my friend Rachel, where we had tasty hot chocolate in Soho, then bought tea from somewhere near Kings Cross. In the evening I met up with Emily and her friend Stu, who I've met three times now in a different country each time (in Amsterdam, Vienna, and now London). We ate curry in Masala Zone, which is an excellent Indian restaurant near Oxford Street.
On Sunday of the same weekend, we went to a screening of one of Emily's favourite films, Amélie, at the Prince Charles Cinema in Leicester Square. The showing came with free wine and ice cream! Awesome.
We also went to Bristol twice, as Emily had a job interview and then a job offer from a company there to consider. Bristol's a great city to visit, with a nice woodland on the other side of the attractive Brunel bridge, and a good amount of green space in the Clifton area on the other side, but ultimately we felt that it suffered from the downsides of being a city while providing none of the benefits you get from somewhere like London, where there's always something going on and it's easy to get around.
Last weekend Emily had her DPhil graduation at Oxford, so I got to witness a Trinity College graduation ceremony. My Latin needs some work, but the building was beautiful and we had some great seats to see both Emily and the talking guys.
Work had its Christmas dinner too. We went to Burger and Lobster in Soho where I had a beefburger. It was a little on the greasy side for my taste, but I wasn't fancying lobster that day. We also had a (not-so-)Secret Santa gift exchange. I was a bit stumped on what to get the person I'd pulled from the hat, until Emily suggested taping up a two-foot Jaffa Cake tube with two tubs of M&S chocolate mini-rolls into a novelty shape:
On the last day of the month, I flew out to the Netherlands to visit fuzzie and Bertram, who've just moved into a great new flat in Leiden. They met me at Schiphol airport and we cycled from Leiden station to their flat - the first time I've cycled on Dutchroadsfully segregated cycle paths. In constrast to the UK, I was more nervous about annoying or hitting another cyclist than being clipped or hit by a car. Yay Netherlands!
We got back and Bertram cooked some kind of delicious hotpot, and after dinner we played the Dutch edition of Citadels, which is a fun game. I also spent a fair amount of time playing Lego Indiana Jones with fuzzie on the Xbox.
On Saturday we visited Leiden's market, which had a few nods to the upcoming Sinterklaas but not as many as I'd expected. On Sunday, we took a ~7km cycle ride to and through Cronesteyn park, breaking at the far end of the park for a hot chocolate. After getting back we bought some raw herring from the fishmonger as a snack before making dinner of boiled potatoes and brocolli roasted with white fish and lemon on top. I intend to make that myself sometime.
I left on Monday morning at the same time as Bertram went to work, and was back in the UK by lunchtime (just about).
The next Saturday I met up with my friend Rachel, where we had tasty hot chocolate in Soho, then bought tea from somewhere near Kings Cross. In the evening I met up with Emily and her friend Stu, who I've met three times now in a different country each time (in Amsterdam, Vienna, and now London). We ate curry in Masala Zone, which is an excellent Indian restaurant near Oxford Street.
On Sunday of the same weekend, we went to a screening of one of Emily's favourite films, Amélie, at the Prince Charles Cinema in Leicester Square. The showing came with free wine and ice cream! Awesome.
We also went to Bristol twice, as Emily had a job interview and then a job offer from a company there to consider. Bristol's a great city to visit, with a nice woodland on the other side of the attractive Brunel bridge, and a good amount of green space in the Clifton area on the other side, but ultimately we felt that it suffered from the downsides of being a city while providing none of the benefits you get from somewhere like London, where there's always something going on and it's easy to get around.
Last weekend Emily had her DPhil graduation at Oxford, so I got to witness a Trinity College graduation ceremony. My Latin needs some work, but the building was beautiful and we had some great seats to see both Emily and the talking guys.
Work had its Christmas dinner too. We went to Burger and Lobster in Soho where I had a beefburger. It was a little on the greasy side for my taste, but I wasn't fancying lobster that day. We also had a (not-so-)Secret Santa gift exchange. I was a bit stumped on what to get the person I'd pulled from the hat, until Emily suggested taping up a two-foot Jaffa Cake tube with two tubs of M&S chocolate mini-rolls into a novelty shape:
On the last day of the month, I flew out to the Netherlands to visit fuzzie and Bertram, who've just moved into a great new flat in Leiden. They met me at Schiphol airport and we cycled from Leiden station to their flat - the first time I've cycled on Dutch
We got back and Bertram cooked some kind of delicious hotpot, and after dinner we played the Dutch edition of Citadels, which is a fun game. I also spent a fair amount of time playing Lego Indiana Jones with fuzzie on the Xbox.
On Saturday we visited Leiden's market, which had a few nods to the upcoming Sinterklaas but not as many as I'd expected. On Sunday, we took a ~7km cycle ride to and through Cronesteyn park, breaking at the far end of the park for a hot chocolate. After getting back we bought some raw herring from the fishmonger as a snack before making dinner of boiled potatoes and brocolli roasted with white fish and lemon on top. I intend to make that myself sometime.
I left on Monday morning at the same time as Bertram went to work, and was back in the UK by lunchtime (just about).
