30 November 2006
Gourmet Burger Kitchen has set up in East Dulwich and opened to great hordes of buggie-wielding yummy mummies. We eagerly went along early one Saturday for BB to have a burger fix a couple of weeks ago and within 15 mins of sitting down were surrounded by small children of different shapes and sizes - but, interestingly, not colours.
The space is not very conducive to hanging around and enjoying your tasty burger. It's all hard surfaces and very echoey, which amplifies all the screaming and squawking from said children.
The burger choice is astounding, however. There are surely about 20 variations on the humble burger - beef, chicken, lamb and vegetarian options abound. We went for the classic burger. But there are still more options, do you want it with or without bun, what kind of sauce do you require, any extra toppings, what kind of fries, what colour do you want your plate (well, not really). TOO MUCH CHOOSING OF THINGS! Still, I guess people like variety.
Anyway - verdict is, burgers are very tasty but we both had gyppy stomachs afterwards and I felt a bit sick and was on the loo a lot. Probably best to ask for your burger to be well done as they were a bit pink when done medium, so the meat probably wasn't all that fresh.
The space is not very conducive to hanging around and enjoying your tasty burger. It's all hard surfaces and very echoey, which amplifies all the screaming and squawking from said children.
The burger choice is astounding, however. There are surely about 20 variations on the humble burger - beef, chicken, lamb and vegetarian options abound. We went for the classic burger. But there are still more options, do you want it with or without bun, what kind of sauce do you require, any extra toppings, what kind of fries, what colour do you want your plate (well, not really). TOO MUCH CHOOSING OF THINGS! Still, I guess people like variety.
Anyway - verdict is, burgers are very tasty but we both had gyppy stomachs afterwards and I felt a bit sick and was on the loo a lot. Probably best to ask for your burger to be well done as they were a bit pink when done medium, so the meat probably wasn't all that fresh.
Labels: east dulwich, food, restaurants
Too much to do and too little time to do it in. Spent yesterday surrounded by dust and drilling noises and glue fumes as the office refurb gets underway. Also surrounded by lots of miscellaneous bits of furniture, 200 Christmas gifts to wrap and send out, about a billion Christmas cards and other such paraphenalia. I'm surprised anyone can find me in my office, so swamped am I by stuff.
The carpetters (for that is what all the fuss and bother is about) have fulfilled the age old contractor's remit of saying they'll do something in a certain period of time, but in reality only completing in three times the amount of time. They are the people for whom the Rush Job Calendar was written.
I'm off to Bristol today to film for holocausts but am perspiring at the thought of how much work there will be for me to do when I get back into the office on Friday.
With luck, by then, the fire service will have closed us down by then as they weren't happy with the state of affairs in our building after they did a cursory fire risk assessment on Tuesday. My question is why doesn't this company have an Office Manager or anyone who knows anything about Health and Safety issues and how have they managed to carry on thus far without one? And why am I being lumbered with said issues?
Needless to say, Mandarin lesson was dire yesterday as
a) I was late,
b) my mobile phone mysteriously erased my teacher's phone number so I couldn't tell her I was going to be late (or ideally cancel the lesson), and
c) I have done no homework whatsoever.
Sigh.
The carpetters (for that is what all the fuss and bother is about) have fulfilled the age old contractor's remit of saying they'll do something in a certain period of time, but in reality only completing in three times the amount of time. They are the people for whom the Rush Job Calendar was written.
I'm off to Bristol today to film for holocausts but am perspiring at the thought of how much work there will be for me to do when I get back into the office on Friday.
With luck, by then, the fire service will have closed us down by then as they weren't happy with the state of affairs in our building after they did a cursory fire risk assessment on Tuesday. My question is why doesn't this company have an Office Manager or anyone who knows anything about Health and Safety issues and how have they managed to carry on thus far without one? And why am I being lumbered with said issues?
Needless to say, Mandarin lesson was dire yesterday as
a) I was late,
b) my mobile phone mysteriously erased my teacher's phone number so I couldn't tell her I was going to be late (or ideally cancel the lesson), and
c) I have done no homework whatsoever.
Sigh.
25 November 2006
I auditioned for and successfully (though some may say otherwise) won a job playing a Cambodian gardener for a charity documentary thing about holocausts. I will be travelling to the shoot in Bristol by National Express coach. It's been a long time since I've been on a coach and am looking forward to the travel sickness that has always accompanied such travel. Hurray!
Yesterday I audtioned for and most likely haven't got the part of a printer (yes, a printer!) in a commercial for a large but highly secretive software company starting with the letter A. Had to sign loads of confidentiality agreements and stuff. I care not a jot. They can sue me for all my puny assets - I have none that they would even notice seeing as their CEO must earn more than I own in an hour.
Yesterday I audtioned for and most likely haven't got the part of a printer (yes, a printer!) in a commercial for a large but highly secretive software company starting with the letter A. Had to sign loads of confidentiality agreements and stuff. I care not a jot. They can sue me for all my puny assets - I have none that they would even notice seeing as their CEO must earn more than I own in an hour.
Labels: acting
Yesterday, travelling to work was hell. Hell, I tell you. First there was the statutory 25 minute wait for the bus. Then, at Vauxhall tube station it was so crowded they'd closed the gates due to congestion. So, back to the buses to try and get to work but another 20 minute wait. In the meantime it started raining a lot. There was loads of traffic noise, a loud roadsweeper thingy circling the block and a mad person shouting 'Hooo!' every few seconds loudly while we waited - just noise, noise, noise. The bus was packed when it arrived. I was 30 minutes late for work.
Some may say that if the 25 minute wait is statutory I should start out earlier, but then I may as well not bother going home, seeing as I start out pretty darned early as it is.
On the way home the only additional thing to add to my misery, besides the 25 minute wait for a bus back, was a very, very smelly, unwashed and unkempt man sat next to me so I had to breathe through my mouth all the way home. Sighhh....
Some may say that if the 25 minute wait is statutory I should start out earlier, but then I may as well not bother going home, seeing as I start out pretty darned early as it is.
On the way home the only additional thing to add to my misery, besides the 25 minute wait for a bus back, was a very, very smelly, unwashed and unkempt man sat next to me so I had to breathe through my mouth all the way home. Sighhh....
Labels: transport
Porto was everything you could hope for from a holiday except for the taxi drivers who kept taking us to the wrong places.
We had nice hot sunshine all day, every day. We shopped in abundance and everything was at least one third cheaper than in London. The hotel was only Euro 65 a night and very nice too. We ate a lot.... quasi peri chicken (because I didn't know how to ask for the peri), chourico, salsiccia, egg based dishes (for BB), filet mignon, saltimbocca, fish fresh from the river, cakes, lamb, pork in the syle of Minho (which means with tripe, blood and other bits and pieces), green tea icecream, chocolate mousse & lots, lots more. It was great! We also went on the new Metro which doesn't seem to go anywhere particularly useful but is very clean and shiny. J., who we went to visit, was very, very busy so we only managed to spend one afternoon, a lunch and a couple of dinners with her but it was good.
Back to the taxi drivers... The one from the airport took us to some hotel near the football stadium, which is definitely no where near where we wanted to go, after correcting my pronunciation of the name of the hotel several times on the way. Turns out it was a completely different hotel which he hadn't heard of and there was nothing wrong with my pronunciation.
Then, when we went to visit J at her home in Foz, the taxi driver didn't realise there were two roads with similar names and took us to the wrong one. To be fair to this taxi driver, he did stop a hapless lady in the street and asked her to check with us in English where we wanted to go, so he knew he had the right place. Didn't help though.
Been back now for two weeks and it's cold and rainy and London public transport sucks big time. Give me a misguided Portuguese taxi driver anyday - at least taxis there are cheap.
We had nice hot sunshine all day, every day. We shopped in abundance and everything was at least one third cheaper than in London. The hotel was only Euro 65 a night and very nice too. We ate a lot.... quasi peri chicken (because I didn't know how to ask for the peri), chourico, salsiccia, egg based dishes (for BB), filet mignon, saltimbocca, fish fresh from the river, cakes, lamb, pork in the syle of Minho (which means with tripe, blood and other bits and pieces), green tea icecream, chocolate mousse & lots, lots more. It was great! We also went on the new Metro which doesn't seem to go anywhere particularly useful but is very clean and shiny. J., who we went to visit, was very, very busy so we only managed to spend one afternoon, a lunch and a couple of dinners with her but it was good.
Back to the taxi drivers... The one from the airport took us to some hotel near the football stadium, which is definitely no where near where we wanted to go, after correcting my pronunciation of the name of the hotel several times on the way. Turns out it was a completely different hotel which he hadn't heard of and there was nothing wrong with my pronunciation.
Then, when we went to visit J at her home in Foz, the taxi driver didn't realise there were two roads with similar names and took us to the wrong one. To be fair to this taxi driver, he did stop a hapless lady in the street and asked her to check with us in English where we wanted to go, so he knew he had the right place. Didn't help though.
Been back now for two weeks and it's cold and rainy and London public transport sucks big time. Give me a misguided Portuguese taxi driver anyday - at least taxis there are cheap.
Labels: travel
8 November 2006
Holiday!!! Off to Porto for 4 whole days, leaving the incomprehensible fear behind that people seem to have when they leave work for a couple of days because they think everything is going to fall apart in their absence. Whoopee!
I can't wait...
Lots of lovely fresh seafood, peri peri chicken and hanging out with my friend, J. Hurray!
Mandarin lesson was a bit rubbish yesterday. Was far too busy at work, consequently forcing me to be incredibly rushed getting to the class and being in a bit of a bother. All my newly learned Mandarin escaped me to be replaced by quite a lot of ingrained Cantonese. Sigh. Two steps forward, one step back...
I can't wait...
Lots of lovely fresh seafood, peri peri chicken and hanging out with my friend, J. Hurray!
Mandarin lesson was a bit rubbish yesterday. Was far too busy at work, consequently forcing me to be incredibly rushed getting to the class and being in a bit of a bother. All my newly learned Mandarin escaped me to be replaced by quite a lot of ingrained Cantonese. Sigh. Two steps forward, one step back...
4 November 2006
Is it wrong to be suspicious of people just because they wear a lot of makeup? One of the women at work seems really nice and is incredibly efficient and does things when you ask and everything, but she wears so much eye makeup that it's distracting. Really heavy eyeliner and heaps of foundation. Even more than when I did when I was in Miss Saigon on a massive stage with billions of lights. Although, to be fair, I was always being told that I wasn't wearing enough makeup.
Anyway, she's moving into the same office as me soon and I'm worried the abundance of makeup might mask a myriad of emotional problems.
Call me shallow.
On the living in Dulwich note, East Dulwich will soon be the proud host of a shiny new Gourmet Burger Kitchen - yet another chain store to rile the natives and cause great controversy. BB is happy - he lurves burgers.
Anyway, she's moving into the same office as me soon and I'm worried the abundance of makeup might mask a myriad of emotional problems.
Call me shallow.
On the living in Dulwich note, East Dulwich will soon be the proud host of a shiny new Gourmet Burger Kitchen - yet another chain store to rile the natives and cause great controversy. BB is happy - he lurves burgers.
Labels: east dulwich, restaurants, work
3 November 2006
What's happened to Chinesepod.....? They've been offline all night and I haven't been able to download my daily lesson. Waaaaaahhhhhhh!!!!!
Labels: language
2 November 2006
I'm quite proud of myself. I had a conversation almost entirely in Mandarin with the attendant at the gym today. She's from Tientsin and engaged me in complicated talk about where I'm from, how long have I been here, how long I've been learning Chinese, who else is from Malaysia/Singapore at the gym.. blah, blah, blah. And I did alright. Well, she seemed to understand me and said 'Fei chang hao' a lot.
My Chinese teacher seems to like me. She invited me to go swimming sometime, even though I constructed a sentence using the word 'never' which was, "I never go swimming in winter".
I've found a great website called Think Geek. I think I'll buy the T-shirt that says, "No, I won't fix your computer." and wear it prominently in front of all the people who regularly ask me to sort out their PCs. I kinda like the one with the molecule for chillies on it too. I'm proud to be a geek...
My Chinese teacher seems to like me. She invited me to go swimming sometime, even though I constructed a sentence using the word 'never' which was, "I never go swimming in winter".
I've found a great website called Think Geek. I think I'll buy the T-shirt that says, "No, I won't fix your computer." and wear it prominently in front of all the people who regularly ask me to sort out their PCs. I kinda like the one with the molecule for chillies on it too. I'm proud to be a geek...
