Long weekend, short weekend
On Saturday morning I went to college and copied my F drive (now deleted) onto a memory stick.
Headed to Gloucester Road, and met a Guardian Soulmate person whom I first met some weeks ago for dinner on the South Bank. It would be nice to be friends -- I'm not interested in more and hoping he's not either. We had a lovely afternoon. We bought some supplies from a Waitrose at the station and had a picnic near the Serpentine Gallery in Hyde Park, went into the gallery (admission is free) to see the Jeff Koons exhibit, and admired the pavillion outside both before and after seeing the exhibit. Afterwards we also had a drink in the cafe. I liked the pavillion better than the exhibit. It's a beautiful use of the space, with its mirrored surfaces reflecting the trees and grass around, and people were interacting with it because the roof is at different levels -- for instance, I saw a mother taking a picture of her little girl who, where the roof sloped down, had walked in as far as she could and stood with her head touching it, reflected upwards.
Then we wandered through the park along the Serpentine, stopping to look at birds and the Peter Pan statue. As we arrived at Speaker's Corner, we randomly encountered a bit of the Notting Hill Carnival which I certainly hadn't expected to be there -- parade acts on a stage, various stands selling Caribbean food and people camped on the grass to listen. We joined them for awhile, then kept wandering back in the opposite direction, towards Hyde Park Corner. By this time it was after seven p.m., so I got the bus to Bloomsbury to meet a friend from college and various other friends of hers at a Pizza Express to celebrate her birthday.
On Sunday I went to Brick Lane in the morning, hoping to recover my bike. I couldn't see it being flogged anywhere but I enjoyed the market a lot and plan to go back. I easily killed two hours or so without getting bored, then made my way to meet rizardofoz, his sister and her husband. We wandered through the noisy and crowded carnival streets for around an hour and a half, I guess. It wasn't quite as colourful and interesting as I'd hoped, but I'm glad to have gone. Maybe in future, though, I'll just try to catch that little preview in Hyde Park on the Saturday, if they do it again.
Then Kev and I headed for Chinatown and had sushi in "Tokyo Diner." firenightingale and daisho were sadly indisposed and couldn't come meet us.
On Monday I decided to take it easy. I stayed in and did some half-hearted cleaning and sorting in my room, as some pine storage boxes I'd ordered off eBay for my law books had arrived. So now I have two window seats. :) I also fought the good fight in a very long comments thread on the Guardian about the detention of children in immigration detention facilities.
This weekend I am going to Brighton for the Green Party members' conference. I have managed to get coach tickets for a £5 each way "funfare" (kicking myself a bit, some funfares are as low as £1 and I think if I'd booked slightly earlier I could have got my journey for as little as £4 -- perhaps not £2 as I wouldn't be amenable to travelling at completely unsociable hours). I'm hoping that that and the £6.95 per night for Friday and Saturday that I'll pay to use the "crash space" which has been booked in a church hall is all that the weekend will cost me -- I'm planning on making some stir-fry (for lunches) tonight and taking that with me along with cereal, granola, soy milk, some soup and crackers for dinner on Saturday, and some plums and apples from the garden for snacks. We'll see how I fare!
Headed to Gloucester Road, and met a Guardian Soulmate person whom I first met some weeks ago for dinner on the South Bank. It would be nice to be friends -- I'm not interested in more and hoping he's not either. We had a lovely afternoon. We bought some supplies from a Waitrose at the station and had a picnic near the Serpentine Gallery in Hyde Park, went into the gallery (admission is free) to see the Jeff Koons exhibit, and admired the pavillion outside both before and after seeing the exhibit. Afterwards we also had a drink in the cafe. I liked the pavillion better than the exhibit. It's a beautiful use of the space, with its mirrored surfaces reflecting the trees and grass around, and people were interacting with it because the roof is at different levels -- for instance, I saw a mother taking a picture of her little girl who, where the roof sloped down, had walked in as far as she could and stood with her head touching it, reflected upwards.
Then we wandered through the park along the Serpentine, stopping to look at birds and the Peter Pan statue. As we arrived at Speaker's Corner, we randomly encountered a bit of the Notting Hill Carnival which I certainly hadn't expected to be there -- parade acts on a stage, various stands selling Caribbean food and people camped on the grass to listen. We joined them for awhile, then kept wandering back in the opposite direction, towards Hyde Park Corner. By this time it was after seven p.m., so I got the bus to Bloomsbury to meet a friend from college and various other friends of hers at a Pizza Express to celebrate her birthday.
On Sunday I went to Brick Lane in the morning, hoping to recover my bike. I couldn't see it being flogged anywhere but I enjoyed the market a lot and plan to go back. I easily killed two hours or so without getting bored, then made my way to meet rizardofoz, his sister and her husband. We wandered through the noisy and crowded carnival streets for around an hour and a half, I guess. It wasn't quite as colourful and interesting as I'd hoped, but I'm glad to have gone. Maybe in future, though, I'll just try to catch that little preview in Hyde Park on the Saturday, if they do it again.
Then Kev and I headed for Chinatown and had sushi in "Tokyo Diner." firenightingale and daisho were sadly indisposed and couldn't come meet us.
On Monday I decided to take it easy. I stayed in and did some half-hearted cleaning and sorting in my room, as some pine storage boxes I'd ordered off eBay for my law books had arrived. So now I have two window seats. :) I also fought the good fight in a very long comments thread on the Guardian about the detention of children in immigration detention facilities.
This weekend I am going to Brighton for the Green Party members' conference. I have managed to get coach tickets for a £5 each way "funfare" (kicking myself a bit, some funfares are as low as £1 and I think if I'd booked slightly earlier I could have got my journey for as little as £4 -- perhaps not £2 as I wouldn't be amenable to travelling at completely unsociable hours). I'm hoping that that and the £6.95 per night for Friday and Saturday that I'll pay to use the "crash space" which has been booked in a church hall is all that the weekend will cost me -- I'm planning on making some stir-fry (for lunches) tonight and taking that with me along with cereal, granola, soy milk, some soup and crackers for dinner on Saturday, and some plums and apples from the garden for snacks. We'll see how I fare!