Slowing Down – Allegedly
Posted: Mon 8 February, 2016 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: Day Trips, Domestic, Food, Getting Organised, London, Sociable, Solo Dining, Travel | Leave a comment »Last week, I wrote about how things were slowing down a bit at last from the madness of January. And that’s true – well, kind-of.
As it is, before the end of February I’ve got scheduled (in no particular order)…
- A very fancy meal in London, which I’m looking forward to (and for the faffing about I’ve had to do, had bloody better be worth it)
- A birthday event in Oxford (it’s hard to call them birthday parties when the person isn’t a child!)
- A gig in Manchester (another mid-weeker, I must be fucking mental)
- A gig in Oxford
- The final bit of work on the car for this session (I hope)
- New glasses to collect
- A full weekend break on the South Coast
So yes, not really all that quiet after all…
Slowing Down – Sort of
Posted: Fri 5 February, 2016 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: D4D™, Day Trips, Domestic, Driving, Music, Sociable, Travel | Leave a comment »For the first time this year, I’ve got a weekend that’s being spent primarily at home. It’s about time.
As I’ve written before, it’s been a chaotic start to the year. I don’t regret a bit of it, and it’s all been my choice, but at the same time I’m definitely knackered and glad of a pause.
The last couple of weeks have involved mid-week concerts – one in Manchester, one in London – which have made for late nights (well, early mornings) so having a weekend without a lot of mileage is definitely a boon.
I’ve still got more stuff booked in, but it shouldn’t be quite as manic for the next couple of weeks, at least.
Not Always Sensible, Though
Posted: Mon 2 November, 2015 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: Domestic, Driving, Fog, People, Shopping, Sociable, Thoughts | Leave a comment »Of course, following on from the post about trying to be more sensible and have a bit of down-time, I was still busy all weekend…
As it was, the weekend consisted of
- Braving Ikea on a weekend, for a present for a friend’s young child. (New range, cool stuff, needed to be done) In particular, this. Which is nicely warped, and amused me lots.
- Driving across to Oxford to see a friend
- Then going with her to a quiz-night thing
- And getting back at well-past midnight, then also not getting to sleep ’til nearly two (get your minds out of the gutter, nothing like that!)
- Driving back home on the Sunday
- Generally geeking out and working on stuff
So fun, but not really restful, per se… 🙂
Busy January
Posted: Thu 8 October, 2015 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: Domestic, Five Year Plan (now Ten), Getting Organised, Gigs, London, Music, Sociable | Leave a comment »Having bought the tickets for Massive Attack yesterday, it’s looking like January 2016 is going to be a busy one…
Alongside normal life, I now have tickets for
- Henry Rollins in Bristol
- Henry Rollins in London
- Massive Attack in Manchester
- Massive Attack in London
- Billy Connolly in London
So yeah, that’s going to be pretty eventful…
What Comes Next
Posted: Fri 2 October, 2015 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: Business, Domestic, Getting Organised, Own Business, People, Sociable, Thoughts, Work-related | Leave a comment »This week I’ve secured and extended my current contract through ’til the end of the year – which is a pretty decent situation to be in.
However, I know that at some point in 2016 I’ll be looking for something new, and it’s making me think a bit about how it’ll work out.
The thing is, I’ve now been working in the current one for a year, and I’ve very much become used to working in my own office, at my own speed, with my own company. One day a week of on-site work, which has been enough on the whole workplace socialising thing for me, and the rest of the time I’ve been able to avoid general inanity and bullshit – which has been lovely.
I’m convinced it’s one of the things that has resulted in my general equanimity and contentment this year (as written about recently) so in some ways I’m really not looking forward to a return to four or five days a week on-site – which is the likelihood for the next contract, unless I can get very lucky and another ‘working from home’ contract – but we’ll just have to see how it all works out.
I’m not going to borrow trouble, though. It’s just something I thought about while looking at the contract extension and so on.
And really, only time will tell how things work out in the new year.
Meatopia – A weekend of meat (and walking)
Posted: Mon 21 September, 2015 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: Day Trips, Domestic, Driving, Food, London, M1, Sociable, Thoughts, Travel | Leave a comment »The weekend just gone was primarily spent in London, as it was the weekend of Meatopia, a festival of barbecue, meat, and music. Now in its third year, and I’ve been to each one.
I like the Grillstock festival (which is similar) but it’s still not a par on Meatopia, which really does bring in some of the star chefs in the barbecue/steak/brisket/burger sector of the industry, and there’s always some spectacular stuff on the list.
Meatopia is also more about smaller dishes – it’s more like a set of courses on a tasting menu, and you get to try a bundle of things. Grillstock’s stuff tends to be more meal-sized, so you don’t have as many, although there are also less/fewer (whichever) stands/cooks, so it kind-of balances out.
But if the two were ever to run on the same weekend, Grillstock would lose. For me, it’s that simple.
Because I knew I’d be eating a fair quantity of meat, I was (vaguely) sensible about it, and parked at the Barbican Centre (my new favourite parking in London) and walked to the venue at Tobacco Dock – about a 5km walk – which I really enjoyed. I know most people don’t see 5km each way as “a stroll” but for me that’s what it was – and improved by fun things along the way, like turning a corner and seeing the Tower of London, with the Shard directly behind it, which was a nice surprise.
As for the food, we did well. In no particular order, I had…
Saturday
- Kid Shwarma (Shwarma from Goat Kid)
- Chargrilled Herdwick Lamb with Smoked Cream Potato
- Picanha (cut of beef)
- Smoked Shortrib Sandwich with Pickles and Sriracha Cocktail Sauce (awesome)
- A fistful of pigs (pig cooked different ways)
- One Scotch, One Bourbon, One Beer (Beef, Bourbon-braised peppercorns, beer cheese) – awesome
- Anatolian Spiced FlatIron Steak with Babaganoush
- Chicky Chicky Bang Bang (Barbecued Chicken in a bun, but with extra burger because the chef decided it wasn’t meaty enough)
- Hawksmoor’s ‘Spitalfields Burger’ with braise short rib (excellent)
- Bourbon-glazed Tomahawk steak surf’n’turf
- Oh, and ice-cream, and a cider
Being a bad, bad person, I think also stopped of at Honest in Liverpool Street (it was kind-of on my route back to Barbican) to have their new Oktoberfest special burger, which was also ace. Although I couldn’t face the chips that came with it…
Sunday
- Dirty Jerk Ribeye on Beef Dripping New Potatoes (Amazing)
- Pit-roast Middlewhite Pigs, Yorkshire Pudding, Onion Gravy
- DuckHearts with Apple and Kohlrabi salad (my least-liked of the weekend)
- Aged Venison Shoulder, Leek and Potato (Excellent – Joint Favourite of the weekend)
- Herdwick Lamb Chop with Lamb Fat Hollandaise (Mega)
- BBQ Chicken Shawarma, Garlic Tahini, Dill Pickle, Chilli Sauce (Joint Favourite of the weekend)
- Spicy Old Cow (48-58 (opinions varied) day aged beef, chillis, beef dripping, sourdough roll)
- Hawksmoor Tomahawk Steak with Bulgogi (I don’t know) Hollandaise.
- And ice-cream and cider again
All told, an excellent weekend, with a total of 30km walked over the two days – which balances out a lot of the food intake!
Ker-Fut 4 – Organising The Return
Posted: Wed 8 July, 2015 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: Car Repairs, Cynicism, Domestic, Driving, Getting Organised, Single Life, Sociable, Thoughts | Leave a comment »Things like hire-cars and the like are the only time I can currently think of where it would be more useful to be in a relationship, to have a partner who could help out.
The logistics of collecting the hire-car were easy enough – taxi to hire place, drive home.
However, the whole thing for getting Saab back, returning hire-car, and having Saab accessible for other things that need doing (while also reducing the cost of taxis etc) has turned into something a little more mind-melting, to the point I actually had to write it down to figure the best way of doing things in a timely fashion.
All things going well, I’ll sort it all out tomorrow (Thursday) and then it’ll be dealt with.
Mind you, if that’s the only time I really think it would be more useful to be with someone – that’s not a good sign for my relationship prospects, is it?