A Bank Holiday weekend in the UK, so the weather was extremely mixed.
On Friday a bunch of us from work went to the new-ish oriental buffet, Tuli on Tooley Street. It’s underneath the railway arches and has made great use of the space – it’s light and airy and feels modern. The food was decidedly average – exactly what you’d expect from an all-you-can-eat chinese buffet – and didn’t really seem to live up to the image that they were trying to present. Maybe the teppanyaki or sushi options would be more interesting if we ever went back as a smaller group and/or in the evening.
Saturday was the Crystal Palace Overground Festival and Lettice and I braved the drizzle to take a look. Spread out round all three sides of the triangle were stalls selling exactly what you’d expect from the good people of Crystal Palace – cupcakes, handmade greetings cards and antiques. There was also music and kids’ activities going on. With the events spread out both geographically and temporally, coupled with the poor weather, it all seemed a bit difficult to get into the spirit of things. Maybe if it’s sunny next year we’ll make the slightly longer trip up from Croydon.
And then round to miss_newham‘s for the annual Eurovision party. Alcohol, scorecards, yelling at the telly, and some truly dreadful music. I seemed to be the only person who liked the Albanian entry; the winner of our voting was Greece, which matched the winner of the UK phone vote so we must have been in tune with the national psyche. Not sure why the UK bothers entering – everyone hates us and we always enter rubbish songs. Ben Dalby’s Doctor Can would have been a better entry and some sexy nurses would surely have garnered a few votes.
There’s a new art gallery in West Norwood – The Portico Gallery is very close to us and full of a wide variety of pieces in varied styles and media. I’m rubbish at writing about art (“and everything else,” yells the audience) so there’s not much more to say except that that’s where we were on Sunday afternoon.
Not that you would know round here. This afternoon I walked from West Norwood to Crystal Palace, just over a mile, and I saw two posters in people’s windows (one Labour, one Liberal Democrats) and one phone box poster for the Conservatives. That was all. Wonder what the turnout will be like on Thursday?
Yesterday, I tweeted "According to my LibraryThing records I’ve read 141 books this year: 26 novels, 7 non-fiction, 102 graphic novels and 6 ‘other’."
Then I went out and bought another two graphic novels… But it must be said that most of the comics I’ve read this year came from West Norwood library, and now that I’ve exhausted most of their good ones, and some of their bad ones, I think 2010 may be slightly less weighted towards graphic novels.
How many of my 2009 books have you read?
Available as a poll over on Live Journal (you don’t need an LJ account to vote, just an OpenID account which means an account from WordPress.com, Google, Yahoo, Blogger, etc.)
Today pink_weasel and I rushed home from work because (a) it was the start of the long weekend and (b) we could shop in West Norwood Sainsbury’s on its opening day.
There’s a shop just down the road from me called London Makeovers. It used to be an interior design type place selling flooring, etc. I say used to be because it’s now a hairdressers. And in a thrifty move they haven’t bothered to change the sign.
The executioner has arrived. Our loft full of pigeons will soon be no more.
I’ve made myself scarce. With guns (well, an air rifle is still a gun) and noxious chemicals around there’s no place for spectators. Luckily for me.
Air rifles aren’t very loud are they? I just realised that the clicking noise I thought was his step ladder is actually him doing the deed.
I’ve lost count of the number of shots. As most of the adults would have escaped through the hole in the roof he must be shooting the ones that can’t fly.
Is anyone reading this whilst eating? Sorry.
[update]
Oh boy. He says that he’s been chucking some of the bodies out of the hole in the roof. The roof slopes towards the alleyway (i.e. our front door) not the road.
Killing done. Just the cleaning up to do.
[update]
I’m going out for a bit, I think I need some fresh air.
About half the moon is in shadow now. South London isn’t the best place for sky watching, especially with the moon right over the floodlights of the bus garage, (so no chance of photos from here) but at least the sky is clear so I’m getting the best view I can.
[Update 22:47] – Nearly totally in shadow now, I can see the the reddish hue on the shadowed parts quite clearly. I tried to take some pictures anyway but the camera just whirred as if to say “there’s nothing there mate” and refused to do anything.
The other night the doorbell rang, we weren’t expecting anyone and it does tend to ring for no reason so we ignored it. Then it rang again, and then a third time. So I went down to see whether there was actually anybody there. A nervous looking middle aged bloke was hovering on the other side of the gate. When I got close enough to hear what he was saying I discovered that he was apologetically asking whether there were “any girls upstairs, any women?” “Um, er yes,” I replied puzzled, and then realisation dawned, and I hurriedly continued “Oh! No, not that sort of women.” Later, pink_weasel said “you should have taken some money off him anyway.”
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miss_newham‘s for the annual Eurovision party. Alcohol, scorecards, yelling at the telly, and some truly dreadful music. I seemed to be the only person who liked the Albanian entry; the winner of our voting was Greece, which matched the winner of the UK phone vote so we must have been in tune with the national psyche. Not sure why the UK bothers entering – everyone hates us and we always enter rubbish songs. Ben Dalby’s Doctor Can would have been a better entry and some sexy nurses would surely have garnered a few votes. 
chipper